Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by jeff herman on July 6, 2012 at 11:21am

Here's an experiment: Deliberately do something naughty and see how it makes you feel. You might be surprised, though I guess it depends on how you define naughty and what you choose to do. Sometimes things only feel wrong in our head, and feel good everywhere else. Let's get real, humans are wired to dance on both sides of the line, because we fail to understand the line. 

Permalink Reply by Margaret Sue Turner Wright on July 6, 2012 at 12:19pm

Hi Jeff, good experiment on the naughty. Naughty does seem to beg the question to me, where does a feeling-conscience reside; within the mind, the body or both?  

There is definitely mental pain and anguish as our mental awareness rises when we have done a naughty or wrong thing to ourselves or to others. And it is just as real as physical pain of awareness as we tend to put or store our painful feelings into our muscle tissues. That has been proven in therapeutic massage therapies when certain emotions are released from some particular sensitivity in the body during massage. It is interesting how this emotional release can also show up with just a light touch as well as in such therapies such as Radix I believe was one such among those which were popular in the seventies at least. So it appears that the body knows pain and the mind knows pain yet the mental awareness and physical awareness of a feeling conscience of all this depends on the character development of the individual i.e. the more intuitive one is the more they are aware of their informing body, informing mind and informing Spirit.

So with this thought in mind, it appears to me that when I am about to do a naughty thing, I am:  informed by my body-that feels like it just got slimed –as in Ghostbusters’s slime, informed by my mind with the question-‘why’ would I even think of doing such a thing, and informed by Spirit that I am not living up to the best in me or the Light of me. I have definitely experienced the slime thing while talking with someone whose character was so shady and felt so wrong that my mind kept asking-‘why am I doing this-why continue..’. till I heard it loud and clear and stopped right quickly.

Permalink Reply by Matthew John Blythe on July 7, 2012 at 9:58pm

Naughty depends on yur own criteria for happiness. BY naughty do you mean "go beyond a taboo" ? Breaking a taboo is not necessarily evil, although temptiing someone to feel guilt just might be.

Permalink Reply by Margaret Sue Turner Wright on July 7, 2012 at 11:08pm

Matthew, I don’t think committing ‘the naughty’ is about breaking a taboo either, as most ‘taboos’ are mores or concepts perceived as inappropriate customs or mental boundaries that need to be broken for humanity’s evolution. The breaking of such a boundary is usually a conscious choice made from the stance of integrity, justice and truth as perceived at the time. However, saying that-I am sure such an act could be misconstrued in the afterward with demeaning verbiage meant to take the power out of a powerful moment.

I do think tempting someone to feel guilt is acting on the naughty side, as I perceive that to be manipulative.

 

Permalink Reply by Matthew John Blythe on July 8, 2012 at 4:02am

Many wars are started for the sake of moral integrity! Not many affairs are started with Justice and Truth in mind for the sake of evolving humanity! Is being manipulative evil? Perhaps it is if it is for the sake of hurting others, even if that is an albeit veiled attempt. To me it is just ego. God or ego (truth or illusion) is the only decision I will ever have to make.

Have a naughty err... I mean a nice day ; )

Permalink Reply by Matthew John Blythe on July 21, 2012 at 9:41pm

Someone deliberately made an experiment with a batman costume and failed to understand the line... because a voice in his head gave him "permission". That is why I don't play on the line unless I have the upmost integrity. That is also why I don't cherish other people's lessons when they ask me to do something I might regret later. Only The Voice for God is real... and even that requires discernment on our part sometimes.

Permalink Reply by Marshall Barnes on July 23, 2012 at 1:37pm

Matthew:

What is "the line"? Who was wearing a Batman costume? Who heard a voice in their head? 

Permalink Reply by Matthew John Blythe on July 24, 2012 at 8:38am

Marshall I was referring to Jeff's earlier comment

"Here's an experiment: Deliberately do something naughty and see how it makes you feel. You might be surprised, though I guess it depends on how you define naughty and what you choose to do. Sometimes things only feel wrong in our head, and feel good everywhere else. Let's get real, humans are wired to dance on both sides of the line, because we fail to understand the line. "

The guy in the film was wearing a batman custume, at least I presume he was since it was a film about batman although I havn't actually seen the film. Am I right or wrong in your fact based opinion?

