hard to explain.

Submitted by Mohammed Waza Khiddif id'Ullah (Australia), Jan 4, 2016 at 23:18

"You're making things far more complicated than they are."I understand from your perspective that it may seem like that to you, I may not be expressing what I would like to convey properly. But to me it is you who has the over complicated understanding. Truth is simple to understand and a book, as useful as they are - will not give you direct experience of it. They can be inspiring. But a book is not God.

" God is minutely described in the Bible. "
It's like the old saying - I can describe the taste of an orange to you but until you've actually had the experience .......

"If you look "into yourself", all you'll find is your own self: your own feelings, your own, thoughts... you can't break out of it, not even with drugs. "

There seems to be a pattern here. Can you admit that there might be other depths inside the human psyche that people are basically unaware of? Sure there are what we would generally consider bad or negative states of being - anger, jealousy, lust, confusion, hatreds etc. But where does perception of truth exist? Honesty, love, kindness , awareness etc etc? They also have to exist inside us of course.

"Quite a few people have tried, and ended up in La La Land."
What exactly have they tried though? Are you talking Timothy Leary here? I agree with you in that case. Drugs are a complete dead end.

"....Besides reading all the above, I had observed the behavior of people who held to various doctrines. "
not generally a wise move. I'm sure even the Dalai Lama and Mother Teresa had their bad days. What counts is what you experience and how it benefits your life overall.

"While studying Kundalini Yoga, I sat at the feet of Yogi Baijan and heard him say "What we need is strong nerves; and KY gives us strong nerves." Then I drove my Yoga instructor and some fellow students up a dangerous road to a Buddhist colony; "

They have yogis at Buddhist colonies? I thought it was a Hindu thing.

"...and I discovered that my instructor did not have strong nerves."
Was your yoga instructor Yogi Baijan/ And who is Yogi Baijan and what was he saying?

" In fact, he was screaming for me to slow down, and virtually climbing up the widscreen."
OK, so are you a particularly bad driver? When passengers ever complain about my driving (which of course I always consider to be top notch ) - I tend to humour them and slow down to make them feel comfortable. But maybe it was a good thing for you to press this guy's buttons to allow him to realise he is human and had a self-preservation instinct.

" Then, when I thought I was about to die,"
What brought that on - sickness, accident, boredom?

" I had my conversation with God and asked Him who He was. He convinced me that He was God -- not in my intellect, but in my whole being; and when I asked whether He was Jesus, I physically felt a hand on my shoulder. That convinced me, in a way that I will never be unconvinced."

Many people have had some amazing and inexplicable experiences. Mo even had an extended event in a cave when the koran was handed down to him. ;-) Just joking. Not all experiencers are half-baked fruit loops with pathological mental conditions.

"I said this was a "subjective" experience, because I was the only one having it; "
Like every one of us experiencing or own lives.

"...but it came from outside of me;"
I understand that

"...and what brought me to know God was not the experience, but my faith in His word. It's like reading the map, believing it, then following it and arriving at your destination. That's it! No GPS, no introspection, now spiritual radar, crystals or auras, none of that."

A lot of that Newage sewage is an entertaining distraction for many people. And others make a living from it - so it won't go away in a hurry. But don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. We do have bio-energetic fields for example. Telepathy exists, etc. I have no doubt UFO's exist either. In an infinite Universe - why not?

We will always know less than there is to know. But regardless of the truth behind any phenomena , does knowing about any of those things really bring me peace and fulfillment? How can they when they exist independently of myself?

" Jesus said,

Matthew 7:
[7] Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:
[8] For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.
[9] Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?
[10] Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent?
[11] If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?

and,

"James 1:
[5] If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
[6] But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.
[7] For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.
[8] A double minded man is unstable in all his ways"

"........James was talking to believers, telling them how to find their way back to God after falling away. It wasn't really a mental exercise; the struggle wasn't between faith and ignorance; it was between faith and pride: like the person who has the road map, but thinks he knows a better way. "

Pride comes before a fall - so the behaviour is self-limiting. Eventually they're put back on track, hopefully wiser for the regrettable experience.

"Then Jesus says,

Matthew 5:
[3] Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
[4] Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
[5] Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
[6] Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
[7] Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
[8] Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.

but again, he says,

Matthew 5:

[13] Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:
[14] Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it."

This is true. But what people fail to understand is that this 'way' is within us. It is not in a book. Jesus did not come to bring a book but to show the 'Kingdom of Heaven ' within, where it will always be.

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