A question about Christian practice

[Taodeching]

I was thinking and wondering about centering or maybe balance. Is there such a thing as balance or finding one's center in Christianity? I know in some religions there are those things and I got to wonder if Christianity has something similar or if Christianity is different all together

 

[Citizen of the Kingdom]

I was thinking and wondering about centering or maybe balance. Is there such a thing as balance or finding one's center in Christianity? I know in some religions there are those things and I got to wonder if Christianity has something similar or if Christianity is different all together

It’s centered in abiding.

 

[Gregory Thompson]

I was thinking and wondering about centering or maybe balance. Is there such a thing as balance or finding one's center in Christianity? I know in some religions there are those things and I got to wonder if Christianity has something similar or if Christianity is different all together

Christianity features a full transformation (called being born again) that is missing from other religions.

This full transformation puts us at odds with the body we are inhabiting.

Though love is a balancing element of the faith, conflict is to be expected.

 

[Pavel Mosko]

I was thinking and wondering about centering or maybe balance. Is there such a thing as balance or finding one's center in Christianity? I know in some religions there are those things and I got to wonder if Christianity has something similar or if Christianity is different all together

I believe there is, but its more of a sacramental thing, or something that certain monastics and other people tend to talk about. But I tend to think about that a lot especially on certain passages like when Jesus sends out the twelve on their first preaching mission and instructs them to go in and preach to the people and allow "Their peace" to rest on the house, but if they are not welcome "to allow it to return to them". I've done reading on the subject where it talks about that as a kind of "idiom" but I always have a gut hunch, based on the wording of the text that it is also a literal charism type thing.


And well the Eastern Christian concept of things like theosis etc. can also touch on this sort of thing as well when it comes to a person being in Communion with God and being transformed by it etc.

 

[Pavel Mosko]

 

[Sketcher]

I was thinking and wondering about centering or maybe balance. Is there such a thing as balance or finding one's center in Christianity? I know in some religions there are those things and I got to wonder if Christianity has something similar or if Christianity is different all together

We are to be "centered" in Christ, but that is entirely different from what Eastern faiths talk about (i.e. "centering chi").

 

[Pavel Mosko]

Until we find love, our labor is in the land of tares, and in the midst of tares we both sow and reap, even if our seed is the seed of righteousness.

The man who has found love eats and drinks Christ every day and hour and so is made immortal. ‘Whoever eats of this bread’, He says, ‘which I will give him, will never taste death.’ Blessed is he who consumes the bread of love, which is Jesus! He who eats of love eats Christ, the God over all, as John bears witness, saying, ‘God is love.’

Love is the Kingdom, which the Lord mystically promised His disciples to eat in His Kingdom. For when we hear Him say, ‘You shall eat and drink at the table of My Kingdom,’ what do we suppose we shall eat, if not love? Love is sufficient to nourish a man instead of food and drink. This is the wine ‘which makes glad the heart of man.’ Blessed is he who partakes of this wine! Licentious men have drunk this wine and felt shame; sinners have drunk it and have forgotten the pathways of stumbling; drunkards have drunk this wine and became firm in virtue; the rich have drunk it and desired poverty; the poor have drunk it and been enriched with hope; the sick have drunk it and become strong; the unlearned have taken it and been made wise.


Pearls of Saint Isaac

 

[Tone]

We are to be "centered" in Christ, but that is entirely different from what Eastern faiths talk about (i.e. "centering chi").

I don't know, there may be a connection to the chi-rho...?

 

[Tone]

"An early visual representation of the connection between the Crucifixion of Jesus and his resurrection, seen in the 4th century sarcophagus of Domitilla in Rome, the use of a wreath around the Chi-Rho symbolizes the victory of the Resurrection over death.[11]"
Chi Rho - Wikipedia

What's more balanced than hovering between the depth of death and the heights of heaven?

 

[Hazelelponi]

I was thinking and wondering about centering or maybe balance. Is there such a thing as balance or finding one's center in Christianity? I know in some religions there are those things and I got to wonder if Christianity has something similar or if Christianity is different all together

We do have to find our balance, our center where we are working in love of God and Christ, while resting in the fact it's 100% Christ's work which saves us.

There is a balance in that which must be found, and it takes a little time to get it right (it's easy to get off track too far on either side) but once your in center there, in that place in Christ, your golden and your walk becomes a beautiful thing that grows and blossoms.

 

[Tone]

Also:

"Christian symbolism is the use of symbols, including archetypes, acts, artwork or events, by Christianity. It invests objects or actions with an inner meaning expressing Christian ideas.

