The 31 Planes of Existence?

[Original Poster]

Okay so first some background so you know where I'm coming from. Raised Christian, was more devout than my family because I was aware of mortality and the shortness of life very early on. At 13 I realized it was irrational to believe something just because I was told it was true. The classic gradual atheist fall-out followed but it wasn't complete. I began to believe, as I did when I was younger though replace God with an impersonal law of the universe, that there were mystic forces at play beyond the natural world which did effect it in some but it has to balance like an equation because the natural world is basically run by a balance of numbers. So jump forward to 18 and basically I had done some rudimentary research one free masons, rosicrucians, the origin of Christianity, The Mysteries of Greece, Egypt and Israel, gnostics and druids and determined they all believed in at least one exterior realm. Pythagoras, Moses, Plato, Orpheus, Sir Frances Bacon and many others professed such realms but changed the names of the creatures. There were demons and angels, and to some all were demons, and most believed there was a realm for every element which kind of stuck my investigation because that's obviously a false speculation based on their limited understanding of the natural world. The egyptian priests even supposedly summoned demons and made pacts with them which brought along the take over of the religion in egypt from one that worshipped truth to one that worshipped them. So anyway, I came out of this research about ten times as confused as I started, and then i found the book Snowbarding to Nirvana and it turned me onto Buddhism. I realized that I couldn't understand what was beyond the natural world anyway on an intellectual level and that I just practiced trying to train my spiritual side in order to obtain understanding. But I still like research and playing with theories so I kept looking up intellectual understanding of the Beyond. I found that Buddha discovered pretty much everything Pythagoras and the rest discovered, but his teachings were free of false speculations and archetypal symbology inhereted by man at the birth of civilization. I didn't believe a word outright as I keep a skeptical outlook but as I found a description of what the Beyond was I realized that it fit into everything, it practically confirmed every single religion in the world in it's respective symbolism. (I have to exclude religions like mormonism and scientology) So yeah, I don't necessarily believe this, but it makes more sense to me than believing the natural world is alone and I believe it will be confirmed by furthering the practice. www.buddhanet.net/pdf_file/allexistence.pdf[/URL]] Existence according to Buddha

[Neruo]

At 13 I realized it was irrational to believe something just because I was told it was true. The classic gradual atheist fall-out followed but it wasn't complete. I began to believe, as I did when I was younger though replace God with an impersonal law of the universe, that there were mystic forces at play beyond the natural world which did effect it in some but it has to balance like an equation because the natural world is basically run by a balance of numbers. You seem to have excluded yourself from that law shortly after finding out about, as your absolutists statements show.

[Original Poster]

Read more carefully, as I said I've held onto my skepticism. After my studies of world religions I've determined this comprehension is all inclusive as long as one is willing to interpret other religions symbolically. These are symbols as well, making them imperfect. It's very easy to find contradiction in words that are meant to describe states of mind. I believe, however, that after many years of practice this most likely will be confirmed. That is total faith, and I'm not denying that, but it's a long ways away from just accepting something cause someone said so. I have considered everything I know, I'm not telling anyone this is the way it is, and I'm not inviting any flamers to tell me I'm an idiot, I'm simply posting a conclusion and some background so you know why I have that conclusion in hopes that maybe it'll generate understanding in all of us over time.