QUEST
By Keith R (Bob) Perry
QUEST
By Bob Perry
With gratitude to Gwen Limon
Without whose encouragement
This work would not have been possible
COPYRIGHT © 1997
Keith Robert (Bob) PERRY
2/31 Wansfell St
Picnic Bay
Magnetic Island
Queensland 4819
AUSTRALIA
Phone 07 47581948
(i)
Foreword
When I was thirteen my late Uncle George Tafe introduced me to Science Fiction and The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam This left an indelible mark on my impressionable mind. The Science Fiction aspect of my early education broadened my outlook to the stars and planets and possible life in the Galaxy. Arthur C Clark’s book ‘A Childhood’s End” greatly influenced my youthful contemplation on such matters. The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam introduced me to a more philosophical approach to religion and I consequently learned that there was more to religion that the religious doctrines of the day. From then onwards I questioned the various religions prevalent. With each claiming to be the only truth to follow, I inclined towards agnosticism. My Grandparents religious influence intertwined with this during this period. The various religions of mankind over the centuries have caused much bloodshed and anguish, and has/is often used as a control mechanism by politicians and priests. If you believe that your God, fate or luck influences your life, then you will question this work. This is the fundamental reason why Quest was written.
I personally believe that The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, in all its brilliance, has a defeatist attitude. However it is a stepping stone to realising a broader aspect of Mankind’s spiritual life other than that which the religions of today offer.
During my fourteen years in Europe, North America, the Middle East and South-east Asia I earned that there was more to life than ‘bread alone’. I would hope that you too will agree after reading Quest; if not already - then welcome kindred spirit.
Bob Perry (ii)
cpPreface
Verse 17
Are there beings in the Galaxy
That once breathed a Soul
Into an ape-like creature
On the planet Earth, a long time ago.
I consider Mankind was no longer an animal when he received a soul. Of cause the burning question remains, “How did Man receive his soul”? God, space beings or Mother Nature, take your pick.
Verse 19
A day s as a thousand years,
A thousand years is as a day,
Has Jesus been away a couple of days,
Or a couple of thousand years?
Somewhere in the Christian Bible it is written that to God a day is as a thousand years and a thousand years is as a day. According to Einstein, travel faster than the speed of light is impossible; this contradicts the above Bible statement. For a thousand years to be as a day etc. One would have to travel faster than the speed of light.
Perhaps Mankind with his great advances in science may one day travel faster than the speed of light just as God or the Space Beings must have done. If
(iii)
Space Beings were to visit Earth they would have to travel faster than light travels or it would take many generations to arrive and return back to their home planet and solar system. Without travel faster than the speed of light to occur inter-stellar space travel would be impossible.
Verst 21
I ask how many religions exist in the Galaxy.
Are we so pompous as to say, “Only one”?
How many religions does Mankind believe in?
And that is only on the planet Earth.
AND
Verse 22
The vast majority of these religions
Believe in the concept of there being a ‘God’ or ‘Gods’
Will beings on other planets of the Galaxy believe in our ‘God’ or ‘Gods’?
I can-not be more certain than you.
‘God the space man’ would have obviously visited our planet and exerted His will. Planets similar to Earth would have religions similar to ours.
What of the ‘chlorine breathers’? What of life that lives in a ’pea soup’ of 100°C.; or on the surface of -50°C? The conditions for and the type of life on other planets of the Galaxy can only be guessed at, let alone to understand their religion; if indeed they were to have any?
(iv)
Verse 30
Why would we leave Paradise
For our Earthly existence
On the event of death
And risk going to hell?
Reincarnation, which is the belief of many religions, teaches us that we came from ‘that place beyond the grave’ as a new life form. It is obvious that, ‘that other place’ (Heaven) be a place of ‘rest & Recreation’ (R & R). What puzzles me is why, after being in Paradise, would a ‘soul’ or ‘Spirit’ want to return to Earth as a dung beetle or a Mighty Monarch and risk going to some form of hell. I think I would want to stay in Paradise.
