OT A cool little story

[World Citizen]

I am not a religious person at all but I thought I would share this little story/parable with you all.   Hope somebody likes it.

Given that we are so divided in this country and the apparent distrust and even hate for the opposing political party, I read this occasionally to remind myself that we are all in this together and we should always keep that in mind.  Disagreement is fine but the hate is destructive, especially to the one who hates. 

 

Grand Design of life --

 “You may choose to be any Part of God you wish to be,” I said to the Little Soul. “You are Absolute Divinity, experiencing Itself. What Aspect of Divinity do you now wish to experience as You?”

“You mean I have a choice?” asked the Little Soul. And I answered, “Yes, You may choose to experience Any Aspect of Divinity in, as, and through you.”

“Okay,” said the Little Soul, “then I choose Forgiveness. I want to experience my Self as the Aspect of God called Complete Forgiveness.”

Well, this created a little challenge, as you can imagine.

There was no one to forgive. All I have created is Perfection and Love.

“No one to forgive?” asked the Little Soul, somewhat incredulously.

“No one,” I repeated. “Look around you. Do you see any souls less perfect, less wonderful than you?”

At this the Little Soul twirled around, and was surprised to see himself surrounded by all the souls in heaven. They had come from far and wide throughout the Kingdom, because they heard that the Little Soul was having an extraordinary conversation from God.

“I see none less perfect than I!” the Little Soul exclaimed. “Who, then, shall I have to forgive?”

Just then, another soul stepped forward from the crowd. “You may forgive me,” said this Friendly Soul.

“For what?” the Little Soul asked.

“I will come into your next physical lifetime and do something for you to forgive,” replied the Friendly Soul.

“But what? What could you, a being of such Perfect Light, do to make me want to forgive you?” the Little Soul wanted to know.

“Oh,” smiled the Friendly Soul, “I’m sure we can think of something.”

“But why would you want to do this?” The Little Soul could not figure out why a being of such perfection would want to slow down its vibration so much that it could actually do something “bad”.

“Simple,” the Friendly Soul explained, “I would do it because I love you. You want to experience your Self as Forgiving, don’t you? Besides, you’ve done the same for me.”

“I have?” asked the Little Soul.

“Of course. Don’t you remember? We’ve been All Of It, you and I. We’ve been the Up and Down of it, and the Left and the Right of it. We’ve been the Here and the There of it. We’ve been the Big and the Small of it, the Male and the Female of it, the Good and the Bad of it. We’ve all been the All of It.

“And we’ve done it by agreement, so that each of us might experience ourselves as the Grandest Part of God. For we have understood that… In the absence of that which You Are Not, that Which You ARE, is NOT.

In the absence of ‘cold’, you cannot be ‘warm’. In the absence of ‘sad’, you cannot be ‘happy’, without a thing called ‘evil’, the experience you call ‘good’ cannot exist.

If you choose to be a thing, something or someone opposite to that has to show up somewhere in your universe to make that possible.”

The Friendly Soul then explained that those people are God’s Special Angels, and these conditions God’s Gifts.

“I ask only one thing in return,” the Friendly Soul declared.

“Anything! Anything,” the Little Soul cried. He was excited not to know that he could experience every Divine Aspect of God. He understood, now, the Plan.

“In the moment that I strike you and smite you,” said the Friendly Soul, “in the moment that I do the worst to you that you could ever imagine – in that selfsame moment… remember Who I Really Am.”

“Oh, I won’t forget!” promised the Little Soul. “I will see you in the perfection with which I hold you now, and I will remember Who You Are, always.”

[Cat_Scratch]

The Affirmations of Humanism:
A Statement of Principles

We are committed to the application of reason and science to the understanding of the universe and to the solving of human problems.

We deplore efforts to denigrate human intelligence, to seek to explain the world in supernatural terms, and to look outside nature for salvation.

We believe that scientific discovery and technology can contribute to the betterment of human life.

We believe in an open and pluralistic society and that democracy is the best guarantee of protecting human rights from authoritarian elites and repressive majorities.

We are committed to the principle of the separation of church and state.

We cultivate the arts of negotiation and compromise as a means of resolving differences and achieving mutual understanding.

We are concerned with securing justice and fairness in society and with eliminating discrimination and intolerance.

We believe in supporting the disadvantaged and the handicapped so that they will be able to help themselves.

We attempt to transcend divisive parochial loyalties based on race, religion, gender, nationality, creed, class, sexual orientation, or ethnicity, and strive to work together for the common good of humanity.

We want to protect and enhance the earth, to preserve it for future generations, and to avoid inflicting needless suffering on other species.

We believe in enjoying life here and now and in developing our creative talents to their fullest.

We believe in the cultivation of moral excellence.

We respect the right to privacy. Mature adults should be allowed to fulfill their aspirations, to express their sexual preferences, to exercise reproductive freedom, to have access to comprehensive and informed health-care, and to die with dignity.

We believe in the common moral decencies: altruism, integrity, honesty, truthfulness, responsibility. Humanist ethics is amenable to critical, rational guidance. There are normative standards that we discover together. Moral principles are tested by their consequences.

We are deeply concerned with the moral education of our children. We want to nourish reason and compassion.

We are engaged by the arts no less than by the sciences.

We are citizens of the universe and are excited by discoveries still to be made in the cosmos.

We are skeptical of untested claims to knowledge, and we are open to novel ideas and seek new departures in our thinking.

We affirm humanism as a realistic alternative to theologies of despair and ideologies of violence and as a source of rich personal significance and genuine satisfaction in the service to others.

We believe in optimism rather than pessimism, hope rather than despair, learning in the place of dogma, truth instead of ignorance, joy rather than guilt or sin, tolerance in the place of fear, love instead of hatred, compassion over selfishness, beauty instead of ugliness, and reason rather than blind faith or irrationality.

We believe in the fullest realization of the best and noblest that we are capable of as human beings.