I came into the world alone and will leave it the same.
No one can walk with you through death, so I will choose to leave with love, courage and honour.
i'm a truck driver and thus in one of the highest casulity profession and also ride a motorcycle...will my death be by motor vehicle or natural causes...i wonder sometimes...the moment of death what will it be like...
I came into the world alone and will leave it the same.
No one can walk with you through death, so I will choose to leave with love, courage and honour.
hi all!.
i'm seeking jehovah's witnesses from australia..
WHY?
there has been much talk about the reasons for the demise of the book study.
the society claim rising gas/petrol prices, which of course is not the real reason.
some here think its down to declining numbers of elders and those who are reaching out.
Interesting theory P/mint
Me? I think it's more mundane. Modern people don't have the attention span, or time, for so many meetings per week. It's the easiest meeting to get rid of and overall the drones will see it as a "blessing" from a loving org, who wish to ease their burden.
ceremoneys, costumes, spending time in church listenning the same thing again and again, forced to believe in things that cannot be proven.
code or mindset that seperates you from others, wars, violence,....
As far as religion being good for your mental/physical health, so is owning a cat.
My old man was a committed athiest and lived to 94, smoked all his life, had a mind completely free of depression or the debilitating effects of old age.
Religion divides but spirituality and inquisitiveness opens the mind.
the dubs aren't supposed to?.
i remember being told that the book study was a necessary provision.
it was expected that the dubs would make whatever sacrifices were needed to attend.
I ran into a jw yesterday for the first time in yrs. He told me about the loving gb how considerate they are to remove the burden of so many meetings. He was shocked that I new about the change weeks ago as it was just announced this week.
Also asked why I left, so I explained the generation change. He knew neither the old stand, or the new, despite being 45 yrs old raised a witness and is now a travelling speaker!!
He said I don't look for detail I just see the love.......
What can you do for such people?
i think the loss of the book study will hit some like a death of a friend.
it will mark the end of an era.
it will forever change the religion of jehovah's witnesses and i believe the change is completely irreversible.. of course, most witnesses will be delighted by this.
If you look at the jw org over the last 15 or 20 yrs there has been a marked coming in to the fold with main stream religion. (What attracted me to jws was their radical non conforming attitude. Sorta alternative to the alternative lifestyle))
Easing back on blood, voting, on and off higher education, joining the U.N. tricky tax dodging, buying large tracts of real estate, hassling for "donations" and most imortant, the scaling back of the urgency of armageddon ( I have never had a jw knock on my door in 10yrs. Where have they gone?).
So less meetings means jws are slowly and intentionally, becoming a .....church!
As a side note, how many jws were disfellowshipped for gluttony? I never heard of one but many an elder I knew ate to distraction. Two I can think of who were pensioned off because of their size. One used to boast of eating a 3 litre container of ice cream every night after stuffing all day. Probably dead now....
So what is gluttony in the wt's eyes??
what are some major changes during these years that i was completely in the dark about?
these are the years that i was in.
Oh, and "higher" education was a no no until Brookyn needed to update to computers and the old geezers needed a hospital to keep them running.
Suddenly a call for nerds, Drs and nurses. When need was filled, it was a nono again.
what are some major changes during these years that i was completely in the dark about?
these are the years that i was in.
As I hazily recall, the heart was the seat of motivation until the mid 70's( so it couldn't be transplanted). Then it became "just a pump". I guess one of the GB needed a heart transplant!!!
this topic is meant as a follow-up of my recent conversation with r. crusoe on different threads.. it seems to me that the current popularisation of eckhart tolle's philosophy, resurrecting what i think is the very core of age-old mystical traditions (to put it shortly: death of the culturally constructed "self"), without the collective mythological, institutional and social settings for such an experience, is potentially very liberating but also very dangerous.. i am sensitive to that because i went through a similar experience when i left jws -- i felt both its empowering and destructive force, and, although i certainly don't claim to have dealt with it optimally (is that an adverb?
), i'm hoping that experience, good or bad, may benefit others, to an extent.
and i'm sure that i'm not alone in that case.. so i'd like this thread to be primarily supportive, even though that may include some theoretical and practical criticism.. .
This is the great debate JWF
Is the mystical state just a form of madness and more importantly, does it improve our day to day life experience?
I have experimented with LSD and DMT and have come to the conclusion that they are toys. They are amusing for the ego as far as recalling the experience to others. Sometimes terrifying, sometimes meaningful but are of themselves not the key to any "enlightenment".
I look at people like Tolle and wonder, would he be a loving and attentive husband and father? What practical benefit to humanity are his vague, far off stares and distant giggles at something he finds terribly amusing. His message is simple.
Stay in the present.
Well, I guess he is at least making millions for himself out of it!