Shantanu
Well-Known Member
google 'science'.Oh now, there are a lot of ways to seek.
How ell they work is another matter.
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google 'science'.Oh now, there are a lot of ways to seek.
How ell they work is another matter.
It seems counter-intuitive, but the injunction to "seek within" in fact results in moving out of an egoistic perspective. The more deeply one "goes within" the more one sees others. Looking within reveals the illusory nature of the ego, and we end up identifying less with it as a result. And as a result of this, compassion for others grows. But as I qualified, that seeking is not add to the ego something it lacks, it is to seek to see beyond its demands of us, to let it go, and allow what is already fully within us to flow out of us. And what is within us, is a love for the whole world, as it is the same love that is seen in all others as we now know within ourselves.
The path your mother suggested is also a good one that leads someone to that same place of realization. In doing service to others, it opens you to that universal love in yourself, showing you that your ego and its needs are really not the primary focus of living life. A life of service is something big with the Catholic church, and there is a true spiritual basis for doing that, which is to open the heart to the world, which is how the Love of God is seen as being poured out to the world. That too then becomes an expression of that Realization within us. The Source, is within. Love is within us.
In both paths, and there are others as well, the ego becomes dissolved and the heart is opened. But yes, sometime navel-gazing can become distorted into narcissistic self-congratulations. The ego is tenacious, and it will seek for anything it can claim to "look good" when it seeks validation for itself. That can happen in service to others too, "Look how good I am feeding all these homeless people!". Spiritual ego is a sneaky one, since it is afterall doing "good works". Becoming more self-aware, beyond the ego-self, one can see that habit of mind in its patterns. Ego just wants to feed. So we put it on a bit of a diet.
To me the problem is resolved in any of these paths by simply touching into what voice is speaking. What desire is compelling? Is it about appearance, or is it authentic? Any authentic action at all, can lead someone to Truth. Being authentic puts you at Home in the world. To me, Enlightenment is awakening to our authentic Self, the real "Us" that inhabits this body, which sees others as one's own self, with compassion and no judgment. We have to transcend the ego first, then we can hold ourselves with that "Love" which holds the whole world. It all flows together, like streams to and from an Infinite Fountain. If we block that in ourselves, then we never really know the Truth, and we can't see it anywhere. Once that is unblocked, then it's recognized in everyone and everything.
google 'science'.
Hmmm.Dont be tiresome.
I don't really. It's been so long since I looked at reality from such a dualistic perspective. I'm just interested in experience. (In other words, I've already found so much "truth" that I can afford to slum for a few lifetimes.)In what way do you search for truth?
for me i look for truth from within. (inner wisdom)
I don't really. It's been so long since I looked at reality from such a dualistic perspective. I'm just interested in experience. (In other words, I've already found so much "truth" that I can afford to slum for a few lifetimes.)
"seek yourself
in what I do for others."
She also said that if you live for yourself,
you live for nothing.
But maybe that is some sort of Eastern thinking,
not applicable elsewhere.
As for "calm in a chaotic world", I live in NYC
because I like the energy. Time enough for
quiet after I am dead!
In what way do you search for truth?
for me i look for truth from within. (inner wisdom)
In what way do you search for truth?
for me i look for truth from within. (inner wisdom)
The Bible on the other hand, are records about God's deeds. It thus may go beyond our comprehension. However, similar to history, it remains the only way humans can reach a truth
.
Are all of those records of deeds about things
that actually happened?
Like, is the 6 day creation a metaphor, a history,
beyond comprehension, or what?
I'll try to answer your question to me in addressing this point. Yes, when someone sets their intention to moving beyond who they are in this world, to finding love, joy, and peace, many a trap lay in wait for them on that path. It's where the mythologies arise, dragons at the edge of the world, Jesus facing Satan in his wilderness temptation, etc, all to say "don't be beguiled and fall off the path."To me, seeking "Nirvana" seems like an ultimate in
self indulgence.
I kind of think that is what takes over, for many.
One form or another of self indulgence.
I use those as metaphors to describe what it's like. I could use a hundred others. For me, I wasn't seeking that when it first happened spontaneously. That's what it is for a lot of people, and since I mentioned Abraham Maslow before, that is what his book, Religions, Values, and Peak-Experiences, is about. Needless to say, they have a profound impact on the person which typically changes their lives. My own has been the core of who I am, and my path has been winding my way around to find myself Home in that again. Nothing in the ego satisfies like that.Well, as noted earlier, I do not identify myself as
some sort of seeker. Not on a "path", not looking
about for Truth or a Fountain. If they are there,
maybe that is the way to find them by not seeking at all?
I guess that is kinda what you said.
Nor should you ever look for "Answers". That's a problem to begin with, because it assume the rational mind can grasp reality, when it can't even grasp itself!I am in a very transitional period in my life, with a
bit too much spare time, but that wont be so
for a lot longer. "Answers" are not being sought.
Well, amen to that! Absolutely. It is about growth. I swear, sometimes I think it just truly takes just getting old enough for us to set all our other projects aside and to begin to get in touch with who we truly are. And if we do that deeply enough, we find we are love. From there then, life become alive for the first time. "It's been there the whole time". It's only us that wasn't seeing Reality back then, when we were young, and seeking Answers with a capital A to fit into the boxes of our young minds.I will though continue to try to grow in maturity
and self awareness, and try to give back more
than I get. Wherever that ultimately will take me,
who knows.
