The religion of the future will be a cosmic religion. It should transcend a personal God and avoid dogmas and theology. Covering both the natural and the spiritual, it should be based on a religious sense arising from the experience of all things, natural and spiritual as a meaningful unity.
- Albert Einstein -

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Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.
- Buddha -

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One can know one's Self only with one's own eye of knowledge, and not with somebody else's.
- Ramana Maharshi -

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In oneself lies the whole world, and if you know how to look and learn, then the door is there and the key is in your hand. Nobody on earth can give you either that key or the door to open, except yourself.
- J. Krishnamurti, You Are The World -

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Nonduality

3MG is a Nonduality site. Nonduality has many different expressions and names, such as Zen Buddhism, Taoism, Advaita Vedanta, and others. In Western philosophy, it is sometimes called monism, which means simply that reality is one without separation. In essence, Nonduality teaches that nothing exists but consciousness, and consciousness is what you are. It is not a religion, or a system of belief, or an ideology. In fact, it does not require belief of any kind; all it requires is self-discovery. It is nothing more than seeing, understanding, or awakening to one's own nature, which can occur in a split second. It is a completely natural shift from a separate identity to an inclusive identity. (For more information, see Frequently Asked Questions About Nonduality.)

When Buddha, whose name means "the awakened one," was asked what made him different from others, he replied simply, "I am awake." He also taught that enlightenment is already inherent in all beings. Everyone, therefore, is a potential Buddha; everyone can awaken spiritually.

But there are as many gateways to becoming awake as there are people. Each person is unique; each approaches and expresses spirituality differently. Yet, each gateway is also an illusion; upon passing through the gate, it is instantly self-evident that there never was a gate blocking the way. The discovery is humorous, because it reveals that what you have searched for you have never lost or can ever lose. The search is as silly as a fish swimming in a lake and looking for water.

The search is fulfilled in the discovery of your own nature, but the truth of your nature is always available, always self-evident, always obvious. It is ever here, ever now, always who and what you already are. Thinking that it is elsewhere, or must be found, is what classic Nonduality texts call illusion.

...there is nothing whatever mysterious about this matter...the apparent difficulty is due to our conditioning...an inability to perceive the obvious owing to a conditioned reflex which causes us persistently to look in the wrong direction!
- Wei Wu Wei -

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Nonduality Reviews And Commentary

• Gina Lake's Latest Book, Embracing the Now: Finding Peace and Happiness in What Is, Reviewed!
  "Happiness isn't something to attain or achieve but something to notice." - Gina Lake
  
  Also, an excerpt from the book:
  
  Happiness Is Here Right Now "If we stay in the moment long enough, we experience essence rejoicing in life - relishing the experience of being alive in this ever-changing and mysterious moment."
  
  
• A New Book - Highly Recommended! Living from the Heart by Nirmala is a compilation of 3 books - From the Heart, The Heart's Wisdom, and Love is for Giving. Part 2 can be downloaded for free at his site, Endless Satsang. The complete book is available at the site as a printed paperback.
  
  Two excerpts from the book:
  
  Living from the Heart (An Excerpt) "You may think it matters what happens. But what if the only thing that matters is where you are experiencing from, where you are looking from? What if you could experience all of life from a spacious, open perspective where anything can happen and there is room for all of it, where there is no need to pick and choose, to put up barriers or resist any of it, where nothing is a problem and everything just adds to the richness of life? What if this open, spacious perspective was the most natural and easy thing to do?"
  
  Love Is for Giving, Not for Getting (An Excerpt) "Love is both simpler and more mysterious and subtle than we have imagined it to be."
  
  Another New Free E-book - Also Highly Recommended! Beyond No Self by Nirmala. "The spiritual journey is a movement away from over-identification with the body and mind to the rediscovery of our true identity as infinite Being, and this can be two different movements." (Beyond No Self can also be downloaded at Nirmala's site, Endless Satsang.)
  
  Two New Articles by Nirmala:
  
  1. You Cannot Be Harmed "Consciousness is affected but not harmed." A reassuring perspective on life's difficulties.
  
  2. Exploring Emptiness "What is it about emptiness that makes us want to move away from it?"

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Nondual Social Awareness And Action

In the Bhagavad-Gita (the Song of God, which is a classic Hindu scripture of spiritual understanding), when Arjuna expresses spiritual doubts about going into battle, his teacher Krishna does not tell him to withdraw; instead, he urges him to fight. Although it is sometimes claimed that withdrawal from social and political issues is a sure sign of enlightenment or spiritual insight, that position says more about one's own individual temperament, conditioning and interests than about Nonduality itself. The claim is often nothing more than disguised apathy or depression, a rationalized attempt to divorce oneself from life. It may include an underlying assumption that there is something wrong with the manifest world, and that there is something better about the unmanifest.

But there is no division between the manifest and the unmanifest. Nonduality, a translation of the Sanskrit word Advaita, means "not-two," which means "no-separation." It follows from that understanding, as J. Krishnamurti and others have repeatedly affirmed, that you are the world. Its condition is your responsibility. If your house is on fire, you will take action to try to save it. And that is likewise true if you see that your society or the world is on fire and that you can do something about it.

One such threat today comes from the growing tyranny of religious absolutism and inflexibility as people rush blindly to demand certainty in a world that is by nature uncertain. It is a dangerous, uncompromising form of spiritual darkness that inevitably leads to conflict and oppression. In response, 3MG takes a stand on controversial issues such as, but not limited to, women's equality and gay rights, which are most heavily and irrationally under attack by many established religions and which expose the heart of their authoritarian mentality. In addition, 3MG disseminates information supporting tolerance and diversity; it questions religious authority, particularly when religion attempts to impose itself through political institutions. But, most importantly, 3MG encourages individuals to look into themselves to discover their own true nature and freedom through spiritual awakening.

