Older Religions, Buddhism and Zoroastrianism.

Since the beginning of time, from all I've researched people have looked to the sky and stars in search of God, a creator.

I have a rather large book on ancient religions. It's about 3" thick, so needless to say it's been quite a feat to read! Since it covers as many religions as I believe the book can hold without it being as long as War and Peace (no pun intended:) the oldest one I seemed to come by is Zoroastrianism. As some of you might know, Iran was once Persia, (Iran in English actually means Aryan, so I find it ironically funny of the "Aryan Brotherhoods, being anti-semantic".) When I studied them in the prison system, they have quite little knowledge of what they are really about. Such as naming their children "Sarah" or "Rachael" which are not American names. Kind of like making themselves look rather uneducated on their own organization.

In my studies of other religions I found the Zoroastrian Religion-(original site!) I found it quite interesting, it's progression on this link is it's first to hit the Internet, the one at the top is a more in depth look into the religion! I had it as my symbol of eternal religion on my very first homepage. Not many caught on, as my sister is Arab - American and I am German American. Talk about a mixed family? I think not! We are one in the same, not sharing the same parents.

*People should really look into the names of things before they deem themselves things they know little to nothing about! It's irony actually fascinates me, and I love to sort of bug these people with "what does that mean" when they claim to "not like people of color" - like, Which color would that be? Clear? Oh, I'm not clear, my skin is fair, but if it were a warm darker shade, and I was from Iran, you'd not be calling me and Aryan! Especially since I am of German decent, but, do not call myself a German American, I'm just an American, where my ancestors came from isn't where I was born! Neither is my sister. She's an American.

If you'd like to look into "Modern Day Zoroastrianism" please read the link above! It's quite interesting! I say "modern" because ancient belief's were a bit different! (I certainly don't care for their form of funerals, it's a bit gruesome, but whose to say, it's their choice, but apparently they can do this without harm of disease of the deceased! They were very thorough and careful and clean about how to handle the death of their loved ones. Very smart for people without modern day knowledge. Their after life consisted on your deeds done in life. If you read the link you can see their ancient scriptures, that is a bit of proof it existed!

I cannot imagine how uncomfortable that thinker up there was on that stone! :)
But I can see why they adapted it, as it does have many great qualities, but in a way I also believe that it plays a part in why there are some people who believe communism would be such a perfect form of Government, because it would not allow "rich and poor" it is based on equality. Isn't that what would be right? Is it every man for himself? Which one is right? Which one is wrong? I'm not actually asking you, I'm more... let's say thinking aloud, thinking in text, and you just happen to be the reader! How's that? (Question rhetorical of course.) I'm not really meaning this writing to be a "This is how it is" hub, but a "think tank" for a readers community. *smile*

The Zoroastrians believed in their searches for God, or a higher power, in search of why they were there! They, like many religions looked to the sky's, why the movement of the stars, and the sun and moon moved as they did, there must be some reason behind WHY! So their religion came to have 3 commandments.

• They worshiped each other. Think of that, what if WE all worshiped each other? Wow, BAM! NO CRIME! NO EVIL! No one ever hurt! No BOSS. There would not be much need for a Government! After all if my neighbor worshiped me as they did a religion, they would rush to help as they know I have double shoulder impingements and arthritis that is from the tip of my spine to the bottom of that tip, so, some days yard work is hard for me. They would know that sometimes I kind of need help with a bit of yard work. I can keep it under wraps pretty good, and I have dug up a tree stump away from my house so it'd not crack the cement, single handedly! (thank goodness for wheelbarrows lol)
  My worship of them, would thank them in return as I cared for their children while they worked, and fed and played games, or cooked a dinner for them. We are good neighbors now, but if we had worship, we'd sure be better neighbors.
  