Permalink Reply by Frank L. Jordan III on July 20, 2012 at 11:14pm

What act could be more evil, more heinous than what happened early this morning in Aurora, Colorado? What pain could be worse than to go through such an act, or to loose a loved one during it? What more can we do than to offer our heartfelt prayers to all of the victims, their families and friends? Please, God, draw close to these people in need.

I have strong beliefs about how things like this can happen. In this case, there was a whole room full of people in the wrong place at the wrong time. There were no karmic connections, no "cause and effect" that led them there. We live in a world where people are sometimes killed at random, through absolutely no fault of their own. For spiritual people who often look for meaning in the tragedies of life, this can be a bitter pill to swallow. But I believe that swallowing it is important. It puts us in touch with a crucial reality of life, that sometimes horrible things happen to good and innocent people for no other reason than that they are victims of a random crime.

And the pain that victims experience is real, whether they survive or not. The pain isn't something that anyone can or should somehow condition themselves against, as if it's some kind of mistake to experience it. The mourning experienced by the mothers and the fathers, the wives and the husbands, the sisters and the brothers, and the lovers and the friends of the victims massacred in that movie theater should never be avoided or denied. No one ever heals from steeling themselves against pain. They are healed by sharing their pain with God. "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted."

I don't know what was going on in the mind of the man who killed and wounded all of those people. I don't know whether he was sane or insane. But I do know one thing. The power and presence of God was not there, at least not to the degree that the killer was conscious of it. No one experiencing the power, presence and love of God could have planned and executed such an attack. That man's heart and mind was somehow shielded from God's influence.

Evil occured today, in the presence of a God I've come to know and love. One of the reasons I love God is because I know it wasn't God's will that those people be killed or wounded.

If people like that gunman are going to be stopped, God is going to need our hands to stop them.

 

Permalink Reply by Jan Lazo-Davis on July 20, 2012 at 11:38pm

Frank, Well Said!!!

I agree with you that we live in a world where things happen and are not constructed by a God who treats us like puppets. So evil can happen like what happened in Aurora, Colorado.

My responsibility, as a fellow child of God, is to pray for these people for healing and comfort. The effects of this massacre will last a long time. It saddens me. The massacre at Columbine High School still effects me today and I did not know anyone who was involved and I don't live any where close to there. 

As I listened to talk radio today an insightful question was asked today - "Why do these incidents happen more repeatedly in America as opposed to other countries?" Other countries have these incidents, but not as often as the USA, according to the talk show host. I don't know if they happen more here in the USA, but I do know that even one is tragic - repeated incidents is pure evil!!!

I know that the reality of what happened will unfold in our press as the weeks pass. But the pain in my heart will remain because that pain is what I draw from when I pray for those involved. It truly hurts me when life goes wrong like this.

Permalink Reply by Marshall Barnes on July 21, 2012 at 10:12am

If it wasn't God's will, then that means He was either helpless or indifferent to stopping it. Or that He doesn't exist at all...

Permalink Reply by Jan Lazo-Davis on July 21, 2012 at 11:13am

Marshall,

I take a different viewpoint. I believe our Creator (whom I choose to call G-d) set up a world with consequences. Although I think intervention by G-d is possible and does happen, I also believe it is rare because - just because. For me to try to assign motivation to G-d is ludicrous. GRIN

The Creator G-d I serve is not cruel or evil, so I don't believe Creator G-d would cause death and suffering by causing the shooting massacre in Aurora, Colorado.

However, because I totally believe in Free Will, I totally believe Creator G-d allows this kind of evil to happen. And I believe also that Creator G-d mourns along with us when it does.

Helpless or indifferent are not in the equation imo. I could use human analogies, but I believe you know which ones I would use. So I won't bother unless you ask.

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