This topic used to be sticky, as this forum used to be about Satanism. But since I decide to change this forum to include all religions other than Satanism, I had decided to unstick this thread.
(I am still a Satanist, just that I believe that people are free to choose their own religions for themselves. And that having varieties of religions in this world to choose from is a good thing.)
I hope the new forum (All Religions forum) can help people to find their ideal religion.
Old Post:
Satanism is, according to information provided by the public, not accepted as a main religion in Singapore, legally. Therefore, whoever wants to worship Satan and practises Satanism, has to do so in private.
There are many forms of Satanism.
There is the atheistic version of Satanism. This version of Satanism does not believe in Satan as an actual deity, but merely sees Satan as a symbol to follow.
There is the theistic version of Satanism.
Within theistic Satanism, there are many different varieties of beliefs. Some, like the Joy of Satan (http://www.joyofsatan.org) sees Satan as a God. Satan is a powerful God in such beliefs. He is the only God, in fact, and all people must worship him or suffer his wrath.
Others see Satan as one of many gods out there in the world.
Still others see Satan as one of two gods, fighting for the control of the world, with the other god(the muslim/christian/jewish god).
I see Satan, not as a God, but as an angel. My belief is this: Satan was created by the Jewish/Christian/Muslim God. He saw God as a tyrant and rebelled against Him. After his rebellion, he created hell for himself to be a place for him to live in, apart from his creator God. Satan increased in knowledge in hell and became more and more powerful. Hell became a place for all who worshipped Satan and followed him.
After Satan rebelled from heaven, God began to create mankind. In his desire to gain control over mankind, he made man to be a little lower than the angels. He was afraid that mankind would rebel against him like Satan did. God created Adam and Eve and forbid them to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
Not wanting mankind to be blind servants to their tyrant God, Satan appeared in the form of a serpent and encouraged Eve to eat the fruit of knowledge of good and evil. Eve did so, and her eyes were opened. She became aware of what is good and evil, and began to think for herself.
Since then, mankind is free from blind service to God. That is a brief summary of my belief in Satanism.
P/S: I am new to Satanism. I am interested to join a Satanic Covent, even if your belief in Satanism is different from mine. I am currently exploring into other religions like Buddhism, Taoism.
hows the kfc ?
Now I prefer Mcdonald.
i rikes the curly fries.
I prefer Mcwings.
Cant wait to see u from up there in the afterlilfe ;p
I was taught otherwise:P
Wiki Satan in Religion.
This topic used to be sticky, as this forum used to be about Satanism. But since I decide to change this forum to include all religions other than Satanism, I had decided to unstick this thread.
(I am still a Satanist, just that I believe that people are free to choose their own religions for themselves. And that having varieties of religions in this world to choose from is a good thing.)
I hope the new forum (All Religions forum) can help people to find their ideal religion.
Double posting error.
aiya
i tot
always must have balance
i think too much 'good' will corrupt also
50-50 best la
Hell will be a place where you get to be with Satan. Things will pretty much be like on earth.
Nice to meet you !
I'm believe in atheistic version of Satanism.
The traditional Christian attitude toward human personality was that human nature was essentially good and that it was formed and modified by social pressures and training.
The "goodness" of human nature was based on the belief that it was a kind of weaker copy of God's nature, lacking many of God's qualities (in degree rather than in kind), but none the less perfectible, and perfectible largely by its own efforts with God's guidance.
The Christian view of the universe as a hierarchy of beings, with man about two-thirds of the way up, saw these beings, especially man, as fundamentally free creatures able to move, at their own volition toward God or away from him, and guided or attracted in the correct direction for realization of their potentialities by God's presence at the top of the Universe, a presence which, like the north magnetic pole, attracted men, as compasses, upward toward fuller realization and knowledge of God who was the fulfillment of all good.
Thus the effort came from free men, the guidance came from God's grace, and ultimately the motive power came from God's attractiveness....
In this view the devil, Lucifer, was not the epitome of positive wickedness, but was one of the highest of the angels, close to God in his rational nature, who fell because he failed to keep his perspective and believed that he was as good as God.