• They worshiped the Earth. Yes, our dear Mother Earth. After all, look what all she gives you. The trees give us building materials, oxygen to breath, shade, and fruit bearing trees and nuts! I do love trees and it was another interesting fact about the Zoroastrians that intrigued me! Tree's give us much much more than the forest you can't see for that one tree that's in the way!
  The ground! I grind my teeth, literally and have dropped friendships due to people littering MY HOME - YOUR HOME with no care in the world to what they're contributing to. Although, yes, I have a house, but the Earth is my HOME. It gives me everything I need to survive. In fact, in my own yard I have enough fruit, nuts and water, potato based plants to keep myself feed in excess of 6 months on what my one tiny green acre gives me. I have a 3 Yukka plants that multiply if broken. So hurricanes are sometimes a blessing that multiplies food sources. They take root and replant themselves, and you have continuous potato-like food. The roots grow sort of round and wide, and you can actually cut out part of them, and cook 'em up and eat them just the way you can any potato! (Baked, mashed, fried etc.)
  I also have Cactus, they provide water, it's getting past the long picky things that is the only problem if I have nothing to cut them with, so I have a good sharp machette and split it open, so inside, I have my water bearing plant, they weather quite well. Think about if you never wanted to live Government regulated. I do believe it says in the second half of the tribulation era, that if you do not receive that mark, you'll not be buying or selling without it! Those who know how to survive without one, will be the ones who get a second chance at redemption, but that's another story. The cactus also bring color to that corner of my yard with a bright pink flower once a year. So if you can get clippings from each other and so we all have these things.
  The south is quite resourceful for food! I have 2 amazing pecan trees, (which is also food for the Squirrels I'll get to that in a minute) they're quite big and stand in front of the water department's tractor barn/garage, so they're great for my "mini forest" too! I actually have a neighbor who has some herself, and how you find them, is by gently walking around the area under the tree and when you feel like you're about to step on a small stone, don't step hard, because you've found a fallen pecan! After bringing in a bag at a time, we go through them and pick out the best ones, and make up little gift bags with which ever bits of food our yard makes. We give the mean people the Cactus thorns.. haha.. JUST KIDDING!!! :D (On a side note, they can actually be used for sewing needles too! They're not as tiny so you can make a small sew, but if you're roughing it or like to experiment, it's kinda neat. Just snap off the largest one you can find, and using a sharp pointing fishing knife (or real needle, if you really roughed it, you'd use a smaller thorn) to keep sliding one tiny area to make an eye for the thread! (UM... maybe that gives an extra light to those of you who have heard the Bible verse "And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.") Now the KJV says "AND AGAIN I SAY" whereas others don't add those words. Another thought to ponder. But let's get back to the needle. Once you get your needle made, you have another thing, you didn't have to buy or use to fix something! Amazing how things you didn't think of actually have a use. Your thread.. well, if you don't have your own cotton gin :) then surely you have some old clothing or something thread-like that will work! Now days you can actually get thicker threads from plastics. I'll not get into making thread, but that is possible too, even without the dear cotton. In a short, NC (where I live, is a hemp producing state, and is the strongest thread you'll EVER have, and grows naturally and you can purchase it at a any craft store. It's also possible to find a hemp farmer and he will most likely peel you off some threads.) Then you can fix that snag in furniture upholstery or even a craft item if you're into crafts that need a larger thread and no worry of the craft tearing!
  Now back to my Pecan tree / mini forest! There I do not mow, I do not clean underbrush, and yes there is a snake and spider and "other animal" haven in which I DO NOT DISTURB! They have decided to put a couple of exits in the highway which was 30 miles of driving forest on both sides until summer before last, so this is within the confines of my land, so I get litters of stray kittens, which I only barely feed, and they learn to fend for themselves, they are born, I don't trap them or do anything, I let nature take care of nature, and it works fine for me, and my neighbor who has the adjoining back yard. But the kittens get fed by mama cat and as soon as these feral kittens are big enough to hunt their own, they're gone, and I live and let live. I do leave food out on occasion as I said, because a mama cat will come looking when my dog isn't around. The ferals are cute when I do see them, their hair stands on end and tiny little hisses spirt out of their mouth like their big tigers! It's the cutest thing, but they are so fast I cannot get a photo of them in the years I've lived here! They run and screech at the site of a human, and I would not dream of capturing them. It might seem mean to you, but how would you like to be caged, trapped and someone monitor your life, these are not cats that can be domesticated.

