The world we live in is run by power junkies who will do anything to gain and keep their wealth and power.  People of moral integrity will never do what these people are willing to do, and therefore, will never be on top.

     Until you accept this as a fundamental truth, you will forever misunderstand the world you live in.  And until the majority of people in the world understand this, we will continue to be dominated by these people.  If people continue to live in ignorance to the ploys and schemes perpetrated against them on a daily basis, nothing will change, but if people were to wake up and stand together, the people in power simply could not dominate millions of people who refuse to be dominated.

     Like I said, don’t just take my word for it.  At the same time, another important practice in the quest for truth is to form a habit of not brushing things off without investigating them.  Everything deserves investigation.

     The ruthless kind of people that I’m talking about are the ones who really run the world; international world bank owners, corporate owners, billionaires and soon-to-be-trillionaires who have the power and influence to control nations, governments, and politicians.  They do not want you to be free, but rather want to control every aspect of your life.  (When I say “they,” I’m not including every single ultra rich person in the world; there may be some who are less evil than others or who inherited their wealth.  I’m just generalizing for simplicity’s sake.)

     Below the ultra rich are the government leaders and “representatives” who have figured out that they would rather be “takers” than “makers,” who are also addicted to the power of being able to take people’s money and run their lives, who have the power to make laws that you and I must now obey.

     Below them are people in non-profit/for profit organizations, religious organizations―any kind of organization that you can think of that doesn’t have the power that government has to force you to give them money and follow their rules, but can convince you to do so voluntarily.  I’m not necessarily saying that all of these organizations are bad or immoral, but all of them do run the risk of creating agendas simply to promote their own continued growth and existence, and therefore, it is in their interest to possibly manipulate their followers/donors emotionally and psychologically to ensure that they continue to support the organization financially.

     In the case of churches, for example, it would be like a church saying that there is only one way to God (and it just happens to be through them), and if you don’t support them and believe exactly what they believe, God will be mad at you and you will spend eternity in hell.  (Sound familiar?)

     Below them are people of influence; entertainers, athletes, specialists, gurus, and so forth, who may make alliances with certain corporations or ultra rich people, and therefore, do and say things with the agenda of promoting themselves or a cause or benefactor that they support, and whose intention is to sway people one way or another, and who may or may not have moral or noble goals.

     Influencing us at various points in our lives are educational schools and programs, ranging from preschool all the way to the end of college.  Considering how much influence government has in these areas, the potential for brainwashing and manipulation should clearly be a concern, especially when we consider what education must be like in countries where state propaganda is a way of life.  What about the country you live in?  What are the agendas of those who control your education system?

     And finally below them we have the family unit.  Now I’m certainly not saying that all family influence is bad; I’m sure most of it is quite well intentioned, but nonetheless, nothing that a family member says should be taken as truth just because you’re related to them.  Everything should be questioned and investigated.

     So now that I’ve covered that, hopefully you have a better idea of what I mean when I say that part of the journey for truth and freedom is to free ourselves from any outside control or influences that may exist and to question everything for ourselves.

Excerpted from Them and Us: A Philosophy of Freedom by Adam Soto

     Let’s break the question down into smaller bite-sized questions so that it’s easier to digest.  Are you free to live as you please?  Can you say what you want to say?  Are there any forces in your life that impede your freedom?  Are you free mentally?  Do you think for yourself?  What beliefs do you hold? 

     Take your beliefs about government, for example: Have you completely questioned all of them?  Any of them?  Or were you taught certain things about government by others and then accepted them as truth?  Are they true?  How does one know whether they are true or not?

     The answer is simple―you must investigate!  You must take the time to do research, look under every rock, behind every curtain, and around every corner until you gather enough information to make a sound conclusion.  You must investigate, and investigate deeply, to uncover truth for yourself.  If you’ve never investigated philosophical matters for yourself but only accepted what others have told you (others being your parents, teachers, and/or leaders), how could you possibly know that it is true?

     Actually, let’s press the pause button for a moment, okay?  Before we go any further, we must acknowledge a very important ingredient that is essential to helping us investigate and understand the people and world around us.  If you’ll indulge me for a moment, I’m going to make some statements that I have investigated (and believe to be true), but that you should also investigate for yourself.  Here we go.

     There exist in this world extremely selfish and evil people.

