Our Spiritual Journey

[Lightkeeper]

I think most people are in very different places along their spiritual journey or their journey of self discovery. I believe that each place is correct and we are where we need to be. Many of us feel the need to preach to others and assume that others are in a lesser place. I have found that's not true. The least of us may be very much farther along the path. I have also learned to accept that we are not all going to the same place and it doesn't matter. We may not even be looking for the same things.

I think when we preach our beliefs they usually fall on deaf ears, because we only learn what we are ready to learn. Also, I believe we teach what we ourselves need to learn. The thing I have been learning to do is to love and support. Change only comes with acceptance. I can't make a person's wound heal, but I can love them and comfort them when they are in pain. This allows them to heal much faster by their own means. To sum it up being there for people and comforting them wherever they are at in their journey is the most loving thing we can do for another person. And the most loving thing we can do for ourselves is to accept where we are in our own journey.

If they want to know something, they will ask.

What are your thoughts on this subject?

 

[Green Gaia]

"When the student is ready, the teacher will appear."

I do not believe in "preaching" to others my beliefs. In fact, I don't even share with them what I believe unless they ask or we are engaged in a discussion. But even then, I try to approach it in a purely factual way, "This is what I believe..., this is why... " I never say, "You should believe this way too because I am right and you are wrong." That is condescending and arrogant, IMO. Sometimes I find myself feeling superior to others spiritually, and that is wrong and I know it. We are all in different places spiritually but I try to remember that we have something to learn from everyone.

Like Lightkeeper said, showing love and compassion to others, especially when you don't agree with them, is the best way to show them what you are about, not preaching to them or trying to convert them.

 

[Sunstone]

I have noticed that most people who proselytize me are poor listeners. They might be good speakers, but they are poor listeners. In their rush to tell me where they think I should be on my spiritual journey, they don’t make an effort to understand where I am. In their proselytizing, there is no spirit of mutual discovery, there is no spirit of sharing experiences, nor a spirit of sharing insights. It’s all about them. Their god. Their whatever. In short, they are bores.

 

[Lightkeeper]

Even atheists can proselytize. I have a cousin who when he learned I was an interfaith minister, became very defensive. He began to tell me how I should believe in science, I should study more than religion. He said he would never be interested in hearing anything I had to say. This was all before I even spoke. I do study science and listen to all sides of the story. I found him very fearful. I will respect his fear by not discussing anything religious with him.

 

[Mr Spinkles]

Speaking of not sharing your beliefs unless asked....Lightkeeper and Maize: what do you believe? (about God, the Bible, spirits and so forth)

 

[Lightkeeper]

I think answering that would be off topic. I agree with Maize, I really don't like to talk about my beliefs. What works for me doesn't necessarily work for someone else. I stay very open.

 

[wilieha]

I think it scary that I could have written what Maize said.
Wilieha

 

[Green Gaia]

I think it scary that I could have written what Maize said.
Wilieha

And why would that be scary?

 

[Green Gaia]

Speaking of not sharing your beliefs unless asked....Lightkeeper and Maize: what do you believe? (about God, the Bible, spirits and so forth)

I'd be happy to answer those questions in a PM.

 

[Master Vigil]

It is natural for humans to be egotistical and selfish. So even when teaching, they don't really care about your position, they just want to be on top. It is this way with everything, and it saddens me.

 

[Lightkeeper]

It is natural for humans to be egotistical and selfish. So even when teaching, they don't really care about your position, they just want to be on top. It is this way with everything, and it saddens me.

This is not true of all people. This forum would not be here if everyone didn't care about others.

 

[wilieha]

No offence meant maize , it is just wierd to read what I would have said.
I am still very new to this group and am learning how to navigate.
Peace;
Wilieha

 

[Master Vigil]

I apologize, I did not mean everyone. I meant most people. I'm sorry.

 

[Green Gaia]

No offence meant maize , it is just wierd to read what I would have said.
I am still very new to this group and am learning how to navigate.
Peace;
Wilieha

No offensive taken. I just thought it was funny.

 

[Allan]

Our spiritual journey

We all find our place in this world. I could not be a company director and I doubt that I could settle to a menial job if there was an option.

It becomes like the pecking order in a chook pen and everyone creates a safe environment or at least learn the skills to cope or to avoid the worst situations.

My life changed when I moved away from the city because this removed the intensity.

I had an unsearched for supernatural experience that is able to be rationalized.

I didn't have a religious upbringing and I had based my ideas of God on what I had heard other people discuss.

I had been brought up in the school of hard knocks so to speak. Some situations are imposed some self inflicted but generally it can be a cruise if care is taken. I did not have a sheltered life.

I was not really that interested in working out what life was all about. I was living and enjoying everything because life was improving.

The supernatural experience was very deep and I wouldn't know why it happened to me. This experience lead me through a huge learning curve because I really had a view of all the dynamics of life from the wrong perspective.

Religion is a bit like having the cook book but eating the ingrediants dry because it is not known how to put them together and bake them.

There is so much human input into what should be a process that a static low level condition is maintained.

I have seen the same situation in engineering where a faulty machine is out unnecessarily because of the dynamics of management verses maintanence staff and personalities and skill levels. This will of course effect productive output and profit.

If the process is looked for it can be found in the Bible. When the process is followed it is realized that giving up every aspect of self requires detachment from all endeavour and natural human bonding.

This bonding is familiar to every person in every aspect of human mental capacity, for instance, fear, anger, love are all experienced.

It is finding your own self, all the deep seated usually unrealized aspects and then letting them go by thrusting them away that finishes the process.

There must be something there to be found to replace what goes and this is the nature of Jesus Christ.

I know that this is true. It is important to use intelligence in this process and I have been carefull. The ideas I have do need to be related. A persons ideas are a bit like inventions and can be easily discarded and trodden over.

Doing the job completey and staying there would become an example but it is better to tell people what the process is first and then demonstrate to receptive people who understand the process.

A journey may never end but this process can go into places that purify and if maintained becomes a new way.