• Thirdly the Zoroastrians worshiped animals. As nature does have it, they might have had a pecan tree or other tree/bush bearing food that brought something much like my pecan tree's stock up on their nuts for the winter, but if, say 2012 did happen, and ::gasp:: should I be left behind, I have my pecans, which are a great source of vitamins as well as just food, but they are bait for, on that dreaded occasion I would want meat and had to trap a Squirrel. No, I would not like it, and no I don't do it now, but had I no choice should I starve myself after my Yukka and Cactus, and I had not canned for the winter! Pear's are gone?
  It is possible to trap rabbit, and yes you can fool people that it's chicken unless they do not recognize the bones, but you cannot live on rabbit long, there isn't enough water in the meat. The only way to get that would be grinding the bones and well, I'd really have to be starving but knowing what I know about survival, I'm pretty sure it'd be a long time before I resorted to that (or other animal I would never normally eat. I personally don't have much meat at all in my diet anyway! I'm not a Vegetarian by choice, it just doesn't seem to like me! but regardless, these were the three things they worshiped.

But having other human's worshiping each other, most likely I'd not even have to resort to the poor cute Squirrels because there is plenty of farm land and the farmers in are quite resourceful at keeping crops watered, even with droughts. So I never worry about them, because I believe when it is my day to be taken from the world it isn't going to be because of a drought or because there's a lack of food or people's litter, it's going to be because I had stood my turn in line for the God that I believe in, is calling me to my after life home. Plain and simple. The hairs on my head were numbered and while that's a metaphor for my days, my number would be up, and onto the after life I go! People that whine about those thing are usually the ones wasting valuable resources.

I pulled up a recliner in this new age of studying past history! Much better than a rock, but! To the right is how I believe Buddha should be portrayed. Gold: He was rich, and left his rich home to seek enlightenment, thus was in good health, and had a need and want to go out into the world. Of course when we are young and healthy we believe we can endure much more than we can in actuality!
Until I studied more into Buddhist belief's I was baffled at why a slim, suffering man was depicted most of the time as a rather big tummy, a good size man, whose weight would of otherwise kept him healthy longer than the thin man who left the home of luxury! (Don't worry I'll get to that!) Since there's not documentation, there's really no way to tell if he was maybe a portly child, after all the legend says he came from a rich home, so he most likely could very well have had some weight on him! I guess it's all really in what you want to believe! The same could be said for other religious leaders, how come Jesus is always depicted as a handsome man, with long brown hair and nicely trimmed! Who was his barber? :) My guess from having been to the Holy Lands is that he very well could have been a handsome man, but unless their skin lightened since he walked the Earth, he was Jewish, and was most likely sun-tanned, thus, a darker color Jewish man than what we see in pictures. When I think of how he must have looked, I picture, a more radiant person.

It leads me to wonder what Buddha really looked like. He was obviously not golden, and although Prem Rawat (Mahariji) claims he WAS Buddha in his past lives (for those who don't know Buddhist believe in reincarnation.)

One thing about Buddhism that leaves question to Prem Rawat' mental stability is the fact he has changed "who he is" so many times, in some places, he would have been institutionalized and put on medication.
I spoke with my doctor about Schizophrenia because I don't understand it. How can people hear voices or believe something they are not, when it's obvious! Sure I've watched many psychological movies on the subject, and "Identity" really portrays it well, but all my mind can comprehend on the subject is that like with any mental illness, there has to be some sort of chemical imbalance in the brain that causes irrational thoughts. My world religions doesn't go into the aspect of wondering if Mahariji had any sort of mental illness, but is it possible?

