Hello and...

[Telos]

I never made one of these introductory threads, so in an ironic twist I thought I'd put my goodbye post here.

As I mentioned over in...
http://www.astralpulse.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=15934
... I'm leaving my parents so they can heal themselves, which means leaving my house, my computer, my internet connection, this forum, and everything else for the time being. Staying in this house is debilitating, and it has been all my life.

My timing could be worse. I have no money and no reliable place to go. I dropped out of college after three years, so I have few marketable skills. But that's okay, I don't want to market myself anyways.

So, incipit vita nova. Here begins a new life.

I have no fears about finding a place to live or the direction my life will take. I don't fear death, poverty, sickness, pain, suffering, or loneliness. My life will be completely in the hands of spirit. And it's about time.  

For those who are concerned - relax. I've been considering this for years, but the only thing holding me back was the health of my parents and my family. But I've done all I can do here. I've got to go - far away, and start from scratch, literally, with my bare hands.

People need dreams. The "American dream" is taken for granted and often confused. People don't believe it's possible to build a life from nothing at all - at least, not a very good one. I'll prove those dreamless people wrong. People need to know it's possible. The homeless, especially, need to know it's possible.

I have the support of my guide. Sort of I have a guide that challenges me to be independent and self-made in the most extreme way possible. I want to answer that challenge. I know I sound crazy, but I'm going to have the most honest fun.

I'm telling you all this because I want you to also believe in yourself in the deepest way possible, to see that your life encompasses a wider reality, and to not confine yourself within walls of fear. But, if you come to this site, you probably already know that

I'm leaving after January 1st. I'll be back on this forum when I get a new place, a new computer, and a new internet connection, and not a moment too soon. It might be a while, but then... who knows?

Good luck, and Happy New Year!

[Little Star Orion]

Hi,


Good luck, I hope you find place you can call home.

regards,
Little Star Orion

[Nostic]

I never made one of these introductory threads, so in an ironic twist I thought I'd put my goodbye post here.

As I mentioned over in...
http://www.astralpulse.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=15934
... I'm leaving my parents so they can heal themselves, which means leaving my house, my computer, my internet connection, this forum, and everything else for the time being. Staying in this house is debilitating, and it has been all my life.

My timing could be worse. I have no money and no reliable place to go. I dropped out of college after three years, so I have few marketable skills. But that's okay, I don't want to market myself anyways.

So, incipit vita nova. Here begins a new life.

I have no fears about finding a place to live or the direction my life will take. I don't fear death, poverty, sickness, pain, suffering, or loneliness. My life will be completely in the hands of spirit. And it's about time.  

For those who are concerned - relax. I've been considering this for years, but the only thing holding me back was the health of my parents and my family. But I've done all I can do here. I've got to go - far away, and start from scratch, literally, with my bare hands.

People need dreams. The "American dream" is taken for granted and often confused. People don't believe it's possible to build a life from nothing at all - at least, not a very good one. I'll prove those dreamless people wrong. People need to know it's possible. The homeless, especially, need to know it's possible.

I have the support of my guide. Sort of I have a guide that challenges me to be independent and self-made in the most extreme way possible. I want to answer that challenge. I know I sound crazy, but I'm going to have the most honest fun.

I'm telling you all this because I want you to also believe in yourself in the deepest way possible, to see that your life encompasses a wider reality, and to not confine yourself within walls of fear. But, if you come to this site, you probably already know that

I'm leaving after January 1st. I'll be back on this forum when I get a new place, a new computer, and a new internet connection, and not a moment too soon. It might be a while, but then... who knows?

Good luck, and Happy New Year!

Wow Telos, that's BIG. I wish you the best of luck. I know it wasn't your intention, and you do seem to have a positive attitude, but your story does make me a bit sad. I guess it's because I can relate to an extent.
Your bravery is to be commended.

[Logic]

Good luck Telos, I hope you find what you're looking for.

[Chimerae]

Safe journey

[Nay]

Good luck and stay safe Telos.

[Selski]

Telos

You will be missed.

Hope to see you again one day...

Enjoy the journey!

Sarah

[cristaphin]

just a thought-
need room and board, I spent quite a few years enjoying working the concessions in the national parks.  Bed, food, a small amount of money, lots of open space to think about "nature"
jobsinparadise.com, coolworks.com. cooljobs.com, jobmonkey.com

here's a list to begin.
Your very brave.  Good luck!

