Spiritual Influences

[East]

This isn't a "religious question" though if your spiritual influence IS religious in nature it qualifies as a legitimate spiritual influence....

I could go on for pages....but right now is where it is at as the things in the past have integrated and are part of my whole...the sum of who I am today....

I definitely like Eastern philosophy and Buddhism/Taoism and they play a major role in my spiritual equation.....and I have been reading a book by Vietnamese author THIGH NHAT HANH entitled FRAGRANT PALM LEAVES...

Something he said has given me a lot to think about this week....

".....Our joys and sorrows, likes and dislikes are colored by our environment so much that often we just let our surroundings dictate our course. We go along with "public" feelings until we no longer even know our true aspirations. We become a stranger to ourselves, molded entirely by society...."

I could quote the whole chapter...the book is basically excerpts from his journals written between 1962-1966.

What interests me about this...it is pretty much the foundation of my whole journey and I knew this back when I was a teenager...I said similar things to myself and it is pretty much what drives me...and I had forgotten that until I read this a few days ago....

So...do you have any kind of spiritual thoughts or influences that drive you or help you?

[Lexington]

Not really. Just a few basic tenets that I try to hold on to, which are maybe only soiritual in pasing. "I will leave the world a better place than I found it". "I am not full master of my destiny, but I have some control in the uktimate path I take." Someone once said "Lex is annoyingly practical" and I guess that's true.

Lex

[TwisttheLeaf]

I have realized more and more over the past few years that I didn't develop my values from my parents, but rather from the woman who started out as my parent's spiritual parenting mentor and, in time, also became my sister and I's babysitter/nanny. Her and her boyfriend/best friend taught me... a lot.

About honesty both to yourself and others. About living genuinely. About the kind of person I wanted to (and still want to) be. About empathy, listening, understanding. About so many things, yeah?

Between their influence, and Gideon's influence that helped me through a number of trials including issues with self worth, events in my life that could have devastated my self esteem or my life in general, and teaching me what it means to be... more.

Those are the major influences in my life that have helped mold me into the man I am.

One major thing that the woman mentioned above shared with me when I was quite young, that also had a very influential impact, was a poem called The Dash by Linda Ellis.

[Cinestry]

I really like this story that was told in a meeting of a Buddhism society I go to. I don't remember the exact names of the characters, but it's about a powerful ruler that got a tiger as a pet, it was the first time people saw a tiger in that land so they saw it as a very dangerous beast, almost as a demon. The ruler got bored quickly and made the strongest samurai and zen master from the country come to get into the cage with the tiger.
The samurai got over his fear and managed to get into the cage without being killed by acting like he was bigger and stronger than the tiger (in some versions he does get killed). The zen master did not seem to have any fear, went into the cage and let the tiger lick his hand. He took the tiger out of the cage, the tiger never attacked anyone and lived side by side with the zen master for the rest of his life.
The story ends by saying: the samurai won from the tiger by looking down on him, the zen master became a friend by treating him as an equal, and that is how we should all live.

I like how the story tells a lot about handling fear, but it confuses me a bit that nothing was said about the forgiveness of the tiger.. I still think it's a nice story though.

[LJay]

Every time I try to think about this topic the SSRI's prevent it.

[MikeW]

In some ways "spiritual" is an unfortunate term. I don't have another and use it but not without comment. It lends itself too easily to "other worldly" -- as in the world of life beyond life -- when, I think, a lot of times what we're talking about isn't that. Rather, a more profound and immediate contact with life here and now.

For many years, decades, I was a student of the Gurdjieff teaching through the Foundation of San Francisco. Although Gurdjieff authored three books himself and many more books have been written about him by his students (as well as much that is apocryphal), the teaching is primarily an oral tradition. That is, it is passed on from teachers to students through what we call "presence," verbal exchanges, experiences of various sorts, including music and movements authored by Gurdjieff himself. Examples of the latter:




It is about attention. About *how* we pay attention. And how there is much, much more possible for us than we actualize -- if only we would pay attention TO our attention.

[East]

Every time I try to think about this topic the SSRI's prevent it.

Very interesting that you brought that up!

This is one of the specific reasons that I refused to take the drugs. I have beengiven prescriptions many times over the years...I give them away. I flushed the first prescriptions down the toilet but I realized how bad it was to do that...

I didn't want to tell my doctors I didn't want them and I wasn't willing to sacrifice other things to take the pills. I am willing to go with the highs and lows...I would rather have them than not experience anything which is what happened with the medication....

I was concerned especially because all at once pretty much everyone came down with one of the big three: Depression, ADD or Bi polar...and they started shovign pills down everyone's throats...

What changed? They say they learned new things...bullshit! They started modifying foods and adding more crap into them....and I think there was a chemical imbalance for ALOT of people....so I have eaten "clean" for years ...or close as possible...and my symptoms subsided by two thirds! I think the other damage is permanent.

[East]

In some ways "spiritual" is an unfortunate term. I don't have another and use it but not without comment. It lends itself too easily to "other worldly" -- as in the world of life beyond life -- when, I think, a lot of times what we're talking about isn't that. Rather, a more profound and immediate contact with life here and now.

I agree. I think so many people grew so tired of organized religion trying to define EVERYTHING for them that we categorically reject some terms....but I am a bit of a pitbull when it comes to letting anyone else define anything for me so I don't let them have the word...but I am aware when I use it what kind of images it presents.

For many years, decades, I was a student of the Gurdjieff teaching through the Foundation of San Francisco. Although Gurdjieff authored three books himself and many more books have been written about him by his students (as well as much that is apocryphal), the teaching is primarily an oral tradition. That is, it is passed on from teachers to students through what we call "presence," verbal exchanges, experiences of various sorts, including music and movements authored by Gurdjieff himself. Examples of the latter:




It is about attention. About *how* we pay attention. And how there is much, much more possible for us than we actualize -- if only we would pay attention TO our attention.

Fascinating...I want to read more...I agree with the statement in red....I have experienced this...

[MikeW]

I agree. I think so many people grew so tired of organized religion trying to define EVERYTHING for them that we categorically reject some terms....but I am a bit of a pitbull when it comes to letting anyone else define anything for me so I don't let them have the word...but I am aware when I use it what kind of images it presents.

Yeah, i'm that way with a lot of words … god, evil, etc. Gurdjieff has something to say about that, actually.

It is about attention. About *how* we pay attention. And how there is much, much more possible for us than we actualize -- if only we would pay attention TO our attention.

Fascinating...I want to read more...I agree with the statement in red....I have experienced this...

Gurdjieff's ideas are practically impenetrable (via the written word). Pretty much everyone starts with them but then, later, has to unlearn everything they thought they knew.

[LJay]

I really was not joking, East. (for once) The SSRI's seem to prevent me from much deep contact with many things, among them, music, which is to me a profound path. Our age may indeed be influenced as you say.

Have we found a way to keep entire societies from mystery?