Y'Oldies AMAZING MUSIC JOURNEY! Our GOAL is to Post 500 Songs on YouTube!!! We are a family band and started playing together in September 2022. We're not the best but not the worst. Many of the songs we post have only been played by us a few times, so forgive us if they aren't perfect. Thanks for your support!
“You have to grow from the inside out. None can teach you, none can make you spiritual. There is no other teacher but your own soul”
– Swami Vevekananda
Reflections
Life is equivalent to a maze of doors – an individual must decide which door to enter based on and limited only by the spiritual level attained at that moment in one’s existence. This maze of doors represents decisions that must be made to establish the direction of one’s spiritual development.
Many say each lifetime represents the entering of an individual door and the experiences that result from relationships until the individual ends up where he started from – we enter as a fresh, naïve, fully impressionable human spirit with no preconceptions except for the experiences of previous lifetimes, existing in the unconscious realm…we form opinions and from these tested opinions learn and hopefully progress toward perfection and at the end return back to our original state, unchanged except for the addition of this experience to our unconscious realm.
This continuing cycle is responsible for growth along the spiritual continuum. Only a few accomplish this task, most fail, and therefore enter the same level through a different door. The goal for humanity is to seek the perfection of universal truth. When man realizes this reason for existence, each life is approached with exhilaration…relationships a means by which to reach this goal. The hold rum of daily living is viewed from a fresh, exciting perspective. The difficulties of life, although still intense, are viewed as necessary steps toward the achievement of spiritual growth and freedom, and therefore happily anticipated.
Relationships are how we discover the spiritual level in which we are currently functioning. Each relationship should be a positive factor we use to build towards the next level of spiritual awareness. Individuals who deny or exclude relationships stop spiritual growth. In the resulting stagnation, there spiritual and mental health deteriorate, further limiting their capacity to relate. All human relationships need the stimulation of social contact for further growth. This growth is dependent on relationships with no limitations…you cannot place limits on the discovery that must take place for spiritual awareness.
The ability to relate on all levels with other individuals is the necessary skill most never realize, resulting in failure. One must never allow one relationship to prevent or affect adversely simultaneous relationships with others. The problem with most relationships is superficiality. To have a meaningful relationship with another, the participating individuals must bewilling to take risks by revealing true feelings. Feelingsare the life blood of the spirit, and as such, are direct reflections of one’s spirit. A spirit communicates universal truths through feelings. When dealing with true feelings, honesty prevails, leading to bonding and further growth along the spiritual continuum.
“When the observable universe was born, there was a shuddering sound of timelessness bursting from the corner of the cosmos until the algorithmic sound of silence took over, revealing how the distinctive sound of the truth unfolds its formidable presence, how the tiny infinities of reality swing between space and time, how the cycle of life and death gives value and meaning to human existence, how noble ideas and creative concepts incarnate and traverse in three-dimensional realms, where beauty and tragedy fuse and transform to become transcendent infinities”
― Danny Castillones Sillada
Reflections
There are sounds in the silence if we will just listen.
Mother Earth is precious, we need to be aware of the sounds she utters as we continue to ravage her beauty. In each of us resonates the sound of life humming through the DNA strands of each cell of our bodies.
Oh, if we would just listen. We would hear the voice of our creator God, pleading with us to love one another, to stop the hate and rancor against each other and every living thing He has created.
We were created to be harmonious with every other living thing. When we do this, we are in the presence of the creator and become one with Him.
Oh, help us to understand this before it is too late! Help us to love one another and only then will we be able to understand the true meaning of life…only then will we be integrated into the water of life, the universality of existence.
If you will listen closely, Mother Earth, our creator God, will call you back to her loving bosom. We will then go back to the watery truth of the universe, where we will again be nurtured, protected, and truly loved. We will no longer suffer but will instead be a part of God’s overpowering and radiant love.
Our spirit will be one with His spirit, existing in the watery universe where angels worship and sings songs of adulation to their creator God. Hallelujah, praise our creator God, who loves us despite our sometimes-loathsome thoughts and actions. Help us our God, for we no not what we do!
Silent Prayer
Creator God, help us listen for you in the silence!
{Verse 1} Give, always give what you can Even if your allies draw lines in the sand And dig, always dig a little deeper Sometimes it’s hard to be my brother’s keeper Love. So you let love in Baby, I am home in the wake of your skin, and it’s crazy How we wear our ceremony Always be open to your path and your journey Yes, she cradles my loneliness A home that I forage, nest Universal test, feel the weight of my love Put your hand on my chest And rest, in the cradle of my arms The battle that we face is the place where our scars come from And to pick up the gun My love, we are destined to teach these ones to be brave And never run away Courage is birthed from the womb on the first light of day Yeah, the day you were born, you came out perfect Never meant to be torn In silence, never been so loud in the violence Never been so proud of a people When we’re fighting for a change Not afraid to lose it all despite all the rage We are animals And we cannot be caged Provoke us to fight So we burn a little sage and write poetry Wiser than the enemy will ever be The minority And authority Are you here to protect or arrest me? I can’t tolerate the hate, and I'm losing sleep Can’t breathe, cause they’re choking out a war in me Immorality
{Chorus} Love letters to God Wonder if she reads them or if they get lost In the stars, the stars, in the stars So many parts to a heavy heart If there’s no beginning, then where would you start? Start, start, where would you start?
