hi there, i'm nikitaeve and id just like to say hi to everyone here.
i used to be a witness and was one for about nine years but i still regard everyone with the warmest of feelings and i still believe the teachings.
a little bit about myself; im from england.
Welcome, nikitaeve.
I was going to ask the same question Poppers did. It doesnt sound like you have left anything other than a location, in that you no longer go to the Kingdom Hall but yet retain the teachings. How do you cope with the dichotomy? It must be very painful for you to tear yourself in two like that.
Perhaps this will be a place that will help bring things together. Glad you joined us.
j
i am curious, what amount people on this board from their experiences of being a baptised & active jw and their subsequent exit from the jw org (for whatever reason or reasons) are now either agnostic, atheist or do some actually still believe in god?.
your honest answers please.. lfcv.
The choices seem to be all based on concepts: either for, or against, or undecided as to for or against.
Why go there?
There is an infinite expression of life and universe too, too vast to grasp; why minimize and belittle its Source to some limited belief, concept, image or deity weaved out of broken shards and pieces of a mind too limited and small to ever really know or comprehend it all?
Better to be silently present with the richness of Reality, than absent in worshipping the minds impoverished thoughts and beliefs. IMO.
j
i remember asking an elder once, "what do you think about meditation?
" he responded that we should not relax and open our minds, as opening our minds can let demons in.
i thought that seemed like a odd response, and looked it up in the watchtower, and sure enough he gave the societies views on meditation.
In other words: The most important and significant key within meditation, may be to open our arms and let the demons in.
j
i remember asking an elder once, "what do you think about meditation?
" he responded that we should not relax and open our minds, as opening our minds can let demons in.
i thought that seemed like a odd response, and looked it up in the watchtower, and sure enough he gave the societies views on meditation.
Meditation can be used for thrills, or it can be used to awaken to the truth of our Being and the underlying truth of ALL existence. It helps to be very clear on what your authentic and sincere desire is for....so we may have to first meditate on that.
For me meditation is about shinning acute awareness inward into what has been hidden. It's about clearly seeing what is True, and what is smoke and mirrors.
Who/what am I, really? What is the actual foundational Beingness and Reality of all things? What is true??? It is questions like these that I enter into deeper meditations (other than just being consciously present of the present moment, which can be seen as a meditation too). If I am to discover truth it seems very important that no stone be left unturned, and no thing left unmet and unexamined.
For me, deeper meditation is a time to put up ones sword, surrender and nonjudgmentally meet with whatever the universe presents. What unites what we would call "good" and what we would define as "evil"? What is the foundational reality of everything? Is there a Oneness which dissolves all duality?
It has been said that: "when you can look the devil in the eye, and clearly see the Christ, you are home, you are seeing truly and clearly." Meditation is different for everyone; for me the most terrifying moments ever experienced have occurred in meditation. It seems it is the darkness which most hungers for the light of our conscious and nonjudgmental acceptance and embracement. Often it is the demons which haunt us and from which we run away, that are actually the doorway to Truth and understanding of the Oneness which unites us all.
Good luck.
j
You believe in god or not? Why?
What is "god" and why believe? Often there is an natural awe at the infinite beauty and wonder of life and universe which stimulates a desire to honor it's Source. Generally it seems we lazily accept ideas passed down to us; ideas or mental concepts of a deity or entity, a shard of existence which we then worship. Belief is only thought and mental images combined with, and intensified by, emotions. We come to place great significance on our cherished mental illusions and identify with them so strongly that to lose them, is to lose ourselves. Lost in thought, beliefs and scripture (other peoples beliefs) we lose sight of the reality which started it all: the awe stimulated by the present moment of existence within an infinite expression of beauty and wonder. I stopped believing in any definable, limited, circumscribable deity or god; and so relinquished the Bible and all teachings which presents diminutive concepts of a god. Belief is not needed when attention is placed on the still, yet vibrant presence of being and existing. The moment is endlessly too rich to require beliefs in gods, or beliefs in a "me" who is isolated and separate from the boundless and true Source and Sustenance of all. j
here is a scripture that explains just that.. john 5:39-40.
