soma

Rhino I like your enthusiasm and sincerity. I can't give you any advice, but when I married my wife 34 years ago she was a very conservtive Christian. I on the other hand just left an Ashram where I meditated 4 hours a day. I never talked to her about changing or alering her life style as I loved her the way she was that is why I married her, but over the years I have observed she and I have both changed without the philisophical discourses which I like or preaching of any kind. I respected where she was in the moment and the next moment and the ones that came after that and she did the same letting me meditate and even watching over my meditation time so I am not disturbed. I realized that we are human beings, the hard part just being and not messing things up, accepting what the Lord gives us so we can enjoy the game. Good luck with your endeavors, I am sure they will bring you closer together.

I feel for those who have such hellish thoughts and project them on others when the universe is a never-ending medium of well-arranged relationships and interactions where we learn to love and develop into just being ourselves. We don’t have to wait to die to go to heaven because heaven is at this moment available to us in the same way as are all states of consciousness. The heaven within is timeless with endless possibilities and is always there; we only have to set it in motion starting at our level of reality by tuning into our stillness and stabilizing our vibrations The perfect happiness is being who we are in the present moment because we are already at the intensity of mindfulness that we are capable of undertaking and believing.

Jen that is the way I view Satan as a reality that we create along with the hell it causes in our mind.

The approach using scientific principles makes religion scientific and not dogmatic because to know oneself and the force beyond the mind is at the heart of science and all religions. Science can help us because it is the study and investigation into the opposing energies of God’s creation clarifying our values about ourselves and the environment in which we live. Everything happens for a reason, there are no mistakes so understanding science gives us the tools to reverse negative thoughts, grow out of our past and experience the pure energy in the supernatural. It does not need words to communicate because it is not religion; the experience of different energies has the power to heal, obstruct, harm, help and bring joy, happiness and humiliation. Energy is the essence of life so if we spent more time loving others instead of fighting the devil, the world would be a better place and the devil would not exist. We need to take responsibility for our energy and love the present moment as it reveals the Absolute spreading energy and love beyond all boundaries. May the force be with you

I agree we need to incorporate science and not fear it in Christianity, after all, it is also searching for the truth and can help individuals find their individual way.

I feel my marriage works because my wife and I respect each other as individuals. We were lucky to start from scratch, my family dis-owned me and because my wife was seeing an American her family dis-owned her. We were able to start our own painting without interference and are still painting that picture at different stages. I feel my time as a monk was the best preparation for marriage because if a person can't live with himself, he/she defintely can't live with another person. I like Gibran's analogies, a house is stronger with two pillars than with one, you eat from the same cake, but on different plates. I like being married to one person because I feel it is an emotional, mental and spiritual investment and to start building over and over the depth of relationship would be boring and time consuming when there are better things to do. I have only worn my wedding ring one day, the day we got married because I don't like to wear jewlery and my wife doesn't care, but she loves jewerly. I like this stage because of our independence, but niether of us have the desire or jealous feelings about other people even though we can admire physical and mental beauty. I told her I loved our relationship because I get to enjoy the best of two worlds and can live as a monk and a married man. She does not mediate and is not a vegetarian, but respects that I do. I like the Indian philosophy of seeing you wife as a reflection of God and by serving your spouse you are serving God.

Nice story we have infinite possibilities in our brain and we can use it or we can let our brain use us. Thanks inspirational...............................

Greeting Sue, I would try the school district because they have deaf students are in touch with most of the resources in the local area.

Steve Salutations and good luck with your book, I will take a look when I find the link.

Keith, thank you for starting this discussion, you and Steve are right on the mark. I feel Centering Prayer and Letio Divina, which are meditations techniques are a good way for Christians to get in touch with themselves, the universe and Christian mysticism. I feel the church has been concentrating on the circumference and needs to change direction and start heading to the center. I would not even mind a Christian/Buddhist collaboration as they already have groups who meditate regularly.

Elam salutations to the Divinity within you. I also had to reconcile with my family and found it mostly takes place within myself. I realized a lot of it is accepting what is. I am responsible for my change, but not the people who think differently about life so I can love, enjoy and be in harmony with them even if they reject me. They are responsible for many of the good changes in my life even if they seemed unappropriate at the time. The political divide in the 60's continues to this day. Good luck and jump in with you ideas.

