Elimination of Demonyms in Spiritual Disciplines

1. 53

   Ack Taneposted 8 years ago

   Identity has often been used as an excuse to persecute.
   
   A spiritual discipline is not about creating a parallel reality but about giving an interpretation of reality.
   
   God cannot convert to any spiritual discipline. But that will not harm God. Having an identity can make you easier to harm.
   
   Large elaborate buildings with massive gatherings and dependence on highly expressive symbols particularly ones that depict concious entities are liable to attract beings who think they can achieve something through massacres and desecrations of revered icons. A symbol that does not depict a concious entity or concious entities is less problematic but still can be desecrated or manipulated and used to aggravate followers of a spiritual discipline to make their discipline seem less worthy.
   
   SPIRITUALITY AND DETAIL
   
   There will never be a situation where a one-off act is going to give you eternal salvation nor a situation where a one-off act is going to give you the opposite.
   
   Evidently you will receive the benefits of positive acts and the problems of negative ones. That is the nature of conciousness and one supposedly great act is not going to "wipe out" all negative acts no matter how major or minor.
   
   Conversion to an identity will not "save" you particularly if you think it will now cancel out your "sins". You can never really be "saved" or "unsaved" but have an eternal situation which can be improved deliberately or treated indifferently until you find yourself in a situation where you are forced to be virtuous.

   replyreport
2. 79

   colorfuloneposted 8 years ago

   I like the way you write in an intellectual sort of dueling manner.
   
   Apparently each religion interprets the world though its own values that may be reflected in symbolism it uses that can make the particular religion easy to identify and it may follow that once identified, there are those that may want to be destructive in some way based on being able to identify the belief associated with a building.  We can often tell at a glance if a church building is Catholic or Protestant as well as being able to identify the difference between a Muslim mosque and Jewish temple, etc.  A demonym identifies the people of a place, I suppose in this case...those that go to a Catholic church are generally called Catholics.  Those going to mosques are identified as Muslims or Islamic....etc. 
   
   It seems that desecration of religious buildings and other symbols of religions cuts to the quick of the faithful of a religion to varying degrees.  Even those that may not seem to have much in overt physical symbolism are not as much of a target but can still be messed with in ways that may seem to devalue them.
   
   The wordster seems to have some idea that salvation is not something someone can attain in the traditional Christian sense of receiving Jesus as Savior.  Also, seems to believe that one cannot lose salvation by a single act, but maybe by cumulative wrong doings.  Seems to have a sense of the value of sowing and reaping in both positive and negative senses.  In the end, they seem to think that eternity may or may not be improved for someone because of the balance of good and bad in their lives.  Don't know how one can be "forced" to be virtuous.
   
   An intelligent person you are with some theories.

   replyreport
3. 77

   Kathryn L Hillposted 8 years ago

   Dear Ack Tane:
     This is my interpretation of your post.
   
   Many churches outwardly display what they stand for and believe. They might as well wave red flags in front of stampeding bulls. "Come come, dear bulls, massacre and desecrate us!" (Often, these "bulls" take on the appearances of slithering snakes manipulating church followers to believe their religion's spiritual practices are false or wrong.) Religions / churches which wave the biggest flags feature:
   1. Large elaborate buildings
   2. Massive gatherings
   3. Highly expressive symbols depicting concious entities (Symbols that do not depict conscious entities are also subject to misuse.)
   4. Widely revered icons
   
   A good example of "bulls" are the terrorists who are brainwashed into believing that somehow killing / murder will result in heaven!
   
   Note to terrorists:
   The truth is, nothing you do will send you to heaven or hell!  Instead, for all the truly good and loving things you do, you will receive positive benefits during this or future lifetimes. For all the negative things you do, you will receive negative consequences. For instance, harmful, destructive, malicious and hateful actions, such as the chopping off of heads, could result in having your own head chopped off in this or some other lifetime!
         Think of it! Upon the slice of a blade cutting through your neck and spine, you will see what it feels like to suddenly find yourself without a body! Cut off (literally) from friends and family, now a ghost drifting in an astral fog, far from all you once held dear!

   replyreport
4. 77

   Kathryn L Hillposted 8 years ago

   According to Ack Tane:
   
   1.< "Conversion to a particular religion will not "save" you, particularly if you think it will cancel out your 'sins.' ">
   
   2. <"You can never really be "saved" or "unsaved", but will have an eternal situation which can be
     A. improved deliberately
     B. treated indifferently.">
   
   3.<"Eventually, "you find yourself in a (life) situation where you are forced to be virtuous.">
   
   *forced* is not the right word, above ...
   
     I would say where one is presented with an *opportunity* to choose right over wrong and thus attain higher awareness and strength of character.
   
   This idea would make a good flash fiction challenge / prompt.

   replyreport
5. 77

   Kathryn L Hillposted 8 years ago

   Reincarnation is the only thing that makes sense, if you ask me, which no  o n e  . .  .

   replyreport
6. 77

   Kathryn L Hillposted 8 years ago

   Proof is always found in the details.
   Some details are very subtle.
   … depends on the focusing.
    
   A new religion would necessarily involve the ability and power to focus / concentrate on reality.
   A church could keep its entrapments as long as this ability is taught and the people willingly pitch in to keep entrapments, as opposed to being tricked to fork over money by manufactured effects of the church.
   It is a sad day when one must keep one's faith completely private due to fear of prosecution.
   I would say.

   replyreport
7. 56

   willmcwryterposted 8 years ago

   What demons in spiritual disciplines? My friend you are in the wrong church if you have demons there.  you should switch church's

   replyreport
8. 77

   Kathryn L Hillposted 8 years ago

   Here is a nice one!
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYenQ5C77nk. The comments say it all.

   replyreport
   1. 79

      colorfuloneposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Beautiful!

      replyreport