educ8self

Joined

• started 8 topics
• posted 251 times   see topics posted on
• send a message

Posts by educ8self

• 
  33

  The Way To Love

  by JamesThomas in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  one of my favorite little books is: the way to love: the last meditations of anthony de mello.. following is from the chapter: be awake.

  it may be too direct, ruthlessly honest and straight-forward for many; we are not normally exposed to such hard-hitting guidance.

  yet some of you it will touch in a significant way; enough to purchase this rare little gem that you may gleem from its pages much wisdom.. .

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  educ8self

  Thanks for sharing that with us. I will look it up. I have been trying a little experiment when I find myself becoming irritated or just dismissive of others. I tell myself, Hey, that is me, meaning that we are not so separate as my mind tells me. I find this immediately stops the stories or judgements in my mind.

  I don't exactly know how to word this, but it brings me into the present and helps me be much less judgmental.

  Remember it doesn't really matter if you have stories or a judgemental attitude, it's natural for the mind to do that. (not to mention you are not your mind anyway, but we won't get into that) You don't have to do anything, including doing something to make yourself stop doing other things deemed negative - which in the end is a whole lot of doing all around! You can just be yourself, and although there's no guarantees, people seem to lose interest in doing the stories and judgement bit as a result. I mean, why bother? There are plenty of other people doing it if you are ever interested in such things.
• 
  33

  The Way To Love

  by JamesThomas in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  one of my favorite little books is: the way to love: the last meditations of anthony de mello.. following is from the chapter: be awake.

  it may be too direct, ruthlessly honest and straight-forward for many; we are not normally exposed to such hard-hitting guidance.

  yet some of you it will touch in a significant way; enough to purchase this rare little gem that you may gleem from its pages much wisdom.. .

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  educ8self

  I would only add that our true Self, is Love itself, as it has no "other" to hate. It is the false "self" that feels itself a separate and broken entity, hungry, fearful, and in need, that blinds consciousness to the truth of its freedom, purity and wholeness. This is why thorough inner-investigation into self and being is so very, very important. We are, the peace that we seek right now. It just needs to be seen.

  Yes, it depends on which self - and which perspective you are coming from. When people come from the perspective of separation (more often than not) I guess I just go with that, even if there is some sense of the wholeness of the body of Love you might say, because to be really conscious of it would take a more sudden and direct perception than a vague sense of peace and harmony, which is simply how it registers as feelings in the human body. And I'm sure you appreciate that even after it is clearly seen there is a whole process of enveloping your way of being, which is very different from recognition here or there, though of course everyone's experience is different.

  Hmm, I am reminded of that Gandi quote "Be the change you wish to see in the world." I suppose you could also say "Be the world you wish to change and See"...
• 
  20

  atheism vs anti-theism + God as height vs God as depth

  by DeusMauzzim in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  sharing some thoughts and questions while reading gott ist anders (honest to god) by john a.t robinson:.

  disclaimer: if you are a biblical litteralist you might think: what is all the fuss about?

  thesis: the mythological speech of the bible, taken litterally, is simply meaningless to modern scientific man.. examples: god walking in the garden, punishing adam and his children (justice?!

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  educ8self

  It's just a matter of concepts, and perspective.

  If you want to use God for the ground of being, fine - it's just a word. FROM the ground of being, if you will this has little meaning to me, frankly because I see this kind of stuff intellectualized a lot by people (northern California) who have have seen very little of that depth, and their education and effort seem to get in the way more than anything - although of course it doesn't have to. Someone interested in this probably has some sense or functioning stemming from that depth, but what I've found is more often than not they get caught up in the conceptual description and it is very apparent that they lose sight of it, even if conceptually they agree with someone else who is more in touch with that depth. This is why in those old Zen koans they have commentary like if you say yes or no, or say anything you have left it.

  So I guess I would say, if you want to come up with a potentially useful intellectual framework, it's probably as good as anything. If you want to plumb the depths, something entirely different is involved.
• 
  19

  Public talk cut down to 30 minutes

  by katiekitten in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  has anyone else heard this?

  (apologies if this has already been discussed).

  my inactive mum has an active jw friend with an elder husband.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  educ8self

  You down with ADD? Yeah you know m.. Oh look, a chicken!
• 
  30

  What Advice Would You Give A JW Thinking Of Leaving Or One Who's Left?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  any thoughts?

