|
|
 7 Mar 2006 @ 23:14, by scotty. Spirituality
Unlock Reality has arrived chez moi at last !!!
Three weeks of lurking in the bushes beside the garden gate watching out for the postman to arrive !
This morning he must have been quite dazzled my by smiling warm welcome LOL!
Unlock Reality is in Guadeloupe !
I must admit to having butterflies in my tummy as I opened the envelope .. and suddenly ... there she was ... the manuscript slid into my eagerly awaiting hands !
I phoned Dscape in London to let her know that all was well - and then I settled comfortably on the sofa and began to read ... More >
|
|
|
|
7 Mar 2006 @ 13:07, by vector8. Spirituality
So you are feeling weak. After you've had something to eat you feel stronger and full of energy. Was it the food that gave you strength? I believe it was your belief that food can make you feel stronger that has made you stronger. The problem is many people believe that foods can be both healthy and harmful. According to "scientific evidence," additives and preservatives are said to make people put on weight and even make them sick; if you believe in the "evidence" of course.
Similarly, people take medication they believe will heal them of their ailments. Then someone comes up with some new information that the drugs you believe in have certain chemicals that can make you ill. If you believe in the new information, you're basically stuffed. Then you hear about people who have been taking drugs that have no active ingredients and they've been healed. But when these people realise their "drugs" were placebos, the disease is back in full force. That's the problem with believing in the material world, you don't know whether you're coming or going. More >
|
|
|
|
 1 Mar 2006 @ 19:14, by poetsong. Spirituality
“Love me for who I am!” This sounds like a reasonable request. Love is grand, and don’t we all want to be loved for who we are. The question is “Who are we, really?”
I’m not trying to get all metaphysical here. In a very real sense, people don’t know who they are. We may think other people don’t understand us, when the bigger problem is that we don’t understand ourselves.
Surface love: We generally respond to people on a very surface level. If they smile at us, we smile back. If they say hello, we say ‘hello’. However, smiles and hellos can be false. A person can say “Hope you have a great day!” and inwardly be thinking, “I wish you would drop dead!” Still, when we like people it’s generally because of common interests, and things like point of view, and similar perspectives and shared experiences.
In truth people are deep wells, and what we see outwardly does not reveal the complexity of what is in their hearts.
There is a problem with making superficial judgments. If we liked someone because they were like us, chocolate ice cream lovers, what happens if their tastes change? Yesterday they loved our favorite flavor, but now they are sick of chocolate. Does this mean we don’t love them anymore?
Forget chocolate, if we presume to love another person only because of “shared experiences” we are falling in love with quicksand. People change tastes and preferences. One minute they like a musical preference, a favorite color, a similar political view, a shared religious view. What if they change their minds about things? Are they the same person? Do we really love them, or simply love similarity and shared views?
If I want someone to love me, I have to determine who and what I am. If I want to love another, I have to determine who and what they are. Otherwise, our love is really quite fragile, a vapor that appears and blows away in the stiff winds of life. I for one don’t like falling in and out of love. Therefore, I believe it is absolutely important to understand the basis of humanity, the potential within each person.
We are either stagnant or growing. If we are growing then we are changing, and if we are changing, at any given time, we might be uncomfortable with ourselves, and we might make others feel uncomfortable. “I don’t want to eat chocolate anymore…can’t we talk about vanilla today?” We want to expand and think and talk about different things.
This is threatening to those who are staying the same. “You never said you liked vanilla before…why don’t you eat chocolate like you used to?”
Stagnant is not a natural state. In general if someone is not growing, they are purposing to resist growth. Perhaps they fear growing, and sameness is a safe environment for them. However, intimacy is impossible with people who hate growth. They put up protective walls, “I’m Mr. Sports Nut. Unless you talk to me about jock things, I have nothing left to say…so come to me speaking sports trivia or leave me alone! Don’t talk to me about meaning of life things. I can’t stand heavy conversations.” That isn’t growth. This is how people put up walls to avoid thinking. I, for one, am not threatened by people that disagree with me. If they are thinking, I generally find something stimulating in interacting with them, even if they oppose my views. I feel most uncomfortable around people that refuse to think, refuse to feel, refuse to question or risk depth.
