Spiritual Parallels And Authority

[Shyone]

The tricky part is "The Wisdom to Know the Difference" if you catch my drift.

It's not all that tricky.

 

Two words Shy...

 

Pay

Attention

 

My statement was in response to the following line by NBBB:

 

It's more about accepting the things you cannot change and letting go of the resistance to it. It's an inner transformation.

 

I was paraphrasing part of the Serenity Prayer:

 

God grant me the serenity

to accept the things I cannot change;

courage to change the things I can;

and wisdom to know the difference.

 

I wrote that to emphasise that "accepting the things you cannot change and letting go of the resistance to it" ignores another possibility - fighting that which we can change. If we merely accept that we cannot change something, we commit ourselves to a course of acceptance without even trying. But then, sometimes trying to change something is futile.

 

The trick, therefore, is to know the difference. And that requires wisdom.

[Rev R]

The trick, therefore, is to know the difference. And that requires wisdom.

 

and the trick to wisdom is paying attention

[Antlerman]

 

There is always a chance to awaken during suffering. Whether or not death comes is really beside the point. There have been stories of people that have accepted that they were going to die and let everything go and accepted it. Then they lived. Their lives were changed, so I've heard.

 

It's more about accepting the things you cannot change and letting go of the resistance to it. It's an inner transformation.

The tricky part is "The Wisdom to Know the Difference" if you catch my drift.

I've been considering this exchange here. What I'm understanding from what NB is saying, how I hear it, is that there comes a moment of letting go control of trying to comprehend or control something greater than what we can, or should, try to. (This is not suggesting being apathetic at all, but the opposite). It's true, in the metaphorical sense, that in death we find life. It's when we come to the end of ourselves, our control of our world, and release it from ourselves - moving beyond "I", that we find Life. And in that, an existential awakening to the world.

 

That "wisdom" to know the difference, I would emphasize, is not a process of logic and reason, having a really sharp acumen, but rather it is the balance of that voice of reason with the reason of the heart speaking to us; that knowing that comes from within, so to speak. That, is that dance I speak of so often.

 

Is there a 'rational' scientific basis or explanation for this? Maybe, yes, it doesn't matter. It's the fact of it happening, and how one gets to that place is what does matter. Tying this back to other conversations, my issue with the philosophical reductionist approach is that it doesn't address or promote that sort of living. Wisdom, is listening to that voice of knowing beyond reason, and balancing reason with it, and it with reason.

 

Letting go of reason does not mean becoming irrational, but learning to also trust that other voice of reason beyond rationality that is in it, learning to build and develop that in us, is an opening to a different life. It's here where I talk about that baby that gets ejected with the bathwater of myth. This isn't mythological, or metaphysical even. It's experiential. It's Life and living as rational and spiritual beings.

 

Wisdom, is the balance of reason and the heart. It is paying attention as Rev put it, but paying attention with the voice of the heart. If the whole world could develop the heart to the degree of our rational minds, imagine that Light that would shine! That's my religion.

[Guest end3]

I was just reading something in the Gospel of Philip I thought you might enjoy End...

 

It is not possible for anyone to see anything of the things that actually exist unless he becomes like them. This is not the way with man in the world: he sees the sun without being a sun; and he sees the heaven and the earth and all other things, but he is not these things. This is quite in keeping with the truth. But you saw something of that place, and you became those things. You saw the Spirit, you became spirit. You saw Christ, you became Christ. You saw the Father, you shall become Father. So in this place you see everything and do not see yourself, but in that place you do see yourself - and what you see you shall become.

 

Does that ring true?

 

First of all, I want to say about your avatar, that I liked the picture of you with your sunglasses better.

 

Sorry, I missed this post or I would have responded earlier.

 

Yeah, it rings true. I always feel fortunate to have received that glimpse and there are days I feel like I am able to live that to a small degree. Some days I revert to my pre-sight days and wonder to myself how I had deserved to be given that glimpse.

 

Thanks for sharing,

[Antlerman]

I was just reading something in the Gospel of Philip I thought you might enjoy End...

 

It is not possible for anyone to see anything of the things that actually exist unless he becomes like them. This is not the way with man in the world: he sees the sun without being a sun; and he sees the heaven and the earth and all other things, but he is not these things. This is quite in keeping with the truth. But you saw something of that place, and you became those things. You saw the Spirit, you became spirit. You saw Christ, you became Christ. You saw the Father, you shall become Father. So in this place you see everything and do not see yourself, but in that place you do see yourself - and what you see you shall become.

 

Does that ring true?

 

First of all, I want to say about your avatar, that I liked the picture of you with your sunglasses better.

Funny.

 

Sorry, I missed this post or I would have responded earlier.

 

Yeah, it rings true. I always feel fortunate to have received that glimpse and there are days I feel like I am able to live that to a small degree. Some days I revert to my pre-sight days and wonder to myself how I had deserved to be given that glimpse.

 

Thanks for sharing,

No problem. It's been 30 years for me, and it's as profound today as then. It's always there, always present. There's always that glimpse. It always only a matter of our own openness, not its availability.