by journey-on 95 Replies latest jw friends
First of welcom Journey On !!! hope to see you post again soon
MMD : You're not the bad guy per se. In your analogy above, you didn't see that there's another way. Did you? Does that make you wrong or right? I know that you wanted Journey to see your way, but she/he is doing his/her way.
Did that make any sense?
Yes it does ...
I don't know your sister, so don't know how accurate the letter is. Not my business, anyway. I don't have any problem with calling a spade a spade - if your sister is greedy and materialistic but feels righteous because she can shun you, well, it doesn't hurt to point it out to her. Just don't expect anything good to come from it - it's hard to be humble enough to hear criticism and accept it, especially if it comes from someone so obviously "wicked" that they have to be shunned. Personally, I write lots of letters I don't send, it allows me to vent and to organize my thoughts, and quite often I am satisfied with understanding my feelings and expressing them and I don't have to engage in pointless debate with someone who isn't going to be able to hear me, anyway. Also keeps me from making a real ass of myself now and then, when I read over something particularly nasty and spiteful and decide that it might be the course of wisdom to let it go...
In your analogy above, you didn't see that there's another way. Did you? Does that make you wrong or right? I know that you wanted Journey to see your way, but she/he is doing his/her way.
I clearly see the other way; the way everyone else here is going; it's quite familiar; I've been there.
I also understand that when I suggest a road far less traveled that people will likely not understand. Sometimes we do understand, perhaps someone not involved in this thread, and then there is an opportunity to see first hand the mind generated beliefs that create the vicious cycle of separation and suffering. Once seen, they lose their power to enslave us, and we are on our way to truly understanding the unifying nature of true-love. A love that loves effortlessly and naturally, because there is no other -- to hate.
The only thing, the ONLY thing that separates journey and his sister is their beliefs. That's all that separates any of us.
j
James Thomas............I've re-read your replies and, believe it or not, have taken some of it to heart to think about. But, I'm curious. I don't know if you've ever been in this situation. If you haven't, I don't think you can understand the frustration caused by someone you grew up with and love deeply abandoning you simply because you no longer have the same spiritual beliefs they do. HOW WOULD YOU PERSONALLY HANDLE THAT? Would you just say, "oh, well, whatever they choose to do, I accept." You can't discuss it with them. They refuse to talk to you. So, what would you, James Thomas, do if the sister you grew up with, played with, shared a bed and room with, and loved deeply, did this to you?
journey...Welcome!!! I really appreciated what you said in your letter. I'd like to copy most of it and send to a family member!!!
James...When someone disagrees with a point, I like an explanation before I change my opinion or mind. What letter would you offer up instead??? After literally taking a relative in off the streets and having helped them build a successful life, I was more than shocked that I would be shunned and I'm not even DF'd!!! (They shunned me because I no longer go to the meetings) It's not like they haven't done a million things that wouldn't be approved by the WTS....
Swalker
Welcome journey-on. Interesting thread.
... ... Hortensia : I write lots of letters I don't send, it allows me to vent and to organize my thoughts, and quite often I am satisfied with understanding my feelings and expressing them and I don't have to engage in pointless debate with someone who isn't going to be able to hear me, anyway
Sounds like a good idea ...
I've re-read your replies and, believe it or not, have taken some of it to heart to think about. But, I'm curious. I don't know if you've ever been in this situation. If you haven't, I don't think you can understand the frustration caused by someone you grew up with and love deeply abandoning you simply because you no longer have the same spiritual beliefs they do. HOW WOULD YOU PERSONALLY HANDLE THAT? Would you just say, "oh, well, whatever they choose to do, I accept." You can't discuss it with them. They refuse to talk to you. So, what would you, James Thomas, do if the sister you grew up with, played with, shared a bed and room with, and loved deeply, did this to you?
JO,
I relate to your words so much, as my sister is also shunning me, she was my playmate, my friend, I miss her deeply
Journey-on, your letter is so well-phrased. I find it presents another viewpoint on the shunning issue and clarifies their motives so much. It's so true what you said in your letter.
Welcome to the JWD forum, JO. I hope you'll stay and chat with us.
Frannie
Journey:
So, what would you, James Thomas, do if the sister you grew up with, played with, shared a bed and room with, and loved deeply, did this to you?
I have JW sisters too, and do not have to imagine what I would do.
I suggest going to the very root of the problem. Your sisters acts of separation is a disease of humanity. The belief in our isolated and broken selves is known to all of us. But, is it true? Are we really the separate individual "selves" which, tiny and alone exist in a huge threatening universe of other? Or is there something that unites us all. Something that dissolves the walls, misunderstandings and fears of separation?
Use the agony of your broken relationship with your sister to fuel a deep and earnest investigation into the dynamics of your own mind and beyond into the deeper and closer silent sense of being and existing. Discover first hand if you really are the separate and isolated individual that you believe "self" to be. Realize first hand the underlying and unending oneness which unites everything and everyone. See that within is not a loving person, but the actuality of Love itself. A love that loves because there is no separate other to not love.
We can not change others; but we can change ourselves. We can truly look upon others and know no separation at all. Not in an egotistical way, but rather as if we have dissolved and there is just the wholeness of life and conscious existence.
This is a radical way of course. It sounds crazy. But this is what I have done with the pain and agony. I have used is as a reason to look beyond the minds beliefs and interpritations and really see reality.
This does not mean your sister will change her ways. it only means that her beliefs and acts of separation, will not affect the unity and oneness you live and know. The untouched purity of our true identity is not effected by life's turmoils and situations.
Perhaps if i put it this way it will be easier to understand: What the word G-O-D points to, is not so small as to be separate or absent. It is the foundational reality of all existence, and is the underlying uniting principle of your true identity; and that of all existence. But, you have to see it for yourself.
j
