Often a comment will become an idea for an article, I was just over at one of Ann's articles and it inspired me so much I want to enlarge on the comment I left for her...Ann mentioned suicide in her piece, that she was drifting in the thought of doing away with the whole business of living when she discovered something different, an entirely new way to think about herself, others, and the world about her.
I've been thinking recently about how it really is a form of slow suicide to attempt to live in this world without some form of help or miraculous experience. We may not actually take the pills or shoot ourselves in the head, but we die a little bit every day when we are starved for spiritual food.
Our relationships turn sour and fall apart, or our work seems utterly mundane and it feels like we are on a treadmill, our children consume us in what seem like selfish clouds of neediness and we feel alone, even isolated, within every crowd.
Running to the store helps, keeping busy helps, but eventually at the end of it all we are left with ourselves. We must confront the desolation alone and deal with it somehow?
We can seek counseling or therapy, we can feed our kids ritalin or go to a spa, we can have cosmetic surgery or use the countless other fixes that will seem to work, temporarily, but as Ann said in her article, the "creeping resentments" the anxiety will always return and often with a greater power to overwhelm us.
The fixes we seek in the world are quick, user friendly and often polished and in neat little rows like the bottles of snake oil of old. They amuse us for a time, some even titillate us into believing we have found "the one" the right partner, the right surgeon or drug, the right book or job or cream, it goes on and on ad infinitum.
These quick fixes can't last because their foundation is not solid, we even secretly know this is true but the pain of living is so great that we'll take any compromise to relieve the burden now, even though we know it will return later with even greater fury to haunt us and destroy our peace.
In order for something to be lasting it needs to have substance, a foundation not built on sand, and we need to reorient our minds toward it. We need to literally retrain our minds so that that which we have sought to fulfill us in our times of lack and deprivation, is remembered and there when we most need its sustenance.
for Ann it was A Course in Miracles that became her strength, read her article, she convinced me. There are lots of different Courses in mind training available in the world and you are very welcome to have a look at this one. Mosey on over to the group now, or the next time you can't take it anymore and check it out for yourself.
Personally I do not understand how a person gets through without the help of some form of centered mind training... It looks a lot like suicide to me!
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NOTE: I'd just like to address those who might think that the Jesus Christ of the Bible can magically whisk your pain away, magic is NOT a miracle.
Retraining your mind to truth can be done using Jesus as part of the equation, or NOT.
We are NOT preparing for death here, we are learning how to LIVE happier more fulfilled lives here on this planet, which may or may not include a religious component.
I know Jews and Muslims as well as Christians who have worked the mind training principles of A Course in Miracles successfully without giving up, or changing their personal religious convictions.
The Jesus of A Course in Miracles couldn't care less what you believe, his only interest is your happiness.
The Course teaches us how to solve problems and be happy people, it is NOT a religion and it does not interfere with religion. In fact, many non-religious people do the Course and stay happily non-religious after it's completion.
So if you pray to Allah or Buddha or Christ or even Elvis, it is of no importance, it won't hinder you in your progress or application of the psychology of the Course. However the Course may teach you the value of being a less radical more reasonable person where your religion is concerned.
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Ohh, and I keep forgetting to mention it, I created a resources website to go with the Gather Group It's Here, check it out if you are interested!
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Comments: 19
A Course in Miracles while dealing with ALL the aspects of ones life is defiantly NOT a religion. It is Course in a Spiritual Psychology for the Layperson. Once it is completed it can be put down, one carries on to enjoy life with a fresh, new and sane outlook.
It's really not that bigiva deal... :)
As far as I can tell I have never had any spiritual food and have never felt the need for any. But then I am an unusual person. I enjoy helping others. I am kind to strangers for no reason at all. I want to leave the world a better place than I found it.
All that keeps me going happily.
Otherwise how else would you know if what you say; that it "is just another fad" is true or not?
Or do you just say stuff that you think might impress others because if your lucky it'll ring true??
Do some research and you will see quite quickly that A Course in Miracles is anything but a "fad" it is an established thought system that has been translated into all the major languages and is in the process of being translated into still more languages.
Your judgment is not founded on facts but emotion which isn't the soundest way to reason...
That is reasonable when you say what you think and how a thing effects you personally on the other hand, it seems quite unreasonable when you attach a derogatory term to it as though you know something no one else does??
You are some effective communicator Joe, and I think I'll leave it there...
Now, I am not a believer in going t church so religion is NOT on my agenda.
But, I am happy, contented and spiritually fulfilled. I own a piece of paradise far from the madding crowd...I think this helps..:)
You have the Muslims and the Catholics the Christians and the Mormons the Hindus and the Sikh's, the Buddhist's and the Jews, there are at least 40 world religions and faiths.
You have the obscure religions of Asia and Northern Europe, there are thousands of cults and hundreds of sects within each religion with their only common thread being that they ALL believe that they are right and everyone else is wrong. They all believe that they are the chosen of God and everyone else is damned to hell or is at least, in some way inferior.
It is actually worse than politics and in many cases religions like Christianity and Islam have sought to control vast populations by infiltrating governments. You end up with countries like Iran and American at odds with each other over religious concepts and on the edge of war, in the name of God.
Religious groups kill each other in the name of their deities and even in the name of God, whatever the name they choose to call Him. This is not just about the Crusades of old, it is happening as much in the present day as it ever did in the past, the war in Iraq is not just about oil it is about exterminating the enemies of the Christian God.
I have nothing at all against people practicing any religion they want but I am not going to agree that they are doing anything truly Spiritual, when it is obvious that they are ALL separating our world into warring religious factions and isolating people who actually have much in common with one another.
I believe the priesthoods are parasites and I know I sound like a communist as I say that but I can assure you, I feel the same way about any group that would seek to separate one man from another simply because he believes differently.
We, the people of this world will never truly know peace until we join together under the One Father of us ALL leaving no one out for any reason. Since this is a highly unlikely scenario, we must as individuals realize personally that we are ALL brothers and we are ALL very Holy and cherished by God.
Let them kill and maim as they will in the name of their Gods, they cannot really hurt you as long as you seek ONLY unity with the Sons of God who are your brothers and mine, weather they know it or not.
The Spiritual revolution starts with the beating of each human heart and spreads outward with happy laughter and a totally defenseless attitude, we prepare the way as we Love where others hate, as we understand where other find only confusion, because we never give up our Holy Minds into the worlds insane indoctrinations, we Are ALL without exception, God's beloved Children and we Live through Him and within His Love!