A very happy Christmas to you and your family!
The Richard Urban Show
#80-Peace on Earth to Everyone Who Pleases God
Petition Congress Rally-January 6th, 2021, Washington DC
Contact your Senator and Representative
John 19
38 Joseph from Arimathea was one of Jesus’ disciples. He had kept it secret though, because he was afraid of the Jewish leaders. But now he asked Pilate to let him have Jesus’ body. Pilate gave him permission, and Joseph took it down from the cross.
Isaiah 51
13 I spread out the heavens
and laid foundations
for the earth.
But you have forgotten me,
your Lord and Creator.
All day long you were afraid
of those who were angry
and hoped to abuse you.
Where are they now?
Richard: Speak the truth. Do not be afraid.
Selfish Desires and Fallen Nature
2. Degraded and Fallen Nature
Human nature is analogous to water: originally, it is pure. If we fill a clear vessel then the water will be clear, but if we fill a dirty vessel then the water will be sullied. Its original purity is always there, but once it becomes dirty or turbid it is very difficult to regain its purity.
Chu Hsi (Confucianism)
God made man upright, but they have sought out many devices.
Ecclesiastes 7.29
Delusion is a sort of demonic force. People’s original mind is pure but it becomes perverted due to delusion and other karmas.
Kundakunda, Pancastikaya 38 (Jainism)
I enquired what iniquity was, and found it to be not a substance, but the perversion of the will, turned aside from Thee, O God, the Supreme, toward these lower things, and casting out its bowels and puffed up outwardly.
Saint Augustine, Confessions 7.16 (Christianity)
Satan said, “I will take of Thy servants a portion marked off; I will mislead them, and I will create in them false desires; I will order them… to deface the fair nature created by God.” Whoever, forsaking God, takes Satan for a friend, has of a surety suffered a loss that is manifest. Satan makes them promises, and creates in them false desires; but Satan’s promises are nothing but deception.
Qur’an 4.118-20
Your mind, having become diseased and bewildered because of the false sense-conceptions accumulated since beginningless time, has developed many desires, attachments and habits. From these there have arisen, incident to the ever-changing processes of life, arbitrary conceptions concerning self and no-self and as to what is true and what is not true. These arbitrary conceptions have not developed in a normal way from your pure Mind Essence, but in an abnormal way because of the prior false conceptions that had their origin in the sense organs, like the sight of blossoms in the air that come to diseased minds. They falsely appear to have had their origin in the enlightening and Essential Mind but, in truth, they have arisen because of diseased conditions.
Surangama Sutra (Buddhism)
Slight is the difference between man and the brutes. The common man loses this distinguishing feature, while the gentleman retains it.
Mencius IV.B.19 (Confucianism)
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately corrupt; who can understand it?
Jeremiah 17.9
And recite to them the tiding of him to whom We gave Our signs, but he cast them off, and Satan followed after him, and he became one of the perverts. And had we willed, We would have raised him up, but he inclined towards the earth and followed his lust. So the likeness of him is as the likeness of a dog; if you attack it it lolls its tongue out, or if you leave it it lolls its tongue out. That is that people’s likeness who cried lies to Our signs…
They have hearts, but understand not with them; they have eyes, but perceive not with them; they have ears, but they hear not with them. They are like cattle; nay, rather they are further astray. Those—they are the heedless.
Qur’an 7.175-179
That man in whom there never kindles
One spark of the love of God,
Know, Nanak, that his earthly vesture
Is no better than that of a swine or dog!
Adi Granth, Slok, M.9, p. 1428 (Sikhism)
Most men, and men of the most vulgar type, seem (not without some ground) to identify the good, or happiness, with pleasure; which is the reason why they love the life of enjoyment. For there are, we may say, three prominent types of life—that just mentioned, the political, and thirdly the contemplative life. Now the mass of mankind are evidently quite slavish in their tastes, preferring a life suitable to beasts.
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics 1.5 (Hellenism)
Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth,
for the Lord has spoken:
“Sons I have reared and brought up,
but they have rebelled against me.
The ox knows its owner,
and the ass its master’s crib;
but Israel does not know,
my people does not understand.”
Isaiah 1.2-3