[Telos]

I really wish I could summarize the sheer life changing experiences I have had over the past week and a half. I feel I could write a dissertation just on the intricacies of Evangelical Christian homeless shelters and how they affect their tenants (as opposed to, say, a Catholic approach).

I know I said the next time I'd come back to the forum, it would be on a new comp in my own place, but I returned home temporarily. The problems of homelessness are evidently rooted with belief. What belief? That work doesn't get you to heaven and, therefore, doesn't get you happiness. As you might imagine, this problem is definitely not limited to the homeless.

In a few weeks, I'm leaving for Coast Guard training. Since my parents were the ones who first recommended it, this makes them happier than otherwise. I have many reasons for joining the USCG, but suffice it to say, I just want my professional life to be one of learning and service.

Thank you all for your discussion, thoughts, and prayers.

[Nostic]

I really wish I could summarize the sheer life changing experiences I have had over the past week and a half. I feel I could write a dissertation just on the intricacies of Evangelical Christian homeless shelters and how they affect their tenants (as opposed to, say, a Catholic approach).

I know I said the next time I'd come back to the forum, it would be on a new comp in my own place, but I returned home temporarily. The problems of homelessness are evidently rooted with belief. What belief? That work doesn't get you to heaven and, therefore, doesn't get you happiness. As you might imagine, this problem is definitely not limited to the homeless.

In a few weeks, I'm leaving for Coast Guard training. Since my parents were the ones who first recommended it, this makes them happier than otherwise. I have many reasons for joining the USCG, but suffice it to say, I just want my professional life to be one of learning and service.

Thank you all for your discussion, thoughts, and prayers.

Hey Telos,
I've been wondering about you since you've been gone. Hope you're feeling better than before.

What belief? That work doesn't get you to heaven and, therefore, doesn't get you happiness. As you might imagine, this problem is definitely not limited to the homeless.

Is this your belief? Can u elaborate on this? Do you think that this is a problem for u? or just part of your spiritual growth/ spiritual realizations?

[SpectralDragon]

Telos,

I wish you luck on your journey and hope that, when you return to us, you will have many interesting adventures to tell us about and much knowledge to share

Good luck wanderer.

[Telos]

Is this your belief? Can u elaborate on this? Do you think that this is a problem for u? or just part of your spiritual growth/ spiritual realizations?

Oh, no, that is definitely not my belief. But this seems to be the belief of the long-term homeless and of Evangelical Christians. I'm not sure quite how to articulate it. Problems like these will always be complex, but this seems to be the gist of it. In a bizarre way, Protestant Christianity appears to feed and dilute the real feelings of hopelessness that the impoverished have.

I made a post (lengthy) over in Modern Christianity.
http://www.astralpulse.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=16415

Thanks again, Nostic and SD.

[Chimerae]

Welcome back for as long as you're here!!!

It's a little off subject, but there's a powerful fiction book by Megan Lindholm called Wizard of the Pigeons that might be timely.  It's hard to find, so the universe will have to smile on you to put it to hand.

From a review:  

Wizard Of The Pigeons    
by Megan Lindholm  ?  Copyright 1986
Review by D. D. Shade   ?   July 22, 1998


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Megan Lindholm's book, Wizard of the Pigeons, is also a book of wisdom. Here are some examples:

Children are people whom you will one day have to face. Therefore they should be treated with respect.

When you are mugged, it's not your money or your life that is taken; it's your freedom. The freedom to take a long walk in the evening on streets that should be yours.

There is only one rule about violence. Do whatever you must do to make it go away.

Giving involves taking. You cannot give of yourself until you allow others to give to you.

You cannot become a Wizard until you've given away, lost, or are willing to lose all that you have.

[sweetbliss]

Hello, Telos dear,
Much love to you and take care of yourself!

I'm glad you're back, things are not so simply drawn, life is too subtle mistery, that you cannot solve it always though simple solutions.
Actually, what I wanted to say is... what kind of a guide is that who tears you away from your family? What is he or she giving to you? He should give you self realisation, for all the rest, like comfort, intellectual pleasures, healing there are other things, like friends, teachers or good books and doctors and psychologists. A guide is something else, he should be there for your self realisation.
You see, I have a mentor for more than 6 years, and though she made me become more and more detached from everything, including family, this very much improved my relations with people and with my parents. Detachment does not mean breaking relations, but allowing God's love or spiritual love to give you everything, so that you don't need do ask it from the simple people around you, who anyway are also in need of support. And the next step in becoming detached is letting this nourishing energy of love spread also over your neighbors.