In this Christian outlook, the chief task was to train men so that they would use their intrinsic freedom to do the right thing by following God's guidance.
Opposed to this Western view of the world and the nature of man, there was, from the beginning, another opposed view of both which received its most explicit formulation by the Persian Zoroaster in the seventh century B.C. and came into the Western tradition as a minor, heretical, theme.
It came in through the Persian influence on the Hebrews, especially during the Babylonian Captivity of the Jews, in the sixth century B.C., and it came in, more fully, through the Greek rationalist tradition from Pythagoras to Plato.
This latter tradition encircled the early Christian religion, giving rise to many of the controversies that were settled in the early Church councils and continuing on in the many heresies that extended through history from the Arians, the Manichaeans, Luther, Calvin, and the Jansenists.
The chief avenue by which these ideas, which were constantly rejected by the endless discussions formulating the doctrine of the West, continued to survive was through the influence of St. Augustine.
From this dissident minority point of view came seventeenth-century Puritanism. The general distinction of this point of view from Zoroaster to William Golding (in Lord of the Flies) is that the world and the flesh are positive evils and that man, in at least this physical part of his nature, is essentially evil.
As a consequence he must be disciplined totally to prevent him from destroying himself and the world. In this view the devil is a force, or being, of positive malevolence, and man, by himself, is incapable of any good and is, accordingly, not free.
He can be saved in eternity by God's grace alone, and he can get through this temporal world only by being subjected to a regime of total despotism. The direction and nature of the despotism is not regarded as important, since the really important thing is that man's innate destructiveness be controlled.
Nothing could be more sharply contrasted than these two points of view, the orthodox and the puritanical. The contrasts can be summed up thus:
Orthodox
Evil is absence of Good.
Man is basically good.
Man is free.
Man can contribute to his salvation by good works.
Self-discipline is necessary to guide or direct.
Truth is found from experience and revelation, interpreted by tradition.
Puritan
Evil is positive entity.
Man is basically evil.
Man is a slave of his nature.
Man can be saved only by God.
Discipline must be external and total.
Truth is found by rational deduction from revelation.
The puritan point of view, which had been struggling to take over Western Civilization for its first thousand years or more, almost did so in the seventeenth century. It was represented to varying degrees in the work and agitations of Luther, Calvin, Thomas Hobbes, Cornelius Jansen (Augustinus, 1640), Antoine Arnauld (1612-1694), Blaise Pascal, and others.
In general this point of view believed that the truth was to be found by rational deduction from a few basic revealed truths, in the way that Euclid's geometry and Descartes's analytical geometry were based on rational deduction from a few self-evident axioms.
The result was a largely deterministic human situation, in sharp contrast with the orthodox point of view, still represented in the Anglican and Roman churches, which saw man as largely free in a universe whose rules were to be found most readily by tradition and the general consensus.
The Puritan point of view tended to support political despotism and to seek a one-class uniform society, while the older view put much greater emphasis on traditional pluralism and saw society as a unity of diversities.
The newer idea led directly to mercantilism, which regarded political-economic life as a struggle to the death in a world where there was not sufficient wealth or space for different groups.
To them wealth was limited to a fixed amount in the world as a whole, and one man's gain was someone else's loss. That meant that the basic struggles of this world were irreconcilable and must be fought to a finish. This was part of the Puritan belief that nature was evil and that a state of nature was a jungle of violent conflicts.
Originally posted by gigabyte14:aiya
i tot
always must have balance
i think too much 'good' will corrupt also
50-50 best la
I agree. (Though I don't think Satan is bad).
I am trying to be more balanced, also. That is why I change this forum from a strightly Satanism Only Forum, to a All Religions Forum.
Originally posted by 93'guy:Nice to meet you !
I'm believe in atheistic version of Satanism.
Good for you. :) I am a theistic Satanist.
I am trying to be more balanced, also.
You should follow Tao like me.
I think you are more of a Tao person because you are not towards any extreme.
Originally posted by Ah Chia:The traditional Christian attitude toward human personality was that human nature was essentially good and that it was formed and modified by social pressures and training.
