I watched the movie, "Troy" about a week ago. Achilles told Persaeus that, "the gods envy us. We are mortal, and can die any moment. This intensifies the beauty in all we perceive, you will never be more beautiful than you are in this moment."
Of course, he got some. Fine looking babe, too. We have free will, in that we choose what to direct our attention to. Personally, I would not go around telling everyone to engage themselves in killing all desire. I don't feel that anyone condemns theirselves if they have devoted much of the life to being hedonistic. Challenging the gods to show themselves and prove they exist will get a person nowhere. On this Globe D we are mostly left to our own devices. I think remembering that you choose where you direct your attention is enough for a person to chew on.
I simply have the feeling that the universe is a living organism, and the etymology of the word hierarchy is, hier = sacred or holy, and arch = governance or rule. We are part of the whole, and will become a bigger part of the whole. Personal spiritual rule would simply be that you don't have objection to life and living.
The word hierarchy became translated into a political/military power play, where "governance by spirit" came to mean "ruled by the Catholic Church"--a spiritual principle mistranslated into a despotism.
Much of my life was like going through a grinding machine and eventually I realized I caused much of it myself. I had to find something helpful, and I did. I suspect there are people who live their entire life having no spiritual or religious beliefs and were wonderful human beings. It is interesting that you can find monsters who are religious, and monsters that are non-religious. Extremely fine people who are religious, and extremely fine people who are non-religious.
Good judgement comes from experience; experience comes from bad judgement.
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You have to believe in the impossible in order to become.