Psychologically speaking, problems with parents a rooted in the fact that we have not yet integrated within ourselves the father and mother image. In other words, if for the time being we are supposed, in your spiritual growth, to awaken within the image of God as a Father, this inward tension will express outside as a problem with the physical father. And with the mother is the same. I'm telling you from my own experience, it works like that. And the deeper I manage to go into integrating these divine or archetypal Father and Mother images, the better the relations with my parents become.
But a guide should know that, and if he does not know, you better take care! I really mean it and I hope you won't be upset because I told you this. But I've just seen very special people losing too much for nothing.

I spent more time in company of special spiritual people, some of them very closed to enlightenment, it has been like paradise, and it felt like wanted to live near them forever. But their effect was that they made me want to face reality and cured more and more the difficulties I had home.
Only once I've been in a camp with come missionaries (it was a camp for learning English and reading paragraphs from the Bible). It was nice, but nothing special, just talking, spiritually it was much less than I had experienced before, so nothing to make me join them. Still, I felt a very funny effect of them upon me: when I got home I was looking at my parents as if they were strangers to me, like a subtle wall between us. I almost got scared, but it was good, because I understood much of this experience. Spirituality is supposed to brake false walls and cure wound, but if it is just talking, the effect is the opposite.  

We live special times for spirituality, no need for challenges.
Wish you and your whole family all the best!

Ana-Maria

[Telos]

Wow, thank you for that post, Ana-Maria. Very perceptive and loving words. I'm musing over them for reasons which may not seem obvious.

But, definitely,

Spirituality is supposed to brake false walls and cure wound, but if it is just talking, the effect is the opposite.

... this is beautiful. This is the thought that motivates me.

[wisp]

Telos,
Good to see you back. I was wondering about you while you were gone. I read your post in Modern Christianity, interesting.

Your not concerned about serving in the military duty right now?

[Telos]

The Coast Guard seems more humanitarian than the other branches of the military. Rather than just focusing on blowing things up and killing people, it's closer to law enforcement and other duties that generally serve a civilization (search and rescue, aids to navigation, maritime safety, etc.). While in it, I'll most likely specialize in medicine or another type of science.

They rescue stranded boaters! I like that.

They're also part of the Dept. of Homeland Security, which in my mind seems more like actual defense, and makes the Defense Dept. look like an Offense Dept.

What do yo think? I haven't signed any papers yet.

[wisp]

Telos,

I haven't signed any papers yet.

You were reading my mind! I was wondering that.    

Wouldn't it be American to say? ...Think about it !!!!!  or...Give it some time to think about.

I hate to say this but as long as there are protests against the war, it will be prolonged. That's my opinion.

Your parents are FOR you signing up during "war time"?

[sweetbliss]

I've just read your essay on Protestant belief and homeless. It's very pertinent and it seems to me to be not only correct as a spiritual analysis, but also of literary or journalistic value. I was wondering, what were you studying at college, before quiting it?
I believe that there is a path for each of us, one may call it destined way or God's will or personal Dharma or vocation... I don't know, there must be some more names given to it   . Maybe also the result of bringing dream and day to day reality together and making them work as a whole... Could it be?
Sometimes life is a matter of learning and growing, but there is one point at which there is only one way to chose, the 'given' one, and the only choice is that between 'Yes' and 'No'. And of course, the better is the 'Yes'. Sometime the 'No' can be corrected in time, sometime it can lead to destruction. And spirit will never be destructed, but persons can be very much hurt. I would say that this 'Yes' is like the one one say when starting a marriage (and maybe because of this resemblance divorce is not a very effective solution for persons and souls), or when people bend their heads in the church and say 'I do', only this one is an 'Yes' to one's own life. A step into one's own self.
Thank you for making me think of these things! Now I realised that the danger comes out when this 'Yes' is being institutionalised, like people submitted to a social pressure of having fixed expectation towards what a marriage should be, or fanaticism or false face of religion instead of genuine connexion to their spirit. I mean, institutionalising this experience is fake, because it is a spontaneous step in evolution, we can be prepared through education for it, but we cannot make it happen before it is the right time.
This was for me kind of very interesting time and experience in my last year of study: to discover this 'only one way' state of mind, I would not have expected. For instance I struggled a lot to find a subject for my graduation essay, which should represent me, I've changed a few subjects and coordinators     , but in the end I discovered that I had been lead, during about two years, both in my study and in life, towards one particular book and one particular understanding. I'm not sure this is relevant, it's how I tried to explain this.    