Greg thanks for bringing this topic up about faultfinders and grumblers and that there is no benefit to it. I feel every person writes their own story through their thoughts, actions and connections with the external world, so this information stored in our unconscious makes a great impression on who we are and our potential so there is nothing to grumble about. It provides us with intuitions, and understandings of ourselves and our relationship to the universe. I feel the unconscious is the foundation for the spiritual mind if we draw a circle starting with the unconscious, the circles of the subconscious and the conscious minds would be circles within the unconscious circle. The unconscious indicates an absence of consciousness so is not observable for the subject whose mind it represents, but information that exists in an unconscious form can be activated and retrieved into our conscious mind. We can decide to think about our first love or kiss with the ability to choose how many memory traces to be called up to our conscious mind. We can see, hear, smell, taste and feel sensations that were present at that time if we decide to bring these details into a conscious form. In deep prayer, contemplation, an anaesthetized state, meditation or deep sleep a person is temporarily unconscious, but the conscious state returns sometimes knowing things that our mind can’t put in plain words. We develop our intuition by being brave enough to follow our inner voice that doesn’t use words, by quieting the mind so we can hear it and listen to the message from deep within our self. Honoring and trusting the soul is a way to tap into the current of universal life where everyone is connected, all pointing to our unique life that we will love if we are brave enough to follow it.

Our thinking just reflects our own thinking positive or negative. We think we are judging others, but we are only judging ourselves.

I feel the living universe is composed of energy and that energy carries information, which we could call consciousness. There is a scientist who as a new theory that the cell is not controlled by DNA the code for our human program, but by stimulus registered on the membrane of the cell and the cell responds to it, which is cause and effect. The same scientist says that consciousness is in micro tubules, which separates it from the universal consciosness so we have individual identities. I believe this living universe can be labeled as God so we can use science or theology to talk about what is beyond our encapsulated brains, which have limitations.

In my mind I feel the Bible is mythology and I don't think myths are wrong or not real. I feel religion usually expresses spiritual wisdom with mythology and analogy to expand beyond thought, and it is a good method to communicate the inner depths of the soul, which are beyond the mind and body. The Christian mystics used and still use all kinds of imagery to stimulate the imagination and our consciousness that is composed of our body, mind and soul together. I applaud Christianity for using and sharing wisdom from other traditions, but it would be nice if they were honest about it.

Will do thanks Joseph

It is interesting. I think the mega churches bring people to God, but the problem is they are not functioning in God. I think evolution will sooner or later initiate a search again hopefully a little deeper for the meaning of life.

The flow of our pure Existence always seems to find expression in the different aspects of living as it gives us peace in the midst of disorder and confusion usually associated with our interests and ambitions. We don’t fight the wind when we fly and we can allow others their private gusts also as they too respond to their personal communications with the universe as we relax, glide and enjoy God’s abundance together. “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in Spirit.” (Galatians 5:2) I agree if it works keep it if not catch another gust of wind to soar above the mind.

I like romansh's explanation and advise. I second his motion.

2 Peter 1: 20-21. "Above all, you must realize that no prophecy in Scripture ever came from the prophet's own understanding, or from human initiative. No, those prophets were moved by the Holy Spirit, and they spoke from God." If the Bible was written with by the Holy Spirit then the people who are interpreting it literally with their intellect are wrong. I would say it is written in code, which is only interpreted by the format it was written in which would be spirit. 1 Corinthians 2:11-16 11"For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God." 12"Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God." 13"These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual." 14"But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned."

Terry, Thank you for the introduction and it seems you will fit right in with the diversity on this forum. I look forward to reading your views.

Cosmoetica, Thank you for posting the link. Bishop Spong is very clear on Christian Scholarship and its opposition to Christian fundamentalism.

If you love Jesus and he asked you to become Buddhist would you oblige?

What an interesting topic. I feel there are two different worlds in the concept of duality. Duality leads us to think that there are two worlds, the material world and the spiritual world. According to that view, all that we see with our physical eyes, all evil, all pain,suffering, and death is in this world that some say is an illusion I would agree with Paul that it is real in that world. The suffering is real, what we feel and others, but I feel there is an escape similar to Plato's cave where one person escaped and rose to the surface and found another world. I think we need both. I want to help the people at the bottom of the well, but if I jump down there I share their pain, but I can't help them so I need the escape to the other world so I have something to give to help them with a life line in duality. That life line would be the rope that pulls the bucket up and down, which I feel is my mind. I go into the depths and go into pain and rise out of it like the tides in the ocean. Sometimes I can carry supplies in the bucket, sometimes political change, sometimes hope, but I need a way out so I have something to bring back. Spirituality, Nirvanna, Samadhi, Moksha are spiritual vacations to help us help others. I don't think we progress in those states on no-thing, nothing, but they help us help others and ourselves on the physical plane where progress is made in duality. Sure, it is progress to nowhere, but we are here to play the game of duality.

overcast, Thanks for sharing that. I like your sense of humor in the last line. Only you know what is best for yourself and it is good you have professional advice on your situation. There is nothing wrong being an atheist or an intellectual. In fact I think the atheist who are sincere humanist are better than many Christians. Don't be hard on yourself, saying weak atheist. You are what you are and are very courageous going through your evolution. I admire your walking on the edge and accepting what comes and what goes. At this moment in my life I am reading, enjoying and expanding my horizons reading about Quantum Physics so I admire people with an intellect. You are a seeker on many levels so I hope you enjoy the journey.