The "goodness" of human nature was based on the belief that it was a kind of weaker copy of God's nature, lacking many of God's qualities (in degree rather than in kind), but none the less perfectible, and perfectible largely by its own efforts with God's guidance.
The Christian view of the universe as a hierarchy of beings, with man about two-thirds of the way up, saw these beings, especially man, as fundamentally free creatures able to move, at their own volition toward God or away from him, and guided or attracted in the correct direction for realization of their potentialities by God's presence at the top of the Universe, a presence which, like the north magnetic pole, attracted men, as compasses, upward toward fuller realization and knowledge of God who was the fulfillment of all good.
Thus the effort came from free men, the guidance came from God's grace, and ultimately the motive power came from God's attractiveness....
In this view the devil, Lucifer, was not the epitome of positive wickedness, but was one of the highest of the angels, close to God in his rational nature, who fell because he failed to keep his perspective and believed that he was as good as God.
In this Christian outlook, the chief task was to train men so that they would use their intrinsic freedom to do the right thing by following God's guidance.Opposed to this Western view of the world and the nature of man, there was, from the beginning, another opposed view of both which received its most explicit formulation by the Persian Zoroaster in the seventh century B.C. and came into the Western tradition as a minor, heretical, theme.
It came in through the Persian influence on the Hebrews, especially during the Babylonian Captivity of the Jews, in the sixth century B.C., and it came in, more fully, through the Greek rationalist tradition from Pythagoras to Plato.
This latter tradition encircled the early Christian religion, giving rise to many of the controversies that were settled in the early Church councils and continuing on in the many heresies that extended through history from the Arians, the Manichaeans, Luther, Calvin, and the Jansenists.
The chief avenue by which these ideas, which were constantly rejected by the endless discussions formulating the doctrine of the West, continued to survive was through the influence of St. Augustine.From this dissident minority point of view came seventeenth-century Puritanism. The general distinction of this point of view from Zoroaster to William Golding (in Lord of the Flies) is that the world and the flesh are positive evils and that man, in at least this physical part of his nature, is essentially evil.
As a consequence he must be disciplined totally to prevent him from destroying himself and the world. In this view the devil is a force, or being, of positive malevolence, and man, by himself, is incapable of any good and is, accordingly, not free.
He can be saved in eternity by God's grace alone, and he can get through this temporal world only by being subjected to a regime of total despotism. The direction and nature of the despotism is not regarded as important, since the really important thing is that man's innate destructiveness be controlled.
Nothing could be more sharply contrasted than these two points of view, the orthodox and the puritanical. The contrasts can be summed up thus:
Orthodox
Evil is absence of Good.
Man is basically good.
Man is free.
Man can contribute to his salvation by good works.
Self-discipline is necessary to guide or direct.
Truth is found from experience and revelation, interpreted by tradition.
Puritan
Evil is positive entity.
Man is basically evil.
Man is a slave of his nature.
Man can be saved only by God.
Discipline must be external and total.
Truth is found by rational deduction from revelation.
The puritan point of view, which had been struggling to take over Western Civilization for its first thousand years or more, almost did so in the seventeenth century. It was represented to varying degrees in the work and agitations of Luther, Calvin, Thomas Hobbes, Cornelius Jansen (Augustinus, 1640), Antoine Arnauld (1612-1694), Blaise Pascal, and others.In general this point of view believed that the truth was to be found by rational deduction from a few basic revealed truths, in the way that Euclid's geometry and Descartes's analytical geometry were based on rational deduction from a few self-evident axioms.
The result was a largely deterministic human situation, in sharp contrast with the orthodox point of view, still represented in the Anglican and Roman churches, which saw man as largely free in a universe whose rules were to be found most readily by tradition and the general consensus.
The Puritan point of view tended to support political despotism and to seek a one-class uniform society, while the older view put much greater emphasis on traditional pluralism and saw society as a unity of diversities.
The newer idea led directly to mercantilism, which regarded political-economic life as a struggle to the death in a world where there was not sufficient wealth or space for different groups.
