This post is an attempt to explain the reasoning behind the conversations between Zhenren and Selene.  Zhenren represents an individual looking for enlightenment.   Selene represents Zhenren’s personal god.

Our family likes from time to time to go out to Sunday brunch.  One Sunday, we chose to go to El Torito Restaurant.  When we entered the restaurant close to our house, I noticed something different going on inside the restaurant.  Very close to where the omelets are prepared was a layout of clothing, looked like shirts in piles and some product information on the same table.  As we were seated in a separate room, I noticed that behind my wife was a family seated in a booth that seemed to know what was going on as people would come up and chat.  I decided to walk over and ask if my suspicions were true or not.  A women that looked like your typical soccer mom, the apparent mother to a number of children at the table, told me that indeed the restaurant had agreed to host the event.  It seems that their daughter had committed suicide a few years earlier.  As a tribute to their daughter, to keep her memory alive, they decided to form their own teen suicide prevention organization called Hope.  The mother told me how their daughter’s suicide had totally shocked them and led to their realizing that this is a more common problem than most people realize.  Their efforts were to make families with children aware of this in an effort to save lives.  I agreed to put their web site as a link to this one.  When I got home I did some research and found out that indeed this is a serious problem.  I just could not get it out of my mind as to why some young person would end their life.

The conversations between Zhenren and Selene is my extremely  small attempt to contribute to aiding in preventing teen suicide.

I some times kid around by saying that I sort of have given up on helping adults because they had their chance at life, old enough to have enjoyed all this for a while, made their choices, and now must live the choices they made out as results or outcomes.  Poor choices naturally and typically result in poor outcomes.  Adults become set in their ways and typically chose not to be open minded to new ideas and new information which stops mid course adjustments and even realization that former assumptions about life were wrong.  So, the dialogues between Zhenren and Selene are my attempt to provide a new philosophy for young people.  It just might be too late for adults to come to enlightenment if they have not yet attained it.  The conversations try to bring truth rather than authority for your consideration.  All the posts here try to reveal, examine and share truth elements.

Zhenren represents a person looking for answers, looking for enlightenment which might also be a teenager somewhere.  Selene is that person’s personal god.  What is ironic is that Selene does not exist.   Selene tells Zhenren what I want her to say.  That does not make me god, I just take what I have learned and put them out for Zhenren and others to accept or deny.

This embedded philosophy is an attempt to base this belief upon truth and not existing authority or any type of authority.  This philosophy tries hard to start with a clean slate of logic, if that is possible, look for the truth elements and come up with answers that work for now and into the future.

What is most disappointing to me is to study other religions and find that they are based upon a foundation that just does not hold up to the truth.  There is no reason for a philosophy to be complex beyond anyone’s everyday complete comprehension and many religions seem overly complex probably because they are founded upon evolution of thought and principles by many people who did not share the same ideals but had a hand in the outcome.  There is no reason for a belief system to require a priest to read a thick book that is difficult to comprehend by the masses and open to interpretation and manipulation by the priest.  There is no reason that a belief system needs to be based upon paying others money to subscribe.  There is no reason why a belief system requires attendance at certain functions.  There is no reason why a belief system requires a person to show homage to any person living or dead, icon, or imaginary figure.  A religion’s sole reason for existing is to give comfort to the individual, not a tool for manipulation.  I encourage you to find your own enlightenment based upon science and not suspicions or authority.