However, back to the issue, “Love me for who I am!” It is possible to love others, but generally what we love is their soul, their spirit, and the rest is kind of superficial. They may like one football team and then move jobs and fall in love with another team. If we love only on the basis of common interests, we limit who and how we love.
This doesn’t mean that we have to like all the junk we see on the surface, like others’ religious views, political views, or tastes in music. Rather we must see past the superficial to a person of potential, someone who has within them the capability to be a beautiful person if they recognize what is important.
“Who am I?” Honestly, I once was trapped into thinking, “This is just me; I can’t change!” This is futile thinking, and absolutely wrong. Within every human being is a part of them that is beautiful, and in fact, potentially a reflection of God.
However, when life happens to us, we may have no idea what that is, how it works, or how we become what we always had the potential to be.
(I will end here, and if enough people are interested- I will go further)
More >
|
|
|
|
28 Feb 2006 @ 14:19, by vector8. Spirituality
Somewhere, over the rainbow, way up high,
There's a land that I heard of once in a lullaby.
Somewhere, over the rainbow, skies are blue,
And the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true. Over the Rainbow
I believe dreams do come true. All thoughts are manifested. It is not that we don't always receive what we dream of but we receive them in other realities until we are finally ready to let go of limiting beliefs. More >
|
|
|
|
22 Feb 2006 @ 13:01, by vector8. Spirituality
The call to return home never stopped till I returned home.
The other day I met a woman at a bus stop. She said she was freezing. I said it wasn't that cold. She agreed. She told me about the coldest winter she's ever experienced: the winter of 62/63. During that winter everything froze up. She was so cold and miserable, she wanted to return home to St Lucia. More >
|
|
|
|
 21 Feb 2006 @ 14:50, by jhs. Spirituality
GeZi posted some excellent thoughts about Cargo Cults. A frequent observation for me is the circumstance that the more distant cult members are from their original source, "the more they display the phenomenon of spiritual arrogance".
These days for me are days of contemplation and research, bringing the problem of the "bug of this Universe".... More >
|
|
|
|
19 Feb 2006 @ 19:50, by poetsong. Spirituality
All who breathe are living; but not all the living are alive; at least not in the sense that they are enjoying the breath they were given.
If every parent had wisdom and insight and the character to raise children, they would set them on a course toward success. Success is measured by realizing our purpose, and fulfilling that purpose. If I realized my gift, which many people do not, I would be happier for one; but I'd also know how to structure my life.
Humans have to have dreams or we stagnate; and what I mean by a dream is a sense that there is a destiny and purpose; and if we know it, we can take steps towards that goal.
Every "real" dream is going to face roadblocks. The way to success is not paved with pillows. It's often rocky and there are adversaries; and because of that, if we forget we have a dream or don't know what it is, we will wind up in a life of futility.
Futility is expending a great deal of energy and going nowhere. It is the most frustrating feeling, "My life is meaningless and empty; it's a tedious existance."
So if we know we have a gift and a purpose, and a big dream, we are halfway to where we are going, and way ahead of most of the people in the world.
Since few people have wise, mature, parents, ones filled with character who help their children realize their strengths and that they should reach for the stars, dreams get squelched, and some people don't have a clue that they even have a gift, let alone what that gift is.
And since this is reality, it is one of the great gifts in life to be someone who understands and knows how to kindle life in another. In a sense it is within us to breathe life into others so that their dormant gifts are realized and dreams are birthed.
How? Most screwed up people don't need anyone to tell them they are screwed up. Enough people in this world have said, "What's wrong with you?" In fact, when they screw up, they've probably said, "What's wrong with me?"
And they may put up defenses and pretend things are going well when they aren't, but mostly because they've been beaten down. If someone told me I'd never be good at anything, and everything I do falls apart, I start to expect that things will fall apart, and in effect, walk around sabotaging myself.
In order to breathe life, we have to comprehend that it's necessary, that most people don't like feeling trapped in meaningless existance. But we also have to get a sence of what gifts are.
What are kinds of gifts? Well, some are teachers, by nature. However, there are many spheres where teaching is needed. Others administrators by nature, the kind of people who know how to put people in all the right places, watch over details, and organize. Some people are meant to help identify problems and solve them, and in the sense, they are watchmen over society, to help keep things on course. Still others find their meaning in helping people in a variety of ways, planning and performing all the necessary tasks that every function requires. Some have a gift of hospitality, refreshers of souls who can identify others needs, and know what things will encourage them. There are artistic gifts, gardening gifts, and I mean people who think in creative ways how to make everyone's life better, not simply laborers.
