Phantom Stranger

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Posts by Phantom Stranger

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  14

  Lest We Forget

  by Scully in

  1. social
  2. current
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  Phantom Stranger

  Armistice Day, 1918.
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  27

  Meditation for health and spiritual development

  by logansrun in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  how many here meditate?

  what is your program of meditation like?

  with a group or by yourself?

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  Phantom Stranger

  You know, avoiding all books by Daniel Goleman wouldn't be bad, either...OK, OK, just be aware that not all writers are as full of themselves.

  He "narrated" a book about Destructive Emotions: How can we overcome them? A scientific dialogue with the Dalai Lama and other notables. A great introduction to the analytical side of the benefits of mindfulness, meditation, and practice - but the why does not good at all if you don't do.
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  27

  Meditation for health and spiritual development

  by logansrun in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  how many here meditate?

  what is your program of meditation like?

  with a group or by yourself?

  1. 
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  Phantom Stranger

  I didn't mean to compare them - only to cite a possible reason that we struggle to still the voice in our head.

  JT makes a point - you know what happens to you if you sit in your living room and meditate until you reach enlightenment? They come and take your house away...
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  41

  Does the sensationalism on this site help anyone?

  by logansrun in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  thread topics like "how to mess up the society"...."what dirty tricks would you pull on the watchtower" and "the society is about to go down the tubes!

  " don't impress me.

  honesty and forthrightness.

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  Phantom Stranger

  I suggest that letting vents live in writing is not neccesarily good. Venting - the blowing off of steam, the releasing of anger - is an in-the-moment activity. Giving these feelings, which are usually justifiable, a life that is extended past the moment of their usefulness, and exposes them to the kind of analysis that they are not intended to endure, is not neccesarily a good thing.
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  41

  Does the sensationalism on this site help anyone?

  by logansrun in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  thread topics like "how to mess up the society"...."what dirty tricks would you pull on the watchtower" and "the society is about to go down the tubes!

  " don't impress me.

  honesty and forthrightness.

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  Phantom Stranger

  well said, Craig.
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  27

  Meditation for health and spiritual development

  by logansrun in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  how many here meditate?

  what is your program of meditation like?

  with a group or by yourself?

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
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  Phantom Stranger

  Technically, meditating isn't thinking - it's not-thinking, but without lots of practice and discipline no one sustains this state for very long at all. I think that one of the reasons that XJWs struggle with meditation (aside from the scare stories) is that we don't know how to stop talking to ourselves in our heads - it's from ignoring all those meetings and assemblies! Seriously, this is true for many JWs and XJWs of my acquaintance.

  Yoga can be thought of as "moving meditation" - especially if you stay away from woo-woo or trendy fitness-oriented yoga and go with some traditional hatha breath-oreinted yoga. It's much easier to banish the constant chatter in our minds (even if only for an instant or two at first) when we are doing something with our bodies. The beneficial results are well documented in Jon Kabot-Zinn's books about stress and relaxation. He operates the Stress and Relaxation Center at the UMass Med chool, and he has had amazing results with health and wellness and pain management.

  As far as spiritual development...like many XJW's, I have a distrust of any program of spritual development. I have found that practicing unconditional giving, along with getting out of my head through yoga and relaxation techniques, sets me up to have more of what I would think of as a spritual grounding. But even without such a goal, I find these practices very rewarding, without any dogma or belief system attached to them (I do not embrace many of the teachings draped around yoga - but I find it beneficial to me regardless).
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  3

  Thanksgiving Is Okay

  by qua in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  thanksgiving's christian message of love: thanksgiving is celebrated in the phillippines, liberia, canada, guam, south korea, some of the carribbean region etc, and there were forerunners of it throughout germanic and slavic speaking nations.

  the bible records that god told the people of israel to celebrate an annual harvest festival.

  so it is false when some people claim thanksgiving is unbiblical or a nationalistic holiday for the u.s. alone although various colonies had thanksgiving, george washington made it into a national holiday and it was not regularly celebrated in the u.s. until abraham lincoln.

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  Phantom Stranger

  As Eddie Izzard says in Dress to Kill: "The pilgrims sailed from Plymouth and landed in...Plymouth! How lucky is that?"
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  41

  Does the sensationalism on this site help anyone?

  by logansrun in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  thread topics like "how to mess up the society"...."what dirty tricks would you pull on the watchtower" and "the society is about to go down the tubes!

  " don't impress me.

  honesty and forthrightness.

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  2. 
  3. 
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  Phantom Stranger

  Nice to see you back, Brad.

  I think it's escapism, but I don't believe that it's harmless. Actually, I think that it extends the power that the event/person/group has over you, to continue to focus on your relationship with the past instead of the future.
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  17

  Orlando area.

  by caspian in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  any one here from the orlando area that i can meet up with in january.

  i am out there for 3 weeks .

  cas.

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  Phantom Stranger

  If you bring Lainey, I'll fly out there :)
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  25

  Just Because We Disagree With Someone Doesn't Mean They're Not Welcomed

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i am seeing something interesting going on the board here.

  if a poster, especially, a new one says something considered unpopular around here, and another poster refutes or disagrees, some people suggest that we're not being kind or welcoming to new ones or to those that have a differing view.

  i don't think that this is what we're collectively trying to tell a person that doesn't share the majority viewpoint.

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  Phantom Stranger

  Stacy, my apologies for lack of clarity - I wasn't referring to the Aztec thread at all - I missed it entirely. I attempted to post that fact after I realized how this would read, but had hit my posting limit for the day :(

  I simply am referring to the fact that, when you want to, you have as sharp a tongue as anybody.

  And you are an adult, btw. Whether or not you know when to keep your mouth shut...:) who can say, really.

  Lates,

  PS