Having opened up your mind to some extent as many have, it seems there may be a natural inclination to open up your body too, be more active, flexible, what have you. Does this make sense? Have you noticed this kind of correspondance with yourself, wanting to "be all you can be" as it were? I'm intentionally avoiding words like strength and toughness, because the idea is being open, to let that energy come through - rather than a resistive kind of dynamic..
Markfromcali
JoinedPosts by Markfromcali
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Mental and physical fitness for exJWs
by Markfromcali inhaving opened up your mind to some extent as many have, it seems there may be a natural inclination to open up your body too, be more active, flexible, what have you.
does this make sense?
have you noticed this kind of correspondance with yourself, wanting to "be all you can be" as it were?
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Now that you are out, do you have a WANDERING EYE?
by zagor inafter many years of repression do you now find hard to restrain you natural feelings?
it doesnt have to be wrong as one cousin told me, you admire beauty of the sunset, the song of birds; you appreciate exotic meal and equally you can now more appreciate the natural beauty of opposite sex.
reason why im asking is because today ive met a dub from my former congdubgration who immediately assumed i was "immoral".
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Markfromcali
Wondering or wandering?
Wonder is a good thing too, but as far as appreciating attractive people I am on the same page with you. What I've found is it doesn't mean you're going to do anything except look at them. When I was a JW I would discipline myself not to even look at girls I might see in my peripheral vision, but that kind of literal interpretation of the bible isn't really the point. There is a difference between appreciating someone's beauty and having lust. In fact, to think just looking at someone may lead to having sex with them or something would likely reflect a lack of discipline, as the underlying assumption is that your behavior is totally driven by your feelings, or even just by what you see. It may also be related to individuation in that you don't have this lack of boundary thing, you have a better sense that you are an individual rather than just a mass of biological buttons waiting to be pushed by the right stimuli like R-rated movies.
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Does anybody else feel this way?
by boy@crossroads ina little background........ been fading for more than a year now.
i think i have done a good job of transitioning out of the borg.
i am now comfortable with many of the taboos i was raised to fear.
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Markfromcali
Not to go off topic, but it is relevant to point out that the feeling of stillness is not it. That is not what they talk about in zen, as was pointed out by Kwong Roshi in the audio link from Dansk's vigil thread a couple of weeks ago. The stillness that is pointed to is already there, the mind may "attain" stillness but that is actually mind following the pre-existing stillness.Frankly it isn't about how you feel or any kind of experience. If you get it, you can listen to heavy metal music and feel that, resonate with it but have the stillness simultaneously, just as an example.
As far as the idea of "become eating" and the like, that helps to point out the absorption and awareness being completely engaged, but it doesn't mean you are identified with it. Whether you have a conditioned response is not the point, it's whether or not there is identification with any of it. If you identify with this witnessing activity, for example, it would be what Chogyam Trungpa called unskillful in I believe it was the book Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism. This is what most people try to do when they are trying to be "mindful." Awareness is there, it's a fact, it's not something you do. Any such witnessing one tries to do will only be contrived efforting, putting the cart before the horse.
To put it another way, it isn't about altering your experience. Whether your experience is one of fear and anxiety or one of peace and bliss is irrelevant from the perspective of stillness. Naturally when this is seen clearly those feelings tend to fade and become smaller and insignificant over time, but it does not come from trying to change anything. It is what the bible calls peace beyond understanding. (obviously not the NWT rendering) You don't feel better and more peaceful, you realize something beyond feelings.
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Does anybody else feel this way?
by boy@crossroads ina little background........ been fading for more than a year now.
i think i have done a good job of transitioning out of the borg.
i am now comfortable with many of the taboos i was raised to fear.
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Markfromcali
life is huge and beautiful outside of the bible.
I'm just really afraid of letting go of the control the belief in god or the bible has on me !!Belief does not so much control as it does limit your experience and perception of life. Within a simple belief system it allows for a simpler and more limited view, and you can control the variables in that view, but that's not real control - just options in a very limited framework.
To answer the question from your first post, I don't have a view when I first meet somebody. Even if something comes up because they remind me of some past experience of someone similar, I don't really take that too seriously. Then again I am not all that concerned with being social, I kind of leave that to the natural interaction between however I am and however they are as a person, and the life context we find ourselves in.
