Welcome, WAY.
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JamesThomas
JoinedPosts by JamesThomas
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22
Life with Jehovah's Witnesses...
by Who are you? inwe are getting ready to host my mates extended family today.
hosting this particular extended .
family of jehovahs witnesses has become fairly predictable over the years.
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23
Today Is My Point of No Return - Or Is It?
by TheMan inalmost every night, i would get a phone call from my book study overseer, asking how i was, where i was.
whereas witnesses, when they experience hard times, stop going to meetings?
of course, my wife and i want to leave the witnesses, and i don't want to offend anyone in the process.
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JamesThomas
I want to leave. I see myself leaving. Just how do I get there? It seems I don't have a problem leaving, it's just my unwillingness to hurt people. Either way, why is this so difficult?
So, leave.
Stop worrying about other peoples reactions. You are not hurting people. They are hurting themselves; they will hurt because you are not what they want you to be....and this IS NOT YOUR PROBLEM.
Get off the fence, leave, and let the chips fall where they may. Be true to yourself and your family.
Focus more on the present moment with your family, and give less attention to the mind's drama concerning what others are going to think about it.
j
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6
Conflicting conclusions.
by Blueblades intwo books that i just finished reading come to conflicting conclusions.
the first one is by john mcgraw, brain and belief.
the second one is by dr. don morse, searching for eternity.
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JamesThomas
Which is wishful thinking, which is actuality?
Two sides of the same spinning coin, they are both wishful thinking. Actuality is simply not found within the imitations of words and thoughts.
I strongly suggest we will never ever find the truth we seek in a book, belief, or in someone or something seen as separate. It will be discovered as the most real, intimate and immediate sense of self and being, or not at all.
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25
Do you (still) pray to God?
by Marcel inim still a witness, but my mind is shunned, already.
im staying for fear, since i dont have anything outside the jw's.
im not a hardliner saying im sure jw's are wrong or god dont exists, but i confessed myself that i just dont know and i guess strongly that a menmade organization which behaves and acts like the wts cant be the right.
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JamesThomas
Welcome, Marcel.
I pray occasionally. Not to a tiny image engraved in my head as before, but rather to the beloved, mysterious and intimate vastness of presence and existence.
Having no God, Divinity has no definable boundary or edge.
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16
O.P
by Shadower ini have been given a question.what does o.p stand for?
i have studied the nwt for quite a while and i have no idea what it is .
can somebody enlighten me please.thanking you.
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JamesThomas
Is there any way that I could get some advice?
As long as you embrace beliefs in a vengeful tribal deity as your master, then expect to be imprisoned. It's the nature of the morbid beast.
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31
Question for Believers: How can God be PERFECT?
by kid-A inseveral weeks ago the issue of god's 'perfect nature' came up on a thread.
the concept of "perfection" is a persistent in vitually all faith traditions and theological constructs.. jws in particular, have an obsession with the concept of perfection and use it regularly in their propaganda: "live forever in a perfect paradise earth"; "live forever in perfect health"; "humans and animals will live together in perfect harmony", etc etc...... the point was raised about the possibility or impossibility of god being perfect.
if we begin with the basic judaeo-christian tenet that god created the universe from nothingness, then he is the designer and creator of every single entity, sentient or non-sentient, and object within reality.
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JamesThomas
Perhaps there is That without beginning, and without end. Absolutely infinite, it embraces all -- from what we would judge the most good, to the most vile -- unconditionally.
So then it seems, the endless expression of life and universe is as it should be, and all is perfect in that there is nothing ether good or bad, only thinking makes it so.
j
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74
Science vs. Religion - Must We Choose Between Them?
by bavman ini dare to say science and religion are two different animals.
they may try to explain similar things but in different ways.
i don't believe man will ever live without either religion or science nor would i want us too.
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JamesThomas
No MQ, I have no religion or belief system.
Yes, RAF, there are other cultures more open to this. The western mind is often more narrowly scientific and rational than others. However, I don't really see this as a problem if one takes it to its limits and becomes a radical realist and performs the deepest of scientific investigations.
If we place the dynamics of our mind under the sober scrutinizing light of silent awareness, the mind can be observed as it frantically weaves its concepts and ideas into a facsimile of "reality" and "self". It can be clearly seen that nothing the mind presents as "self" (and that "self's" relationship to the rest of the universe) is the actual, real truth of what IS. It's all just a story. It can also be clearly seen that the pristine clarity of the observing consciousness which is undertaking the acute examination is closer than the story and undeniably most immediate and real. Here, what is real begins to shift position into the forefront, and what is not moves to the rear.
What's left is to delve deeper into awareness, with acute conscious-awareness, our guiding light simply being to believe nothing and the desire to find what is unquestionably real and true. What am I, really??? Why the western mind sees this as illogical mysticism, makes no sense to me. It's just the opposite. It's questioning everything, believing nothing, and accepting only a meeting with raw reality -- first hand.
When we allow awareness to move outside the cave of the mind, and meet and realize actuality, it's utterly impossible to go back in and explain it to people still chained there. They will perceive you as a fool. I'm happy to be the fool.
j
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74
Science vs. Religion - Must We Choose Between Them?
by bavman ini dare to say science and religion are two different animals.
they may try to explain similar things but in different ways.
i don't believe man will ever live without either religion or science nor would i want us too.
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JamesThomas
MQ, I meant no insult. Every thought and word ever uttered is simply an interpretation of the limited little mind. Not just yours. Mine as well.
As you suggest Kid-A, there can be nothing known as it actually is, via the mind, as all the mind can offer is interpretation. Your interpretation is: "there IS no reality beyond the universe created within our cortex and therefore, no possibility of perceiving an object in its true, unfiltered essence. We are nothing more than the sum total of our neuronal networks which can distort or accurately encode incoming sensory information depending upon the emotional and/or motivational context of said event. I would challenge JT to provide one example of this unfiltered, pure reality he purports to have access to."
It's clear you know the mind can not perceive actual truth; yet you allow it to make bold all-knowing statements as if it can.
Can consciousness, which silently witnesses all the minds interpretation, actually see beyond the minds limitations and meet with and realize the actual TRUTH? Not as an unknowable object, but rather as Its own true Self? Those who have seen, say indeed it can be realized because the ultimate truth is what we naturally and really are. It's no big deal. But, you must see it first hand for yourself. I can not give you what you truly are; and I can not via the mind's words and thoughts express it. All attempts making me simply look the fool.
I am only saying you are far more than you THINK you are. At best I can only entice people to investigate acutely into their most immediate and intimate sense of being and existing to see if there is more that can be seen. I'm not asking anyone to believe anything I say. Beliefs are only the minds interpretation. Nothing I have ever said is the Truth.
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20
Why is it everytime.....
by WANTMOMBACK in..i speak to my mother about any type of current event she tells me how the end of the world is coming.
she always says that people do not care for one another anymore and tells me that is how the end has been described as b eing.
it is driveing me crazy!!
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JamesThomas
Your dear mother has been feeding on stories for so long that she has lost touch with reality.
Love her. Be there for her. She is unaware that she sees though the eyes of religious insanity.
It's very sad.
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