To them wealth was limited to a fixed amount in the world as a whole, and one man's gain was someone else's loss. That meant that the basic struggles of this world were irreconcilable and must be fought to a finish. This was part of the Puritan belief that nature was evil and that a state of nature was a jungle of violent conflicts.
... ...
Originally posted by Ah Chia:You should follow Tao like me.
I think you are more of a Tao person because you are not towards any extreme.
Well... I don't mind reading about Tao. I don't mind reading about any other religion. But I believe in Satan. Satanism is about freedom without harming others. That is the kind of Satanism I follow, anyway.
It is just that I pray to Satan for favor, and for help during crisis in life. It is not really that different from praying to God.
The tao that can be told
is not the eternal Tao
The
name that can be named
is not the eternal Name.
The unnamable is
the eternally real.
Naming is the origin
of all particular
things.
Free from desire, you realize the mystery.
Caught in
desire, you see only the manifestations.
Yet mystery and
manifestations
arise from the same source.
This source is called
darkness.
Darkness within darkness.
The gateway to all
understanding.
When people see some things as beautiful,
other things
become ugly.
When people see some things as good,
other things
become bad.
Being and non-being create each other.
Difficult and
easy support each other.
Long and short define each other.
High and
low depend on each other.
Before and after follow each
other.
Therefore the Master
acts without doing anything
and
teaches without saying anything.
Things arise and she lets them
come;
things disappear and she lets them go.
She has but doesn't
possess,
acts but doesn't expect.
When her work is done, she forgets
it.
That is why it lasts forever.
If you overesteem great men,
people become
powerless.
If you overvalue possessions,
people begin to
steal.
The Master leads
by emptying people's minds
and
filling their cores,
by weakening their ambition
and toughening
their resolve.
He helps people lose everything
they know, everything
they desire,
and creates confusion
in those who think that they
know.
Practice not-doing,
and everything will fall into
place.
The Tao is like a well:
used but never used up.
It
is like the eternal void:
filled with infinite possibilities.
It
is hidden but always present.
I don't know who gave birth to it.
It
is older than God.
The Tao doesn't take sides;
it gives birth to both
good and evil.
The Master doesn't take sides;
she welcomes both
saints and sinners.
The Tao is like a bellows:
it is empty yet
infinitely capable.
The more you use it, the more it produces;
the
more you talk of it, the less you understand.
Hold on to the
center.
The Tao is called the Great Mother:
empty yet
inexhaustible,
it gives birth to infinite worlds.
It is always
present within you.
You can use it any way you want.
The Tao is infinite, eternal.
Why is it eternal?
It
was never born;
thus it can never die.
Why is it infinite?
It has
no desires for itself;
thus it is present for all beings.
The
Master stays behind;
that is why she is ahead.
She is detached from
all things;
that is why she is one with them.
Because she has let go
of herself,
she is perfectly fulfilled.
The supreme good is like water,
which nourishes all
things without trying to.
It is content with the low places that people
disdain.
Thus it is like the Tao.
In dwelling, live close to the
ground.
In thinking, keep to the simple.
In conflict, be fair and
generous.
In governing, don't try to control.
In work, do what you
enjoy.
In family life, be completely present.
When you are
content to be simply yourself
and don't compare or
compete,
everybody will respect you.
Fill your bowl to the brim
and it will spill.
Keep
sharpening your knife
and it will blunt.
Chase after money and
security
and your heart will never unclench.
Care about people's
approval
and you will be their prisoner.
Do your work, then step
back.
The only path to serenity.
Can you coax your mind from its wandering
and keep to
the original oneness?
Can you let your body become
supple as a
newborn child's?
Can you cleanse your inner vision
until you see
nothing but the light?
Can you love people and lead them
without
imposing your will?
Can you deal with the most vital matters
by
letting events take their course?
Can you step back from you own
mind
and thus understand all things?
Giving birth and
nourishing,
having without possessing,
acting with no
expectations,
leading and not trying to control:
this is the supreme
virtue.
We join spokes together in a wheel,
but it is the
center hole
that makes the wagon move.
We shape clay into a
pot,
but it is the emptiness inside
that holds whatever we
want.
