soft+gentle

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Posts by soft+gentle

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  9

  I Didn't 'Get It' at First, Until I Got There......

  by AllTimeJeff in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  if jehovah's witnesses, which number about 7 million right now, are a small subset of the religious world today, what does that make former jw's?

  as with any unique group, you have to be one to totally understand, esp if you were neck deep in it at one time.

  when i first left, all i wanted to do was say the things i never had a chance to when i was in.

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  soft+gentle
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  28

  Cofty -- well wishes

  by talesin in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i've been looking for a thread, but can't see one ..... .

  our fellow member cofty, should be through his surgery, and i'm just sending love and healing energy for his recovery.. .

  any well-wishes, prayers, thoughts ..... please join in!.

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  soft+gentle

  cofty thinking of you and sending you a cyberhug fingers and toes crossed
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  28

  Cofty -- well wishes

  by talesin in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i've been looking for a thread, but can't see one ..... .

  our fellow member cofty, should be through his surgery, and i'm just sending love and healing energy for his recovery.. .

  any well-wishes, prayers, thoughts ..... please join in!.

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  soft+gentle
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  778

  IS GOD REAL? HOW DO YOU KNOW?

  by still thinking in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  this is an honest question on my part.

  someone on this board asked me 'how do you know' a while ago and i really struggled with it.

  in fact, it was a turning point for me.

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  soft+gentle

  good morning stillthinking

  soft+gentle...good morning to you... Now, this grace you refer too.....you say it is not the in the religious sense, so not by mercy that we understand more fully. So, are you saying that we gain complete understanding from beauty and love? You wouldn't be leading me down the path of Universalism would you? I think this is the journey Flying High was trying to take me on. ...LOL If you are referring specifically to being kind to ourselves and allowing ourselves the grace to make mistakes and learn from our errors without chastising ourselves...I think I am more in agreement and understaning of what you meant...we cannot learn or move forward without that. We are encapsulated in our own ignorance... So in effect...kindness to ourselves leads to knowledge?...but is it knowledge of God? Or is God truly within?

  I think grace resists categorization and specificity but is very much to do with particularity and contingency. And this reminds me of your second question - the one to do with the small quivering I in the eye of the hurricane. The I that is formed here is in response to a highly charged intense moment one which necessitates many features of grace. thanks for reminding me of this

  Your mention of universalism made me quite puzzled as I'm not sure if you mean universalism in the sense of the UU church or if you mean universalism as uniformity? Also I'm trying to have a discussion with you and am definitely not trying to lead you down a religious path.

  Kindness, beauty, love - yes so long as they are not divorced from their bubbling livliness to take and give life
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  778

  IS GOD REAL? HOW DO YOU KNOW?

  by still thinking in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  this is an honest question on my part.

  someone on this board asked me 'how do you know' a while ago and i really struggled with it.

  in fact, it was a turning point for me.

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  soft+gentle

  - it truly is a pleasure for me to come here.

  I don't think perception alone makes something as real as when grace happens with it (grace has relevance in non biblical thought too - so I won't whisper this). When perception is encapsulated in and by grace then I think it is more real than if it was not.
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  778

  IS GOD REAL? HOW DO YOU KNOW?

  by still thinking in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  this is an honest question on my part.

  someone on this board asked me 'how do you know' a while ago and i really struggled with it.

  in fact, it was a turning point for me.

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  soft+gentle

  stillthinking one member of my family was in an accident and the other is chronically ill but fighting fit paradoxically

  edit: have to run - will reply to your second question soon
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  778

  IS GOD REAL? HOW DO YOU KNOW?

  by still thinking in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  this is an honest question on my part.

  someone on this board asked me 'how do you know' a while ago and i really struggled with it.

  in fact, it was a turning point for me.

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  soft+gentle

  I saw this yesterday and want to reply today

  soft+gentle....*come in close, I have to say this quietly* References to Wisdom are found in Proverbs. In fact, when you read Gnostic texts Wisdom is written about in the same way. Wisdom is the feminine. To me, Proverbs 1 almost seems like it has been taken directly from the Gnostics beliefs. http://bible.cc/proverbs/1-20.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophia_(wisdom) *move along...no one is quoting the bible.........lol*

  the good news is that wisdom has been explored by texts other than the bible and I think it does have a bearing on your question - IS GOD REAL HOW DO YOU KNOW?

  For example just as wisdom is the feminine it is not just women. For women too the feminine is, huge, unexplored and mysterious. The masculine too is not just men but similarly potential laden despite being explored much more than the feminine. If something is unexplored and mysterious is it still real? I say yes and that it can somehow in an as yet unexplained way, communicates something to you. In ancient texts this was done by means of signs and signals which were called phantasma which means appearances which to me suggests something real.
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  778

  IS GOD REAL? HOW DO YOU KNOW?

  by still thinking in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  this is an honest question on my part.

  someone on this board asked me 'how do you know' a while ago and i really struggled with it.

  in fact, it was a turning point for me.

  1. 
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  soft+gentle

  hi stillthinking - I have been busy - 2 sick people in my family at the moment. Then when I come to sit at my computer a little voice tells me to go outside and enjoy the sunshine - but I have time to read a little and then mull it over before replying.
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  778

  IS GOD REAL? HOW DO YOU KNOW?

  by still thinking in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  this is an honest question on my part.

  someone on this board asked me 'how do you know' a while ago and i really struggled with it.

  in fact, it was a turning point for me.

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  soft+gentle

  stillthinking

  soft+gentle....I really like your I post. I have to admit it took me at least 10 times rereading it before I actually began to grasp what you were saying. So undertanding the I completely releases us from its control. We are releasing ourselves from our own restrictions. Is that correct? Or do I have that completely wrong?

  thankyou stillthinking

  in the classics indentity comes under much scrutiny and part of understanding how identity is formed releases us from its control and its restrictions. Some of the restrictions imposed we foist on ourselves but most others are imposed by forces outside of ourselves but which interface with us all the time albeit unconsciously. I'm saying this because I don't think it is possible to understand the I completely. The problem with trying to understand onself as an I restricts us to what we have understood whereas much more is unkown. And the gist of this thread indicates to me that it is this unkown aspect that you are intuiting.

  I like the idea of focusing on qualities/virtues like love, courage, hope, hate and states like pleasure, anxiety, happiness etc as these retain a sense of the turbulence that identity pushes out but which are vital for change and escape. Michel Serres, one of our oft cited authors, likenes Aphrodite/Venus, goddess of love and healing to the turbulence between unity and chaos. Whilst other authors liken her solely to unity - particularly authors who are fixed on rationalism.

  What I get from how christians describe God, God after JW Jehovah that is, he/she/it seems to be like the eye of a hurrincane - a small place of calm surrounded by turbulence. The calm is formed from turbulence and moves with the storm. So to me the small quivering I formed from this is no unified identity based on rationalism that results in an I.

  I don't want to expunge identity completely from ourselves. Here I want to borrow something from Beyonce. She steps into a personality to perform and then relinquishes it when she is not performing. Her performance has an effect on us and her - reality and unreality in conjunction as she cannot perform unless she steps into a role.

  It is like what you are saying here - desperation, survivial, escape, stark harsh reality of annihilation=turbulence=new roles

  jgnat...I am not sure if I received divine direction to escape my marriage...I always think of it as desperation and survival of the self, before the self was annihilated that got me out.
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  778

  IS GOD REAL? HOW DO YOU KNOW?

  by still thinking in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  this is an honest question on my part.

  someone on this board asked me 'how do you know' a while ago and i really struggled with it.

  in fact, it was a turning point for me.

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  soft+gentle

  whispers back to tec

  in the psalms?