Live life without fear. Love without fear. To become free and joyful in life. To know and be Peace. To become human. To awaken.Your post is interesting and thoughtful, but for me
it leaves still unanswered, what do you do with it
when you find it?
I think about the teaching every day and i do not find a reason reincarnation is wrong, but if you do not think reincarnation is real that is fine too. Buddhism is a personal belief for me. i do not want to push it on others.
you mean as a guardian for someone?What if in reincarnation before you were born you "watched" over an individual?
In what way do you search for truth?
for me i look for truth from within. (inner wisdom)
I'll try to answer your question to me in addressing this point. Yes, when someone sets their intention to moving beyond who they are in this world, to finding love, joy, and peace, many a trap lay in wait for them on that path. It's where the mythologies arise, dragons at the edge of the world, Jesus facing Satan in his wilderness temptation, etc, all to say "don't be beguiled and fall off the path."
I found early on for myself that there seems this incredible hair's-breadth line between seeking to gain for yourself, and seeking love for the sake of love itself, abandoning all who you are in order rest in that ocean. As I said the ego becomes recognized in its sneaky ways. When someone embarks on that path, if they are not truly committed to the path, then ego will prevail and still reign, except now as a "spiritual person". The search for the spiritual, becomes an attraction for the ego, seeking a new niche market for itself to hide in plain sight.
If you're not familiar with the Buddhist concepts of the far and near enemies, it's a good one to keep in mind about anything in our lives, really. The far enemy is the exact opposite of something and is obvious to us. For instance the far enemy of compassion is indifference, or being callused. The near enemy is deceptive because it masquares itself as the desired quality or trait. So the near of compassion is pity. That's not actually compassion, but it looks like it because you are "caring". We use the near enemy to lie to ourselves about the truth we don't want to see.
Another term for this more recent than that is called "spiritual bypassing". Rather than meditating to see beyond the veil of our own illusions and find Peace, it's used to have a spiritual experience. Meditation becomes about surfing the crests of the waves, seeking a high, and not about doing actual work. There are these experiences in meditation naturally. But they are to open us up to see what is there if we do the work and lift all the rocks out of the way in our gardens, which means a lot of very hard, painful discovery and letting go.
That is what spiritual work is actually all about. But the "spiritual bypassing" part comes in because these become the sought-after goal. And when you have these experiences, which can be quite profound, you use them to validate that you are doing well. It's a "near enemy" in this sense, and the devil that will trick you into thinking you've arrived, whereas as you've only found a new home for the ego. You're still not letting go yet.
So yes, you'll see a lot of that. It's just the nature of the beast. Anyone is susceptible to that. But not all fall for it.
I use those as metaphors to describe what it's like. I could use a hundred others. For me, I wasn't seeking that when it first happened spontaneously. That's what it is for a lot of people, and since I mentioned Abraham Maslow before, that is what his book, Religions, Values, and Peak-Experiences, is about. Needless to say, they have a profound impact on the person which typically changes their lives. My own has been the core of who I am, and my path has been winding my way around to find myself Home in that again. Nothing in the ego satisfies like that.
The thing to bear in mind with these metaphors, that while it sounds like it's a "thing", it really is just the nature of what reality has become to you in that state of absolute Freedom. It's the same thing we see every day. Our mythologies from religion create images of "heaven" as a "place". But in reality, all the myths are just symbolic ways to talk about an experience of Reality, which is described as full of Light, Life, and Love. It's not an object somewhere that is the source of that. It's Source is in you. In everything.
Nor should you ever look for "Answers". That's a problem to begin with, because it assume the rational mind can grasp reality, when it can't even grasp itself!
Well, amen to that! Absolutely. It is about growth. I swear, sometimes I think it just truly takes just getting old enough for us to set all our other projects aside and to begin to get in touch with who we truly are. And if we do that deeply enough, we find we are love. From there then, life become alive for the first time. "It's been there the whole time". It's only us that wasn't seeing Reality back then, when we were young, and seeking Answers with a capital A to fit into the boxes of our young minds.
Live life without fear. Love without fear. To become free and joyful in life. To know and be Peace. To become human. To awaken.
In what way do you search for truth?
for me i look for truth from within. (inner wisdom)
In what way do you search for truth?
for me i look for truth from within. (inner wisdom)
In terms of witnessing then yes. Creation strictly speaking is not a human account witnessing. That is, Moses didn't watch how this world was created. It's God who told Moses so. He won't tell something completely nonsense to Moses who is an ancient figure without any knowledge of science. At least the Bible is not written as a book of science. Instead that's the way what God should say in terms of witnessing.
That said. The question here for you is, what is time scientifically? What is time in terms of Einstein's relativity and quantum physics. Humans' understanding of time is incomplete! If so then base on what you judge that "6 days are not possible"? The speculation that "6 days are not possible" is completely based off our human conception about time that time must be stable and progressing evenly forward. However this very conception itself is questionable even in terms of science!
What if in reincarnation before you were born you "watched" over an individual?