This paradox is beyond us at present. Perhaps during an idle moment one could consider this and be at one with the great thinkers of the Human Race.
Verse 31
Is Heaven and Hell a figment of our imagination,
Nurtured by Priests for their ‘bowl of rice’,
Or do they know something we don’t or
Simply a figment of their imagination & now our belief?
Religion throughout the centuries has been a means of revenue and/or control of the susceptible members of the population by churches of the day. Did not the Catholic church of yesteryear sell ‘pardons from sin’ for money? Is it not said “Do as we tell you and you could go to Heaven for eternity when you die, and if you don’t be obedient to the church you will burn in the fires of Hell for eternity - pretty strong stuff, hey?
(v)
Verse 33
Does God need us as much as we need Him?
The thought of God needing us is alien to religious belief
As we have been taught to praise and worship Him.
I often wonder if God has an ego problem.
And
Verse 44
Is faith sufficient? Is the written word enough?
Should we seek further enlightenment?
Or should we not blaspheme
And accept it as the Priests tell us?
Most religions deem that we must have faith. All we have is the written word and the religious experiences of others. Psychiatric hospitals have more than their share of people who have seen God or Jesus, some believe they are God or Jesus. Today we put these people in a hospital and medicate or even pass electricity through their brains. To question the written word is to be sacrilegious. Mankind is the most inquisitive being on the planet. This is one of the many reasons why we are the dominant species. However religious leaders preach that we must not question the ‘word’ and that we must have ‘faith’. It could easily be argued that these people are hindering the intellectual advancement of Mankind and perhaps drag us back into the dark ages when the power of the church was supreme.
(vi)
Verse 50
Do we have a duty to humanity
To discover the truth that hides
Beyond a veil of uncertainty
That conceals the answer of the Ultimate Question.
When people stop questioning and learning they will stagnate and go the way of the dinosaurs. I ask, “Do you have a duty to learn the hard won knowledge earned by your ancestors and in turn pass it on to your children”. Should this not happen to the population, society as it is now would collapse.
Verse 50 delves into the ultimate mystery of human fate. “The veil of uncertainty” which leads to the “Ultimate question” asks, ‘Does mankind have a case to answer to before God? Some might ask, “Does God have a case to answer to”.
Sure, the bible teaches us that we owe it all to God. The Bible is not the ultimate authority to the world’s religions; in fact it is in a minority. To have a broad understanding of this concept one has to take into account of all the world’s religions, and not only the Christian Bible and consequently their viewpoint.
Verse 52
Should the 26 letters of the alphabet be used
To educate and guide us along life’s pathway,
Then will the hundreds of thousands of words
Guide humanity along the true path?
(vii)
Words are the tools of every language. All the words of the English language are devised from the 26 letters of the alphabet. All the great works of humanity use combinations of some of these 26 letters. I ask, “Is there another method of learning, without using those letters of the alphabet”?
There are those insights from experience that people gain throughout their life that solidly fortify their maturity. This learning does not come from books. The great archives of humanity have earned their ‘right of passage’ without use of the written word.
Life’s experiences, regardless of languages, have delivered humanity from the jungle to a civilized race. These ideas and concepts gained are then written, in the case of the English language from the 26 letters of its alphabet, for the benefit of fellow students of life who follow.
Verse 53
Do we ponder over these matters
In the evening of our life
Just in case it’s true?
Does it just make us feel secure?
A Jesuit Priest was quoted, “Give me a child til their seventh year and I’ll have them for life”. When religion is impressed upon us in our childhood, it becomes a foundation stone in an adult’s integrity. When we approach that time in life when our mortality becomes a pressing issue in old age or illness, it takes a brave man to deny God and the existence of the hereafter.
(viii)
Verse 63
Of the total Psyche of humanity
That is the ethos of civilization,
I wonder what will become of it.
Are Jesus, Muhammad and the Buddha closer to God than you or I.
The trends that humanity has established throughout the millennia have contributed to that which reflects in an ocean of humanities’ wept tears: an ocean of love and knowledge and the Spirit of Humanity.
