@Electric_Banana Said
I was thinking something along the same lines...not in regards to Tariki's Buddhist Pure Land but after spending about five minutes on FaceBook right now, I don't know if it is just my warped perception but everyone participating on there appear to have been bamboofled into a state of mindless loving euphoria.
Granted nothing malevolent but still the overall ambiance was prosthetic and subtly disturbing.
If not allowed to descend into extremes it is those darker shades of soul which apply contrast, color and life to life.
I believe to each is own and the same with the reality they feel serves them best however hanging onto atheist or agnostic rationality makes more sense of the situation.
For instance, from the Twilight Zonish viewpoint brought on through theism I stopped on FaceBook and wondered if I'm existing in some really nonsensical Kurt Vonnegut novel. I'm sure it might be spiffy to explode into nothing but sunshine and smiles and walk around constantly aloof using the term 'love' like Smurfs use the term 'Smurf' but it seems to drift too far into an opposite extreme where the shades are lost along with that which makes life feel natural, genuine and well...real.
Obviously I can't go through life constantly spooking myself like this. The rational perspective brings things back down to Earth once again suggesting that nothing 'mystic' is taking place, it is just that people more and more have given up and decided to just talk themselves and everything around them pretty.
Apparently it does work.
But so does wearing a carrot suite to go shopping in the winter to keep me warm.
From my own personal end of things I've been finding it easiest just to ignore it all, all together.
Most things in life are a box that you can never open - you can just sit around guessing at the all or nothing that is inside. You wonder if the box is your friend or if the box is an opponent but ultimately there a million and one more interesting things to spend your time doing than spending all day playing guessing games with the box.
Unfortunately this is what happens in a lot of false and apostate Christian faiths, Stan has made them so attractive that people are sucked in by an overly broad stress on love of everyone, no matter what, and ignoring the fact that whilst God says that we should love all humanity, as He does, we should also follow His example of hating what some do. The principle behind that is simple. If you love someone enough, you hate whatever upsets them. God has let us know exactly what hurts and upsets Him so that is what we will hate if we love God enough. The only problem there is you have to get to know Him before you can truly love Him, and so few bother to get that close to the God who gave us all we have (if only by supplying all the ingredients, lol).
That is one of the things I love about true Christianity, it follows God's lead, and that of His son, which was identical anyway, as faithfully as they can manage. That was what I was looking for in a faith so it is hardly surprising that I am totally sold on it once I found it.
Oh, and don't let them get your goat, you can get some good meals off a goat, lol.