39you are searching the scriptures, because you think that by means of them you will have everlasting life; and these are the very ones that bear witness about me.. 40and yet you do not want to come to me that you may have life.. jesus clearly explains that it is not through the scriptures that we have everlasting life.
it is only by going to him..
acadian:
You have to realize what your dealing with here Soulfinder...1 Corinthians 3:14, "But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned."
If the "natural man" is someone with the sense and intelligence not to accredit some tribesman's murderous and archaic god of war, and his offspring, for the unimaginable wonders of an infinite universe, then this scripture only emphasises the bibles copious nonsense? Either that, or it's actually referring to you and others who worship as "the most significant and high": anthropomorphic characters and images chiseled in the tiny dark corners of the carnal mind. Like they say: if a tricycle created and worshipped a god, it would have three wheels. j
here is a scripture that explains just that.. john 5:39-40.
39you are searching the scriptures, because you think that by means of them you will have everlasting life; and these are the very ones that bear witness about me.. 40and yet you do not want to come to me that you may have life.. jesus clearly explains that it is not through the scriptures that we have everlasting life.
it is only by going to him..
Soulfinder,
I am pointing to what is INFINITE as the true Source of all existence, and you, as if you have ears but can not hear, continue to only acknowledge a tiny image that someone past down to you.
I am saying God is always more than any and all beliefs. You are saying God is less. Which one has a fragrance more sweet?
It may be wise to ask yourself why you tenaciously argue for a lesser god and find no merit in hearing of what is INFINITE?
This is the disease of religion and it's deities, it shrinks the Divine into a limited thing or entity that you have, and others don't. Leave religion and find what unites everyone and everything. What resides pure and still at the core of our most immediate and intimate sense of being and existing? What is the actual Life of all life?
j
here is a scripture that explains just that.. john 5:39-40.
39you are searching the scriptures, because you think that by means of them you will have everlasting life; and these are the very ones that bear witness about me.. 40and yet you do not want to come to me that you may have life.. jesus clearly explains that it is not through the scriptures that we have everlasting life.
it is only by going to him..
Actually, I considered myself a Christian most of my adult life and thought of Jesus as my lord and master. I've been there.
Ask allah to reveal Himself to you, then ask buddah, then ask any other god you can think of. When you are done with those guys, ask Jesus and see what happens. If there are other gods, surely they'll answer. If it's all untrue, Jesus won't either. If you look at it logically, you have nothing to lose save time. But if you don't, there is still the issue of paying for everything wroung you have ever done, the consequences of which may vary. You may lose out on knowing your creator. You may even be condemned to hell.
I know longer reduce God to a deity, personage, or circumscribable fragment somewhere within the universe. I give it no name.
If god condemns me to hell, because I refuse to belittle and shrink it to some anthropomorphic personage, then god is a fool, and I guess I deserve to burn as I could never ever worship a fool.
j
here is a scripture that explains just that.. john 5:39-40.
39you are searching the scriptures, because you think that by means of them you will have everlasting life; and these are the very ones that bear witness about me.. 40and yet you do not want to come to me that you may have life.. jesus clearly explains that it is not through the scriptures that we have everlasting life.
it is only by going to him..
Soulfinder, thank you for your reply.
Congratulations for cleaning up your life; but that does not explain why your idea of god is in some ways less than normal people who give without any need for acceptance or acknowledgment. In fact they may do so anonymously without anyone knowing where the help came from. Jesus needs acceptance before he gives you reward (your "everlasting life"). Such a need, proves he is incomplete and lacking. Not pure and divine.
What is whole and complete already? What includes everyone and everything, no matter of beliefs or lack of them? What is truly without beginning and without end? As long as we attribute conditions and limits to God, as the Bible does, then we give significance to small creatures of the mind, and find ourselves arguing for a lesser god, rather than striving to awaken to the boundless vastness which all gods and things reside within.
Your idea of god may have indeed been a benefit for you. Just don't fool yourself into thinking your idea of god is the end of it. Question your god and hold his ass to the fire. Demand to know, not what he is, but what you really are.......because if the true God has no beginning and no end, then what does that ultimately and presently, make you?
j
hello all: i have been lurking around this site for over two years.
due to a recent post of someone claiming to be an elder (which has been removed) i have been motivated to post.
i have been around this site for well over two years and have read most of your posts carefully.
Warm welcome Lurker.
Hope you don't wait two years for your next post.
j
