Search results

It is a bit hard to address this question given that the Sola Scriptura crowd has decided to brigade the thread in defense of their orthodoxy. :-D It is a question that goes to the very heart of liberal-minded views though. I'm sure other liberal opinions vary, as they usually do. That is the...

I tend towards the idea that we should cling most tightly to God and God alone. If we can give up our attachment to the temporal, then we can fully embrace the eternal. A reliance on relationships is one of those temporal things that hinder us from a selfless heart. Jesus made some very...

I had to laugh when the Bedouin elder asks him what direction he thinks the monastery is in and when he points in the wrong direction they all laugh and point in an entirely different direction. It was such a simple demonstration of innocence concerning the journey he was on.

They are all things that help me too. It does feel like slavery and that is a very demoralizing feeling. Over many years it eats away at a persons soul.

So I was listening to a lecturer on Russian Literature talk about Tolstoy. A theme that pops up on Tolstoy's work is the idea that when we try to teach people and get frustrated, impatient and lack empathy for them, the student doesn't learn This was expressed in Prince Bolkonski trying to...

There is a pithy little line that I have found useful over the years. "Where our attention goes, our energy flows". When I combine that with a line from James Allen, "Dissipation is annihilation.", I'm reminded that to put our attention in too many directions is to expel our energy into...

On my fifth day today. I'd describe it as a little more testing than other days. It has helped that I've been able to isolate myself. Prayers have assisted when I just needed to quiet my mind.

Anytime I think about the 'why' questions if becomes complex. Probably the most easily distilled answer I can find is, it needed to be done.

I definitely feel like I'm moving forward. God is making possible what felt like an impossibility for me just a short while ago.

I wish you well in your challenge, brother. Interestingly, I was recently divorced myself. If I was to put my finger on what has been a theme in my life lately that might have helped me, it would be 'humility'. I've been exploring that theme, at part of that was my reason for talking to God...

In 2011, I gave up cigarettes (thirty years of smoking). Five years later, I started smoking a few cigars. 2 years after that, I found myself smoking nearly a packet a day of cigarettes. One year of smoking cigarettes, again, and now I'm three days with no cigarettes. It always surprises me...

I'm getting non-stop Dan Gibson atm. :-D

I'd enjoy that. In my school days I used to find it helpful to have music playing while I did my Math homework. It helped me focus.

I might loop that music around while I browse the forum. It adds a nice ambience to the place. :oldthumbsup:

That is a beautiful meditation to enter sleep with. :-)

I probably spend too much time on Twitter and YouTube, so this might not have any meaning to some people. People talk of a 'Culture War' defined by identity politics and a growing divide between progressive and conservative viewpoints. I get a sense that the radicals have hijacked the debate...

What books/audiobooks/videos have you been indulging in lately? I purchased an audiobook of The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis. My mother sent me The Book of Secrets by Deepak Chopra. (I'm only in the first chapter at the moment) I think it is interesting how they both emphasize an...

I visit every couple of years. :-D

I think Carl Jung talked a bit about this idea of maintaining a connection with our primal beginnings. Recently I was watching a lot of documentaries that showed how many mass extinctions we have had in the past. It makes me wonder whether we cling too tightly to our perceptions of being the...

I think I've been influenced by some Eastern philosophies in this area, but I tend to think that if we can't let go of the idea of self, then we are in a state of suffering. Concepts like purgatory seem to hint at this idea in that we need to have the last vestiges of an illusory identity with...