The greatest spiritual leaders of humanity, of which Jesus, Muhammad and the Buddha are but a few have guided us a little way out of the darkness. Though each of these prophets would have us believe that their teaching is the only truth. Of cause the burning question of the moment is, “Which one, if indeed any one at all”?
Verse 65
How long ago was the Spirit of Humanity formed
Into the body of a Human Being?
Perhaps it will end when God has had enough of us;
Perhaps when we destroy ourselves.
It is accepted in most religions that there is a God, though there are some of an atheistic conviction. Sometimes I wonder why and how we, as a species, got a psyche in the first place.
(ix)
Verse 75
As you will never know the truth
You will spend your life in mystery unless you have the ‘faith’,
Even though you may be a seeker of knowledge
You will never know beyond that elusive ‘veil of darkness’.
People in the so-called ‘near death experience’ often claim to have spoken to and to have seen God or Jesus and that they say that God tells of love and knowledge being the keys to eternity in Paradise though you will never know what lies beyond the grave, because with the current set-up, if you did you would be dead.
Verse 91
Perhaps ‘life after death’ is a means of control;
A story used by Kings, Presidents and Priests.
They may not all at the same time
Know the truth of this deception.
If Kings, Presidents and Priests throughout the ages were perhaps losing their influence, they would put the ‘fear of God’ and ‘life after death’ syndrome into their respective subjects, citizens or flock as a means of control.
---oOo---
These hundred verses are designed to stimulate one’s interest in such matters. Bon voyage!
(x)
QUEST
1
Your life might be a slumber
Interrupted by moments of vision
Or a life of vision
Interrupted by moments of slumber.
2
I shall arise and take myself to great heights.
I shall do this until the sun
Will cease to warm
The far reaches of my heart.
3
How long are you prepared to slumber?
Will this reconnoitre be your life’s judgement
Be deemed by God, fate or luck?
Fear not, one’s life’s mould be set beforehand.
Page 1
4
Is it possible
To predict your time?
Though life’s time
Will surely unfold.
5
Please consider this?
One asks, “What can I
Consciously oppose or enjoy?”
“What is the worth of my free will”?
6
As I gaze at the moon and stars,
As I gaze at the might of the Universe,
Could my life’s work
Have a single speck of worth or influence?
Page 2
7
How could my thoughts,
Paramount to my life,
Influence a grain of sand
On the beaches and deserts of the Universe.
8
Perhaps you and I could alter this speck of existence
Where there are two today
Tomorrow there will be three.
Will the Universe end in the nothing it began with?
9
Should we not ask ourselves,
“Are we the masters of our own lives”?
“Do we control our environment”?
“Does our environment control us”?
Page 3
10
“Is it a melodrama of blending
Where bits and pieces give and take?
Or does it affect people
Individually and differently?”
11
Maybe we should put aside an empty glass
And give this some thought:
To those who wish to party on, be it so!
For those who will decree, there will be a difference.
12
I sweeten the grain of the field
With the nectar of the flower:
Sometimes I drink deeply from the cup
That life proffers forth.
Page 4
13
Times that thieve my agility of youth
And turns it into the pains of age:
Should I suffer that which is dealt to me
Be it from Man or the Heavens.
14
Should I fight my life through
Or should I look for pleasurable pursuits?
Many have this question answered.
I am sure that many will change their mind.
15
By the broadening of life’s pleasures
Or the narrowing of life’s pain,
Do I deviate from life’s path?
Perhaps I’m meant to wonder through this wilderness.
Page 5
16
The progress of knowledge from father to son
Or from teacher to scholar can only benefit Humanity
Though I ask, “Is this the goal of Humanity”?
“Is this the purpose of Humanity”.
17
Were there beings in the Galaxy
That once breathed a soul
Into an ape like creature
On the planet Earth a long time ago.
18
I once demanded to know
Who was in charge of it all?
The reply came back as resounding laughter,
“Surely you don’t think that someone is in charge”.
Page 6
19
A day is as a thousand years
A thousand years is as a day;
Jesus has been away a couple of days – perhaps?
