Common wisdom states that you should never trust or deal with someone who speaks in absolutes. While this notion is true when someone comes from a relativistic background, unfortunately spiritual absolutes, especially absolute principles, are actually uncompromising. Given that spirituality is based upon the nature of absolutes (including nothingness), understanding how they apply to the nature of being is important. Surprisingly to me, I found many of these topics in the teachings of Alcoholics Anonymous, Buddhism, in addition to Christianity. They apply to aeons, archons, and various other spiritual notions; they can explain why the pantheon of gods were never capable of being supreme; and why notions that the sum of parts can never be greater than the totality. These notions will help you understand why Jesus used the notion of leaven, reminding disciples that a divided kingdom cannot stand, and many concepts in modern society (economics, monetary theory, politics, etc.).
The nature of science tends to place principles of absolutes on physical matters. Whether it be cells, atoms, or other subatomic particles, the nature of being is more of a mental objective, which is the essence of what makes us different from animals. The nature of human consciousness is more complex and cannot be described as simply as matter. I actually quite enjoy the Tattoed Monkey (Theoria Apophasis) on YouTube, and while my understanding of consciousness is different than his Buddhist teachings, he carries more wisdom than many traditional religious sources (as do YouTube channels like Quantum of Consciousness (questioning the nature of the controlled reality itself), Everything Inside Me (challenging the direction of popular narratives), and many others like the Intellectual Dark Web). Most religious teaching will keep you in the same logical bubble of reason that has plagued the churches for generations, forcing teachings and doctrines to only be understood by those whose backgrounds align with those held by larger denominations and groups of people. With that said, here are some absolutes:
Faith/Reason: These are polar opposites in the chain of absolutes. You either base your beliefs on something because you trust the source (faith) or you trust your own sensory perceptions and mental horsepower (reason). There is no middle ground in the basis of faith versus reason, you either trust something other than yourself, or you only trust yourself. If you trust someone else’s teaching, you in essence create a middle man of trust, placing your faith in another man’s observations. Simply providing faith to a common belief system does not make you more intelligent, just one who has a faith in group consciousness, no better than one who follows a religious system. Reason, by nature, places more trust and faith in perception and the horsepower of your particular mind (computing power). If you rely purely on yourself, you are highly constrained by your bias and perceptions. If you rely purely on faith, you are bounded by the source of your faith.
Grace/Works: You either believe your conduct justifies your value (works) or someone else’s works justify your conduct (grace). If you rely on the works of people before you, you rely on the grace provided by their teachings. This isn’t as hairy as many think and makes the Christian message unique, since it moved the reliance on law to God directly, as Christ used the Father as his guiding factor (Christians who merely worship Christ don’t listen to his words that always point to the Father, which doesn’t create issues anyways since you’re relying on his works which gets you to the same point anyways).
Humility/Pride: Either you have recognition of your limitations (humility) or you think your way is best/perfect (pride). There are no humble or healthy versions of pride, understanding self-worth in a healthy way requires humility, not boisterous conduct.
Freedom/Slavery: Contrary to common opinion, there isn’t freedom in modern society. Freedom is the ability for all people to do what they wish. It only exists in two formats: constrained by love (good version: heaven) and constrained by nothing (bad version: anarchy). Anything in the middle is slavery, since you aren’t truly serving good (selfless) or evil (self), so it’s merely a cover for evil in the concept of civility. All governments are merely a tool for people who live in evil (knowing anarchy is the end), to put people into the illusion of freedom. That’s why economic systems, governments, and other societal authorities are in place. Constrained evil has two end games: 1984 (government dictated norms and drugging people) and Brave New World (hedonism and making a majority of things legal). Contrary to popular belief, the land of the free is a massive tax corporation that permits citizens to be more in a Brave New World environment, it’s not really freedom in any source of belief. If you think I’m wrong, stop paying your taxes and working for fiat currency and see how far you will go…
Unity/Individualism: You cannot have a unified society and individualism. We are seeing the end game of that play out now in the US. People are starting to faction into different groups/tribes trying to enforce a set of standards that apply to their ideal. It will not work out, it always leads to war and societal death. The same people preaching liberal ideologies will eventually become slaves in a more hostile environment if they overthrow the status quo that’s been in place since the 1940’s. You have freedom to fight for your viewpoint until a stronger person takes you out or the society over. Either people work together, or they work for their own means. Our world of contradictions can only last so long, just as the Romans found out in their constant pursuit of amalgamation. Once you lose your salt, you no longer have any flavor.
Honesty/Lies: There are no partial truths, nor white lies. It’s either purely honest, or it’s a form of deception, regardless of the intention of the person. There really is no middle ground, other than not asking a question where you do not want to know the honest answer.
Purity/Impurity: Something is either pure or impure. Once there is a defect of any sort, there is no such thing as mostly pure. While people like to comfort themselves that they aren’t as bad as something else, the damaging truth is that the requirement to convince yourself of a relative position implies you know you lack purity. Something pure doesn’t have to justify anything, it just is.
Selfless/Selfish: This dichotomy is really a function of intentionality and action. A selfless action is something done for the betterment of others without regard to personal gain. Selfish is everything else. While people like to think giving money for getting the praise of others is good, it essentially removes the intention of giving in the first place. There is no middle ground.
Love/Self-Love: Love is so perversely defined nowadays. Love is caring for others and their needs, independent of your own desires. Read 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 for a real definition of love. It’s not what sexual preference you have (especially one that requires a pride month). Self-love is everything on the other side, whereby personal motives, preferences, and desires determine the conduct.
Everything/Nothingness: Either you believe there is value, or there is no value. If you believe that everyone has worth, values should support everything, without conditionality. That is almost not present anywhere nowadays, since conditions are precedent in almost every movement. Everything is always mired in a condition that you either support our view of the world or you are against us (e.g., BLM, socialism). Christianity is the only place where I found universal acceptance so long as you rely on one greater than yourself, and anchor in true love, and most Christians are horrible examples (sorry, I was for a long time too until I humbled myself and started working in recovery programs). Nothingness is actually the target of true Buddhists. The goal is to detach from everything in order to understand God in his purest form (which would be Lucifer). Somehow, people forgot that Lucifer’s light is the detachment from value/everything, and needs to support the observable items with anti-positions (antimatter, dark energy, etc.). Most certainly exist, but I don’t think I want to see where that world goes on an unconstrained basis.
While there are probably more absolutes that can be thrown into the mix, these were some that I think give people a good basis to understand that spirituality is not merely a study of feeling. It’s also a diving into deep philosophy and mental understandings that require honest reflection. If you find yourself arguing with any of these items presented, you should question the basis of why you believe that way. You might find your fundamental assumptions and approaches to life have been preconditioned by environmental forces, manipulating your consciousness and turning you into a naïve slave of sorts. I was guilty here too. In the next section, I will delve into idols, which ironically is the homonym of idle, which essentially gets to the true nature of focusing your essence of being on a material object or idea, which transitorily becomes the focus of your worship.