There is no enlightenment outside of daily life. - Thich Nhat Hanh

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The fundamentalist approach is dangerous, for it is attractive to people who look to the Bible for ready answers to the problems of life. It can deceive these people, offering them interpretations that are pious but illusory, instead of telling them that the Bible does not necessarily contain an immediate answer to each and every problem. Without saying as much in so many words, fundamentalism actually invites people to a kind of intellectual suicide. It injects into life a false certitude, for it unwittingly confuses the divine substance of the biblical message with what are in fact its human limitations. - The Vatican in the 1993 document, The Interpretation of the Bible in the Church.

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Religious, Political, Social News & Commentary

People place their hand on the Bible and swear to uphold the Constitution. They don't put their hand on the Constitution and swear to uphold the Bible. - Jamie Raskin, Professor of Constitutional Law, American University

Should religious extremists be allowed to use the power of government and the courts to impose their values on you? Keep religious freedom alive in America by supporting strict separation of church and state. For more information, visit these organizations dedicated to Separation of Church and State.

When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross. - Sinclair Lewis

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• Our Mutual Joy "Opponents of gay marriage often cite Scripture. But what the Bible teaches about love argues for the other side."
  
  
• The Pope's Christmas Gift: No Rights For Gays "Benedict's envoy to the United Nations, Archbishop Celestino Migliore, has announced that the Vatican will oppose a proposed U.N. declaration calling for an end to discrimination against homosexuals."
  
  
• Malaysia Outlaws Yoga For Muslims "The Islamic authorities have issued a ruling, known as a fatwa, instructing the country's Muslims to avoid yoga because of its Hindu roots."
  
  
• The New Liberal Order "Liberalism, which average Americans once associated with upheaval, now promises stability instead."
  
  
• Uncertain Times For Religious Right "The Republican Party as it exists today could not exist without the Christian evangelical vote and the conservative Catholic vote. Now the Republican Party can't win with them alone - as we've learned."
  
  
• Keith Olbermann's "Special Comment" on Prop 8 This video is from MSNBC's Keith Olbermann about the passage of California's Proposition 8 which banned gay marriage. It's an eloquent statement of why the passage of Prop 8 is so tragic.
  
  
• The Authoritarians by Bob Altemeyer, Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Manitoba - a free e-book. "Authoritarians get a lot of their ideas about how people ought to act from their religion...they tend to belong to fundamentalist religions that make it crystal clear what they consider correct and what they consider wrong."
  
  
• Endangered Species: In More Danger "...it's difficult to avoid the conclusion that the White House is simply trying to dismantle as much of the nation's framework for environmental protection as possible in its last months in office."
  
  
• In Defense of Liberalism "One of the great fallacies in modern lore is that liberalism stands for nothing and liberals have no core beliefs. The right wing, from the Pope to the President, has impugned the left by unfairly portraying it as a valueless movement mired in moral relativism."
  
  
• Under New Proposals, Some Rape Victims Wouldn't Get Emergency Contraception "Conservatives are proposing a federal rule that would go so far as to allow providers to deny rape victims emergency contraception."
  
  
• Did Right-Wing Shock Jocks Motivate Knoxville Killer? "Hateful talk about one's enemies undermining the nation leads to hateful acts in response."
  
  
• The California Marriage Decision and Basic Civics "Central to our system of government is the premise that there are laws which even the largest majorities are prohibited from enacting because such laws violate the constitutional rights of minorities."
  
  
• Court Approves Evil Gay Agenda "...cultural conservatives still have no idea exactly why they hate gay marriage. There is still zero articulation. There is a complete lack of fact or understanding and I have yet to meet a single person of any political stripe who can adequately explain exactly why gay marriage is so dangerous, or who's threatened, or how."
  
  
• Military Makes Mincemeat of Church-State Separation "Maybe the reason the misperception persists that there are no atheists in foxholes is that nonbelievers must either shut up about their views or be hounded out of the military."
  
  
• An Atheist Goes Undercover to Join the Flock of Mad Pastor John Hagee "One thing about this world: Once a preacher says it, it's true. No one is going to look up anything the preacher says, cross-check his facts, raise an eyebrow at something that might sound a little off."
  
  
• Malaysian Woman Can Leave Islam "Malaysians are rarely allowed to renounce the faith - those who do can be prosecuted under stringent laws."
  
  
• Girl Thrown On Fire For Being 'Low Class' "The girl is a Dalit, or an 'untouchable,' according to India's traditional caste system."

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The [Roman Catholic] church hierarchy speaks with a single voice; priests, bishops, archbishops and cardinals are in fact prohibited from publicly expressing views contrary to the church's current official stance; they are even prohibited from suggesting that any church policies need to be changed. This assures that it is mainly official church pronouncements, and statements that are in agreement with the church beliefs, which reach the public.
The Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance

Religion, to many modern churches, is tantamount to a system of laws and doctrines; that is the usual thinking, but in the final analysis such an attitude bears no relation to the life of mature faith. This attitude of moral rectitude - as if faith and morality were synonymous - is closer to a fascist police mentality than it is to the attitude of Jesus.... - Donald Spoto, theologian, former monk and author of
The Hidden Jesus: A New Life

Those who say that religion has nothing to do with politics do not understand religion. - Mahatma Gandhi

I have a dream. - Martin Luther King, Jr.

So life's not fair - how does that excuse society? - DLT

Why does the good shepherd tend sheep? Because sheep can be milked, fleeced or eaten. - DLT