by journey-on 95 Replies latest jw friends
Good analogy.
In similar wording, what I am saying is that rather than wait on a god so tiny and limited as to be absent which our minds create, look deeper into our own immediate and intimate sense of being and existing for the Divine wholeness which is our true foundation.
The life raft is here. What ya going to do with it?
j
The life raft is here. What ya going to do with it?
I'd say if the person is so crazy/delerious that he doesn't have normal reasoning tell him that you're God!
I'm not a religious person and I have no beliefs in a god. What that means is I have no preconceived ideas which limit the Divine to some other place and time.
Rather than read a book like the Bible which subtracts significance and wholeness from the universe and places it in a deity, I have chosen to acutely delve into the reality of being and existing within the most intimate and immediate sense of aliveness here and now. I have seen that thoughts and beliefs can only reduce and circumscribe the Divine down to a thing or person. So I harbor no beliefs or thoughts about God, other than when I make my foolish and feeble attempts at explaining.
I am not saying I am God. In fact I have said I of myself am truly, truly nothing. What the word G-O-D points to, however, is without beginning and without end, and so is the foundational reality of all existence.
If you want to get pissy, why not yell at Christians for reducing God to a tiny thing? That's what I do.
j
If you want to get pissy, why not yell at Christians for reducing God to a tiny thing? That's what I do.
Pissy! I just love when British people say that! I wish I could hear it accent and all! That's cute!
You know you write like an insane genious?
You mean he did this on your first visit? He did no assessment of your mentality? He didn't check to see if you were suicidal? Man, he did cut straight to the chase. Didn't he?
No Mrs McDucket, he didn't do this on my first visit without assessing my mental state. He did this after we had gotten to know and respect each other after a period of months and after first asking my permission to speak bluntly and honestly. I had told him that I wanted someone who would challenge me and tell me honestly if I was not assessing things rationally. After being raised as a JW and buying into it for so many years I was not 100% trusting of my own powers of perception. Anyway, I appreciate people who cut right to the chase. It can be done kindly and respectfully without namecalling. Even so, it still hurts sometimes or makes us uncomfortable to see ourselves as other's see us, but in the end we don't grow if we refuse to step out of our comfortable views of ourselves and others and examine our own beliefs. Do we learn more from people who agree with us or from those who challenge our views? I believe it is the latter.
Cog
Do we learn more from people who agree with us or from those who challenge our views? I believe it is the latter.
I agree, but not right off the bat.
Just read through this whole thread..............I am awake due to toothache and I just want to say James, I am right with you. You have hit so many nails on the head!
Miss Ducket "I know your going to get pissy" actually we would say "You are pissed off" but I cant agree with you and maybe you should take some of James advice.
I just got home from a 12 hour shift at the hospital and this thread has certainly been enlightening and entertaining.
I realize that shunning is counterproductive, as many things are in personal relationships. I hope your family evolves to a higher level of dealing with each other and thanks for sharing your thoughts with us.
And James-just where do you get your ideas from? I understand that beliefs interfere with making honest and open connections. Any books you like to read? How does a person not have any beliefs?
Journey-on, a well-thought out post. I particularly enjoyed the way you made a distinction between disfellowshipping and shunning. You are right, the social consequences of shunning is enormous, and the Watchtower has a lot to answer for.
I also take comfort from the Christian concept that there is an eventual judgement that everyone must face for their life course.
I can see it in the eyes of the older ones in the hall, worn out eyes from a lifetime of deferred hope and compromise. They are carrying a lifetime of compromise to their own heart's call in order to remain in "good standing" with that corrupt organization.
JamesThomas, is it not just as dogmatic to insist that your way is the only way to freedom? I think you've diverted this thread with your own soapbox.
Choosing Life:
And James-just where do you get your ideas from? I understand that beliefs interfere with making honest and open connections. Any books you like to read? How does a person not have any beliefs?
In our practical day to day lives beliefs are helpful. I better believe that if I step in the path of a speeding truck there will be shit to pay. However, when it comes to the desire to meet with the bottomless depths of reality and our own foundational Identity, it's very important to see that beliefs (interpretive concepts of the mind) as valuable as they are, are of no value here. The mind inherently breaks things into conceptual pieces that it may get a grasp or sense of things. But this mental process of disuniting and cutting into understandable portions actually blinds consciousness to the immediate and present Wholeness that all phenomena exist within and as.
So, beliefs about our ultimate truth and significance need to be seen for the empty vessels that they are, and relinquished. This means we need to see that like thoughts and beliefs about a tree, are not a tree, all thoughts and beliefs about "self" and universe, "God" and "Divinity" (for me these words point to genuine Reality, and not some mind generated fragments or deities) are not the actuality we seek. That said, it is generally very difficult to let go of cherished beliefs about our "self" and our personal gods. One needs to be very brave, or perhaps "insane" to pull the rug out from under themselves.
Relinquishing beliefs leaves an openness. When all that is believed about self and other, is absent, there is still the presence of what IS. So, we silently investigate into the most close, intimate and immediate sense of being and existing. Everything believed about self and other, may be a lie, but existence is real. Dive into the pool of silent be-ing, and see what pearls and wonder can be found there.
jgnat:
JamesThomas, is it not just as dogmatic to insist that your way is the only way to freedom? I think you've diverted this thread with your own soapbox.
Yes, in the attempts to answer people, it seems I have hijacked this thread. I am uncomfortable about that and apologize for it.
As far as dogma, I am not asking anyone to believe anything, rather acutely and thoroughly investigate for themselves. All I am saying is what some other fellow once said:
"The Kingdom of God, is within you."
j
