Posts by JamesThomas

48

Your opinion on my really important question, please.

by jambon1 in

jw
friends

does a jw upbringing simply confuse a child or is it really damaging?.

i have no doubt that a jw child is, at least, confused with life.

in my own case my wife brings up my 2 children (aged 5 & 2) as jw`s.

JamesThomas

There is no reality outside the present moment. All significance is cradled within the immediacy of now. The problem with much religion, especially the Witnesses, is it mentally detaches significance (reality) and places it in some other illusory thing, deity, place, or time. Religion often steals away life and reality, and upon doing so becomes the darkest of arts.

I suggest counter balancing its effects by teaching your children how to be silently open and present with life's significance in this moment of actuality. There is innate richness and wisdom present here now which can negate the harmful effects of religious beliefs and its tiny judgmental gods. Of course we need to know how to be genuinely present ourselves before we can show others.

When your dear children are truly rooted in reality, the sleep of religion will not fall upon them.

j

25

Qaulifying for life in the new world

by skeptic1914 in

attended co public talk today, "will you qualify for life in god's new world?.

the essence in this quote: "it is essential that we cooperate with the fds, that we conform to bible standards and that we ourselves share in preaching the good news of the kingdom.

" not once was faith in jesus christ mentioned.

JamesThomas

As a Christian, I need to be a sinner to qualify

Why shrink the Divine into something so small and narrow that there needs to be any qualifications at all? Why this need to make ourselves one of God's own, and others not?

Certainly an endlessly wondrous universe give witness to a Source infinitely greater still, and not less; always more and never less. Why choose less? Why shrivel, shrink and belittle? Because an old book tells us so? Because we have eyes and can not see? Why? I wonder. Why accept anything which diminishes the Divine in anyway? Who are we to do that?

What fools we all are.

j

31

Define your spiritual side

by JH in

although i don't go to meetings anymore, i'm inactive, never was disfellowshipped, i still have a "spiritual side to me", something that is deeply rooted in.

on one side, i see errors the watchtower makes, and on the other side i take what's good about them, and that's why i don't fit in with them.

i don't meet their standards, nor do they meet mine.

JamesThomas

"Spirituality" is word that the mind has created that can point to a reality other than the mind's making.

There is that which never changes, no matter life's circumstance, beliefs, health, or emotions. It is closer than all definable things. Find that.

j

152

Does Knowing the Truth Make you a Happier person?

by gumby in

many of us who were once jehovah's witnesses had a measure of happiness in our lives.

for me, i had a hope in the future, i had answers as to why we are all here, i believed in a loving god who looked after me and cared about me, i had answers to all of lifes big questions.. when i found out the truth about the witnesses, i was lost in a great big world and now had no answers other than the fact that what i once believed was "the truth" in actuality wasn't the truth.i now had to start all over in my search for truth.

for me, it wasn't long before i found what i thought was the truth since i always believed in the bible.

JamesThomas

I'd give ya all a free bag shinin if I hadn't sold all my wax.

Ah damn! I knew I shooda kept an eye on eBay.

alt

63

My mom was Kidnapped By the FBI Today She told Me F@#$ OFF!!

by Sparkplug in

so friday my brother and i found a nursing home for my mom to stay at.

it was a very hard thing to do.

he had me go hunting.

JamesThomas

Sparky,

What a nightmare.

It may be best for you to stay away from her for awhile.

I suggest -- if you can -- spending some quit time alone. Be still and just silently feel what it is to breath and be alive without giving attention to all the thoughts running through your head.

Throughout the day come into the moment and return to just feeling the air move through your nose and the feelings in the body as the chest expands and life moves slowly through it.

It's important to be aware of a deeper reality that is not lost in all the drama; a sanctuary that you carry with you, no matter how trying the times may be.

Good luck to you, dear.

j

152

Does Knowing the Truth Make you a Happier person?

by gumby in

many of us who were once jehovah's witnesses had a measure of happiness in our lives.

for me, i had a hope in the future, i had answers as to why we are all here, i believed in a loving god who looked after me and cared about me, i had answers to all of lifes big questions.. when i found out the truth about the witnesses, i was lost in a great big world and now had no answers other than the fact that what i once believed was "the truth" in actuality wasn't the truth.i now had to start all over in my search for truth.

for me, it wasn't long before i found what i thought was the truth since i always believed in the bible.

JamesThomas

Perhaps knowing the truth about the "truth", is not so much knowing the truth as a step in identifying the lies.

Now where am I? For me personally, i'm now lost. I doubt the bible as being authored by god, i'm an agnostic, I haven't a clue as to whether there is a god who loves me and the rest of mankind and whether there is a plan for all of us, i'm terrified at the thought that there might not be anyone out there in the heavens who made me and the rest of us, and I haven't a clue as to where to start in finding out the truth about life and I highly doubt i'll ever know before I die.

What is it that witnesses this " I'm lost" drama as it is thought about and written? Start right here. Start with what is most close. Don't concern yourself with "gods" or some grand "truth about life". Be still and simply discover what you really are within the silent depths of the immediate and intimate sense of be-ing and existing. Look past everything believed to be; and look deeper into what is actually looking.

