Re: Prolife Question

On Apr 27, 6:24 pm, Rockinghorse Winner <rockingho...@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:


Your sensitivity to hypocrisy is a bit too finely tuned, I think. Some
compassion for your fellow searcher is in order. Surely, some critisism is
rightly earned by those who forget their insufficiency or who overstay their
welcome.

But, if we are confident that the search we are embarked on is a noble one,
then I think we can put up with our fellow travelers even if they get shrill
at times.

When you get close to people, you see their pores. And everyone looks ugly
under a microscope.

Only if you judge them.

I find it helps to figure your intuition into the
equation, when deciding on what theology or guide to life you will follow.
To work out all the fine details of your code of life on logical grounds is
well nigh an impossible (not to mention life-sapping) task. That is why
religions exist, to give people a ready-made *system* to follow with very
good references attached, so they don't have to do all the heavy lifting
themselves.

I have to withhold my respect for religion for that very reason. Each
and every person has a conscience, and it is that they should follow.
We all know right from wrong, and as long as we are doing all that we
can do to live up to that noble call, then we are blameless. If you
let a religion tell you right from wrong, then you are slavishly
following another wrong human being, or group of human beings. God
gave each of us reason and intuition, and His voice is our conscience.
If we give away responsibility of our spiritual welfare to others,
then we cannot stand in the divine light of peace.

My suggestion is that you figure what *works* into the equation. What
ready-made *system* of religion or philosophy out there seems to give you
peace and lets you live a fruitful and productive life?

"To thy own self be true" as one wise philosopher said "and then it
follows, as night follows day, thou cannot then be false to any man."

What makes you more
fully human than the others, causes you to most fully appreciate the natural
beauty of the world, makes you forgiving of others?

Honoring your conscience. Striving to be a better person, a kinder,
more loving person. But everyone is fully human, no matter what they
do.

No system will be
perfect. There will always exist space between you and the bureauacracy of
organizations.

Correct. But there can never be a space between you and your
conscience. If you violate it it will still continue to let you know
when you have done wrong, and when you have turned back to God again.

This should not weigh too much on you. Your job is to try to
contribute your own insights to the organization and to bear joyfully with
the *mistakes* of your fellow religionists. This is called, LOVE.

Which is more loving, to speak out against the harm they are doing to
themselves by following an organization instead of their own
conscience, or to let them continue to harm themselves without any
reminder?

This will be the sign that you are on the track of God's will for your life:
you will be a happier, more virtuous person. Don't be frightened!

I guess that you are a happy, virtuous person. Or is it a more
comfortable nest, a way to make life easier, a way to avoid having to
work out your own spiritual growth? No need to answer that, just think
about it for yourself. It doesn't concern anyone else.

Seek with
confidence and joy, knowing you are on an important mission, the most
important.

Are you still "seeking" with joy for the answers? Or have you allowed
somebody else to do your thinking for you? Religion has a way of
stopping you seeking when it places itself between you and God,
telling you it speaks on behalf of God, and tells you what to believe
and what to do.

Be humble in admitting that you don't have all the answers.

If we had all the answers, there'd be no need to come to Earth at all.
You can't climb a mountain unless the mountain is there to climb. No-
one is suggesting that when you turn back to the guiding light of your
conscience, that you will suddenly have all the answers. When you
accept a self-adjusting self-perpetuating self-justifying religious
system, of course you *will* have all the answers. But they will all
be wrong ones which lead you astray.

Pray. Ask God to give you the grace of knowing God's will for PLG.

Grace streams from God constantly, to each and every one of us. But it
comes to us from within, not through an external organization. As one
wise philosopher said "the Kingdom of Heaven is *within* you".

Relax. Don't turn into a jellyfish, but don't go around tearing your hair
out either. Being in tune with God's will for *you* is the most liberating
experience you will ever know. For the first time in your life you will
feel truly free. It is a delicate operation, however. It requires you to
turn off the TV and the radio and be alone with your thoughts.

Exactly! Be free of the babbling voices that tell you that their body
of teachings are "infallible".

Be patient. It will take time to reach the point where you can say with
confidence, *I am who God wants me to be.* You will not be knocked to the
ground and hear the voice coming out a cloud. It will be more subtle, and if
you are constantly listening to the ipod and playing on the puter, you won't
ever reach that point, because you will be too distracted.

And also, if you are constantly listening to the theologians
perpetuating the mistakes of other theologians, you won't ever reach
that point, because you will be too distracted.

Let me say that I have been on a road of searching for God for about 25
years, and it is only in the last year or two (I"m in my 40's) that I can
truly say, I have found God's will for me, to a certain degree. I mean, I
don't have a vision of my life as it should be played out until death, but I
feel that I am on the right track. Just *that* degree of holiness took 25
years, mind you. And I am *far,* far from a saint. It was a very long and
convoluted road, and I pray God may preserve me until the end in whatever
small degree of sanctity I have won by God's grace.

I admire your efforts. But think of how much easier it would have been
if you had been following God's guidance from within, unburdened by
the church's teachings.

"For me, prayer is a surge of the heart; it is a simple look turned toward
heaven, it is a cry of recognition and of love, embracing both trial and
joy." - Saint Therese of Lisieux

Now *that's* wise advice! Listen to your heart and turn towards heaven
within you. Don't get tangled up in the church and it's teachings.

PLG
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: God is created by man, or, Atheists are created by man ?!
    ... have to / need to make a decision about God the Creator as well as who ... After a conversation in which I was challenged rather vehemently to give accounting of the reasons behind the choice I made many years ago to begin to study Buddhism, and having left my Christian background and prior belief system behind, I determined that it might be OK if I sat down and wrote the reasons down on a one to one, personal level to try to help my friend and others to understand why I have chosen the spiritual path which has become such a big part of my life. ... I realize that you are confused by my choice, and that is mostly because you know nothing at all about Buddhism, (excepting perhaps that there was once a man named Buddha who founded a religion). ... Christians believe that we are all sinners in need of redemption; Buddhists believe that we are all Buddhas' who have forgotten it for the moment. ...
    (soc.senior.issues)
  • Re: Explanatory Power of God
    ... | the experience of God in particular are illusory experiences, ... | life and one's personal experience of God continue after death. ... religion will win out: ... Are you Baptist Church of God or Baptist Church of ...
    (uk.religion.christian)
  • Mufa’Khathat - Islams Dirty Secret RevealedRe: Why Pop-Star Cat Stevens accepted Islam????
    ... our lives a preparation for the next life. ... parents that turn him to this or that religion. ... I was taught that God ... He did not become a Muslim, ...
    (uk.religion.islam)
  • singer cat stevens !!
    ... life of show business. ... parents that turn him to this or that religion. ... I was taught that God ... When he came to London, he brought back a translation of the Quran, ...
    (rec.arts.tv)
  • singer cat stevens !!
    ... life of show business. ... parents that turn him to this or that religion. ... I was taught that God ... When he came to London, he brought back a translation of the Quran, ...
    (alt.fashion)