This kind of relates in that there may be an attempt to control the situation based on some belief about social interaction - which is not to say you need to totally discard that kind of stuff, but the first step is to recognize that mental process for what it is. When you see that clearly you naturally don't take the belief too seriously, and then you might be yourself even if that means not knowing and acting a bit awkward by accepted social standards. There's nothing that says being yourself automatically means you are smooth and cool, but you would attract people who relates to how you actually are rather than a facade, even if there may be a lack of social skill by accepted standards. In fact, if you think about it any possible judgement (since we don't actually know) about you would just be a belief on the side of the other person wouldn't it? Just because you may not have great social skills it doesn't mean you are not worth their time, but to the typical shallow perspective that would be the unconscious assumption. So while I think social skills are certainly useful in life, it's not exactly where truth in relationships are found.
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JW Holidays
by Qcmbr inabout ten years ago i went to centre parcs in the uk and was surprised to find that loads of jws were taking a christmas avoidance holiday.
does this mass holidaying still take place ?
- seems kinda fun.
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Markfromcali
Man I wish I got invited to the cool witness-partner-swapping-counter-celebration parties..
Why? They're pretty much all the same aren't they?
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question for all
by bonnzo inmost of you are ex-dubs, so what if world events proved that the jw's were right.
for instance, governments turning on religion, matthew 24th chapt events really increasing at an alarming rate, enough to make you think: " maybe they were right?
" if that happened, and the wts left the "door on the ark", so to speak, open for a little while, would you go back to the wts?
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Markfromcali
There is that nice saying that sums it up for me: "'I see,' said the blind man peering through the knot hole overlooking the barbed wire fence."
For the sake of the argument, even if this happens, I wouldn't go back because there is no way they REALLY know what the hell they are talking about given the state of mind they operate out of, that is pretty clear to me. Just because someone has some right answers it wouldn't necessarily mean they understand anything.
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A question for the Christians...
by misspeaches inhi guys.
wondering if you have any input on this one.. now that you are no longer a jw what is your interpratation of the lords prayer where it says 'let your will take place in heaven also upon earth'.. i would love to hear your opinions on this matter.
as a christian the belief is that you are going to heaven right?
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Markfromcali
"We're victims of the Witnesses, we speak out in messages.. Ours is the cult of true ... " ahh you fill in the rest!
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In the end, I can't help but laugh
by Texas Flood ini'm new too posting here but i've been lurking since the summer.
how i came across this site?
a brother at one of them conventions warned us about 'sites on the internet that can threaten our faith' and i was like "psh if this is the truth, what information could possibly do that?
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Markfromcali
Welcome pal, your words reminded me of that British comedy The Young Ones. I guess JWs like to use the expression in that corny way but I find this a much more interesting association.
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A question for the Christians...
by misspeaches inhi guys.
wondering if you have any input on this one.. now that you are no longer a jw what is your interpratation of the lords prayer where it says 'let your will take place in heaven also upon earth'.. i would love to hear your opinions on this matter.
as a christian the belief is that you are going to heaven right?
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Markfromcali
Isn't it strange how those who claim unbelief want to quickly respond on a "to the christians" thread?
Not really, doesn't this presume you necessarily respond to belief with beliefs? Isn't it possible to respond in some other way? Beliefs may come into play at some level, but then there is also the simple matter of exchanging ideas and consideration of them based on their own merit - and what you do with them is up to you.
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A question for the Christians...
by misspeaches inhi guys.
wondering if you have any input on this one.. now that you are no longer a jw what is your interpratation of the lords prayer where it says 'let your will take place in heaven also upon earth'.. i would love to hear your opinions on this matter.
as a christian the belief is that you are going to heaven right?
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Markfromcali
On a related note, much of religion does have this idea where this life on earth doesn't really matter, or is even bad in some way. Christians think of going to heaven, Buddhists might think of attaining nirvana. At first I didn't make the connection when I read the part of the post about going to heaven, because in my mind it's like what does that have to do with union? But the point is of course it isn't a one way trip, that relationship is bi-directional. It isn't like some escapism because earth sucks so badly, but you are very much concerned with the physical and the ordinary too. (actually you may not even see it as separate)
I was emailing a friend about having me in their will to take care of their cat, and it came up that she has come to appreciate taking care of her physical health, and I said this human experience is really a unique expression of love. It's not just a nice idea, but it is different from the egoic perspective of get me out of this mess with all the suffering. Whatever beliefs one may have around death, it's a matter of being willing to get your hands dirty so to speak, relate to the pain and suffering of this life and bring some relief. I mean why else would you be engaged in this life if it's just a matter of getting out of your own suffering? In the beginning one's frame of mind might be "screw this, I'm getting out of here!" but love brings your concern back here. Actually, some may not even want to go anywhere for this reason, because they care about what's going on here.