I was told of a man who believed he was Jesus Christ. In this day and age, and I said "How do you know he wasn't?" Ok, I'm not making fun of people with a mental illness, but what if we had misinterpeted the Bible and Jesus isn't coming back to claim those who were saved before the rapture, but to be here and sort of just testing people? There are millions of questions. Well, apparently this guy was hospitalized and when he came out, no longer believed he was our Messiah! Ok, so he was apparently sick, so how can people still believe Prem Rawat has gone from being a God who walked the moment of birth, and left lotus blossoms in his baby foot steps, to, to being just a "humanist" without thinking he's plagued with a mental illness, that could return?

I truly believe that as human's evolved, Adam and Eve were not the first people on the planet. (I did research that, but it was a very long time ago) They were just the first "Godly" humans that, were written about, that had debth and actual documentation to their lives and, yes, I have been to the Garden of Gasemity. (I can say, when you are in the Holy Lands, you might think you feel Holy-ness about you anywhere you are, but in these places, it's deeper than any feeling I could ever describe.)

Over the course of my life I've been told I'm a "thinker" and have "on" times and "off" times.
Not that I shut my thinking on and off at will, although I wish I could sometimes, but throughout the ages, The Thinker has been an ongoing epic saga that will most likely be the statue that stands for our eternal thought process and quest for knowledge! I RARELY run across people who span their thinking past what they already know! Because I've been deemed the "deep thinker" all my life, I grow bored and feel stalemate if I am not surrounded by others who are the same way.

Buddha was said to have gone into a dry desert area and sat under a tree for weeks, barely feeding himself, sometimes only with one grain of rice. Apparently he was thinking he was hungry but he was doing this to seek enlightenment. One Buddhist teaching is said, "You achieve total enlightenment when you realize, everything in life is just an illusion." Someone I heard wanted to lengthen that quote to "Then it make sitting in your own sh*t more bearable." Sometimes I think we all need to go to that place, nirvana is certainly better than what life can deal us sometimes. Something else to think about I suppose.

I would strongly say that I could never be a Buddhist, not because it's not my nations chosen religion, but because of all the documentaries and readings I've done on religions, there is no documentation, nothing that proves he ever even lived. The Folklore behind his teachings, we do not even know if they really were his teachings or if the thinkers along the ages have added onto the legends of Buddha. Either way, there is is definitely good thinking behind the teaching in Buddhism. So, before anyone jumps on me, I am not dissing anyone's choice of religion. It is just my belief, after much research into religions that it is indeed a very wise one, loving and caring as well as healthy choices in one, so I don't see anything wrong with that. I do believe there is a power in Chi, (Ci) and the teachings just make common sense. In a short, clutter around your front door might cause you to trip down the stairs, how can clutter be a good thing! I believe in not turning your back on opportunity, and it's not a metaphor but a reality. I do not believe however, that a vase of dead sticks is inviting negativity into my home.

I just don't understand why a person would put themselves through so much agony, and leave behind a wife and newborn son to go starve himself under a tree. As a thinker myself I wonder, and have not yet found the answer, that if this was true, and the documentaries, of all I watched, Buddha was a very thin frail man, but when you see his his statue he has a wide smiling face, and quite a tummy! A smile with misery makes no since to me. In China (although Buddhism began in India) Buddhism is their country's religion, and they find it of great insult if you rub the tummy on Buddha's statue because they believe he'd starved himself and gone though much agony, therefore, it is a grave insult to their religion. It's much like, plainly making fun of his pain, and hunger, so whether he really existed or not, it's not right (there I go, thinking again) to make fun of anothers religion, whether you understand it or not is wrong.

