Posts by Disheartened

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Ok, Question: Was there a comment made at a meeting that finally convinced.

by New Castles in

was there a comment made at a meeting that finally convinced you, this is not right?

for me a couple of weeks ago was in the service meeting, they stated that if the children didnt finish their homework because they were studying the bible or at a meeting that teachers should understand that their meetings and study are more important.

i looked at my wife and went "what"??

Disheartened

Yes, the circuit overseer came to visit our congregation one year (this was 1996-the LAST straw for me) and he was giving a talk. I remember him saying, "Sisters with unbelieving husbands, don't worry if your husbands don't accept the truth. Jehovah will surely give you a NEW husband in the new system of things." What the f*%&?? Also, a couple weeks before that, there was a talk for the theocratic meeting where a "brother" said that Charles Taze Russell was foretold in the bible by Jesus. What a bunch of horse doo-doo.

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Yoga: The Watchtower's View

by Disheartened in

what a load of crap!

i copied and pasted this from watchtower.org.

this just goes to show how they will stop at nothing to maintain the mind control over the poor blind people who still believe.... yoga.

Disheartened

Galaxy 7-This article was published in July 2002 Watchtower. I copied and pasted it from Watchtower.org. The only reason I was on that dumb website was to find out if I could email my letter of disassociation. Unfortunately, they don't accept emails. Anyway, I was looking at the ridiculous articles and pictures (like the picture of a little girl petting a bear in the "new system" ..come on) and I happened to come across that silly article on Yoga. I had to share..

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Yoga: The Watchtower's View

by Disheartened in

what a load of crap!

i copied and pasted this from watchtower.org.

this just goes to show how they will stop at nothing to maintain the mind control over the poor blind people who still believe.... yoga.

Disheartened

The Watchtower's logic on this is absolutely ASININE!! What harm can come from meditating or yoga? I practice yoga and I love it. Oh, I forgot..it takes away from selling the Watchtower and Awake magazines and the hundreds of other books they like to push down people's throats.

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Yoga: The Watchtower's View

by Disheartened in

what a load of crap!

i copied and pasted this from watchtower.org.

this just goes to show how they will stop at nothing to maintain the mind control over the poor blind people who still believe.... yoga.

Disheartened

What a load of crap! I copied and pasted this from Watchtower.org. This just goes to show how they will stop at nothing to maintain the mind control over the poor blind people who still believe...

Y OGA

Just an Exercise or Something More?

HAVING a slim and healthy body is very much on people's minds today. This has caused many to turn to gymnasiums and health clubs for help. For the same reason, thousands of people in the Western world have turned to the Eastern art of yoga.

People suffering from stress, depression, and frustration have also turned to yoga for solace and solutions. Particularly since the 1960's, the decade of hippies and flower children, has interest in Eastern religions and their mystic practices spread throughout the West. Transcendental meditation, a close adjunct of yoga, has been popularized by film stars and rock musicians. In view of the growing interest in yoga, we might ask: 'Is yoga simply an exercise routine that will give the practitioner a healthy, slim body and some peace of mind? Can yoga be practiced without any religious overtones? Is yoga suitable for Christians?'

The Background of Yoga

The origin of the word "yoga" is related to that of the English word "yoke." It can mean to join or yoke together or to bring under a yoke, to harness or control. To a Hindu, yoga is a technique or a discipline that leads to union with a great supernatural force or spirit. It has been described as "the yoking of all the powers of body, mind and soul to God."

How far back in history can yoga be traced? Figures of people seated in various yoga positions appear on seals found in the Indus Valley, in present-day Pakistan. The Indus Valley civilization is dated by archaeologists to between the third and the second millenniums B.C.E., very close in time to the Mesopotamian culture. Artifacts from both areas portray a man, representing a deity, crowned with animal horns and surrounded by animals, reminiscent of Nimrod, the "mighty hunter." (Genesis 10:8, 9) The Hindus claim that the figures sitting in yoga positions are images of the god Siva, lord of the animals and lord of yoga, who is often worshiped through the lingam, a phallic symbol. Thus, the book Hindu World calls yoga "a code of ascetic practices, mainly pre-Aryan in origin, containing relics of many primitive conceptions and observances."

The methods of yoga were at first handed down orally. Then they were put into detailed, written form by the Indian yogic sage Patañjali as the Yoga Sutra, which remains the basic instruction book of yoga. According to Patañjali, yoga is "a methodical effort to attain perfection, through the control of the different elements of human nature, physical and psychical." From its inception until the present time, yoga has been an integral part of Eastern religions, now particularly Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism. Some practicers of yoga believe that it will lead them to attain moksha, or liberation, through a merging with an all-pervading spirit.

So once again we ask: 'Can yoga be practiced simply as a physical exercise to develop a healthy body and a relaxed mind, without any involvement with religion?' In view of its background, the answer would have to be no.

Where Can Yoga Take You?

The objective of yoga as a discipline is to lead a person to the spiritual experience of being "yoked" to or merged with a superhuman spirit. But which spirit would that be?

In Hindu World, author Benjamin Walker says of yoga: "It may have been an early system of magical ritualism, and yoga still retains in its meaning an overtone of occultism and sorcery." Hindu philosophers admit that the practice of yoga can give supernatural powers, even though they usually claim that this is not the ultimate goal of yoga. For example, in the book Indian Philosophy, former president of India, Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, says of the yogi that "control of the body through postures results in an indifference to the extremes of heat and cold. . . . The yogin can see and hear at a distance . . . Transmission of thought from one individual to another without the intervention of the normal communicating mechanisms is quite possible. . . . The yogi can make his body invisible."