     When I say evil, I mean morally bankrupt, without conscience, power hungry egomaniacs whose ultimate goal in life is to accumulate as much money, power, and possessions as they possibly can, and they don’t care who they hurt or kill in the process.  Although money is beneficial to them in and of itself, and they always seek more of it, it is really only a means to an end.  The more money they get, the more they can use it to buy power and influence … power and influence over nations, over corporations, and over people―to control people’s minds and behavior.  This kind of power is the ultimate rush for them, like a 24 hour drug, and like any drug, they need ever more power and influence to achieve their high―to get their fix. 

     Think about it logically for a minute; which kind of person do you think rises to the top in this world: the good person who really cares about people and doing the right thing, who has limits to what they will do and lines they won’t cross out of a feeling of moral obligation to themselves, God, or their fellow man?  Or is it the person who is without a moral code, who is ruthless, has no lines that they won’t cross, who will do anything―and I mean anything―to achieve their goals and dominate those around them?  I think the answer is quite obvious.

Excerpted from Them and Us: A Philosophy of Freedom by Adam Soto

     On the journey for truth there are certain tools which you must carry with you at all times.  The most important of them all is the tool of questioning.

     The question is the gateway to nearly all understanding and awareness.  The question can be a key that unlocks doors to new ideas or a knife that cuts away faulty thinking.  It can bring joy and pain, respectively; joy if you are free enough to accept new truths, pain if you resist or are not ready for what these new truths will mean for your life and how you now must live if you want to live in truth.

     The path of questioning and philosophical awakening is not for the faint of heart.  It takes courage, determination, and perseverance.  But once truth is accepted, experienced, and embraced, nothing can bring more joy, peace, or freedom.

     So the question is, Are you free?

     Be 100% honest with yourself.  Self-honesty is another essential tool that must always be present in your quest for truth―you must always be honest with yourself.

Excerpted from Them and Us: A Philosophy of Freedom by Adam Soto

     “The world you think you know is not the world that is.  There is a man behind the curtain.  That’s why the world needs a spark—a flame—something to burn away the curtain, to open the eyes of the common person.  As long as our eyes remain closed, we deserve to be in our current positions as servants and slaves.”

—Adam Soto

Part I: Freedom

     When analyzing and observing most people in the world, I find that the majority of humanity spends very little time contemplating their own freedom.  This is a very serious problem.  In fact, one could logically conclude that most of the problems in our world result from a collective inability to understand and defend our freedoms against those who wish to take them.

     To understand this better, I’m going to break the world down into three kinds of people.  First are those who live intentionally, who have clear cut ideas of who they are, who they want to be, and what goals they wish to achieve, and put all of their energy into making their intentions materialize into reality.  In all honesty, these people are rare, though they needn’t be; anyone can become a person of intention if they put their energy there.

     Intention can be used for noble or not-so-noble purposes, and it works either way; it’s simply the application of energy toward specific goals (we’ll talk more about this later).

     The second kind of people are those who don’t live very intentionally, who don’t have very clear cut ideas of who they are, who they want to be, and what goals they wish to achieve.  These people sort of bounce around from here to there, easily swayed by other people, circumstances, trends, and their own whims and fancies.  Lacking any clear or deeper purpose, they often seem quite unfulfilled and are frequently disappointed with life in general.

     The third kind of people are simply a mixture of the first two, having and achieving some goals, but still swayed at times by other people or their own whims and fancies, and feel somewhat fulfilled by the life they live.

     I believe that it is essential to the progress and fulfillment of every human being that we become as free as we can be, living lives of pure intention.  We should be free and intentional in the way we think, live, act, and relate to the people and world around us―living, experiencing, and exemplifying freedom in all that we are and all that we do.  I believe that it is only when we are living this way that true joy and fulfillment can be experienced―not just momentarily―but on a constant basis.

     Freedom―itself―is a type of philosophy.  As a philosophy it seeks to permeate all of our thoughts and actions and inform us as to which thoughts and actions truly encapsulate the ideas of freedom.

     As free people, we’re not meant to let other people do our thinking for us.  We have minds and the ability to reason so that we can think for ourselves.

     As free people, we’re not meant to let other people decide how to live our lives for us, granting them the power to make rules and laws for ourselves and our neighbors to follow.  We’re meant to decide for ourselves how to live and interact with our fellow man.

     As you read further on, please remember that it is through your own philosophical explorations and life applications that truths can be experienced and realized.  If I happen to offer something that makes sense to you, test it in your own life; don’t just take my word for it.  Only then can you know for yourself whether something is true or not.