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  educ8self

  "How well do you know yourself? It's not a matter of being self involved, but you just have to be honest with yourself. How can you honestly believe something is the truth if you don't even know yourself very well?"
• 
  5

  Banned dual baptism

  by 5thGeneration in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i just saw the beautiful picture of my wife being baptized with her grandfather 20 years ago that i framed for her.. then i remembered that the society has now banned being baptized along side a loved one and sharing it them.. they of course feel that baptism is between you and jehovah.

  not true!.

  dedicating yourself is between you and jehovah not the visual display of baptism.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  educ8self

  Damn, I guess i'll never see the double-mint twins from the Wrigly's gum commercial being dunked at the same time... Well, there is that clone factor anyway.
• 
  286

  WHAT do YOU know about JESUS... and His teachings?

  by hibiscusfire in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  i am interested to know what you know about jesus and what you really think of his teachings.. the bible says there is only one way to heaven.. jesus said: "i am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the father but by me.

  " (john 14:6) .

  the lord jesus was crucified and shed his precious blood to wipe away our sins (revelation 1:5).

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  educ8self

  Well, some may say that even the highest level of symbolism is still beneath the absolute. But we're talking about Jesus. Lets make a distinction between Jesus and Christ. There are a lot of guys named Jesus, I work in an area with a large spanish speaking population and I can guarantee you there are a lot of Jesus there, maybe even some carpenters - but I doubt any of them are the Christ. Now regardless of the personal existence part, (yeah I know ransom etc, just hang on for a second) what's important is whether there is this Christ aspect right? After all this is where salvation comes in isn't it? So if we look at just the Christ principle, and connect that with statements like "before Abraham was, I AM", and remember that isn't about existing before, not I WAS ALREADY, it's present tense, here and now.

  Now mind you, if you're going to have any ideas about this sense of presence you have to leave the here and now - after all don't all your thoughts require something from the past? Even expressing them requires a length of time, a beginning and an end, however brief it may be. But if you remain in the NOW of I AM, there is NO TIME to tell your story about Jesus or any narrative. It doesn't say I am this or I am that, the emphasis is clearly on I AM. All stories about Jesus would amount to adding something after the I am, and giving it a completely different meaning. So it is when people talk about Jesus they have this whole personality and history added to it - making the I AM something else.
• 
  33

  The Way To Love

  by JamesThomas in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  one of my favorite little books is: the way to love: the last meditations of anthony de mello.. following is from the chapter: be awake.

  it may be too direct, ruthlessly honest and straight-forward for many; we are not normally exposed to such hard-hitting guidance.

  yet some of you it will touch in a significant way; enough to purchase this rare little gem that you may gleem from its pages much wisdom.. .

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  educ8self

  I believe it has been said that all the various ways people cling to their objects of desire is essentially confused love. They even call it love, like the desire for the next cool widget that is expected to bring fulfillment, or THE person (or their idea of them) for a great relationship - but of course it doesn't, not lasting fulfillment anyway. The description here brings to mind words like intimacy, tenderness, (Neelam) and vulnerability. Now at this point we might start to lose our more masculine audience if they had decided to read this thread, so let me point out that the quote of gladiators "those about to die salute you" symbolizes entering the arena of love. Just the other day I heard the quote by Jami: "only love can free you from yourself." Looked at it another way, we can say the only thing keeping you from the freedom of love is yourself.
• 
  344

  Tell Us Something We Probably Don't Know About You

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i'll start.. i love the jerky boys and "prank" candid camera/punked types of humor.. i also love r&b, soul, funk and disco.. now what can you tell us about yourself that we might've never guessed?.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  educ8self

  I'm going to SuperCuts in a minute, AND I've got a coupon!

  Oh you probably want something else? It's $2.00 off! Okay.. Besides the fact that I'm frugal.. Since I'm enoying socializing a bit more these days it's kind of a pull between people time and things like reading and enrichment stuff. One specific thing: I registered for a Hebrew class. (don't get too excided bible folk, I would take another root language like Sanskrit but they don't offer it at the local college)
• 
  42

  Official JW forum right?!

  by TLK in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i came here expecting to find a range of jw's and check out their beliefs and thinking.

  however, what i find is largely disaffected or ex jw's and atheists etc.

  with hindsight i am not that surprised either!

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  educ8self

  http://www.watchtower.org/

  There's no forum, they don't even let you write an email - just to indicate you want a bible study and let them know where you live to visit you. See they don't really want to hear what you think, just tell you what they think - you know the kind of people I'm talking about?