Hey everyone,
Its been a while since I last updated my journal, and since then a lot has happened. Since I last wrote a journal I've moved to Brisbane, and I'm now living at Raymont Lodge, going to university 3 days a week, which makes the people who have 5 days a week jealous lol. I've made a couple of new friends down here which is good, they keep me sane when I get bored or am feeling a bit home sick. I went to soundwave last weekend, that was awesome, the offspring were really good live, alexisonfire and incubus were good as well. I have a lot of reading to do, but its ok cuz i have four day weekends to get it done in, its a bit hard to stay focused for long periods of time though. Well i'll be busy a lot so i'll try to upload stuff occassionally, but it won't be much. see you all later.

Well I got an OP 9, got accepted at University of Queensland doing a Bachelor of Journalism, and move to brisbane on the 15th of February.

Theres the update.

Hmm . . . I haven't written a journal entry for a while, so I thought I'd update it and give everyone an update on where I am at the moment.
I'm now officially finished school!!
So the question now is where to from here?
I honestly don't really know where I'm going or what's happening with my life next year . . . depending on what OP I get will determine where I'm going and what I'm doing. My first preference for university is a Bachelor of Journalism at University of Queensland, which I need an OP8 to get into, so fingers crossed, I get an 8.
Also with my current relationship, and where I am with that at the moment is influencing strongly what's happening, because I'm not really sure if she's going to be able to come to Brisbane with me next year or not, her parent's are talking about her staying here and getting work, which is what they want, not what she wants. We've been together 9 months now, so she's a fairly important part of my life.
Money is another problem, my shithouse job at McDonalds is still seeing me get only a lousy 30 to 60 dollars a week, which is nowhere near enough for what I need to get on my feet next year.
On a more positive note though, it hasn't all been big decisions and confusion. I've been back from Schoolies for about 2 or so weeks now, and that was by far one of the best weeks of my life, heaps of fun . . . with a side of passing out, raspberry vomit, and vodka loaded water pistols. And then on 23rd of February I'm going to SoundWave so that should be awesome.
Anyway thats a brief update on things, catch you all later.

Since the dawning of self-consciousness, the human race has struggled to come to terms with the concept of mortality. The realisation of self-consciousness came hand in hand with self-centredness and insecurity. Afraid of being alone in the universe, humans tried to find a reason for why they were here. This reason became manifested in one God or another, or many, or even a force which took no form, He or it was responsible for us being here, but this realisation came with further questions from the early humans. Especially if the God was a “Creator” God, or parent-like figure, humans began to wonder, why was it that they died? More importantly, what happened after death, and how could we ensure that our after-life was a happy one? Born out of self-consciousness and insecurity, numerous explanations and concepts of death and the after-life began to develop in the increasingly conscious human mind.

Ancient religions such as those of the Egyptians and the Greeks, both of which were polytheistic, had a concept of the after-life in which all who died went to the same place after death. In both of these religions the “underworld” was presided over by a specific god. In the Egyptian tradition, this god was Osiris, who had originally the god of fertility. In the myths it was said that Osiris had become the god and judge of the dead because his brother Seth had murdered him and spread the pieces of his corpse across the country, but Osiris’ wife and sister Isis, searched for all the parts and finally pieced Osiris back together, however she had been unable to find the penis, which resulted in the inability to be fully resurrected, thus Osiris remained as an early concept of the “living-dead”. In the Greek tradition this god was Hades, which was also the name of the underworld. Hades was disliked by the other Olympian Gods, and presided over the underworld, where all those who died were sent.

Both traditions had the god of the dead as a judge, though this concept was more dominant in the Egyptian tradition. The deceased would first face 42 judges, and then if they passed this test successfully, Anubis (the god of embalming) would lead them to the scales, where there heart would be weighed against the feather of truth, if their heart was heavier than the feather it would be devoured by a beast with the head of a crocodile, body of a lion, and rear of a hippopotamus, this was the equivalent to Hell. Finally if this test was passed they would come before Osiris, who was the final judge of the deceased, and upon passing his judgment they would be admitted to the field of reeds, where life would continue practically the same as it had when they had been living. In the Greek tradition, Hades was the final and only judge who determined whether the deceased had an easy afterlife or a difficult one.

Around the same time as these ancient traditions, the Hebrew or Jewish faith was developing. However unlike the other traditions of their time, the Jewish religion was a monotheistic, with one true, supreme God. When faced with the question of why we die, the Jewish faith presented the idea of original sin, which was later adopted by the Christian and Islamic faiths. Mortality was the punishment for Adam and Eve’s disobedience towards God, (Yahweh in Judaism, Allah in Islam) “… You were made from soil, and you will become soil again.” (Genesis 3:19). This concept of original sin required people to consider how they could appease God so as to gain reconciliation with Him, and ensure a blissful afterlife. This resulted in the idea of a “righteous” life, living by the law which God gave to Moses on Mount Sinai, the 10 commandments, and more so the 613 mitzvot which are found throughout the Torah which is the first five books of the Christian Bible, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus Deuteronomy and Numbers. Strict adherence to these laws would result in the appeasement of God, and a happy afterlife.

