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*Phil*
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Posted: Thu Mar 5th, 2009 01:50 pm |
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Hi Folks, I've been exploring this subject and just want to share my notes on it with you.
William Law: "If any one would tell you the shortest, surest way to all happiness and all perfection, he must tell you to make a rule to yourself, to thank and praise God for everything that happens to you."
Helen Keller: "I thank God for my Many handicaps, for through them I have found myself, my work, and my God."
Nietzsche: "To have joy in anything, one must approve everything."
"If one affirms even a single moment of joy, one also affirms all woe."
Praise God for the painful and difficult things in life.
Thank God for the specific people or events that cause whatever grief and trouble are in our lives. Thank God for all the things we don't like in ourselves or others. Celebrate them, their lives even when they are SOBs.
Stop trying to change everything and start celebrating life, even the difficult things in life.
God does not necessarily will evil for our lives, there is a distinction between his directed will and His permissive will.
Celebrate and thank God for the Totality of life.
Plato - This is not a trivial subject but how a man should live.
____________________
Pecca fortiter, sed fortius fide et gaude in Christo!
Galactic Signature: Blue Self-Existing Monkey
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Garden Queen
Honored Fellow Grover
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Posted: Thu Mar 5th, 2009 10:06 pm |
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Thanks Phil. I think with all the negative stuff in the news we do need to focus on
our inner world..thoughts...and remember these .
I watched the movie 28 days this morning. It is a real awakening to the crazy
defenses people use to avoid their reality. Also a window into why they do. We
have to have defenses which is a long discussion. Moments of being in the Now
and recognizing there is a divinity is a way to step out of pain.
GQ
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*Phil*
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Posted: Sun Mar 8th, 2009 01:37 am |
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Yeah, defenses can ward off harm like guards protecting our feelings from hurt or loss of power. We can do this consciously, set up mental guards, with good effect to prevent others from entering our mental space and stealing our power. In extreme case though the hurt already exists and is so terrible and deep that defense guards are set up in the unconscious to block the events and feelings from coming to consciousness. In less extreme cases defenses may merely postpone what must eventually be faced otherwise the issue will re-emerge in the guise of something else such as debilitating depression.
I found this peice of ancient wisdom concerning praising and thanking God for the painful and difficult things in life:
Langri Thangpa was a Tibetan monk who lived from 1054-1123AD. He devoted his life to contemplating suffering and wrote
Eight Verses for Training the Mind With a determination to accomplish
The highest welfare for all sentient beings
Who surpass even a wish-granting jewel
I will learn to hold them supremely dear.
Whenever I associate with others I will learn
To think of myself as the lowest among all
And respectfully hold others to be supreme
From the very depths of my heart.
In all actions I will learn to search into my mind
And as soon as an afflictive emotion arises
Endangering myself and others
Will firmly face and avert it.
I will learn to cherish beings of bad nature
And those oppressed by strong sins and suffering
As if I had found a precious
Treasure very difficult to find.
When others out of jealousy treat me badly
With abuse, slander, and so on,
I will learn to take on all loss,
And offer victory to them.
When one whom I have benefited with great hope
Unreasonably hurts me very badly,
I will learn to view that person
As an excellent spiritual guide.
In short, I will learn to offer to everyone without exception
All help and happiness directly and indirectly
And respectfully take upon myself
All harm and suffering of my mothers.
I will learn to keep all these practices
Undefiled by the stains of the eight worldly conceptions
And by understanding all phenomena as like illusions
Be released from the bondage of attachment.
Thangpa was known as the "Dark Faced," since he rarely smiled due to his contemplation of the suffering of sentient beings. It is said that one night near his home village evil spirits gathered to discuss doing harm to a local person and Langri Tangpa was suggested as he lived alone and unprotected. However the spirits decided against it as they recognized that he had spent his life concerned for the well-being of all sentient beings including themselves. . . . even evil spirits cannot harm those who are truly dedicated to Bodhicitta.
____________________
Pecca fortiter, sed fortius fide et gaude in Christo!
Galactic Signature: Blue Self-Existing Monkey
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Garden Queen
Honored Fellow Grover
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Posted: Sun Mar 8th, 2009 05:41 pm |
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Hi Phil,
Thank you very much! This is so amazing for someone so long ago..without all
the tools like we have today to come to this level of being. Then perhaps he was
not as contaminated as we have been even before we get out of the "bull pen".
I am reading Psychological Commentaries on Gurdjieff & Ouspensky by Maurice
Nicoll. I recommend it highly! For my Christian upbringing it may be completing me!
He stresses self observation...not just externally but more so internally and then
to identify which energy center it is coming from. Here is a great example "
"A man must be able to say: " This is not me" to all his set pieces and his songs, to all the performances going on in him, to all the voices that he takes as his own. You know how sometimes just before going to sleep at night, you hear loud voices in your head.. These are "I's"speaking. During the day, they are speaking all the time, only you take them as "I" -as yourself. But just before sleep, a separation takes place naturally, for connections are being broken between centres and between "I"s in order that sleep may be possible. Two or more "I"s can keep you from sleeping. So you hear them,as it were, as voices talking, just for a moment, because they are being separated by natural processes from you.