We hammer wood for a house,
but it is the inner
space
that makes it livable.
We work with being,
but
non-being is what we use.
Colors blind the eye.
Sounds deafen the
ear.
Flavors numb the taste.
Thoughts weaken the mind.
Desires
wither the heart.
The Master observes the world
but trusts his
inner vision.
He allows things to come and go.
His heart is open as
the sky.
Success is as dangerous as failure.
Hope is as hollow
as fear.
What does it mean that success is a dangerous as
failure?
Whether you go up the ladder or down it,
you position is
shaky.
When you stand with your two feet on the ground,
you will
always keep your balance.
What does it mean that hope is as hollow
as fear?
Hope and fear are both phantoms
that arise from thinking of
the self.
When we don't see the self as self,
what do we have to
fear?
See the world as your self.
Have faith in the way things
are.
Love the world as your self;
then you can care for all
things.
Look, and it can't be seen.
Listen, and it can't be
heard.
Reach, and it can't be grasped.
Above, it isn't
bright.
Below, it isn't dark.
Seamless, unnamable,
it returns to
the realm of nothing.
Form that includes all forms,
image without an
image,
subtle, beyond all conception.
Approach it and there is
no beginning;
follow it and there is no end.
You can't know it, but
you can be it,
at ease in your own life.
Just realize where you come
from:
this is the essence of wisdom.
The ancient Masters were profound and subtle.
Their
wisdom was unfathomable.
There is no way to describe it;
all we can
describe is their appearance.
They were careful
as someone
crossing an iced-over stream.
Alert as a warrior in enemy
territory.
Courteous as a guest.
Fluid as melting ice.
Shapable
as a block of wood.
Receptive as a valley.
Clear as a glass of
water.
Do you have the patience to wait
till your mud settles
and the water is clear?
Can you remain unmoving
till the right
action arises by itself?
The Master doesn't seek
fulfillment.
Not seeking, not expecting,
she is present, and can
welcome all things.
Empty your mind of all thoughts.
Let your heart be at
peace.
Watch the turmoil of beings,
but contemplate their
return.
Each separate being in the universe
returns to the
common source.
Returning to the source is serenity.
If you don't
realize the source,
you stumble in confusion and sorrow.
When you
realize where you come from,
you naturally become
tolerant,
disinterested, amused,
kindhearted as a
grandmother,
dignified as a king.
Immersed in the wonder of the
Tao,
you can deal with whatever life brings you,
and when death
comes, you are ready.
When the Master governs, the people
are hardly aware
that he exists.
Next best is a leader who is loved.
Next, one who is
feared.
The worst is one who is despised.
If you don't trust the
people,
you make them untrustworthy.
The Master doesn't talk, he
acts.
When his work is done,
the people say, "Amazing: we did it,
all by ourselves!"
When the great Tao is forgotten,
goodness and piety
appear.
When the body's intelligence declines,
cleverness and
knowledge step forth.
When there is no peace in the family,
filial
piety begins.
When the country falls into chaos,
patriotism is
born.
Throw away holiness and wisdom,
and people will be a
hundred times happier.
Throw away morality and justice,
and people
will do the right thing.
Throw away industry and profit,
and there
won't be any thieves.
If these three aren't enough,
just stay at
the center of the circle
and let all things take their course.
Stop thinking, and end your problems.
What difference
between yes and no?
What difference between success and
failure?
Must you value what others value,
avoid what others
avoid?
How ridiculous!
Other people are excited,
as though
they were at a parade.
I alone don't care,
I alone am
expressionless,
like an infant before it can smile.
Other people
have what they need;
I alone possess nothing.
I alone drift
about,
like someone without a home.
I am like an idiot, my mind is
so empty.
Other people are bright;
I alone am dark.
Other
people are sharper;
I alone am dull.
Other people have a
purpose;
I alone don't know.
I drift like a wave on the ocean,
I
blow as aimless as the wind.
I am different from ordinary
people.
I drink from the Great Mother's breasts.
The Master keeps her mind
always at one with the
Tao;
that is what gives her her radiance.