{Verse 2} Human souls, so we carve 'em into story Totem poles Because we’re always searching for a certain goal A pattern of physics, a role Don’t believe all you’re told And open Open up your fist A misconception, you can fight like this In praise, with the power of prayer If God’s on our side, we can take the stairs To the heavens Flipping through my chapter seven I live with the snakes in the great deception No court, in this country for men Who steal from their mother on paper with pen And we’re tripping Down a red dirt road And we’re asking Is this the way we should go? Kissing, soft top feet of my goddess We walk the earth, baby, yeah we got this Focus, and it’s redirected Grateful, and I’m resurrected Stubborn, but I know the way You’re the skin of my drum To your rhythm I will sway Take my hand I won’t lead you astray We will not go gently into the darkest of days Grandma’s here, and she says persevere Take a walk in her moccs, taste the trail of tears And our fears, are the same as they ever were Beers, numb the pain of a holocaust Gears, always mobbing in motion Maybe, baby, be an island or an ocean Your arches, how they bend and contract on my conscience Never slipped through the grip of my thesis And my theory is I shine in your presence A deliverance
{Chorus} Love letters to God Wonder if she reads them or if they get lost In the stars, the stars, in the stars So many parts to a heavy heart If there’s no beginning, then where would you start? Start, start, where would you start?
We must have a new mythology, but it must place itself at the service of ideas, it must become a mythology of reason. Mythology must become philosophical, so that the people may become rational, and philosophy must become mythological, so that philosophers may become sensible. If we do not give ideas a form that is aesthetic, i.e., mythological, they will not hold interest in people.
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Reflections
Let me ask you a question? What do you think of when you here the word mythology? Today, I am going to talk about mythology and religion and the interrelationship between these two terms. I will explore how they might differ and how they might be similar and how these two “philosophies” have affected human thought through the centuries.
The popular meaning of “mythology” is a collection of myths or stories about a specific person, culture, religion, or any group with shared beliefs or simply as stories a person does not believe in. Although in today’s world the word myth may suggest a story that is untrue, in ancient cultures myths gave meaning to life and even today these ancient myths contain kernels of truth, that apply to problems we face.
Although both religion and mythology focus on belief and a way to explain the world they do differ, although the differences at times may be subtle and some of their aspects may overlap. Although mythology and religion are similar because both are concerned with the supernatural, the main difference between the two is mythological stories are considered fiction, whereas religious stories are considered true by those who believe in them. Another important difference between the two is mythology only consists of stories, whereas religion also consists of a set of morals, ethics, and is an established organization.
Silent Prayer
Creator God, thank you for allowing us to discover
the laws governing your creation! Help us to
understand the meaning of life and our part in it!
“If you
would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in
your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things.”
RENÉ
DESCARTES
Reflections
Let
me ask you a question. Have you ever stopped to think how painful it must be
for a person to lose his faith? You cannot help but empathize with people who
have been agonized with doubt and uncertainty, forcing them to reconsider and
often abandon their faith. This is not a new phenomenon but has been around
since antiquity. People have struggled with their belief system since the Stone
Age when they began using religion to help them understand their daily
existence.
But
before we get into why it is so difficult for a formerly religious person to
lose their faith, let’s discuss the term faith and what it means. The word
faith can be defined in several ways: complete trust of confidence in someone
or something; a strong belief in God or in the doctrines of a religion, based
on spiritual apprehension rather than proof; a system of religious belief; a
strongly held belief or theory.
When
people share with others, they are having doubts about their faith, they are
often told they need to pray about it and read their Bible so the Holy Spirit
can help them understand and help them fight Satan and his demons who are
trying to take away their faith.
Here
is what a seminary professor shared about what she tells her students about doubts
her student might encounter when studying the Bible:
I
tell them I think the Bible is the word of humans about their experiences with
God. Those who can think can then realize that’s perhaps not exactly
the same as saying it is the word of God.
Most people in today’s world have
faith in a religious conviction or faith in another set of deeply held beliefs.
A person’s faith defines who they are and influences their goals and
motivations. So, what are the reasons for the beliefs one holds? According to
some scholars, some of the reasons for religious beliefs include fear of death,
a desire for meaning in one’s life, the need for moral structure, the need for
community, the need to control others. This faith or system of beliefs is fragile
and if attacked can cause a loss of faith, leading to depression, loneliness,
and despair.