Should this be so, when will He return?
20
What will He do if He does return?
Or has He been here all the time?
Of paramount importance to humanity
Is the concept of its religion.
21
I ask, “How many religions are there on the planet Earth”
“How many religions exist in the Universe”?
Could we be so pompous as to say
“Only mine is the true one”.
Page 7
22
The vast majority of Earth’s religions
Believe in the concept of there being a ‘God’.
Will beings on other planets of the Galaxy believe in our God?
I cannot be any surer than you.
23
It’s interwoven throughout the structure of the Humanity
That true Christians would fight to the death
To defend Christianity. Islam has its Holy Wars.
These fights are sometimes mixed with Ethnic Cleansing.
24
The incredible entity called ‘Man’;
Why does it ingest toxins on a daily bases?
They are slowly destroying themselves and their habitat.
There are those who poison their minds too.
Page 8
25
We must ask why?
Surely this is a tragedy?
Will Doctors, Engineers, Poets and Saints save the day?
Or will there be an unstoppable tragedy regardless?
26
In the pool of human endeavour,
Derived from the pool of thought,
Many achieve great wisdom
Of glory, of industry or in the Fate of Humanity.
27
However when the Angel with the darker drink
Invites one Soul to cross the Universe,
One’s earthly wisdom becomes as one with a slave
Who has no wisdom at all.
Page 9
28
This day in my time and presence on Earth,
I ask my Soul if the rich man
And the peasant departs equally.
How then do we gain credits in Heaven?
29
Does it matter in God’s eyes?
Then I ask, “What does God want of us”?
If I had my say before my time on Earth
And you also, my friend, would we abstain?
30
Why would we leave Paradise
For our earthly existence
With the chance that after we depart
We might end up in hell?
Page 10
31
Is Heaven and Hell a figment of our imagination
Nurtured by Priests for their ‘bowl of rice’>
Do they know something we don’t, or is it a figment
Of their imagination used as a control mechanism?
32
Should one have taken on a Mistress
And live one’s life enjoying sweet delicacies.
Would this be enough to justify
One’s birth and death?
33
Does God need us as much as we need Him?
What of the other Gods of humanity
Thorough out the centuries? Today I ask myself
“Are there different path to enlightenment”?
Page 11
34
Is the holy Bible the true way?
Or is it the holy Koran?
Their respective Priests
Would preach that theirs is the truth.
35
Maybe it’s the way of the Hindu or the Buddhist.
Why did the Christian God outdo the Roman God’s?
Were the long-term effects of the Roman Gods decadent
Or did the Christian God suit better?
36
I wonder how long the Christian
Concept of their God will last?
Or will His truth fulfil the hearts
And aspirations of Humanity better?
Page 12
37
Is Earth just a ‘horn of plenty’ to serve Humanity
Or did Earth bear us, as insignificant as we are,
To treat us as being of Nature’s loins
To return us back into nothing?
38
Who is more precious, a baby or an old Woman or Man?
Does Mother Nature care?
Or should we be satisfied that Christianity tells us
That we are all equal in God’s eyes?
39
Were it in our hands to change things
What would Humanities dreams change of it?
How would you change it all?
Would it be fair to all Humanity?
Page 13
40
Please don’t accuse me of blasphemy
As I am as curious as you, my friend?
Are the days of our lives really numbered?
Could you change a single day?
41
Is the life of a man
Putty in a strong man’s hands?
Or is God alone
Capable of changing fate?
42
When your heart stops beating and your Soul leaves your body
And your body is buried or burnt
What part of your existence does your Soul take with it?
If it does not take anything, how is God to judge?
Page 14
43
When you don’t sleep at night
Is it because you won’t farewell yesterday?
Is it because you have problems with tomorrow?
Be at peace with what the night offers.
44
Is faith sufficient? Is the written word enough?
Should we seek further enlightenment?
Or should we not blaspheme
And accept it as the Priests tell us?
45
When you meet God, would you offend Him?
Or would you admit to His immeasurable love?
