...

The essence of mind is formless;
This itself is the subtle body of reality.
The essence of mind is inherently empty;
This itself is the infinite body of space.

- Ta-chu (8th c.)

In the still night by the vacant window,
Wrapped in monk’s robe I sit in meditation,
Navel and nostrils lined up straight,
Ears paired to the slope of shoulders.
Window whitens--the moon comes up;
Rain’s stopped, but drops go on dripping.
Wonderful—the mood of this moment-
Distant, vast!

- Ryokan (1758-1831)

“I have wanted to kill myself a hundred times, but somehow I am still in love with life. This ridiculous weakness is perhaps one of our more stupid melancholy propensities, for is there anything more stupid than to be eager to go on carrying a burden which one would gladly throw away, to loathe one’s very being and yet to hold it fast, to fondle the snake that devours us until it has eaten our hearts away?”

― Voltaire

The caged bird sings
with a fearful trill
of things unknown
but longed for still
and his tune is heard
on the distant hill
for the caged bird
sings of freedom.

Maya Angelou

@ghost-of-a-duke said
'Religion stems from the individual's experience of having been a helpless baby totally dependent on its parents. The infant sees its parents as all-powerful beings who show it great love and satisfy all its needs. This experience is almost identical to the way human beings portray their relationship with God.

Religion as a mass-delusion that reshapes reality to provide a certainty of happiness and a protection from suffering.'

@divegeester said in response
Don’t parents influence in many ways?

Consciousness itself is a delusion, surely.
_____________________

Maybe this is a thread in its own right as it has run into an interesting area of difficulty.

If I ignore what is being sought to be communicated and just go with the literal meaning then of course 'mass delusion' is by definition impossible since a delusion is a fixed belief that is at odds with a persons subculture and a subculture cannot be referred to as deluded. Historically states have used the argument to incarcerate members of a political or religious belief system in institutions, on the basis that they were deluded to believe anything other than the dominant culture, but I think this is obviously flawed.

If I go with the spirit of the post, it is a suggestion to understand the development of religious beliefs from a psychological perspective. This gets you into a fascinating ethical debate.

To use an analogy, it might be possible to look for a psychological journey that leads to a fixed identity as a homosexual rather than perceiving yourself as potentially bisexual. You could argue that since you could do the same work attempting to understand the journey towards a fixed belief that you are heterosexual as opposed to perceiving yourself as potentially bisexual, and since you are committed not to pathologize either journey, this is ethical work. However, it might be argued that since there is a history of homosexuals being pathologized, but not vice versa and they are a minority, this is not an ethical area for psychological understanding. But then the antithesis is that you are excluding people from the right to attempt to increase understanding and move forwards...

If anybody wants to pursue this should we copy and paste this into a separate thread?

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@petewxyz said
@ghost-of-a-duke said
'Religion stems from the individual's experience of having been a helpless baby totally dependent on its parents. The infant sees its parents as all-powerful beings who show it great love and satisfy all its needs. This experience is almost identical to the way human beings portray their relationship with God.

Religion as a mass-delusion that reshap ...[text shortened]... forwards...

If anybody wants to pursue this should we copy and paste this into a separate thread?

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