the Dao of Atheism :jeffers' petroglyph, pre-dakota, minnesota : the Shaman Atheist 65/81

65

In the past, when the path has been walked well
the walkers not only
did not show others the way
but even made others more ignorant about it
because
the smarter people become
the harder they are to control.

People who want to lead by promoting higher intelligence
and higher educational standards and harder tests
are thieves stealing from farmers and factories.
People who lead without pushing education
bless the people and the land.
Education causes discontent for what one has,
creates desire for more and better and higher
ignorance makes people feel good where they are.

To understand the difference here is to know quality
to be able to apply this quality in life is to be on the path
This path ...
so long so old so deep so mysterious
going all the way back
to when all was one.

To remain conscious of oneself as an atheist --
as one who lives without god
by experience or by choice --
that self-consciousness is
a wordless meditation
on the essence of
what it is
to be
human.

In religious atheism, experience and the lack of experience is the foundation of knowledge, knowing that belief is a mere intellectual conjecture.

Overcoming the separation
between subject and object
between atheism and theism
between experience and belief
is the way of the
shaman atheist.




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