The
process of disentangling oneself from religion can be very difficult. The loss
of faith during this process of “spiritual transition” or “deconversion” can be
extremely traumatic. Because all humans have a need for security the loss of
comfort and security provided by a like-minded community can be extremely
unsettling.
To get a handle on what it means to lose one’s faith,
we must first try to understand why people lose their faith. To do this I will
give the perspective of religion, faith, and/or loss of faith from two
atheists, a deist, a Jewish scholar, and a Christian fundamentalist.
Bart
Ehrman is currently the James A. Gray Distinguished Professor of Religious
Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is an American
New Testament scholar focusing on textual criticism of the New Testament, the
historical Jesus, and the origins and development of early Christianity. He labels
himself as an atheistic agnostic or agnostic atheist. In his blog, he shared
the following about his loss of faith:
Any of this sound familiar? You
used to believe Jesus really did walk on water and magically fed thousands of
people, but now you’re not so sure. You used to believe the Bible was without
error, a perfect book reliable for all of life’s answers, but now you know
otherwise. You used to believe that only people who accepted Jesus into their
hearts would go to heaven when they die, but now you can’t stomach such a
thought. And when you add up all these shifts in beliefs over the
pastseveral years, you genuinely wonder “What happened to my faith?” and conclude
that maybe, just maybe, you’ve lost it altogether.
Amy
Jill-Levine is E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Professor of New Testament
Studies at Vanderbilt University Divinity School, Department of Religious
Studies, and Graduate Department of Religion. She is a self-described
"Yankee Jewish feminist who teaches in a predominantly Protestant divinity
school in the buckle of the Bible Belt." In her book, The Misunderstood
Jew – The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus, Amy-Jill Levine
offers this major difference between Judaism and Christianity:
For
Christians, the claim that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life is
obvious: it is proved by Jesus’s resurrection, confirmed by the Bible, and
experienced by the soul. For Jews, claims of Jesus’s divine sonship and
fulfillment of the messianic prophecies are false. Since we live in a
world of cancer and AIDS, war and genocide, earthquakes and hurricanes, the
messianic age cannot be here yet. Since there is no messianic age,
obviously the messiah has not yet come.
Mike
Phleban is a prior Pentecostal pastor, who after years of struggle lost his
faith and now is an atheist. He gives us the following reason he lost his
faith.
In
the end, the one thing that did it for me was observing, as a pastor, how
Christians lead their lives when they think nobody is watching. Because if
there was one fundamental promise of Christianity that I kept sticking to after
years of disappointment, it was that God is changing people’s lives. I could
live with God not giving me my daily bread and not delivering me from evil –
after all, it could always be because of his perfect heavenly plan that I am
just too limited to comprehend. But the one thing that I thought the Bible is
clear about is that he is supposed to change people for the better. Maybe not
instantly, maybe not completely (not in this life anyway), but by the power of
Holy Spirit people should be transformed into the glory of Christ, becoming
better, more compassionate, more moral, more Christ-like. But nothing like that
happens – in church, they just learn how to masquerade better. This was the
final straw, the ultimate promise of the Bible that turned out to be false too.
The whole house of theological fine print finally collapsed.
In
his article, “Dissecting Christianity's Mind-Snaring System,” Stephen Van Eck, a long-time
freethinker and Deist writer, offers this:
Once
sucked into the parallel universe of Christianity, the adherent is too
intimidated by the existing framework of threats and rationalizations to
attempt escape. Even thinking along alternative lines will induce severe
feelings of guilt. And should one run the risk of losing faith by examining its
true foundations, he is certain to be chilled by the dictum, in Hebrews 6:4-6,
that "It is impossible for those who were once enlightened...if they fall
away, to renew them again..." Those who originated a religion based on
deception and delusion clearly knew that if the conditioning broke down or wore
off, it could not work again. But that's when the true enlightenment occurs.
Randy Alcorn In his article, “Losing
Your Faith May Be God’s Gift to You,”, Randy Alcorn says this:
As
I told Chris, there are probably many people who need to lose their faith—because
their faith is in the wrong thing. I believe God can use this crisis to topple
our idols, including but not limited to the idols of health and wealth, and
clear the way for us to embrace genuine trust in Christ.
So,
let’s fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Let’s make
Him the object of our faith. He will support us and sustain us and be there for
us in a way that no other object of faith can.
It
would seem, loss of faith is such a struggle because of our innate reason which
demands to know and live-in truth. If there is a God, the search for knowledge,
for reason and faith, is part of who we are. The truth indeed sets us free!
Silent Prayer
Creator
God, thank you for allowing us to discover
the
laws governing your creation! Help us to
understand
the meaning of life and our part in it!
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