The image of a yogi sleeping on a bed of nails or walking on hot coals may appear to be a hoax to some and a joke to others. But these are common occurrences in India, as is the practice of standing on one leg while staring directly at the sun for hours and breath control that allows a person to be buried in sand for long periods of time. In June 1995, The Times of India reported that a three-and-a-half-year-old girl lay in a trance as a car weighing more than 1,600 pounds [750 kg] was allowed to run over her abdomen. To the amazement of the crowd, when she awoke she was totally unharmed. The report added: "It was sheer yogic power."

Without a doubt, no normal human is capable of performing any of these tasks. Hence, a Christian must ask: Of what are these feats an indication? Are they from Jehovah God, "the Most High over all the earth," or are they from some other source? (Psalm 83:18) The Bible is clear on this point. When the Israelites were on the verge of entering the Promised Land, which was occupied by the Canaanites, Jehovah told the sons of Israel through Moses: "You must not learn to do according to the detestable things of those nations." What "detestable things"? Moses warned against "anyone who employs divination, a practicer of magic or anyone who looks for omens or a sorcerer." (Deuteronomy 18:9, 10) These things are detestable to God because they are works of the demons and of the fallen flesh.?Galatians 5:19-21.

Not a Choice for Christians

Whatever health instructors may say to the contrary, yoga does not stop with physical exercises. The book Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies relates the experiences of two yoga novitiates who were under the guidance of a guru. One is quoted as saying: "I made superhuman efforts to hold my breath as long as possible, and only breathed when I was on the point of fainting. . . . One day, at high noon, I thought I saw a bright moon, which seemed to move and sway from side to side. Another time I imagined myself enveloped in thick darkness at midday. My director . . . was greatly pleased when I mentioned these visions to him. . . . The time was not far distant, he assured me, when I should experience much more surprising results from my penance." The second man relates: "He obliged me to stare at the sky every day without blinking my eyes or changing my position. . . . Sometimes I thought I saw sparks of fire in the air; at others I seemed to see fiery globes and other meteors. My teacher was much pleased with the success of my efforts."

The strange sights were evidently what the gurus felt were proper results along the way to the true aim of yogic exercises. Yes, the ultimate goal of yoga is moksha, explained as the merging with some impersonal great spirit. It is described as "the (intentional) stopping of the spontaneous activity of the mind stuff." This is clearly contrary to the goal set out for Christians, who are given the admonition: "Present your bodies a sacrifice living, holy, acceptable to God, a sacred service with your power of reason. And quit being fashioned after this system of things, but be transformed by making your mind over, that you may prove to yourselves the good and acceptable and perfect will of God."?Romans 12:1, 2.

Many enjoy healthy activities that do
not involve exposure to spiritism

The choice of what physical exercise to pursue is a personal one. Christians, however, would not allow anything?be it bodily training, eating, drinking, clothing, entertainment, or something else?to mar their relationship with Jehovah God. (1 Corinthians 10:31) For those exercising simply for the sake of their health, there are many avenues available that do not involve exposure to the dangers of spiritism and occultism. By keeping clear of practices and beliefs that are rooted in false religion, we may look forward to God's blessing of a righteous new system of things in which we can enjoy perfect health in body and mind for an eternity.?2 Peter 3:13; Revelation 21:3, 4.

Appeared in The Watchtower August 1, 2002

49

Since You've Stopped Going To Meetings, What's Your General Outlook?

by minimus in

jw
friends

.....in life?

do you still have hope?

are you truly much happier?

Disheartened

Since I've stopped going to the meetings I had time...time to do all the things I've always wanted to do like join a book club (where we discuss intellectual literature and discuss different themes in our own words, not feeling the need to mention what "the paragraph brings out"), take a yoga class, volunteer with children, go to the gym three times a week and have a social life just to name a few. Since I have stopped going to meetings, my general outlook is pretty good-much better than before and besides, I never fit in the borg. I have always had an open mind.

34

Short update(s) on my neighbor

by bebu in

my neighbor didn't come on time, and her line was busy, so i went over to see if there was a problem.

she was cheerfully eating lunch, and by the time she finally made it over to my place it was 1 1/2 hours late.

she brought a printout from her elder (an old friend of her husband's .

Disheartened

Great Story, Bebu.

Incidentally, when I was 14 years old I had a friend who confided in me that one of the "ministerial servants" came to her house when he knew her parents weren't home and tried to force himself on her. Fortunately he didn't have the opportunity to rape her, but when she told the elders they didn't believe her. I even mentioned it to a ministerial servant in my congregation (I was only 14-didn't know I should keep quiet about this) and he told me, "There's NO WAY he would do that! She's a liar!" Well, about 7 years later the same "brother" (I use the term loosely) exposed himself to one of my friends. Since he didn't invite 2 other witnesses to view it, she was never able to prove this. As far as I know, he is still in the congregation with his wife and 3 daughters. How sad. I think it's a great thing that you are trying to help your neighbor and friend to see the real truth about this organization and all the cover ups. Hopefully, she will see the light soon.

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