July 27, 2005

It has been about a year since I started putting together the Freedom Gates writings. Now, I have placed on the website more or less everything I am ready to disclose at this stage. Some rearrangments of the published material will happen and the chapters on politics and religion will be reedited. Most of the development, however, will take place here, in the "Tom's column" section.

Comments on spiritual freedom

Spirituality runs into conflict with consumerism on multiple fronts. Consumerism needs more people so the goods can be mass produced, sold cheap and generate big profits; Spirituality needs less people so there is more room for the nature and for the solitude. Consumerism promotes stuff that sells; Spirituality requires that uplifting and elevating things be promoted; Consumerism accelerates the pace of our lives so more things can be consumed and sold; Spirituality makes us to slow down and appreciate life for what it is and what it allows us to experience. Consumerism urges people to follow fashion, imitate celebrities, chase the ideal of a "perfect mother", "sexy and desirable women" or "successful personality"; Spirituality teaches us to celebrate our own individuality.

There is no spiritual freedom in a society totally dominated by consumerism. There is no spiritual freedom in a society that doesn't appreciate art, nature and leisure time. Church attendance driven by the pressure to conform and fulfil one's social duty is spiritually inferior to the experience of going to church to find an opportunity to meditate, or just to reflect on the beauty of architecture and paintings. Support for arts and for public libraries, and for the protection of environment need not to be justified by utilitarian advantages. All those causes address our spiritual needs, "feed the soul" and secure our spiritual freedom. Nations that don't understand and don't care about the untangible things that feed the soul do not belong to the Kingdom of God. They are condemn to the life in "utalitarian and practical hell" where dreams are never fulfilled and where whatever one does does not bring satisfaction.

August 3, 2005

Comments on spiritual freedom (continuation)

Only one in a thousand who hear about Thomas Orr, the Prophet, will not assume that Thomas Orr is crazy or dishonest. Of those, only one in a thousand will not expect the message of a prophet to reveal some new ways of pleasing God and to explain why everybody else is wrong. Here is the simple truth about my message that only one in a million is prepared to comprehend.

A true prophet does not bring to the world any new doctrine, nor does he reinforce any old doctrine. Accepting a doctrine is to give up one's spiritual freedom. The mission of a true prophet is to break the chains and offer freedom. One does not become free by replacing one doctrine with another. One must reject all old and new doctrines to remain free.

Assuming that there must be a specific way of winning God's favor is really crazy if you think about it. Here is this doctrine proclaiming that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and only those who believe in Him are worthy of salvation. Maybe Jesus Christ is the Son of God, maybe He is not; but why do you think it should matter to God whether you believe it or not as much as to make it a condition of your salvation? Or why do you even think that you need to be saved?

Imposing this or other doctrine on you is the time proven way of taking your spiritual freedom away from you. If you dare to have doubts they will reinforce the message by bluntly telling you that you must give up your freedom to gain salvation. Really? These days established religions like to warn young and naive about dangers of falling victims to cult recruiting efforts. However, nobody can tell the difference between the "bad" cult and "good" religion. In most cases there is none and you should be warned to watch for the telltale signs of cult-style brainwashing methods even in the oldest and time honored religions.

They may fool you once, or twice, or ten times, like they fooled me, but finally you should realize that your obedience and enslavement stand only on successful brainwashing and are not supported by reality and logic. When did it start? Did you acquire your religious concepts in your childhood, or did you choose your beliefs consciously by carefully examining many options? Is your current system of beliefs the result of random events like where you were born and what forces were influencing you? Many people hold on to beliefs that are obviously not true. "My religion is unique because it produced miracles and saints". Well, so did all other religions. "My religions is true because it follows the Holy Scriptures". Well, so claim all the religions. Finally, some people who are aware of the fact that they ended up in a particular religion by essentially random and capricious process nevertheless try to validate it by professing that God was guiding them in His mysterious ways. This, as it turns out can be anything. Jail experience, recovery from alcoholism or drug addiction, being born rich, being born poor, experiencing a personal miracle or mystic experience. In the end God is rather inconsistent as all those wondering people who are "rescued" still end up in different religions and not in the only true one.

Many bad things happen if you give up your spiritual freedom and embrace with zeal and determination a particular system of beliefs. Only good thing happen when you choose freedom.

Spirituality is simple and you don't need a traditional religion to define it. You don't need to define spirituality but you need to make it an integral part of your life. Spirituality is as simple as having a higher goal and purpose in life. It is as simple as enriching your life with experience, which takes you to the higher levels of happiness. It is to uplift and elevate you, it is to make you more human. I am not saying that you should stop going to church or read the Bible. If you find it uplifiting by all means keep doing what you do. Only not be afraid of braking the chains once you recognize them as chains.

There are always three components to spirituality. There is an element of service; there is an element of enjoyment; there is an element of sharing. If any of those elements is missing the spiritual practice is not complete. If all three are present an ordinary practice gets transformed into the spiritual act. A monk who sees his life as service to God, who finds happiness in prayers, and who shares his joy and experience with fellow human beings becomes a saint who knows the secret of spirituality; but so does a musician who understand his vocation as service to humanity, who loves playing the instrument and finds it important to speak about the power of music.

I have nothing to say about superior or inferior spiritual practices. They are all important. The more you practice spirituality the more refined you become as far as your spiritual taste is concerned. The more refined you are the more discriminant you become but then you will only find more opportunities to fulfill your cravings for meaningful spiritual experience in your life. To decide, which spiritual practice is superior among the ones you consider is your job, not mine. The decision depends on where you are in your spiritual evolution and who you are. I have no business in telling you what you should decide for yourself. Besides, there are many real and honest spiritual teachers who do their job and who will be of great help. I am doing my job, not someone else's job. I am a politician and not a spiritual advisor. My work is spiritual and so should be yours, but I am not telling you to do what I am doing.

Nevertheless, the job I am doing is vitally important to your spiritual prosperity. I am working on creating the environment where the spiritual freedom is possible. Thinking that spiritual life is possible regardless of external circumstances is a myth. Environment is many times stronger than individual will. It will take a superhuman to live a spiritually fulfilling life in the environment of enslavement and unfortunately most of us are only humans. On the other hand, good environment can greately help in reawakening of spiritual ambitions in those who always doubted if such aspirations are even possible for them.

August 6, 2005

Good workers

It is important that early in my mission I identify people of good will who work on making the Freedom Gates a reality. Those people free me from the job of explaining in details how to work for the better future. The Freedom Gates movement is not a revolution where you start with destroying the old order only to find yourself lost in the task of building the new one. The Freedom Gates movement is a serious institution and as such its primary task is to create the robust body of experts who collectively know what they are doing and what they are talking about. Prophet is like a bee queen. He provides the purpose for the colony but the real work is done by the workers.

Here are some of those wonderful workers, even if they don't know yet that they work for the Freedom Gates.

Journey to Forever. It will require a lot of time to study this website but it will be time well spent.

Do the google search on "Mondragon cooperative" and follow the links wherever they take you.

You will get an extra credit for reading about the "Center for Rural Affairs" and learning about the works of Wendell Berry.