Materialism often leads to death or suicide

And being religious in any religion in too fundamental of a way leads to death, insanity or suicide or all three also.

So, there must be a middle path between a death caused by materialism and a death caused by religious fundamentalism I have always thought.

So, having been raised a fundamentalist mystical Christian I began in my 20s to see that there was something fundamentally wrong with this point of view. At that time I broke down people in my viewpoint as good people. But soon, I began to realize that this point of view was just too judgmental and was harming people by its very nature. So, I wanted to refine my philosophy and actions in life to something that was more helpful not only to myself but to all others.

What I came up with was compassion. Before this my life was only based upon Truth. But, then I realized that truth was a sword that killed as often as it saved. And "He who lives by the sword dies by the sword".

And this includes words that are like swords that we all use.

So, I realized that word swords were just as lethal as physical swords and tried to find another way.

I realized that compassion was universal and where Buddha started and became enlightened in the middle way and then Jesus took Buddhas Compassion and turned it into forgiveness to overcome "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth" of the middle East. So, Jesus took Asian Compassion and specifically tailored it for keeping people from killing everyone from grudges for thousands of years into Brotherly love of kindred spirits which worked. Even the concept of Santa Claus is a part of this concept of brotherly love. I watched a cartoon called "Klaus" which went into this as well recently with the family over Christmas vacation by the way.

So, in my 20s as I searched for a better way it eventually formed into Compassion and the middle way Path of Buddhism which also reminds me of "moderation in all things" of the Greeks as well.

So, in compassion for myself and all beings in the past, present and future of the entire universe I found a path that worked for me after much study into all religions and philosphies in college. Since a friend of mine got a bachelor's degree in History of Religion and then a master's specializing in Buddhism and Sanskrit at UCLA in Los Angeles we both learned a lot down a similar path in the late 1960s and into the 1970s until he graduated with his masters in 1976 from UCLA.

So, both of us got interested in Tibetan Buddhism and then eventually Native American Shamanism and both did a vision quest eventually of no water or food for 4 days out in the wilderness under the tutelage of a Native American Medicine man by 1983 on the Trinity River of northern California.

So, my point of view is that to be too materialistic tends to lead to death by being self destructive or direct suicide and also being too fundamentalist leads to insanity, death and suicide as well no matter what religion you are in worldwide.

It is mostly about the human condition and what it actually takes to survive and be happy and stay sane here on earth enough to want to live even one more day as a human being here on earth.

By God's Grace