I feel, somehow, that you will make very nicely your way into life. Because there is so much compassion and understanding expressed it what you are writing, and there is much more behind it, which has not yet manifested, but it will. So, don't bother to run away, it's just you standing there and you will make it. Just reflect a bit upon yourself and see what you will discover!

I hope this was not too long, I have this habit of talking too much, sometime.


Ana-Maria

[Telos]

Wouldn't it be American to say? ...Think about it !!!!! or...Give it some time to think about.

I'm not sure if it would be American, but it would be sensible

I hate to say this but as long as there are protests against the war, it will be prolonged

Interesting. What do you think is the causal relationship between protests and prolonged conflict? Is it prolonged conflict that causes protest or the other way around?

Anyways, it's unlikely I'd be deployed anywhere internationally. I'd probably be in Alaska, the US Pacific Islands, or the Gulf of Mexico.

Your parents are FOR you signing up during "war time

Oh, yes, absolutely. Actually, my father has pressured me with it ever since I was young. Of course, I'd tell him to shut his mouth up, and that I'd make my own decisions.

Wisp, I'm looking for a way to encourage the growth of humanity. Ideally, the Coast Guard functions as a shield protecting the innocent and human rights. Do you have reason to think otherwise? Not to put you on the spot, but I value your input.

[sweetbliss]

I was still writing this long post, when Wisp sent to you the last messages. I was kind of meaning the same.

Try to figure out what you wanted to become, as a child, sometime it helps. Or which your best abilities are. Sometime is good to wish more then less you could achieve. Anyway, the decision has to be taken by yourself.

[Telos]

Ana-maria, I absolutely agree with your bolded statement. There's nothing quite like experiencing the freedom of creativity and self-directed learning. Although I'm not a diehard Catholic, the Vatican II Declaration of Religious Freedom says it nicely.

"The truth cannot impose itself except by virtue of its own truth, as it makes its entrance into the mind at once quietly and with power."

what were you studying at college, before quiting it?

Business Economics. I had many reasons for leaving, but I touched on one of them in thread about Economics and Spirituality.

[Telos]

Try to figure out what you wanted to become, as a child, sometime it helps. Or which your best abilities are. Sometime is good to wish more then less you could achieve.

As a child, I wanted to win the lottery and get it over with. How's that for wishing more than what I could achieve.

Ironically, I've been frightened at how close I've been to a handful of predictions through dreams. They really caused me to question whether or not it was a sensible thing to do. It caused me to look more into the nature of money and value.

[wisp]

Telos,

It is an advantage politically for war protests to feed more insurgents into the troubled area. The conflict is prolonged because of the collective cry against war. If the nations(collectively) and people(individually) would hush their opinions for a short while, the insurgency will either stop or at least have to change it's course of action.

The insurgency(appearing suicidal) are probably those who are forced into it because of threats to their family by the powers that be, if they don't.The powers that be are trusting of the feelings of anti-war sentiment to give them strength.Ironically, this is what the war is about, freedom to choose. But if your family is being threatening, what would you do? Anything the thugs tells you to do.

The military has different rules during war time. I've heard there are no guarantees to where you may or may not go. Be careful that you are informed before you sign up.

Sorry, but I don't connect military with humanitarian causes. I've heard this about the Peace Corps, and it has  political quagmires. Maybe in a collective way perhaps?
Are you ready for the collective mindset?  I doubt if it would be much different in Medical Corps.

Just my personal opinion.

[sweetbliss]

       Great!

Anyway, it's more constructive than dreaming to become a pensioner, as other kids do!!!  

But it could be something in this. Symbolically, I mean...

Seriously, I do feel that anyone has a destiny to decode and fulfill.

I read your 'Economics and Spirituality', but I'll try to give a reply tomorrow. It's over midnight here, and I don't have a head for Economics even at day light. I don't think Economics are basically wrong. It's the human mind making them wrong, but the same human mind (in a bit enlightened condition ) can find solutions even here. Who knows?