If it is not His immeasurable love
Please teach me its other name?
Page 15
46
I ask myself, “What is God’s purpose”?
If indeed He has a purpose
Or is there simply no God at all?
The Bible tells us there is.
47
Why does Humanity need religion?
Do some people need to be guided
To maintain their values?
Or do you think they can carry on regardless?
48
We have the religion of the Jews
The Atheists of Japan,
The faith of the Irish,
Where are you at?
Page 16
49
The Christians, the Jews, the Moslems and the Atheists;
Each offers the true way of life, as seen through their eyes.
Should we waste our time trying to understand
Or should we blindly accept the faith of our forefathers.
50
Do we have a duty towards Humanity
To discover the truth that hides
Behind the veil of uncertainty
To discover the answer of the ultimate question?
51
Does the truth lie in some library somewhere in the Universe?
Is it in the Holy Books of Humanity?
Is the truth a ‘blind man’s understanding’?
Will faith see us through?
Page 17
52
Should the 26 letters of the alphabet be used
To educate and guide us along life’s pathway.
Then will the millions of words derived from these 26 letters
Guide Humanity onto the true pathway?
53
Do we ponder over these matters
In the evening of our life
Just in case it’s true?
Would it make us feel secure?
54
Do we need spiritual insurance?
Should we have blind faith?
Can you prove it all to me conclusively?
There are those who think they can.
Page 18
55
What of the confidence tricksters
Who claim to have all the answers?
All religions have their share.
And all religions have their unanswerable mysteries.
56
The great empires that have culminated in Humanities’ glories,
Have come and gone throughout the centuries.
Each claim their empire is the best ever
Though now their mouths are stopped with dust!
57
A tear from Caesar’s eye proffered forth in a Golden Goblet
Is loved by some more than a glass of wine.
Do you aspire towards the Golden Goblet or the glass of wine?
Or just for a glass of water, perhaps?
Page 19
58
Are our lives a joke?
What do you recommend to me?
Do these words of mine point
To a different point of view?
59
Maybe it’s my life that’s the joke.
Maybe it’s yours.
Maybe it’s everybody’s.
Maybe it is all so very serious.
60
If a man could fathom the mysteries of life
And take them with him to the next world,
Would anything come of it?
Or would it enrich his position there?
Page 20
61
I am sick of the babbling of priests.
No one has come back to enlighten us.
Perhaps they are just conning us?
Or perhaps is them striving for immortality.
62
The scholars of our day are
Tainted by their own discipline,
Maybe they are paying a dept to their forefathers
And passing it on to their children.
63
Of all the Souls of Mankind
That is now the ethos of Humanity
I wonder what becomes of them.
Are Jesus, Mohammad and the Buddha now Gods?
Page 21
64
The passing on of knowledge
From this life to the next
Or the next life’s knowledge to reincarnate
It seems as though they both start afresh.
65
How long ago was man’s soul formed
Into the body of a human being?
Perhaps it will end when God has had enough of us.
Or perhaps when we destroy ourselves.
66
Is it all a test of God in Paradise?
Is He the celestial ‘Policeman in the shy”?
It is said He rewards goodness and punishes wickedness.
Perhaps more than the policeman, but the Ultimate Judge!
Page 22
67
Are these words of mine hot air?
Or are there questions than need answering?
Do they lean towards an understanding?
Or perhaps we will never understand.
68
Does that which you have already spent grieve you?
Just for a few years of false happiness?
Before your spirit goes
To some unimaginable place.
69
One thing you can be sure of
An unalterable fact of life,
All the Kings, Queens and Presidents
Will end up just as dead as you and I.
Page 23
70
Because those Kings, Queens and Presidents
Are buried in sanctified ground with pomp and ceremony
And the likes of you and I in a common place –
All Souls are judged with the same values by God.
71
Don’t think that you are the chosen one.
Don’t think that death is too far away to consider.
Your age matters no more than the aged.
Though the aged have life’s experience to guide them.
72
Not many of us built the house we live in,
Maybe it could be viewed as a gift from our forefathers
What will you leave to those who come after you
When your spirit leaves your body?