Then during the 6th Century B.C.E the Buddhist faith came on the scene in the east, founded by Siddhartha Gautama, who reached enlightenment and so became known as the Buddha or Enlightened One. Unlike the monotheistic faith of the Hebrew people, or the polytheistic faiths of Egypt and Greece, Buddhism had no specific god, but rather an eternal force. Also rather than a concept of an afterlife which resulted in a “heaven” or “hell” scenario, Buddhism championed a continuos cycle of death and rebirth until enlightenment or nirvana was achieved. Enlightenment can be achieved through meditation and once again the living of a “righteous” life, the noble eightfold path. When a person dies their consciousness-continuum leaves the body and moves into an intermediate or bardo state that is full of a bewildering phantasmagoria of powerful apparitions – ghosts, gods, demons, wrathful deities. The disembodied consciousness-continuum may spend up to 49 days in the bardo state. Firstly there is a glimpse of a marvellous luminosity which is the Enlightened State itself. If the disembodied consciousness-continuum can see this for what it is and stay with it, then liberation is assured. If liberation is not achieved, terror and desire will eventually draw it into a new birth. Rebirth is the “Causal Connection between one life and another. Thus the karmic accumulations good and bad, of a particular life (itself the culmination of an endless series of causally connected past-lives) will condition a new birth. Sequences of such interconnected lives form a continuum. Nothing is handed on, however, but the conditioning: the influences, the karmic charge.” (Snelling, J, 1987)

Some six hundred years later back in Judea, the place of the Jewish faith, a new movement was beginning, this religion was called Christianity. With its roots in Jewish faith, and based on the life and death of Jesus of Nazareth, Christianity once again redefined questions of death and the afterlife. Christianity is a monotheistic religion, with God being the only and final judge; however the idea of the afterlife is defined in much greater detail than ever before. Below are excerpts from the Catechism of the Catholic Church regarding the afterlife, as will be seen the Christian faith more than ever created a view of eternal bliss for the “righteous” and eternal damnation for the “wicked”.

1022 Each man receives his eternal retribution in his immortal soul at the very moment of his death, in a particular judgment that refers his life to Christ: either entrance into the blessedness of heaven – through purification or immediately – or immediate and everlasting damnation.

1024 This perfect life with the Most Holy Trinity – this communion of life and love with the Trinity, with the Virgin Mary, the angels and all the blessed – is called “heaven.” Heaven is the ultimate end and fulfilment of the deepest human longings, the state of supreme, definitive happiness.

1030 All who die in God’s grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven.

1035 The teaching of the Church affirms the existence of hell and its eternity. Immediately after death the souls of those who die in a state of mortal sin descend into hell, where they suffer the punishments of hell, “eternal fire.” The chief punishment of hell is eternal separation from God, in whom alone man can possess the life and happiness for which he was created and for which he longs.

1039 In the presence of Christ, who is Truth itself, the truth of each man’s relationship with God will be laid bare. The Last Judgment will reveal even to its furthest consequences the good each person has done or failed to do during his earthly life.

1042 At the end of time, the Kingdom of God will come in its fullness. After the universal judgment, the righteous will reign forever with Christ, glorified in body and soul. The universe itself will be renewed.

As can be quite obviously observed when comparing these varying religions, the Afterlife is a universal concept which has been explained in many different ways by many different groups. These explanations have been an attempt to answer the questions such as; “Why is it that we die?”, “What happens after death?” and, “How can we ensure that our after-life is a happy one?” All of which arose out of the self-consciousness and insecurity of the human race, and their fear of being alone in the universe. Some defined it as a field of reeds, others an underworld, others presented a concept of an endless cycle of death and rebirth, and others still formulated concepts of a Heaven and Hell. While the places where the afterlife occurs differ greatly, there is one thing universal about all of these ideas, and that is the rewarding of the righteous, and the punishing of the wicked.

This is from Bishop John Shelby Spong's book "Jesus for the Non-Religious", definitely something worth thinking about

The Lament of A Believer in Exile

Ah, Jesus!
Where have you gone?
When did we lose you?
Was it when we became so certain that we possessed you
That we persecuted Jews,
Excommunicated doubters,
Burned Heretics,
And used violence and war to achieve conversion?
Was it when our first-century images
Collided with expanding knowledge?
Or when biblical scholars informed us that the Bible does
Not really support what we once believed?
Was it when we watched your followers distorting people
With guilt,
Fear,
Bigotry,
Intolerance,
And anger?
Was it when we noticed that many who called you Lord
And who read their Bibles regularly
Also practiced slavery,
Defended segregation,
Approved lynching,
Abused children,
Diminished women,
And hated homosexuals?
Was it when we finally realised
That the Jesus who promised abundant life
Could not be the source of self-hatred,
Or one who encourages us to grovel
In life-destroying penitence?
Was it when it dawned on us that serving you would require
The surrender of those security-building prejudices
That masquerade as our sweet sicknesses?

We still yearn for you, Jesus, but we no longer know where
To seek your presence.
Do we look for you in those churches that practice certainty?
Or are you hiding in those churches
That so fear controversy that they make "unity" a god,
And stand for so little that they die of boredom?
Can you ever be found in those churches that have
Rejected the powerless and the marginalised,
The lepers and the Samaritans of our day,
Those you called our brothers and sisters?
Or must we now look for you outside ecclesiastical settings,
Where love and kindness expect no reward,
Where questions are viewed as the deepest
Expressions of trust?

Is it even possible, Jesus, that we Christians are the villians
Who killed you?
Smothering you underneath literal Bibles,
Dated Creeds,
Irrelevant doctrines,
And dying structures?
If these things are the source of your disappearance, Jesus,
Will you then reemerge if these things are removed?
Will that bring resurrection?
Or were you, as some now suggest, never more
Than an illusion?
By burying and distorting you were we
Simply protecting ourselves
From having to face that realisation?

I still seek to posses what I believe you are, Jesus:
Access to and embodiment of
The Source of Life,
The Source of Love,
The Ground of Being,
A doorway into the mystery of holiness.

It is through that doorway that I desire to walk.
Will you meet me there?
Will you challenge me,
Guide me,
Confront me,
Reveal your truth to me and in me?

Finally at the end of this journey, Jesus,
Will you embrace me
Inside the ultimate reality
That I call God
In whom I live
And move
And have my being?