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Goodbye Jesus

do you have regrets? Was Christian belief a part of your regrets?


alreadyGone

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1 hour ago, webmdave said:

 

I'm beginning to regret chiming in on this. 

 

In context of the original question, which I took to be regarding regreting previous Christian belief, I believe the emotion of regret is pointless.

 

However, if someone staunchly insists on emotionally punishing him or herself with regret for having been previously imprisoned by false beliefs, so be it. 

Regret can help us learn for the future, but in excess hampers us from moving on.

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It really does depend on what you mean by "regret" . Regret can be an emotional awareness of a perceived mistake. As such it is value neutral in a way. It is like your body starts to shiver when it feels cold. A normal useful reaction in that circumstance. We are (also) emotional beings. Knowing you made a mistake usually brings out the emotion of regret. Its function, from what I can gather is to notify in a more direct manner of that mistake - you said an rape joke joke to a recent rape victim - before you know it and process it intelectually , regret kicks in. Also an energy to correct said mistake and avoid it in the future, if possible. Also to avoid future actions - as in will I regret doing this? 

      A "pathology" of regret can happen when , for example, the emotion is so powerful it paralyzes you and outperforms all other emotions - hope, joy, conviction, even anger , satisfaction of having learnt something. Like if an explosion drowns out all other sounds and temporarily deafens you. I mean, even in Christianity overwhelming despair was considered a sin, while a level of despair is actually considered extremely beneficial. 

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On 1/17/2021 at 3:34 PM, TheRedneckProfessor said:

There is a difference between living in the present and being present in the moment.  The present will never come; but the moment is already here, now, and you are either present with it, or you are off somewhere else making plans and preparations for a present... that will never come.  

 

Here is an exercise that may help: go find a tree and be present with it.  What do you normally do when you look at a tree?  You think things about the tree, right?  "I wonder how old this tree is."  "Those leaves are a pretty color."  "I could use some firewood around the house."  As soon as you see the tree, your mind wanders off to some place other than the tree; and you are no longer present with the tree.  Spend a few minutes under its branches, without casting any judgment or entertaining any further thought.  Instead, simply observe the tree for what it is.  This is the beginning of living in the moment.

 

Go back to the tree in a few months and do the same.  You will notice that the circumstances around the tree have changed.  You will also notice that the tree has changed as well.  

 

Life is fluidity.  There are comings and goings, risings and fallings, ebbings and flowings.  We delude ourselves to think of ourselves as constants.  We are not.  We like to imagine ourselves as the stones unchanged by the rushing river waters; when the truth is, the stones are as much the river as is the water. 

 

This is why the Buddha said there is no "self" and as soon as we try to define our "self" we meet with frustration.  Look at a picture from when you were in grammar school.  Is that "you"?  But you're not a kid anymore.  Was that "you"?  Then where did "you" go and who are "you" now?  Even the stones change over time; because the river is fluidity, with comings and goings...

Heavy, dude. Farm out. I can dig it. But seriously, you are correct as far as I can tell.

 

I had bad decisions and things that didn't work out but how do I regret being me? 

 

I do have one regret. I had an opportunity to go to Woodstock with some freaks but I decided to stay home for no particular reason. Of course had I gone I might have taken the brown acid, so...

 

Once upon a time there was a Chinese farmer whose horse ran away. That evening, all of his neighbors came around to commiserate. They said, “We are so sorry to hear your horse has run away. This is most unfortunate.” The farmer said, “Maybe.” The next day the horse came back bringing seven wild horses with it, and in the evening everybody came back and said, “Oh, isn’t that lucky. What a great turn of events. You now have eight horses!” The farmer again said, “Maybe.”

The following day his son tried to break one of the horses, and while riding it, he was thrown and broke his leg. The neighbors then said, “Oh dear, that’s too bad,” and the farmer responded, “Maybe.” The next day the conscription officers came around to conscript people into the army, and they rejected his son because he had a broken leg. Again all the neighbors came around and said, “Isn’t that great!” Again, he said, “Maybe.”

The whole process of nature is an integrated process of immense complexity, and it’s really impossible to tell whether anything that happens in it is good or bad — because you never know what will be the consequence of the misfortune; or, you never know what will be the consequences of good fortune.

— Alan Watts retelling the parable

 

https://bremeracosta.medium.com/parable-of-the-chinese-farmer-f012db83694d

 

 

 

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On 1/17/2021 at 5:50 AM, alreadyGone said:

 

Some people look only to today and tomorrow, with little care about the past.

I don't think that's true for most though.

 

For those who have lived a while now, are you the sort to hold regrets about life here on earth? If so, do any of your regrets derive in any way from your previous Christian beliefs?

 

If you could go back and try parts of your life again, how might you do it all differently without religious belief?

 

 

 

 

 

I wouldn't be doing it over without a theological belief, but with the belief I have now I would have done a lot of things differently. 

 

It was through a church-related job that I eventually got the job I have now, which I've had for years and which is very good, so it's hard for me to say that I'd have been better off without taking that church-related turn in life. Still, my present philosophy would have made me take a different stance on some things, making myself----and possibly others----less miserable.

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