Used to be Christian but felt angry and powerless with my life
Now I believe in fate, but still having te power to make good choices and changes to my life
I believe in God, but instead of constantly praying , working myself to reach my goals
I pray for things in life that I can’t control, but believe those things are fate
What I can control I control
I can control how I think
I can control how I act
I believe the purpose of life is self development. I treat life as an opportunity to improve myself in every way. I am less concerned about the world and others, and more concerned about myself. The values that matter to me are freedom, justice and happiness.
[B]what do you believe? [/B]
I’ve eliminated mindful beliefs I was conscious of, if I identify any others I’ll eliminated them also.
[QUOTE=bolno;73595]I can control how I think
[/QUOTE]But you don?t know what will come in you mind after 5 min.
[B]Know thyself.[/B]
I mulled over these very thoughts on a recent retreat and jotted down some notes in my yoga journal, the read some of the BG to see what I could find to add to it.
My thoughts shared in this blog post.
[QUOTE=Surya Deva;73596]I believe the purpose of life is self development. I treat life as an opportunity to improve myself in every way. I am less concerned about the world and others, and more concerned about myself. The values that matter to me are freedom, justice and happiness.[/QUOTE]
In the course of self development we must take on board compassion towards others. No man is an island. Self realisation shows this to a person that compassion is necessary .Considering others is necessary.
I agree with you Xtensity…you have put it in a straightforward manner…yes.
In the course of self development we must take on board compassion towards others. No man is an island. Self realisation shows this to a person that compassion is necessary .Considering others is necessary.
I agree, but compassion that is genuine and comes directly from the soul. Not compassion that we are suppose to contrive. At this moment in time I am far too selfish to think about the wider world, but I do show real compassion to the people who are nearest to me. I think the greatest compassion that I show is that I allow them the freedom to be as they are and I accept them as they are. I can talk with most people and get on with them. If the person is unduly difficult, such as a recent co-worker of mine, then I ignore them.
For me compassion is all about honesty, equality and justice. I do not treat anybody any differently to myself: I honor the virtues in people and derive inspiration from them, I am neutral and sober to their vices and treat them objectively and in a considered way. I freely share my knowledge and advice with people, if they want it and listen to it. I am honest about my thoughts and feelings with them.
The greatest way to show compassion to somebody is to be honest with them. I understand how hurtful it is to be lied to, as all my life I have had people dearest to me lying to me. This is why I strive to practice the value of honesty in my life. I do not hide my thoughts and feelings, unless I really need to.
thanks for expanding on the subject…
Things is…i have a situation with a sibling where he is a difficult person to get along with. Everyone else in the family and around him finds him difficult too. They have either finished with him or avoid him like the plague. I feel sorry for him and don’t wish to disconnect from him as the rest of the family has. I put up with his ways where he can be unpredictable. He can be angry over very little, loud and overbearing, switch from generous to mean, tell lies and be intolerant of you. I could easily tell him where to get off it i wanted to but I have learnt to relax my ears to his nonsense and to not feel disturbed by his disturbances.
You have said that for you compassion is all about honesty, equality and justice.and that the greatest way to show compassion it to be honest with them…Do you think my tolerance of him is compassion? if i were honest with him the relationship would have to come to an end as it has with other family members. he cannot take any criticisms see. i cannot bear to think of him alone, no family…but is this truly compassion because I am certainly not being honest with him am I ?
You have said that for you compassion is all about honesty, equality and justice.and that the greatest way to show compassion it to be honest with them…Do you think my tolerance of him is compassion? if i were honest with him the relationship would have to come to an end as it has with other family members. he cannot take any criticisms see. i cannot bear to think of him alone, no family…but is this truly compassion because I am certainly not being honest with him am I ?
You see respecting and freedom of another person also means that we respect our own freedom. If somebody is being difficult or unfair with us and thus breaching our freedoms, we are free to ignore that person. We do not have to bend over backwards for people like this. Simply be honest with that person and let them know verbally or non-verbally what you think and feel. If you don’t like somebodies company, then rather than pretending you do like them, it better to be honest.
