Bringing this to the top.
Introspection
JoinedPosts by Introspection
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Loving-kindness meditation
by Introspection inthis is a version of metta (loving-kindness) meditation by phillip moffet, a teacher of insight meditation.
you're supposed to say it to yourself first (using the word i instead of you) then direct to loved ones, and eventually to difficult persons.
may you be safe from internal and external harm.. may you have a calm, clear mind and a peaceful, loving heart.. may you be physically strong, healthy and vital.. may you experience love, joy, wonder and wisdom.
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Explosion in Dayton, Ohio
by larc intwenty minutes ago, there were two large explosions in dayton, ohio.
they were strong enough to vibrate my house.
the local news reported that a plane struck the veterans administration building about 5 miles from my house.
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Introspection
Glad things are okay in your neighborhood Larc, nice to see you back on the board. Take care.
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Pentagon Bombing!
by Tina inack,check the news.
carl sagan on balancing openness to new ideas with skeptical scrutiny..."if you are open to the point of gullibility and have not an ounce of skeptical sense-you cannot distinguish useful ideas from worthless ones.
"
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Introspection
I'm thinking of how the R&F witnesses will interpret this as a part of the sign of the last days. Of course, there aint no peace and security right now is there?
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Intro's quote-o-rama
by Introspection ini guess i've been inspired by stephen's quote threads, so i'm going to start one myself.. not one particular author here, just whatever i can find:.
q: why do you think that people are so protective of their egos?
why is it so hard to let go of one's ego?.
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Introspection
Ken Wilber speaking of an essay he wrote some two decades ago titled "The Pre/Trans Fallacy":
The idea is simple: since both pre-rational and trans-rational are non-rational, they are easily confused. And then one of two very unpleasant things happens: either you reduce genuine, transrational, spiritual realities to infantile, prerational states; or you elevate childish, prerational sentiments to transcendental glory. In the first case you deny spiritual realities altogether, since you think they are all infantile rubbish. In the second case, you end up glorifying childish myth and preverbal impulse. You are so intent on transcending rationality, which is fine, that you go overboard and champion anything that is not rational, including much that is frankly prerational, regressive, downhill.
-One Tase, The Journals of Ken Wilber -
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Looking for definitive answers . . .HELP
by patio34 inone comment i hear from my jw son a lot is that "the organization (capital o!
) is made up of imperfect men, so they make mistakes.
" what are some answers to that?
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Introspection
I don't want to go off topic, but this is related anyways.. What do you guys think about what one might call "reaching the heart" for lack of a better way of describing it? I can understand how some will view that as involving emotional motivations, but I think there's a different way of looking at it.
I think what it comes down to is a difference between rationalizing the issue and actually being engaged in the realities involved. For those of you with some psych background, you know what rationalization involves. Basically, we're looking at the difference between sounding reasonable for argument's sake and actually being putting two and two together in the real world. The former is just an intellectual construct, (not necessarily a very logical one, but intellectual) the latter engages the person's common sense and real world life experiences. I know this can be better explained, but do you guys see what I'm saying here?? I think this is why sometimes reasoning which may be logical and very plain to us will not work. It's like there's such compartmentalization that one area in the brain is for religion, and everything else is separate, or has very specific, limited interactions (or even one-directional communication, that is to only receive) with that part so that potential contradictions would be cut off from the flow to maintain the weird circuitry. So the question is, how can we make some more connections between religious doctrine and the real world? I think it has something to do with catching someone off guard, and pointing to something that would be very obvious to a mind that is more of a single coherent system.
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Intro's quote-o-rama
by Introspection ini guess i've been inspired by stephen's quote threads, so i'm going to start one myself.. not one particular author here, just whatever i can find:.
q: why do you think that people are so protective of their egos?
why is it so hard to let go of one's ego?.
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Introspection
"Why don't you make like a tree, and get outta here.." -Biff from Back to the Future
Sorry, it was on the other night.
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Looking for definitive answers . . .HELP
by patio34 inone comment i hear from my jw son a lot is that "the organization (capital o!
) is made up of imperfect men, so they make mistakes.
" what are some answers to that?
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Introspection
Prop, I have to point out one thing and that's the fact that if one expects to be resurrected (not to mention good old peer pressure) dying for your beliefs is not dying in their belief system. This also puts a lot of other things into perspective, because there is the potential motivation of salvation, rather than love for God or righteousness.
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A Thought for the Day to help us when we post
by ozziepost in"out of the same mouth come praising and cursing.
my brothers, this should not be.
can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring?.
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Introspection
All the same, it is not too good for the individual if one becomes schizo in their extremes.
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Behavioral Insight
by MikeNightHaShev indespite all the different theories of the purpose for this world and its order, mankind still suffers, and still doesn't understand why nature acts up on us this way.
aren't we the very reason for nature's cruelty to the living world?
when will we finally wake up and realize that we are all part of a whole, and everything we do causes a reaction and affects everything else, including our own emotions, causing us to make bad choices and experience cruel consequences.. take the nature of hate and aggression for instance.
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Introspection
It's interesting to note that in the book Integral Psychology, Wilber outlines a model of human development from egocentric, ethnocentric, worldcentric to theocentric. (incidentally, he's a Buddhist so that is not quite what one might think) Those who may be interested can see one model he uses/integrates at this old post:
http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/forum/thread.asp?id=5988&site=3
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Looking for definitive answers . . .HELP
by patio34 inone comment i hear from my jw son a lot is that "the organization (capital o!
) is made up of imperfect men, so they make mistakes.
" what are some answers to that?
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Introspection
Found that other scripture, it's Jude 4.
It did occur to me that technically, they're using imperfection rather than the undeserved kindness/forgiveness as an excuse. But then you can go back to the individual. "Oh, well what if a person commits these acts of transgression (insert whatever you think would be most appealing to him) continuously and blamed it on imperfection? Well, people get disfellowshipped don't they? So why would it be any different with God? Wouldn't God be disgusted enough with an organization that he'd cut it off too?"
Another point to go along with that, perhaps as a potential response to the idea that the organization is kept clean by disfellowshipping is that goes back to the fruitage. Just why would God's organization have to cut such huge numbers out of it's ranks? If they are better people with the holy spirit wouldn't you expect people to have higher standards? Note that this is very different from the behavioral approach, where if you do something you get booted. You can get into the scriptures that talks about looking at a woman with lust as already having committed adultery etc. but the idea is simple. You're not supposed to achieve a level of moral excellence by kicking out those who are not acceptable, God's spirit is supposed to change those people for the better. So, if they're having to DF people left and right, it shows that it's "a form of godly devition proving false to it's power" (2 Tim 3:5) And of course, we have those numbers right from the horses mouth.
Perhaps you can end with something like: "The issue is not whether or not you can convince me or yourself that it's excusable this way, it's whether God will excuse the organization."
What do you guys think, should we write a "Reasoning with the Witnesses" book?