Myself I don't believe life is an illusion. If it was, I'd be skipping over to the doctor and getting on some medication, then sitting in my own sh*t would be more tolerable! I think that if he wanted to seek enlightenment he could have learned that just by being outside his perfect living arrangments, and going into the crowds and town and seeing their plights he would have went back to his life of luxury and to his wife and son and saw how much he had, and how little the people of his nation had, and pulled up a tree stump or rock, and thought about it while he could have a clear mind and maybe came to a conclusion on how to help the others learn a better lifestyle and how to fend for themselves better so that they did not have to suffer any longer, or shared his riches with them. Of course regardless of ones wealth, they could never help everyone. But it all comes down to: "Feed a man he eats for a day, teach him to fish and he eats everyday," he could of taught them, all those things, it would of kept them going. So I am truly baffled at the whole ancient (please keep in mind I said ancient Buddhism) theory's and beliefs.

If you'd like to know more of Buddhism, then please study it. I do believe that through the ages the people have added onto this Lore and made it into a very pliable religion, (I mean that in a good way as it's progressed not digressed) and good words to live by. I however believe meditation on one thing that has nothing to do with what needs thought is going to bring about a conclusion of how to fix a problem.

Do you know the difference between a maze and a labyrinth? Well, if you don't, a maze has a way in, and a way out! A beginning and end. A labyrinth does not. Buddhist Monks use Labyrinths daily for their meditation. They walk the pattern of the Labyrinth and stay there and meditate, when they are done, they walk the Labyrinth back out. Most people don't know that when they play the Labyrinth game, they're thralled on getting past a hole they do not fall in, which to me would be a mockery of a Buddhist Labyrinth. After all they do not have a hole to fall into. Just a thought.

I wanted to touch on this last bit of Buddhism because I love this Tattoo! Very brilliant idea and meaning. I was looking for something more "hand drawn" when I saw this, and it's meaning I just could not disclude it!

• Information and photos above from the website: http://www.prem-rawat-bio.org

• -All original work on this site is deemed to be in the public domain and may be downloaded, republished in whole or in part, at the reader's discretion. When reproducing any of the original work on this site an appropriate attribution and link would be appreciated.

I love to talk to people with substance and I don't mean to be rude to those who don't, but as anyone can tell I really don't like to put too much seriousness in hubs, because seriously, I've met a handful of people who call themselves writers, and REALLY ARE writers! For the most part, it's just people who, if they really liked to write would have tons of blogs all over! Not one long complaint "form" lol, but that's what I find, and for the exception of a few, it's those who go around and try their hardest to take the FUN out of writing at HubPages. I guess they can't help it, they're not exactly the sharpest needle on the Cactus :)

I went to a private Christian school and learned a lot about other religions, which has held my interest for many many years, and most likely will the rest of my life. I have two very thick books I'm working on getting through, but before I've made it part way through the first one (they are both history and world religions) quite by accident while researching something else, I ran across the Communist Manifisto and it fell into my lap as if I NEEDED to read it. I'm glad I did, I'm enlightened so much more on my deepest thoughts. What people don't like to talk about, politics and religion! They get stuck in a way of thinking and their brainwashed by the media, and all it does it lead to an argument. Well, on their part, I just back out and let them think what they want!

I don't care what anyone says, it does take a full conversation, open minded person, and a lot of time to change my way of thinking but the two as anything but undifferentiated! I'm not beyond it, but I feel the other person should be the same. Otherwise, what's the point. I actually think all these "one line" responses I see on here are just a ploy to up your score! It's not upping your money or you have an attention span problemo after my researches over the years, the above is the latest on my "research and - thinking tangents."

I heard when I was younger that you cannot NOT think. That even people in deep meditation, are still having thoughts of other things that whatever it is they are supposed to be thinking about. I'm not "bashing" here to any one religion, but in my studies of religions, I find that among all the leaders of any religion, they either are, over-thinkers or impulse-thinkers. Which, if you are a follower could lead you into a heap of trouble if you try to mirror the impulse thinker. -Peace