by LittleToe 78 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Setting aside dogma, taking the comments of Augustine to a deeper level ("Unity in what is essential. Freedom in what is not essential. Charity in everything"), I'd like to share an observation.
I don't know if I can articulate it properly, and I KNOW it'll open me up for some abuse, but so be it. I present to you my thoughts:
(From one traversing a dark night...)
First of all belief:
I'm going to tackle this in reverse. The act of disbelief appears to kill "spiritual experience" stone dead. To be skeptical yet "suspend disbelief" is far more likely to work. The blind belief is likely to have you believing anything and everything, and going off with the faeries.
Finding something as the object of your belief seems far easier for a Western mind to accept than the full-bore path of Zen. Now beliefs can be ideals, but seem best when they arouse the greatest of passions, and hence are more easily vested in a person. It's only in inter-personal relationships that such beliefs seem to have longevity. I believe (there we go again) that is one reason why Christianity has become the force it has. It has little to do with the sword-point, and more to do with the inter-personal identifying with Christ.
The very action of belief, and immersing oneself in it, seems to trigger some wonderful things, but it's very nature insists that one doesn't just put it in a box. It has to be lived and experienced, even if it only starts out life as a mechanism.
Secondly, the focal point of belief:
As I already mentioned, I think that inter-personally is the best way for us (as humans) to go, especially in the Western world.
I recommend an approach that I have to quickly say that I'd feel no offense if folks deign to take, and that being the Jesus road.
I do understand the difficulties that can pose for an exJW mind, and barriers to spiritual experience are exactly what I'd love to help tear down.
I do have to state, first of all, that the Jesus we knew as JW's was not the Jesus of the bible or Christianity.
If "God" or the "Divine" is everywhere, then Jesus is touted as the humanised, personal face of that eternity. I simply recommend reading the Gospel of John, and becoming acquainted with the main character. Whether or not this is initially approached as a novel may not matter, but identifying with that main character, and getting wrapped up in what is said of him, is essential to this process.
I also recommend that it be done with a translation with which you are unfamiliar (for example "The Message" by Eugene Peterson).
Thirdly, the intent of belief:
What is the function of belief, if not to place something above our own ego, be it an ideal or a person whom we believe in?
To that end the "Jesus Road" attempts to place just one person on the "throne of our heart", Jesus. He becomes our Lord, our God, our Daimyo, our Leader.
Since the whole preoccupation of this character is with "love", that comes to us in spades, and overspills to affect our neighbour. It's a spontaneous thing, not something that HAS to be worked at.
But it all starts and ends with an adoration, free from personal ego. From that unencumbered starting point "grace" flows...
...and experience follows.
John - "The Message" (free online).
" The Message " by Eugene Peterson (to buy from Amazon).
I also recommend "The Way to Love" by Anthony de Mello (Amazon).
The meal of my life
I scrabble around in the pit of my stomach
pawing around at the scraps of a meal
wondering now, how I thought it so tasty
looking so rancid, was "it" ever real?
my life takes a turn for the worse or the better
feeding my hopes with old shattered dreams
How could it be that "these" recent fractions
sustained my "soul", my "ego", my "me"?
So as I collect my thoughts from the refuse
sifting away all the dross from my toil
I stumble across a clear cool reflection
bright in the moonlight, crisp in the dawn
The eye that is focussed, the senses so agile
waiting to see what the new day will bring
alert to the meal to soon be presented
sating the hunger of this turning wheel
And when I am fed will I feel "oh so nourished"
will I abandom my fears of the past?
Or will I seek wider and farther and further
piercing illusion, digesting at last.
LT - 31st July 2004
I recommend an approach that I have to quickly say that I'd feel no offense if folks deign to take, and that being the Jesus road.
I do understand the difficulties that can pose for an exJW mind, and barriers to spiritual experience are exactly what I'd love to help tear down.
Very interesting, LT.....so....lemme get this straight....you're advocating this belief system in order to eliminate the barriers to spiritual experiences with all their attendant visions, etc., and generate the magic of love among mankind?
Frannie B
Frannie:
If it achieves that purpose, all the better.
I'm just getting down in print some things that have helped me. Whether or not anyone wants to give them credance is up to them. I'm hardly proposing a full-blown belief systems here, nor directing anyone towards religion...
I'm in the process of distilling "key" truths from a variety of belief systems and frameworks, for personal edification. I'm just sharing some of the current proceeds of that.
Belief is one, and Love is another.
Do I detect a note of offense, in your post?
If it achieves that purpose, all the better.I'm just getting down in print some things that have helped me. Whether or not anyone wants to give them credance is up to them. I'm hardly proposing a full-blown belief systems here, nor directing anyone towards religion...
I'm in the process of distilling "key" truths from a variety of belief systems and frameworks, for personal edification. I'm just sharing some of the current proceeds of that.
Belief is one, and Love is another.Do I detect a note of offense, in your post?
Not at all, LT....not at all....I understand what you're doing now.....sometimes getting it down in writing so you can absorb it better helps tremendously....more power to ya, LT!
FB
What exactly is 'spiritual experience'?