There is no truth about life -- other than you. Other than what you genuinely are.

Perhaps the problem with truth is not that it is far away and difficult to get to, as that it is so very, very close.......and closer still....and closer still...

Wonderful to see you here Gumster.

j

12

What do you tell your kids about God?

by LovesDubs in

my 11 year old son who is an old soul, is a scientist in his heart and waxes philosophically about the universe and its beginnings when most kids his age are playing ps2.

he does that too of course but he spends a great deal of time thinking.

he got into the car the other day and was quiet for awhile and then he said "mom, would you be upset with me if i said i didnt believe there is a god?".

JamesThomas

I would stay away from the harmful myths and stories which diminish our ultimate significance to a tiny and conditional thing/deity/god. Best not to know anything than belittle our Source and Sustenance to a thing, a far away fragment of existence engraved within the corners of our mind.

Rather, I would assist them in being more silently aware and present with the actuality of reality in and around them. Help them to differentiate between what is shallow interpretive and conceptual thought about reality, and what is meeting with the wondrous and bottomless depths of genuine reality. Here, in this moment of conscious-existence, in awareness of awareness, innate wisdom is present that tribal "holy" books and belief systems only hide and steal away.

Help the child to be aware and open to the richness of the present moment -- rather than lost in the minds religious beliefs -- and there will be no need for fear of tiny conditional gods nor greed for hoped for rewards.

alt

j

25

Qaulifying for life in the new world

by skeptic1914 in

attended co public talk today, "will you qualify for life in god's new world?.

the essence in this quote: "it is essential that we cooperate with the fds, that we conform to bible standards and that we ourselves share in preaching the good news of the kingdom.

" not once was faith in jesus christ mentioned.

JamesThomas

As a Witness you must accept the FDS to qualify.

As a Christian you must accept Jesus to qualify.

The names have changed, but the same conditional, limited and diminutive god story remains the same.

j

71

The original sin

by onacruse in

this is a question i've had for a long time.. according to the biblical account, adam and eve's sin was to eat fruit from the forbidden tree.. now, ordinarily, when we get caught doing something "wrong," we try to hide the "offending" member (the child tries to hide his hand that has the 'stolen' cookie; we hurriedly try to pull our pants back on when mom walks in unexpectedly while we're masturbating, etc.)..

so, if the "sin" of adam and eve was eating a forbidden fruit, then why wasn't their first impulse to hide their hands?

or to wipe off their mouths?

JamesThomas

Onacruse:

Would you then agree that the Devil's 'original lie' was actually a supernatural revelation to Adam and Eve of what they really were?

Perhaps in a way, but I have not really thought much about it. What was it the Serpent supposedly said? Wasn't it something like :"You will not die, but rather be like gods"? This is not language I would use to describe our true united nature. The serpents words sound more like a grandiose ego trip to me. It's more like the "me" dissolves into the endlessness of conscious-awareness. It's not as if we become anything; it's kind of like a death. Yet, it is seen we are everything, yet no particular thing. We are nothing, just as equally as everything. So, I guess what I'm saying is I don't know what the serpent was referring to. I find we gain more mileage by investigating into what is real right now.

MQ:

when that stuff was written, a couple thousand years ago, human kind was actively engaged in a dualistic lifestyle, constantly fighting the elements and beasts of the fields; and a couple million years ago when we realized we had skin instead of a bunch of fur, we were even more dualistically inclined.
Nowadays, at least in westernized cultures, we can sit back on our verandas and pontificate on the false sense of duality, but then it was real - both to the writers and to the oral historians who probably originated one of the first Adam & Eve stories that eventually got written.

No matter the time or place, phenominal life-styles and situations, our non-dual nature remains pure and untouched. It could have been realized by some and passed down via myth and legend. But, I can not say for sure what the Bible is talking about. I may just be seeing in the Eden story what I want to see. That said, I agree that today we have a the opportunity and time to do some deep inner investigation into our be-ing without fear of being eaten by a lions, tigers, or bears. Oh no.

j

71

The original sin

by onacruse in

this is a question i've had for a long time.. according to the biblical account, adam and eve's sin was to eat fruit from the forbidden tree.. now, ordinarily, when we get caught doing something "wrong," we try to hide the "offending" member (the child tries to hide his hand that has the 'stolen' cookie; we hurriedly try to pull our pants back on when mom walks in unexpectedly while we're masturbating, etc.)..

so, if the "sin" of adam and eve was eating a forbidden fruit, then why wasn't their first impulse to hide their hands?

or to wipe off their mouths?

JamesThomas

Tetra:

it's not so much about the eating, or the action of eating. the sin was in the shame of the knowledge of our separateness. suddenly, humanity had alienated itself psychologically from its obvious and qualitative relatedness to nature, biologically. and in the alienation was shame, and a melancholy remembering of a time of oneness not so long ago.

I agree, For a long time I have felt that the eating of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Bad, is a metaphor for allowing the mind to dictate "reality" in a dualistic nature, rather than seeing and living the perfection of united completeness that it actually IS. Once this false division happens -- it is "me" against the universe, and suffering begins. We leave out natural paradise.

So then, eating from the Tree of Life, is awakening to our real nature and Identity.

j