Cyracuz wrote:This implies that you see yourself, the energy and matter you command, as separate from all other energies and matter. But is this really so? Try to define the borders of your percieved selv, both physical and spiritual, and I think you'll find that they are very vague. They are merely perceptions, and beyond the concepts of our understanding they are not borders at all. Everything is one, indivisible. The only things we can divide into dualistic counterparts are the concepts themselves, which are nothing but reflections of the experience we are having..
I fully agree with most of what you say. We are all part of the same whole and our reality is merely what we conceive. My body in this realm borrows mass and energy from the whole, (and by that I mean "channels part of the universe's resources in an experiential manner) and burial by separation and preservation is a needless attempt at retaining that which i do not "possess" anymore. Why embalm and preserve my body? Its not mine. Its not that I owned it while my soul inhabits it, but rather its that burial rituals typically attempt to keep it separate and unique. Further testament to religion's sense of individuality and its lack of understanding that all souls are of the same origin.
I believe that god existed as self and nothing else. All-that-was is god; the absolute. Since one cannot experience self unless there is not-self, god split all-that-is into many parts. Then there was the absolute (self), the relative (not-self) and the abstract (that which is neither self nor not-self, or that which is in between). In this manner, god created experience and we are merely part of the particles of god creating experience of the greater self. So, to require a marriage or burial ritual is not what god requires. God requires nothing but experience, so while experiencing marriage or burial is neither good nor bad, there are actions which further our souls' experience and those which don't. I simply think that the actions we choose during our time in this realm are important; not because god requires anything, but because greater experience comes from choosing the thought, word, and deed which our [conglomerate] soul finds the more experiential. In this way there is no right and wrong, merely that which suits the soul's purpose and that which does not suit the soul's purpose.
I guess what I'm saying is; get married, or don't. But do it for reasons that you've discussed with your higher self, not because you think god requires it or is pleased by it. I decided to get married because I loved my significant other and it suited a higher purpose, not because its in the Bible and religion says you have to before you get laid. At its most base level, a wedding is simply a legal ceremony. It has nothing to do with love, compatibility, or sex. The marriage is the relationship, and confusing the two institutions is a recipe for disaster. I get so tired of seing people falling in love, having a wedding, then assuming they're married. Then the romance wanes and they believe they are trapped in a moral bond that must be suffered until death. In a USAToday poll, 85%of divorced people polled claimed that their marriage was "on the rocks" or "unhappy" for more than half of its duration. Of those polled, 70% claimed that their marital vows are what kept them in the relationship. On the question of how many would have left their partner sooner had it not been for the marriage, 94% said they would have left sooner.
Marriage is a social construct enstated to prevent the spread of disease. Those aren't my words, that's part of the Constantine doctrine from 1800 years ago. Keep in mind in the Old Testament, many of the big godly characters had multiple wives and mistresses. Its only in Constantine's New Testament that monogamy is even spoken of in great detail. If marriage suits your higher self, then do it. Don't do it because its the next logical step in your relationship according to society or religion.