The symbolism of the early Church was characterized by being understood by initiates only,[1] while after the legalization of Christianity in the Roman Empire during the 4th-century more recognizable symbols entered in use. Christianity has borrowed from the common stock of significant symbols known to most periods and to all regions of the world.[2]

Only a minority of Christian denominations have practiced Aniconism, or the avoidance or prohibition of types of images. These include early Jewish Christians sects, as well as some modern denominations[which?] that prefer to some extent not to use figures in their symbols due to the Decalogue's prohibition of idolatry."
Christian symbolism - Wikipedia


Whether I agree with these things or not is beside the point, but when you speak of comparing Christian practices to other religions this is what comes to mind. I would say, yes, Christian praxes have many intersections with other religions.

*I would agree with @~Cassia~ that Biblical balance is in "Abiding".

 

[Citizen of the Kingdom]

We do have to find our balance, our center where we are working in love of God and Christ, while resting in the fact it's 100% Christ's work which saves us.

There is a balance in that which must be found, and it takes a little time to get it right (it's easy to get off track too far on either side) but once your in center there, in that place in Christ, your golden and your walk becomes a beautiful thing that grows and blossoms.

Being in the pocket of noting the partnership with Christ and the highlight He places on the miniature details of every day.

 

[Citizen of the Kingdom]

Until we find love, our labor is in the land of tares, and in the midst of tares we both sow and reap, even if our seed is the seed of righteousness.

Wading thru the tares while being edified in the wheat fields of sabbath rest, singing ‘whaz deh buzz'

 

[Hazelelponi]

Being in the pocket of noting the partnership with Christ and the highlight He places on the miniature details of every day.

I apologize, but I'm not understanding your meaning here. The word choices aren't making sense to me... forgive me that.

 

[Citizen of the Kingdom]

I apologize, but I'm not understanding your meaning here. The word choices aren't making sense to me... forgive me that.

It’s a dance metaphor that in the dance the male (which is Christ) highlights the woman (which is the church) while the woman doesn’t as much highlight the male but rather express the partnership between the two as one, step by step.
What you described was being in the pocket of the dance. Being in the pocket synchronizes the relationship of the dance.

 

[Taodeching]

First thank you all for your answers.

I believe there is, but its more of a sacramental thing, or something that certain monastics and other people tend to talk about. But I tend to think about that a lot especially on certain passages like when Jesus sends out the twelve on their first preaching mission and instructs them to go in and preach to the people and allow "Their peace" to rest on the house, but if they are not welcome "to allow it to return to them". I've done reading on the subject where it talks about that as a kind of "idiom" but I always have a gut hunch, based on the wording of the text that it is also a literal charism type thing.


And well the Eastern Christian concept of things like theosis etc. can also touch on this sort of thing as well when it comes to a person being in Communion with God and being transformed by it etc.

Thank you. Seems that this type of thing is forbidden in Protestantism or just not understood very well

 

[Citizen of the Kingdom]

in Communion with God and being transformed by it etc.
Seems that this type of thing is forbidden in Protestantism or just not understood very well

Protestantism is everything that had not originated from Rome, altho they began from the same early church teachers.
Protestants also encompass those who are quite ritualistic and also those who have fine tuned their discernment to the visible invisibility of today.

 

[Carl Emerson]

Being centred in Eastern thought is associated with a dualistic world view in which good and evil are in balance.

Christianity however sees God as outside of time and space with no rivals.

 

[Pavel Mosko]

First thank you all for your answers.




Thank you. Seems that this type of thing is forbidden in Protestantism or just not understood very well

Sure. You probably would like this thread I linked to on the EO board a day or two responding to a conversation there a day ago from an old OO posting I made.

Coptic Church essay on the Charisms, martyrdom and Ecclesiology

 

[Pavel Mosko]

Being centred in Eastern thought is associated with a dualistic world view in which good and evil are in balance.

Christianity however sees God as outside of time and space with no rivals.

I don't think that is what he is getting at. He is talking more about the focus, or mental state of things.
Kind of like in the Gospel passage relating to the disciples freaking out with the storm on the sea, and Peter walking on the water initially, but sinking when his attention left Jesus and focused on the waves, winds etc. If you use Eastern terms to describe that (because you come from Asia) one could say that Peter "lost his center" or his Shalom if you want to use something more true to the Hebrew etc. The things that you pay attention to become your reality... as far as your Faith and emotional state goes etc.


Anyway the Orthodox term for that is phronema "mindset" which can also describe things like paradigms etc. Their are proper Christian mindsets as far as our attitudes etc. goes, as well as Wordly dysfunctional ones etc.