The Tao is
ungraspable.
How can her mind be at one with it?
Because she doesn't
cling to ideas.
The Tao is dark and unfathomable.
How can it
make her radiant?
Because she lets it.
Since before time and
space were,
the Tao is.
It is beyond is and is
not.
How do I know this is true?
I look inside myself and
see.
If you want to become whole,
let yourself be
partial.
If you want to become straight,
let yourself be
crooked.
If you want to become full,
let yourself be empty.
If
you want to be reborn,
let yourself die.
If you want to be given
everything,
give everything up.
The Master, by residing in the
Tao,
sets an example for all beings.
Because he doesn't display
himself,
people can see his light.
Because he has nothing to
prove,
people can trust his words.
Because he doesn't know who he
is,
people recognize themselves in him.
Because he has no goad in
mind,
everything he does succeeds.
When the ancient Masters
said,
"If you want to be given everything, give everything up,"
they
weren't using empty phrases.
Only in being lived by the Tao can you be
truly yourself.
Express yourself completely,
then keep quiet.
Be
like the forces of nature:
when it blows, there is only wind;
when
it rains, there is only rain;
when the clouds pass, the sun shines
through.
If you open yourself to the Tao,
you are at one with
the Tao
and you can embody it completely.
If you open yourself to
insight,
you are at one with insight
and you can use it
completely.
If you open yourself to loss,
you are at one with
loss
and you can accept it completely.
Open yourself to the
Tao,
then trust your natural responses;
and everything will fall
into place.
He who stands on tiptoe
doesn't stand firm.
He who
rushes ahead
doesn't go far.
He who tries to shine
dims his own
light.
He who defines himself
can't know who he really is.
He who
has power over others
can't empower himself.
He who clings to his
work
will create nothing that endures.
If you want to accord
with the Tao,
just do your job, then let
go.
There was something formless and perfect
before the
universe was born.
It is serene. Empty.
Solitary.
Unchanging.
Infinite. Eternally present.
It is the mother of the
universe.
For lack of a better name,
I call it the Tao.
It
flows through all things,
inside and outside, and returns
to the
origin of all things.
The Tao is great.
The universe is
great.
Earth is great.
Man is great.
These are the four great
powers.
Man follows the earth.
Earth follows the
universe.
The universe follows the Tao.
The Tao follows only
itself.
The heavy is the root of the light.
The unmoved is
the source of all movement.
Thus the Master travels all
day
without leaving home.
However splendid the views,
she stays
serenely in herself.
Why should the lord of the country
flit
about like a fool?
If you let yourself be blown to and fro,
you lose
touch with your root.
If you let restlessness move you,
you lose
touch with who you are.
A good traveler has no fixed plans
and is not intent
upon arriving.
A good artist lets his intuition
lead him wherever it
wants.
A good scientist has freed himself of concepts
and keeps his
mind open to what is.
Thus the Master is available to all
people
and doesn't reject anyone.
He is ready to use all
situations
and doesn't waste anything.
This is called embodying the
light.
What is a good man but a bad man's teacher?
What is a bad
man but a good man's job?
If you don't understand this, you will get
lost,
however intelligent you are.
It is the great secret.
Know the male,
yet keep to the female:
receive the
world in your arms.
If you receive the world,
the Tao will never
leave you
and you will be like a little child.
Know the
white,
yet keep to the black:
be a pattern for the world.
If you
are a pattern for the world,
the Tao will be strong inside you
and
there will be nothing you can't do.
Know the personal,
yet keep
to the impersonal:
accept the world as it is.
If you accept the
world,
the Tao will be luminous inside you
and you will return to
your primal self.
The world is formed from the void,
like
utensils from a block of wood.
The Master knows the utensils,
yet
keeps to the the block:
thus she can use all things.
Do you want to improve the world?
I don't think it
can be done.
The world is sacred.
It can't be improved.
If
you tamper with it, you'll ruin it.
If you treat it like an object,
you'll lose it.
There is a time for being ahead,
a time for
being behind;
a time for being in motion,
a time for being at
rest;
a time for being vigorous,
a time for being exhausted;
a
time for being safe,
a time for being in danger.
