Sorry darling for the mouthy fingers. but you asked I replied
Well Little Toe mentioned something about Grace, so I thought you'd be the one to talk to.
No really, thank you. Maybe it's just that I'm not ready for what you talk about. I don't know. But I do know I want to get squared away before my time is over. I'm not convinced that the only way to God is through Jesus, with all due respect I think that limits God. Nina thinks I make things more difficult than they need to be; maybe she's right.
I'm reminded of the painting where Jesus is knocking on the door. There is a handle on only one side of the door; His side doesn't have a handle-He wants us to open it. God respects our decision and unless we ask, He won't interfere.
I don't mean to sound in any way difficult, but I've never heard things like this very well. GQ I know you mean well, but my first thought when I read your post was: "But I did ask and he ignored me." And you know, at the end of the day, that's exactly what happened. And I'm not really very interested in hearing "wait on God" or "God moves in mysterious ways" or any of that other crap. You know, that didn't do me a whole lot of good while my grandfather was raping me as a pre-schooler. Nor was God around when my mother screwed with my mind about a billion times growing up. I'm sorry, but God, Jesus, Buddha and Superman just don't give a shit about me. I'd much rather think of God wanting to help but unable, rather than being all-powerful and choosing not to. I don't know why, but I still give to him better motives than he's shown me.
Okay I know I've still got anger at God, maybe it's a parental transference. Anyway, please know GQ I am not aiming anything at you. You've responded very kindly in this thread and just know how much I appreciate your spirit.
Big Tex, getting back to your first post, well I found this article intriguing, it is a "debate" consisting of Micheal Shermer's(editor of Skeptic mag) response to a book by Deepak Chorpra on evidence for the afterlife, and Chorpra's rebuttal to it.
http://www.skeptic.com/reading_room/debates/afterlife.html
Thank you! I'm backlogged now on reading material. I've been offline since Sunday because not only one but now both computers have been infected and I'm struggling along until I can back everything up and re-format both of them.
Anyway when I'm up and running at full speed I will absolutely catch up on my reading.
I'm curious - which book on buddhism did jst2laws reccommend. I've browsed through books on buddhism in bookstores - but it seems such a big subject I've ended up not buying anythin.
Well actually I don't know if any of these books are about Buddhism. He and I had a rather metaphysical discussion (one which I found fascinating by the way), so I don't know if any of these books cover what you're interested in, but here's the list he sent me:
Spontaneous Fulfilment of Desire By Depack Chopra
The Power of Intention By Wayne Dyer The Matter Myth by Paul Davies and John Gribbin Mind into Matter by Fred Alan Wolf The Field by Lynne McTaggert The Self-Aware Universe by Amit Goswami He said if you're looking for a place to start, begin with Depack Chopra's book (which I intend to this weekend when I get paid. ). I hope he chimes in, or starts a thread because I was really very interested in listening to what he had to say about this particular subject (life and death).Zen is, I think, a Japanese or Tibetan form of Buddhism. The term Zen comes from 'zazen' which means "sitting" as in meditation. All of the forms of B'hism are based on the Buddha's teachings, which don't have much to do with gods. The belief systems are very similar. Zen is more of a non-religious philosophy or psychology, independent of theism (it's irrelevant whether one believes in a god).
Thanks, I didn't know that. You know, that's one thing I'm hearing loud and clear from this thread: the need to listen to silence. That alone is a great help to me (assuming a couple of little people allow such silence!).
"we" are is not our bodies or even our minds, but the essence is that which observes what we think, the Observer or Watcher. This is the part that is reborn into different bodies. It's not that WE have a spirit or "soul" but that the spirit or soul has us (our bodies). The same way that WE may not have genes, but that genes have us. And genes are not so much recycled but passed on thru different bodies. The same may be true of the consciousness of us.
There is no why really, just that, like gravity or some other universal law, it just is. There isn't any god overseeing it, determining what we learn, etc. The details of the growth that we have wouldn't have to be recalled for the growth to take place during a lifetime. And the teachings seem to be that the lessons aren't lost, tho not recalled.
Maybe it's a universal law like gravity or magnetism. Before the laws were discovered, it may have seemed mysterious the way things behaved. Maybe there's some undiscovered universal law that would explain reincarnation.
I hear you Pat, and it's all good. Thank you for sharing, I really do appreciate it. I want to understand, and I think before I truly understand I've got to make myself open to everything.
My only problem with coming back, is I don't really want to. And I really mean it. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy certain parts of the physical, but for the most part in my opinion this life just sucks big time. It's filled with trauma and anxiety and sadness and pressure. It just doesn't let up. One movie quote that hit home with me is from "Best Friends" when Jessica Tandy said, "Life has a way of just beating the shit out of you."
It's just the unrelenting nature of this life that gets to me and the idea that I've got to go through this again (or God forbid worse!), sorry I'm just not interested. Maybe I'm one of those high-maintence wimpy souls who can't handle a couple of problems.
That's kind of how Buddhism is: personal growth on your own journey or path. It's not arguable nor dogmatic. Just a peaceful tool for inner exploration and growth.
Now this I can agree with wholeheartedly. I do feel as if I'm on a journey. Now what that journey is, or where I'm going I don't know. Earlier in this thread I said I believe in dreams. And I've had some interesting ones along the way. One, at least to my own narcissistic mind, was while I was in therapy and I dreamed I was flying a WWI bi-plane across the ocean. I had no compass, no idea where I was going, except for the sun. I just knew I had to follow the sun. So maybe that means I'm really Paul McCartney's love child.
P.S. I don't have a formatting bar on my reply screen, so it's turning out weird and I can't change the font or anything. Any ideas?
Depends on what you're using. Simon built this software to run on Microsoft-based software, so if you're using Foxfire, or Netscape (or whatever else) you're in big trouble as this board is not friendly towards non-Microsoft programs. This board works best if you use Explorer.
Chris