Gifts are expressed in countless ways according to natural interests. One teaches children, another college, and yet another may be a motivational speaker. There is no lack of places teachers are needed. Likewise an administrator can also be a movie producer if he has an artistic bent. So, gifts can be expressed outside the box.
We are not happy if we are not using our gifts. In a sense we are always swimming upstream and never with the currents. Life is tedious and boring and we get frustrated because we may be doing what is counter to our nature.
I may be smart in some ways, but I get flustered if asked to organize anything. Yet there are some who can organize an event blind-folded.
In a sense, each one of us is meant to be part of a bigger whole, a community where no one is expendible. And so we all benefit when people find their place.
Once we are aware that people are gifted, in some cases we end up taking the place of perhaps dysfunctional parents by telling people when we realize they have a gift. Now that gift may not seem important to them, because we tend to dismiss whatever we are good at. And so, there is some selling involed, in the sense of saying, "No, you are not common. If I tried to do what you do, it would be impossible. What you do is an art, a gift, and you simply need to learn how to use that.
Next, think big, and work from there. If I can teach, which I believe I can; I may be content telling a room filled with six people how to tie shoes. But since so many others can do that, I want to dream bigger.
When we sense someone has an amazing gift, we need to tell them, and sometimes birth a dream. "Boy, you are so much more talented than most teachers...you should be speaking in front of audiences..." or "You are always able to identify problems and come up with solutions, you shouldn't be a secretary, you should be an administrator.."
Now this may require a change in our bents because we might be more prone to telling people what is wrong with them rather than what is right with them, and may think by telling someone what is wrong we are doing them a big favor. If someone isn't where they should be, they likely already know it. And it is so much better to kindle a hope than to dash one.
When people are hopeless, and someone births a hope in them, they appreciate it. That person might say something that changes someone's life from an obscure life of frustration to a life of fulfillment.
Nate More >
|
|
|
|
14 Feb 2006 @ 14:00, by poetsong. Spirituality
In order to grow, we must know who we are. Self-examination is painful for some, and an addiction to others. However, there is a balanced way to approach examining our hearts to see what is there.
First we have to realize that most of the work is to be done in the foundation, and not in the roof. And to some degree we have to be willing to forgive our faults and failings, and the countless things we might have done and thought.
I don't need to dissect every person I've hurt, who has hurt me; but primarily, deal with "Who am I?" and "What has made me the way I am?" and "What must I do to become the person I aspire to be?"
Who am I? Well, there is who the world thinks I am? There is who I think I am? And there is the reality which is often neither of the above.
I may think I am loving and patient, and perfectly justified when I bite someone's head off and spit it out. "I'm a loving person, but you really pissed me off and deserve to be written-off. I'm patient too, but don't ask me to wait more than five minutes, you slow poke!"
The above example is of someone self-deluded. In a world that makes no demands of me, allows me to have all the toys I want, and never is confrontational, I might seem the nicest person in the world. And so, a spoiled brat of a person may seem rather pleasant until someone takes away their rattle. They may be all hugs until someone disagrees with them.
"I'm really a good person, loving and kind; but I want to rip the faces off those who do not agree with my view on politics, religion, or who makes the best pizza."
Well, do you love people, or simply have warm feelings for people who agree with you? If you wish everyone else was thrown in a dumpster and dropped off a bridge, then chances are the level of conditional love you have is far smaller than you might imagine. "Well, I love if unprovoked!"
The level of love is measured by how we treat the least deserving, not the most deserving. It is measured by how we act in kindness when we feel like acting in malice.
I can't change anyone on the face of the earth but me. However, if I become the best I can be, I might inspire others to want to change; and so there is no room in life for a bully pulpit of someone demanding the world to change. If I know a better way, then it sure better make me a better person, because if it doesn't then my words mean nothing and are empty.
There is no motivation in the Universe higher than love, and by the highest definition of love, which is a will to bless another, and pour oneself out for their benefit.
This doesn't mean all people will give me warm cuddly feelings; not by a long shot. But when I say this, I know I am not being a hypocrite, at least not in this.
