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pre·cept - (prē · sĕpt ) n.A rule or principle prescribing a particular course of action or conduct.
con·cept - (kŏn · sĕpt ) n.A general idea derived or inferred from specific instances or occurrences. Something formed in the mind; a thought or notion.
lost souls n.The problem with lost souls, is they tend to find a body here on Earth.
at·tri·bute(at’ rĭ · byoot) n. A quality or characteristic inherent in or ascribed to someone or something.
Rejected titles: No More Gurus Cosmic Origins of Humankind Cosmic Origins of Being Divine Origins and Attributes of Being
Rejected Subtitle: A Personal Invitation to Experience Your Own Divine or Cosmic Origins, and the Origins of Your Own Consciousness and Being.
Proposed Title and Subtitles: ORGINS AND ATTRIBUTES OF BEING A Personal Invitation to Experience the Origins of Your Own Consciousness and Being. A Personal Journey and Invitation to Experience the Origins of Your Own Consciousness and Being.
Liner Notes:
Motivations and Discoveries:
The forthcoming book, Origins and Attributes of Being, is the result of what has been a personal quest of more than 15 years.
My original objective in writing this book was simply to clarify some personal insights, awarenesses and conclusions wrought through some very personal experiences. Many of these experiences seemed unrelated at first. For some, time had to pass; and new facts and artifacts had to come into view. And, finally, a few of these experiences could be described as nothing less than “awesome” and “amazing” to me.
Over the years, I have been driven by a couple of motivations: I have found that
Motivation #1) Through my life experience I have discovered that an understanding of how various foreign cultures view a precept adds to my own depth of understanding. I admit, at first, I had feelings that many people associate with unfamiliar people and strange ideas. Feelings like: What these people believe is “strange” and therefore somehow “frivolous and irrelevant to rational thinking and beliefs.” What’s more true? Subconsciously, I had feelings more akin to a personal threat or of “imminent global chaos.” Not to be too dramatic, but this is how I really felt at first: “Will my well-being completely disintegrate if this weird, ridiculous idea or religious belief is allowed to proliferate another second?” These feelings are, I am sure at the basis of every genocide – of every crusade: of the Chinese revolutionists’ campaigns against western influences and the middle class, of the Spanish Conquistadors’ campaigns to destroy the Aztec libraries, culture and traditions, of the American campaigns to destroy the Native American culture and traditions; and on and on … However, these feelings soon gave way to a sense of peace and tolerance. In fact, multi-cultural perspectives relentlessly offer a sense of grace for difference and strength in diversity, leading to a sense of personal confidence and even a sense of “common ground” in community.
Motivation #2) I have also discovered simply that knowing how other, foreign cultures view and understand a precept actually adds depth to my own sense of understanding of that precept. (See more on this later: “The Blind Men and the Elephant story”.)
The resulting investigations have lead me to some surprising “discoveries:” Six separate “religious” or “cosmological” world traditions have stunningly similar stories, rituals, symbols, relics that each have accompanying traditions or metaphors that describe the same five specific characteristics of the human psyche or experience. This, in spite of the fact that these traditions developed ages and subcontinents and even continents apart. And this, in spite of the fact that each were virtually equally diverse in language and cultural biases and affinities.
While one tradition may give more detail about one specific characteristic than another (perhaps due to limitations of language or the enhancements of cultural affinities), it has become obvious to me that these symbols, these artifacts and rituals with their accompanying traditions and stories, can be seen as metaphors which identify and describe the same five specific attributes of the human psyche or experience. What’s more, these symbols and metaphors are so consistent and congruent. All six traditions converge neatly in this book into one unanimous, single metaphor.
Thus, I call these attributes, “The Five Attributes;” and I call this metaphor, “The Metaphor of the Five Worlds of Being.”
A metaphor can serve as a model. So, following the models presented in one or other of each of the six world traditions, these Attributes are each described as "world" or “universe” of experience or existence; these descriptions help to elaborate and demonstrate the depth of each Attribute.