Excerpted from Them and Us: A Philosophy of Freedom by Adam Soto

From the back cover

 

     We want to believe that the world is essentially good, that evil forces don’t exist, and if they do, that they’re not that evil.

     In reality, there are ruthless, evil people in the world―many of them.  They will kill you, control you, manipulate you, and use you―without a second thought.  This, then, needs to become one of the foundational truths with which your life is based upon.  Without it, you will forever misunderstand the world you live in.

     You must also understand this: not only are there ruthless people in the world, some of them are extremely intelligent.  These are the one who really run the world.  Bankers, corporate owners, politicians―they’re all playing a game that you’re not privy to.

     What it comes down to is that the majority of mankind never asks themselves the tough questions in life.  They accept what they’re told, never thinking about much of anything for themselves.  They fail to develop the most powerful tool at their disposal―their mind.

     This is the first thing that separates Them and Us―they have awakened their minds.  They study themselves and the world around them.  They exercise their minds and try to understand how nature and the world around them works.  Bt most importantly, they understand how we as human beings work―what makes us tick.

     So the question is, how much of your mind do you want to give Them?  That’s important to understand … They’re not taking it, we’re giving it!

     Every day we have a choice―will we be free, or will we be what They want us to be?

Excerpted from Them and Us: A Philosophy of Freedom by Adam Soto

     My vision when I started this blog was to share my spiritual thoughts and writings with people and to share some of my favorite quotes and stories by other people that helped to guide and enlighten me along my spiritual journey.  I scheduled all (or most) of the blog posts ahead of time, with no real plans for what would happen after the scheduled posts were done. 

     Now that my original posts are finished, I would like to transition to another aspect of the spiritual journey.  For me, a major part of the spiritual journey is grounded in the philosophy of freedom.  In my view, there can be no adequate conception of spirituality without freedom being a foundational part of it.

     In spirituality, anyone trying to live the Godly path should never try to force their will upon another; neither should they let anyone force their will upon them.

     From a spiritual and philosophical perspective, the freedom to live according to one’s own conscience or understanding of God or spiritual principles should never be compromised, nor should anyone be forced to do something that goes against their conscience.

     I believe that a major part of the spiritual journey is for each person is to learn to have the courage and inner fortitude to live according to their conscience and philosophy, despite the many forces that try on a daily basis to bend them to their will and lead them away from the Godly path.

     When it comes to freedom, how free can most people say they really are?  If we’re going to be completely honest with ourselves, there are many forces, both private and governmental, that work very hard to bend us to their will.  Some of it is made to seem legitimate and is backed by physical force, such as the loss of freedom by imprisonment if someone disobeys a government “law,” whether the law is just or not.  At other times people try to take our freedoms through dishonesty, mind control, and deceit, working in the shadows to manipulate our deepest fears and desires, and will even exploit our good qualities if it helps them to achieve their goals.

     For the next forty days, I’m going to share excerpts from a book I wrote entitled, Them and Us: A Philosophy of Freedom.  The book is written less like a spiritual book and more like a book of philosophy, though in my view it is still very spiritual.

     One thing that I would like to address right off of the bat is that although the book is entitled Them and Us, in no way am I advocating that we should hate anyone who tries to force their will on us or manipulate our minds.  I believe in nonviolent, noncooperation with evil and in doing one’s best to remain loving despite the actions of others.  It is, at times, a hard sacrifice to live this way, but it is the way of love.

     Also, there is nothing wrong with pointing out the unloving or even sinister actions of others.  Unfortunately, there are many people in the world who are sick with desire and ego, who somehow find reasons to justify, in their own minds, their cruel and wicked behavior.  We must resist these kinds of people.  We must expose their ways and enlighten people of their goals and actions until we are strong enough to build a better world, one based on love of God and freedom, where people live in voluntary communities guided by Godly principles and respect, not forced servitude and systematic violence.

     I admit, some of the information and ideas in this book may be hard to swallow.  Even if your mind tries to resist some of the ideas, I urge you to read on anyways and investigate what I’m saying for yourself.

     Who knows, perhaps my ideas will challenge you to see freedom in a new or different light?  The thing is, you’ll never know unless you give the ideas a chance and let them challenge your current understanding of the world.