Has anyone ever prayed, "I want to love more!"? Well, I think I've said this in many ways, far more than once.
If you believe prayers are answered, expect unlovable people to pour into your life, harsh people, mean people, "Personality Disorders-R'-Us" kinds of people.
Do I love? How much? If there are limits, why?
We have to define where we want to go in order to know if we are moving in the right direction. In self-examination there is no advantage to beating ourselves us. Guilt and shame are poor motivators. Rather, we should push aside where we have failed, and simply ask, "Who am I? Who do I want to be? And how do I get there?"
Step one. How do I really treat people? How do they see me? I may feel loving, but do I actually convey love? Do I say, "I love you mom; but when she asks for a simple favor, do I ignore it, and or tell her to leave me alone?"
Often love is measured in simple things, like whether I do something or don't do something, not some whimsical feeling.
"Mom, do you prefer a whimsical feeling, or help with the dishes?" Generally she'll accept help with the dishes or a ride to the store any day of the week.
Here's an easy task. "Who makes you feel loved? Who makes you feel like they are two faced and only give you lip service?" Examine their actions, and what they do to make you feel loved. If we simply turn that around, we begin gaining insight.
For those who want to go to the advanced level of love, it takes learning love languages; and not simply expecting others to guess we love them and accept love on our terms. If they need a gift to feel loved, I'll give a gift. If they need a show of affection to feel loved, I'll show affection.
I can't demand them to accept popcorn if they hate popcorn. "Yeah, but I gave it in love you selfish ungrateful beast! If you can't know love when you see it; stick that popcorn in your ear for all I care!" Nah, love doesn't think that way.
The good thing is that love is infectious. Those who learn the art can cause people to open up who were closed.
Just some thoughts to ponder,
Nate.
More >
|
|
|
|
13 Feb 2006 @ 15:16, by vector8. Spirituality
"For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone." (Psalm 91: 11-12)
There is an old saying: "practise makes perfect." I believe this is only part of the story. There is another aspect that makes one perfect and it is trust.
Before I learned how to touch-type I was a two-finger typist. I was pretty fast and it got the job done. One day I decided it was time I learned how to touch-type. I borrowed a friend's typing manual and designated the entire afternoon to the process. I figured that by the end of that afternoon I would be a proficient touch-typist. Well, I did achieve my goal in terms of learning where the keys were, but my typing speed was as fast as a snail. More >
|
|
|
|
10 Feb 2006 @ 15:43, by poetsong. Spirituality
When I was young, I wanted to be Legolas, a carefree Elf, athletic and handsome. Then I wanted to grow up to be Aragorn, adventurous, and unafraid. The young fantasize on what they want to be, and the old fantasize on what they coulda, shoulda been. Very few people are happy in their own skin, and wish we had an order form, permitting us to change our looks, intelligence, height or anything else that might give us an advantage.
Those who've seen a few seasons realize beauty fades. Arthritis and other infirmities take away the strength. Hair may change color, or thin. What was once firm might tend to sag. It may not go away altogether, but there is a sense that we are living in earthly tents that become tattered with weathering.
Those who love Lord of the Rings might laugh that I've chosen these figures to illustrate my point. Legolas is perpetually youthful. Aragorn is perpetually strong and relevant, and his call is forever ahead of him. The Hobbits are perpetually whimsical and carefree. I am none of the above.
And therefore, the key is understanding the beauty of Gandalf, not the strength, powers, or looks. Gandalf's beauty is in having a sense of purpose, a call as it were, and in having years of experience under his belt, so that he can mentor Aragorn, Legolas, Frodo and the inhabitants of Middle Earth.
Gandalf has a sweet spirit, gentle, and patient; and he has a genuine concern. He has convictions. And he is forever pondering the meaning of things, keeping his eye fixed upon a goal and a prize.
Time can weather most every attribute, but a sweet spirit, a font of knowledge, are like fine wine, becoming increasingly valuable with age. Therefore, I am not afraid of time or the weakening of the flesh. I never feel life has passed me by, because I am going forward where strength and athletic ability mean less. We live in a world where insight, knowledge, understanding, and wisdom are needed more than ever. The world needs more Gandalfs. More >
|
|
<< Newer entries Page: 1 ... 16 17 18 19 20 ... 40 Older entries >> |
|
