Have you ever had " a moment of clarity"?

by elderelite 46 Replies latest jw experiences

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  treadnh2o

  Absolutely!

  I remember exactly where i was (in my home office). It was Saturday night before I was giving a public talk I was preparing the talk on prophecy and it "hit me like a brick".

  I realized:

  This religion has not gotten anything right in its existence. The leaders were allowed to change beliefs without consequence under the guise of "new light". The irony of the self nicknamed "The Truth" annoyed the heck out of me.

  These same leaders were so busy imposing man made rules that they were just as the Scribes and Pharisees Jesus described.

  And finally, this religion requires an individual to judge others while admonishing us not to.

  And here is the clarity I had: "This religion is no different than any other religion they condemn. In fact it is probably worse".

  I told my wife I was out that week.
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  little witch

  Thank You E for this post. Wow.. I had to think on it for a minute, isn't that sad? What I have is this.... I was in a LONG Long long....dwindling relationship.

  I didn't even know who I was. I had no life....I had a moment of clarity while sitting under the stars one night... That it was MY TURN. That time was wasting and it was finally MY TURN!!! I had never been selfish, was always somebody elses somebody (if that makes any sense). It was another abuse against me and I just had had enough. I took control of my life at that moment, and I remember it well.

  Thanks again for asking, that rocks.

  LW
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  elderelite

  I love reading these stories... thanks to all who have taken the time to share
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  man in black

  back in the early 90's I was in the car waiting for my wife after a Saturday at the DA in Chicago Illinois. I had an almost two hour drive ahead in heavy traffic. My two son's ( 6 and 10) were in the back seat just exhausted after sitting for two days in the heat wearing a suit and tie.

  I looked back at them and realized that kids this age should be enjoying their life, not feeling and looking like they did.

  That was a VERY clarifiying moment for me. From that point on I believe that I had started my fade. My kids, and how they lived their younger days was more important to me than getting some sort of "brownie points" from God or an organization.
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  techdotcom

  I've had several, some kinda silly or funny but deep as well and some that were what you might expect.

  1) Having my mother talk bad about a homeless person and calling them a 'wino' and me realizing and saying that there was no way to know what/who that person was and it wasn't right or fair to assume.

  2) At much to young of an age being asked to choose what parent to live with. The early wakeup call about choice and responsibility shook me deeply and makes up a big part of what I am now.

  3) First direct contact with a breast in a sexual manner....sigh....sorry but for me a deep and almost spiritual feeling.

  4) Many small moments as a JW seeing things for what they were but trying to hold on to my honor and keep a promise I made to what I now believe is just a fantasy.

  5) Seeing my wife come out of the religion and meeting the her I always suspected was in there, for real....and being totally blown away by how much I like and love her.
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  Lozhasleft

  Some moving posts on here ...I like your No 5 very much techdotcom.

  Loz x
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  DanaBug

  Oh yes! About a month ago, my fiance said to me, "You know, it's not your fault you don't have your family. It's the religion's fault."

  Amazing it took me 6 years to realize that. Especially since I was raised in the religion, baptized at 12 and df'd for being a rebelious teenager (smoking, sex, drinking, etc). That's the moment I realized I want nothing to do with this ever again and I will not let my daughter near it. Sadly, I don't think my parents will ever realize this.

  (Also amazing he's stuck around this long, lol, hasn't been easy!)
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  LouBelle

  VoidEater what you wrote resonates with me.

  I have had many moments, when things are crystal clear, when the revelation of it has brought me to gasp in wonder and has moved me to tears - it touches me so. Some of those experiences are very difficult to put into words as they were for me and my growth.

  There is one thing though which relates to JWism - when I did have moment of absolute clarity that it wasn't the truth and I had made up my mind I was going to leave no matter the price. Now every day I drive past the hall and every day I amazingly grateful for my freedom, for breaking away, for finding myself.
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  poppers

  I entered (you dont physically think about the movement or cause them, they just happen) and traveled the 30 ft length in awe and suddenly came out of the tunnel.. into open ocean. i froze. having been travling over the bottom of the the tunnel it seemed that i was "on the bottom" of the ocean, but suddenly the ground dropped out and now i was litteraly hovering over a void. a void so deep, so vast, so impossibly blue,totally silent, so utterly empty and perfect, I had that moment of clarity. I feel it even now as i type this, excatly as i experianced it then/now. i understood. i understood everything and nothing. i was totally empty of myself but full of all things. I had perfect peace, devoid of any and all senses, thoughts feelings emotions.. i dont know if i am breathing.. it dosent matter..

  I really enjoyed reading this. It sounds like a classic "enlightenment" experience, a satori, a kensho. Your experience reminds me of accounts of people who hear a twig snap or see a snowflake land on their hand and they "wake up" to their true nature. The zen tradition is filled with such stories.

  Beneath all of the mental noise and all of the "stories about me", beneath all thoughts of past and future, there is this emptiness that is the container of all. Realizing that emptiness is truly significant because it exposes the life we had previously lived as a kind of waking dream that we had been caught up in. Yes, the "eternal now" is key.

  It was a moment of perfect clarity without doubt or fear or wonder. A moment of perfect Being. The clarity was not in this case knowing what to do, but knowing that nothing must be done. I was free from ego and monkey mind.

  I was free of judgment - of myself or others.

  I was present in the eternal moment of now.

  Yes!
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  Found Sheep

  I had to waite for my husband while he was on a job interview. I sat for an hour or two and just watched gold fish in this small outside pond. It hit me how wonderful God is to create this and how small the JW world is... That was the start of me living my life and not thinking I had to answer to them...