     Lastly, I’m choosing to post the excerpts from this book daily for a number of reasons, the first of which is because I think that the ideas will stay fresh in your mind better with daily exposure rather than having a few days in between posts.  A second reason is to help show how beneficial it is to have philosophy as a daily part of your life.  And lastly, to demonstrate that you are not too busy to take a few minutes out of your life to dedicate to philosophical or spiritual endeavors.  If you are, I pray that you find a way to balance and order your life so that you can exercise your mind and spirit for at least a few minutes each day.  Just as we need food to nourish our body and keep us going, it is the same with spiritual matters.  Without daily nourishment, we can become spiritually weak or uninspired.

     In conclusion, I hope that what I have written will inspire you in your own spiritual journey for freedom and peace.  If you would like to read the book in its entirety without waiting for me to post excerpts, I will have a link under the “Books” section where you can read or download it at your leisure.

     Thanks for reading!

―Adam Soto

 

     Here are what I believe to be four of the most ignored (or least applied/understood) scripture verses in the Bible.  Wouldn’t any understanding of God that portrays God differently, even if it’s from the Bible, do so in contradiction to these verses? ^*

1 Corinthians 13:4-8 (NLT)

     ⁴ Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud ⁵ or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. ⁶ It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. ⁷ Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

1 John 4:16 (NLT)

     ¹⁶ We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love.

     God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.

Matthew 5:43-48 (NLT)

Teaching about Love for Enemies

     ⁴³ “You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. ⁴⁴ But I say, love your enemies!

     Bless those who curse you. Do good to those who hate you. Pray for those who persecute you! ⁴⁵ In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. ⁴⁶ If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. ⁴⁷ If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that. ⁴⁸ But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.

1 John 4:18 (NLT)

     ¹⁸ Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love.

 

     The Bible has many different portrayals of God.  Some verses portray God’s love as perfect and unconditional, as these verses do, and in others, God’s love is conditional.  The basic rules of logic and reason dictate that two contradictory statements can’t both be true, so which is it?  Is God’s love perfect and unconditional, or is it conditional?

     I have heard some argue that God is too “pure” to be in the presence of “sinners”—hence, the necessity of Jesus’ atonement.  (Atonement refers to the forgiving or pardoning of sin in general and original sin in particular through the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus, enabling the reconciliation between God and his creation. ^[1])  To say that God is so pure as to be unable to be in the presence of sin gives too much power to sin and not enough power to God.  God’s love is the greatest force in existence!  Being in the presence of sinners can’t possibly harm or change God, for God is love. God is love regardless of anything we do, because it is God’s very nature to “send sunlight and rain to the evil and the good, the just and unjust alike.”  Not only that, but Jesus spent the majority of his time in close contact with the “unclean” and “sinners.”  Did that make Jesus unclean?  Was Jesus less pure by being in contact with them?  I think the obvious answer is, “No.”

     As it says in the verses above, God is love, and God is perfect; therefore, God’s love is perfect.  Any idea of perfect love would have to include the idea that God’s love is unconditional, for if it was conditional, then it wouldn’t be perfect.  Also, if God’s love is perfect, God’s love would also posses all of the qualities (attributes) that we consider to be a part of love; hence, God has perfect and unconditional patience, perfect and unconditional understanding, perfect and unconditional mercy, perfect and unconditional grace, perfect and unconditional forgiveness, etc…

     In regards to whether God’s love can be both conditional and unconditional: Can a circle be both a circle and a square?  A circle—by definition—is round.  A perfect circle—by definition—is perfectly round.  If there is any imperfection in the roundness and shape of a perfect circle, then it could no longer be considered perfect.  In the same way, conditional and unconditional—by definition—are contradictory terms, so logically speaking, they can’t both be part of God’s nature.  Love is love; if it isn’t love, then it’s something else.  Perfect love is perfect; if it isn’t perfect, then it must be called by another name (conditional) and understood in another way.

     Look at it this way: if God is love, then there can never be a time when God isn’t love, correct?  If God is perfect, then there can never be a time when God isn’t perfect.  So I’m perplexed as to how anyone could reconcile the two (conditional/unconditional) and still consider God’s love to be perfect. Any explanation would simply defy the logical premises on which the ideas of perfect, conditional, and unconditional are built; there really is no other possible outcome or explanation.

     It is for this reason (one reason among many, actually) that I dismiss any understanding of God that portrays God’s love as conditional (which obviously includes the atonement).