Inner separation means the power of not merely saying: "This is not I", but ultimately...of actually perceiving it for oneself-- PERCEIVING THAT IT IS TRUE,, that " this is not I', not merely thining it is so or trying to persuade oneslef it is, or saying tthis is what the Work says."
When you are in an unpleasant state, if you observe yourself over some considerable
time, you will notice that all sorts of different groups of unpleasant "I's try to deal
with it in succession and make something out of it. This is becasue negative "I's live
by being negative. Their life consists in negative thinking or negative feelithat is , in
providing you with unpleasant thoughts and feelings. It is their delight to do so for
it is their life. In the Work, the enjoyment of negative states must be observed
sincerely, especially the secret enjoyment of them. The reason is that if a man
enjoys being negative , in whatever forms, and they are legion, he can never
separate from them. You cannot separate yourself from what you have a secret
affection for. The case actually is that you identify with the negative "I's thru secret
affection and so feel their enjoyment. for whatever you identify with you
become.....by separation he can make something permanent. The line of separation
is betweenwhat likes and what hates the Work.
Garden Queen is becoming conscious big time. I know I would never be where I
am now in my inner world if I had not come to this place...physically. It has slowed
me down..forced me to observe my inner self and let go of many ridiculous goals
I had...concerning my artwork...and good goals of being a great Grand Mother.
Many wonderful goals. that would have never allowed me to observe who I am
in different situations. The most painful (so far) is the care of an adult one is not
crazy about who becomes like a baby. The diaper work is the most difficult that
activates inside me enormous resentment and anger and "unhappiness'. Hell,
I cleaned up my babies and cat's and dog's....it is in life............When I do this difficul
task from all of my energy centers cooperating it can be done without "freaking".
Why me Lord? What have I ever done? Now there is a beautiful song.
Anyway, I must do some tasks now but wanted to reply quickly for I really like this
and will print it out and put on our family bulletin board.
Anyone who needs assistance on deeper internal work which is what Jesus was
really talking about...Kingdom within...can not go wrong by reading Maurice Nicoll.
Of course I have been over many bridges..primal, jungian, 12 step, legal christianity,
which makes me really appreciate this great being.
GardenQueen
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*Phil*
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Posted: Wed Mar 11th, 2009 02:24 pm |
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I am in negotiation this morning with the company that drove me crazy last year. They need me for a month to help out with some stuff. The "I"s are speaking up with very negative opinions about this. But Langri Thangpa has some exceptionally peacefull advice that quiet those autonomous little "I"s. Interesting.
____________________
Pecca fortiter, sed fortius fide et gaude in Christo!
Galactic Signature: Blue Self-Existing Monkey
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Garden Queen
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Posted: Wed Mar 11th, 2009 05:54 pm |
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Great. They may give you what you need Phil. Boundaries and less work to come
back! You are very valuable to the Co. obviously.
Whenever I associate with others I will learn
To think of myself as the lowest among all
And respectfully hold others to be supreme
From the very depths of my heart.
In all actions I will learn to search into my mind
And as soon as an afflictive emotion arises
Endangering myself and others
Will firmly face and avert it.
I will learn to cherish beings of bad nature
And those oppressed by strong sins and suffering
As if I had found a precious
Treasure very difficult to find.
This I read often...on my bulletin board...the fridge..helps me sooo soo
much..
thanks again and again for posting this.
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*Phil*
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Posted: Wed Mar 11th, 2009 05:59 pm |
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I looked up the Eight Worldly Conditions the monk spoke of:
Monks, these eight worldly conditions obsess the world; the world revolves round these eight worldly conditions. What eight? Gain and loss, fame and obscurity, blame and praise, bodily ease and pain. Monks, these eight worldly conditions obsess the world, the world revolves round these eight worldly conditions.
Of course the Bible also discusses suffering. How about Paul when he wrote about his suffering
Are they servants of Christ?—I speak as if insane—I more so; in far more labors, in far more imprisonments, beaten times without number, often in danger of death. 24 Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep. 26 I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren; 27 I have been in labor and hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. 28 Apart from such external things, there is the daily pressure on me of concern for all the churches.
____________________
Pecca fortiter, sed fortius fide et gaude in Christo!
Galactic Signature: Blue Self-Existing Monkey
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Roy
Quasi-Infallible Egocentric Tyrant
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Posted: Wed Mar 11th, 2009 09:04 pm |
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Eight worldly things. Something there to meditate on. That is quite an insight and says a lot about the value of hermetic (hermitic?) life.
The Buddhist world wheel is run on envy (resentment), lust and sleep. Also an important insight there.
____________________
"The force and degree of a man's inner benevolence evokes in others a proportionate degree of ill-will" - Gurdjieff
"In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act." — George Orwell
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*Phil*
Opinionated Interventionist
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Posted: Fri Mar 20th, 2009 05:59 pm |
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Here is something to ponder on the subject of suffering...
2 Corinthians 12 Paul wrote:
To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
____________________
Pecca fortiter, sed fortius fide et gaude in Christo!
Galactic Signature: Blue Self-Existing Monkey
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