The Master sees
things as they are,
without trying to control them.
She lets them go
their own way,
and resides at the center of the circle.
Whoever relies on the Tao in governing men
doesn't
try to force issues
or defeat enemies by force of arms.
For every
force there is a counterforce.
Violence, even well
intentioned,
always rebounds upon oneself.
The Master does his
job
and then stops.
He understands that the universe
is forever
out of control,
and that trying to dominate events
goes against the
current of the Tao.
Because he believes in himself,
he doesn't try
to convince others.
Because he is content with himself,
he doesn't
need others' approval.
Because he accepts himself,
the whole world
accepts him.
Weapons are the tools of violence;
all decent men
detest them.
Weapons are the tools of fear;
a decent man will
avoid them
except in the direst necessity
and, if compelled, will
use them
only with the utmost restraint.
Peace is his highest
value.
If the peace has been shattered,
how can he be
content?
His enemies are not demons,
but human beings like
himself.
He doesn't wish them personal harm.
Nor does he rejoice in
victory.
How could he rejoice in victory
and delight in the
slaughter of men?
He enters a battle gravely,
with sorrow and
with great compassion,
as if he were attending a funeral.
The Tao can't be perceived.
Smaller than an
electron,
it contains uncountable galaxies.
If powerful men and
women
could remain centered in the Tao,
all things would be in
harmony.
The world would become a paradise.
All people would be at
peace,
and the law would be written in their hearts.
When you
have names and forms,
know that they are provisional.
When you have
institutions,
know where their functions should end.
Knowing when to
stop,
you can avoid any danger.
All things end in the Tao
as
rivers flow into the sea.
Knowing others is intelligence;
knowing yourself is
true wisdom.
Mastering others is strength;
mastering yourself is
true power.
If you realize that you have enough,
you are truly
rich.
If you stay in the center
and embrace death with your whole
heart,
you will endure forever.
The great Tao flows everywhere.
All things are born
from it,
yet it doesn't create them.
It pours itself into its
work,
yet it makes no claim.
It nourishes infinite worlds,
yet it
doesn't hold on to them.
Since it is merged with all things
and
hidden in their hearts,
it can be called humble.
Since all things
vanish into it
and it alone endures,
it can be called great.
It
isn't aware of its greatness;
thus it is truly great.
She who is centered in the Tao
can go where she
wishes, without danger.
She perceives the universal harmony,
even
amid great pain,
because she has found peace in her heart.
Music
or the smell of good cooking
may make people stop and enjoy.
But
words that point to the Tao
seem monotonous and without flavor.
When
you look for it, there is nothing to see.
When you listen for it, there
is nothing to hear.
When you use it, it is inexhaustible.
If you want to shrink something,
you must first allow
it to expand.
If you want to get rid of something,
you must first
allow it to flourish.
If you want to take something,
you must first
allow it to be given.
This is called the subtle perception
of the
way things are.
The soft overcomes the hard.
The slow overcomes
the fast.
Let your workings remain a mystery.
Just show people the
results.
The Tao never does anything,
yet through it all
things are done.
If powerful men and women
could venter
themselves in it,
the whole world would be transformed
by itself, in
its natural rhythms.
People would be content
with their simple,
everyday lives,
in harmony, and free of desire.
When there is no
desire,
all things are at peace.
Satanism is about freedom without harming others.
That is Tao.
Whoever relies on the Tao in governing men
doesn't try to force issues
or defeat enemies by force of arms.
For every force there is a counterforce.
Violence, even well intentioned,
always rebounds upon oneself.
My philosophy coincides with certain aspects of many religions (usually more so than actual religious people) but I don't consider myself a part of them. I care more about the concepts than the rituals (appearances).
Originally posted by S.H.:My philosophy coincides with certain aspects of many religions but I don't consider myself a part of them.
Though I am a Satanist, I take in many ideas from different religions as well.
I like to call it "everythingism".
Originally posted by gasband:Just curious to know. From a Satanist point of view especially the theistic ones, what will hell be like for people who goes there to join Satan?