     Human beings often forgive people without any need for payment or recompense.  If humans, who are imperfect, can do that, shouldn’t God, who is perfect, be able to forgive without any kind of payment?  Anyways, isn’t that the very definition of forgiveness, that a debt or wrong is forgiven or forgotten without payment?

     What we are discussing here is the most fundamental question there is about God: What is God’s nature? Or in other words, What is the essence or character of God? As you can see, I believe that God is Love, and God’s Love is perfect and unconditional.

     Really think about this: if we are forgiven by God only AFTER Jesus’ “atoning sacrifice on the cross,” that is a textbook example of conditional love; our forgiveness is conditional on the death of Jesus.  That contradicts the message of love and grace Jesus taught us about God, and contradicts how Jesus told us to love and forgive our fellow man (and the example he set for us).

     Isn’t forgiveness universally considered an attribute of love? And if forgiveness is an attribute of love, and God is Love, then forgiveness is also an attribute of God. Taken one step further, if God is Love, and God is perfect, and forgiveness is an attribute of love, then an attribute of God’s perfect and unconditional love would be God’s perfect and unconditional forgiveness.

     In my view, sin (which I simply define as separation) isn’t taken away by someone dying (Jesus); unity happens through love, by intentionally aligning our will with God’s will for love and unity.

     God is already love; the goal is for us to also become love, to the best of our ability, and seek unity through love as the ultimate fulfillment of God’s will.

     We are united with God when we love as God loves, when we live as God lives.  That’s why Jesus told us to “love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.”  We are to “be perfect, as our Father in heaven is perfect” (to the best of our ability, anyways).  “Those who live in love, live in God, and God in them.”  This is the gospel, the “Good News” that Jesus taught us; that God is love, that God’s love is unconditional, that God wants unity with us, and for us all to have unity with God and each other through God’s example of perfect love and unity.

     To be clear, I’m not saying that Jesus’ death was meaningless; on the contrary, Jesus knew that he would be killed for teaching what he taught about God because it undermined the authority of the powers structures of his day, but he taught us anyways. So he did sacrifice himself; I just believe that his life and teachings and the new way he taught us to think about God’s nature and character was more important than his death.

     When we have God’s Love and grace in us, and share that love and grace with everyone else, that is when we are unified with God, that separation is taken away.

     In conclusion, if people’s most basic understanding of God’s nature is of a God whose love is conditional (atonement), what follows will automatically be colored by that brush.  Similar to trying to solve a complex math problem and making a mistake in step one of the solution, all steps thereafter will be affected by that error.  Therefore, we must be willing to refine our understanding(s) of the nature of God and discard any understanding that doesn’t pass the filters of God’s perfect, unconditional love and unity.  For if we continue to hold on to and practice certain ideas that—by their very definition—limit God’s love, the world will continue to allow separation and exclusion in the name of God, as if it is part of God’s nature and will, and we will continue to work against the Kingdom of God on earth and within ourselves.

“Unconditional love is not based on the performance of the receiver, but on the character of the giver.” ^[2]

-Jack Frost

 

^* These are verses that have helped to shape my understanding of God. To be clear, I’m not appealing to the Bible as the only source for our understanding of God.  I demonstrate more than once in my writings that we should use as many sources as are available when trying to distinguish the truth (or potential truth) of a subject.  The theory of atonement, especially as held by Christian theology, is the subject of this essay; hence the use of Christian scriptures.

 

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atonement_in_Christianity

[2] https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/47287864817289719/

     “Practice resurrection.”

– Wendell Berry, “Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front” in Farming: A Hand Book (1970)

Source: https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Wendell_Berry

     “All most people really need in life is to feel wanted or appreciated or worth something.  They want to know that there’s somebody out there who accepts them for who they are, and realizes that all they really want to do is love and be loved.  And if we would only stop for one second and open our arms to them and embrace them, and let them know how much they mean to us and how important they are in our lives, then this world would be a better place … a much better place indeed.”

— Excerpted from The Truth as I See It: A Collection of Spiritual Writings by Adam Soto (p. 63)

Copyright 2018 Golden Rule Independent Publications

    “Iron is full of impurities that weaken it; through forging, it becomes steel and is transformed into razor-sharp sword. Human beings develop in the same fashion.”

– Morihei Ueshiba, The Art of Peace

Source: https://omlc.org/aikido/talk/osensei/artofpeace/44.html