You see respecting and freedom of another person also means that we respect our own freedom. If somebody is being difficult or unfair with us and thus breaching our freedoms, we are free to ignore that person. We do not have to bend over backwards for people like this. Simply be honest with that person and let them know verbally or non-verbally what you think and feel. If you don’t like somebodies company, then rather than pretending you do like them, it better to be honest.
I am not sure I agree with you about the meaning (or your meaning) of compassion. Should a compassionate act have conditions like the ones you have mentioned Surya?
There are times or situations where we have to put aside our dislikes and act for the ‘unfortunate’ person/s. This is compassion…or at least it is my version of compassion.
Can we have our own versions?
You can have your own interpretation of compassion. However, if I don’t agree with your interpretation, I will let you know why.
I don’t agree with your interpretation of compassion because you claim it is unconditional, but every act is a conditional act. We do not do anything unless it will benefit us in some way, even if that is giving to charity - it will make us feel good about ourselves that we have helped somebody, it may help people like us better, it may win us good karma credits. We are the center of every enterprise. Life is about us and not others.
One of the truths that we encouraged to accept in Yoga(also in Existential psychotherapy) is aloneness. We are all actually alone. We are the witnesses of the dance of life - watching the dance like spectators, but not dancing ourselves. It is when we start to identify as the dancers that we start to develop psychological problems. As soon as we start identifying with others in the world and their needs and problems, we begin to lose our grounding and get lost.
As soon as we bring the focus of our life on our needs and problems, we regain our ground and our confidence. Therefore, put yourself before others.
We come into this world on our own and we will certainly go on our own. Even when we have no companion, we have the companion of our own self. Our own self is our constant companion. Thus learn to love the company of your own self and learn to respect your own needs and fundamental rights. If somebody is compromising your needs and fundamental rights, they are violating you and you must not put up with it. Take the most appropriate action to ensure the violations do not continue.
I believe in nothing but everything. Let me explain each religion has some wisdom or advice offered within the text. Everyone has some truth or a lot of truth. But i do not believe that we should follow one specific religion as there are many things to be learned and religion is justifying yourself to a specific title. There is much we do not understand a force that is beyond our comprehension. I believe that earth is just a plain of existence and that there are many that can overlap with earth as well as hierarchy of beings that lives in these plains. For example i believe in the angels in the bible but i am by no means christian the angels govern beings on earth ie sylphs gnomes elementals in general as well as other entity’s/beings. I used to be christian as well got baptized and saved. But i did not suddenly wake up one day not christian i put many many hours of study into it after all it is my bases of moral values and beliefs i wanted to have a very good understanding. But after all those hours i found that christianity was not looking like a religion i was going to be devote in. I am more of a pagan acletic. I believe in earth and nature it is an amazing powerful system we are all connected in the web of life and death.
I will not call it a god but I do feel there is more.
That live is for learning and that every one helps another in there years one earth.
How short it sometimes can be.
Not that they do it out of them self it just happens.
Ow and I do believe that the soul never dies but will go to a next body.
I believe in what I experience:
Is it that I read it in a book or listen to the master and my mind conjures it up?
I don’t know…
But that is faith… .
faith that I can believe that it could be either… or maybe that is the play!
Maybe thats what faith is.
Yoga is like the calling - and you open up your ‘faith’ to then 'experience
Consider; beliefs are blind, faith in action is a calculated wiliness to try however direct experience is conclusive.
Direct experience is conclusive. However, it is very difficult to find out everything one his own, and it is very time consuming also. That’s why it’s good to learn from other people. Get experience by applying what they teach you, learn from it. The more experience you have the better your ability to select the right teacher and path. Don’t commit yourself to any teacher or path until you feel sure about it. One has to know what gold is before going to market to purchase it. Otherwise one will get cheated. I think, in the end one has to select one’s path and follow it faithfully in order to achieve substantial results.
[QUOTE=bolno;73595]Used to be Christian but felt angry and powerless with my life
Now I believe in fate, but still having te power to make good choices and changes to my life
I believe in God, but instead of constantly praying , working myself to reach my goals
I pray for things in life that I can’t control, but believe those things are fate
What I can control I control
I can control how I think
I can control how I act[/QUOTE]
just looking at how many times you’ve use “I” and “my” in your post… 13-14 times… good Cristian, yogi, buddist or any other spirit practices start with one subsides his ego…