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Continuing A Discussion On Spiritual Growth


Lolly

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This is a tangent that went off topic in another thread, sparked when Cynthia asked about how people handle their intolerance of intolerance. It starts here in the thread about the new pope:

 

http://tcpc.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopi...findpost&p=3828

 

You can read the initial posts there from Cynthia, myself, lily and curlytop, and I will kick off this thread with the most recent post on the subject:

 

Lolly and Lily -- hey, that has a nice lilt to it!

 

Amen to your posts!  

 

Recognizing the fact that people are at different developmental levels and different stages along the spiritual journey is so important.

 

I think it is also partly what Paul means in 1 Cor. 13: 9 - 12: (NAB)

 

"For we know partially and we prophesy partially, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I used to talk as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I put aside childish things. At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then fact to face. At present I know partially, then I shall know fully, as I am fully known."

 

All is process, and we have different needs as the journey contines, as we keep on walking and growing.

 

Peace,

curly

 

Yup. There's a phrase I like to use which speaks to this: Everyone starts where they are; it cannot be any other way.

 

We can't expect people who are at one point in this process to pick themselves up and plop themselves down at a different point. It can't be done. They are where they are and cannot pretend otherwise.

 

I think that there are so many wisdom traditions because there are so many different levels of receptivity in humankind. We may have started in one place and find that today we are in another, yet everything we have experienced-- including perhaps the indoctrination into and rebellion against a dogmatic way of thinking-- is part of what brought us this far.

 

Shall we continue?

Edited by Lolly
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Yes, let's. Thank! :)

 

Now, what you were saying about the Scripture about the Spiritual milk verses spiritual solid food. Have any of you had a fundamentalist from your previous fundamental faith group background excuse YOU of "Not progressing onward to SPIRITUAL SOLID FOOD-" merely because you refused to agree with 'their' fundamental interpreations on Scriptures? This IS what did it for me....the gal I was studying with when I was IN JW and was like 21 years old back then..she coped a stuck up pharisee additude and excuse me of this because I would not agree to embrace the JW "organization" as my channel to god..kinda like this catholic guy wants the Progressive Catholics to do with the Pope.

 

This all also connect to the spiritual caffeteria approuch that the fundies of all 31 flavors love to excuse of of..you know, "Picking and choosing what please us."? In their stupidity they can not see that what we are doing is simply following Pauls' advice to the Boreans to, "Check and see if what where are being told [by those claiming religious authority] tell us. Acts 17:11.

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Thanks for all the great responses and the new thread! I think I tend to "get" buddhism best when trying to be tolerant of intolerance. The koan of being intolerant of intolerance is a turning word! :rolleyes:

 

Something alone the lines of: You are intolerant. I am intolerant. We are the same (gasp! Back to Pogo) I don't want to be the same as you! Now we're more the same - ack! and around and around it goes until I feel quite connected... this is that.

 

Make sense to anybody??? :blink:

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Make sense? Definitely!

 

I still have a few intolerance issues with some "fundy" attitudes, but I'm working on it. I used to have many more, but as I've branched out in my reading I'm learning to appreciate and even agree with many points of view that could be considered conservative.

 

Will I ever *like* the intolerance shown by many on the religious right towards those that aren't. Nope. But I can take a stand without returning evil for evil.

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Like the J-man said, "by their fruits shall ye know them." I'd say atheists, Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, etc. with open hearts are more connected to humanity and the "Holy Spirit," than 2 people who espouse the same beliefs with judgmental, closed hearts. There is fundamentalism in every religion, (even Buddhist ones :P ), and that implies the attitude there is only 1 way to get it right and further mistakes beliefs in the "right thing" with being on the right path. Bottom line is if your path has "no heart," it isn't the right path. Beliefs separate, love unify. In fact, I think Jesus taught only 1 thing: love, not a whole litany of beliefs. It's everyone else who came along after Jesus that added a buncha of thought related to trying to wrap their minds around who he & God are. Anything that supports keeping an open heart gets the job done in my book and to many beliefs or holding too firmly to them often seems to work against that. take care, Earl

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Exactly Earl!!! I think people get in trouble when they try to objectively varify an internal change. Look for fruit... worry about your mote - not so much about what everybody else is doing/believing/etc.

 

 

Ahhh, community! I love these talks.

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:D

 

A friend of mine from another forum is fond of saying something like "it's not what others do or don't do that concerns me, it's what I do."

 

The mote in most of our eyes is wickedly huge. How could we possibly be in a position to judge the vision of others when we cannot see clearly ourselves? The very first order of business has to be attending to our own blindness.

Edited by Lolly
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