Page 24
73
When you look in the mirror
And if the face of an old woman or man greets you
Will you take out insurance and believe,
As you know not what happens at that fatal moment.
74
During your life do you see
Flowers and beautiful birds
Green seas and blue skies?
Don’t leave your run too late.
75
As you will never know the truth
You will spend your life in mystery, unless you have the faith,
Even if you are a seeker of sacred knowledge,
You will never know beyond that elusive veil of darkness.
Page 25
76
The only resting place is beneath the earth
For the pressures of reality of the captured Spirit
That which is within your body, must be released
And only then will you know the truth.
77
A drunkard full of cheer
Often enjoys his life more than most
Accept your lot
And live it to the hilt.
78
What happens when you die is determined by
How we spend our life. Where did this knowledge come from?
I too would like to know this
Without going to the other side to find out.
Page 26
79
When a book of life is handed down
Through the generations and translated many times
Over the centuries, is it the same now
As it was when first written?
80
When one’s life’s mould is set,
Is it before birth or during early childhood?
Is it inherited or is it environmental?
I ask, “Do we know for sure”.
81
My hair is grey and
My bones hurt when I move.
I am ready to go and may God
And He alone Judge me.
Page 27
82
I do not know if God will greet me
Or whether He will curse me
For wasting my time during my life.
Or does my lot in life die with me when I die.
83
Does the blowing of trumpets and the singing of songs
Get you into Heaven or does one’s neighbours
Rituals gain more for you?
Or does God judge you on your love and knowledge?
84
I ask you not to waste your time
Should you tell of your sins to be forgiven?
Only God and He alone
Can forgive you, if you feel you need forgiving.
Page 28
85
Our time on earth in man’s eyes is fairly long
Though it s but a moment
In the time of the Galaxy.
Enjoy your time and make haste.
86
What of reincarnation you might ask?
You will not know for certain until you die.
Could you change it then so as
To say you have had enough.
87
I ask with an open heart, “When did it all begin”?
“When will it all end”?
Do you fool yourself in your belief
That you control your life?
Page 29
88
Even the mark you leave behind
Is not important.
A wind from the desert obliterates it
With a puff of air.
89
If my life was moulded
Before I was born,
Then perhaps God should judge
Himself as He set the mould.
90
Perhaps it would be different
If I had a say in it.
I sometimes wonder if the life hereafter
Is a figment of the imagination of Priests.
Page 30
91
Perhaps ‘Life after death’ is a means of control
A story used by Kings, Presidents and Priests
Perhaps not at the same time would they all know
The truth of this deception as some themselves would believe.
92
The great monuments and icons you leave behind;
Your enemies will enjoy them as much as your friends,
For this is the way of life and death.
Humanity will know the likes of them again.
93
Of all the religions of Humanity,
Please don’t tell me that yours is the true one.
They are all different paths to climb the mountain
The summit of which will be revealed at Humanities last climb.
Page 31
94
If humanity succeeds in making intelligent life
Will he create a soul for it too?
Is a soul an essential part of life?
Could it live without a Soul or Spirit? Man can’t.
95
Don’t be concerned that Humanity
Will miss your coming and going.
This is only wishing and hoping.
It matters only a short time to Humanity.
96
The great scholars of the world
Devote their life to earning.
When they depart from this world
They learned that they knew nothing at all.
Page 32
97
Over the centuries there have been great Prophets
Who claim to know the answers.
Were they great genius?
Or like us, just guessing the answers.
98
You can believe and have faith
Until you’re blue in the face.
This scenario is no more accurate
Than the guesses of others.
99
I read the works of the learned and great minds
That Humanity has produced, and I say to you
“It was formed and will end
With no heed to anyone.
Page 33
100
There are answers that Humanity can only guess at,
This is the right true path for Humanity;
For when Humanity learns the answer
His purpose will be done, to proceed to where?
Page 34
Impressum
Tag der Veröffentlichung: 15.01.2010
Alle Rechte vorbehalten