News:

Welcome to the Astral Pulse 2.0!

If you're looking for your Journal, I've created a central sub forum for them here: https://www.astralpulse.com/forums/dream-and-projection-journals/



Christianity out of context

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

MJ-12


Violet

Dear MJ-12,

Thank you for your comment.  I realize now that my comments could be misinterperted.  Passivism is a great attribute and much more of it is needed in this world.  We act too often like some warrior race gone amuck.  What I was trying to say was that no attribute is healthy if it is not kept in balance.  We must not be so passive that we allow other people to crush our self worth.  But stiking the balance between passivism and confidence is not easy.  To often people mistake bravado with confidence.

When I was writing this post I was referring more to situations such as people getting stuck in abusive relationships where one person is telling them I am superior to you and essentially bullying others.  Lack of a sense of self worth seems to generate people who need to put others down in order to feel good and equally it seems to generate people willing to be victumized.  

I find many people in this world fear and hate confrontation.  Definitely certain forms of confrontation should be avoided until all other avenues have been exhausted.  Reaction to something without thinking the ramification through and without seeing ones own involvement in the problem is wrong. However if we never clearly state to a school yard bully that their behaviour is unacceptable they may continue on their course and never self-reflect and grow into a non-bullying adult.  But it requires great confidence and self-security to stand up to a bully.

Being a passifist is a great attribute but as with all attributes it needs to be kept in balance with true confidence not meekness.

There are ways to be a passifist and yet be strong and confident.

Lets put this concept to the ultimate test.  Lets take the extremely complex and horrifying situation with the War Against Terrorism.  Definitely the terrorists can not be allowed to bully America or the rest of the World.  But is the answer to bully the bully?  When we bully we immediately lose.  But how does America show its strength and deal with this situation without War?  War must be done!  Or must it?

So how could America show the Middle Eastern Terrorists that it is not weak and yet not have gone to war?  Well, America could have instead of pouring money into War could have poured all its resources into converting its entire infra-structure over to hydrogen fuel away from fossil fuel.  This would not cost any more than the massive war effort they are presently undergoing and with Americas brains and resources and a project that is already extremely well thought out and implementable they could achieve this within 5 years. Please refer to the following website for details. http://www.phoenixproject.net/
In the end this project would even make huge amounts of money for the US. By doing this America would have accomplished a great deal more than they would by war.  How so? First the terrorists greatest hatred is of Western influence and interference with Arab politics.  America going independent would mean a huge withdrawal of the need to interfere to maintain oil and gas flowing to American.  The terrorists would think they had won a great victory....However they would not have won.  America is the largest consumer of fossil fuels in the world. They are also the biggest market in the world until the EU catches up.  By telling the Arab nations that America will dramatically accelerate its progress to independence from fossil fuels in five years if the Arab nations do not take matters into their own hands America would have seen much more cooperation.....But the Arab countries must see that America can and will take the steps to independence.  If they see it
these countries would scramble to root out the terrorists from their own countries not wanting to lose the finacial wealth of America.  Financial wealth is the power that America holds.  It is still the finacial hub of the world.  In this way America could show the world how truly great it is and no one would see it as a victum or as a weak country.  It would be a passive way but still a confident and very strong way.

What I am trying to say is that in almost any situation there is a passifist solution but it does not mean being meek.  One can show great confidence and self respect in any situation no matter how difficult.

I realize the situation in the War Against Terrorism is extremely complex and I hope I have not upset anyone.  But when we look at Isreal vs. Palistine we see right there that all bullying back one side to the other accomplishes is an escalation in the war.  This also applies to abusive relationships.  It is best if possible to totally remove oneself from the situation and find an alternative that brings respect, dignity, self reliance to oneself and to ones nation.  

In the case of turning the other cheek it would have done no good for a slave to strike back and bully the bully. If one is a slave one can not physically remove oneself from a situation however one can emotionally remove themselves from a situation and still maintain ones self-respct and dignity.  No person can strip these away from us if we do not allow them to.  

Love and Light to the One and All,
Violet



Edited by - Violet on 18 March 2002  12:41:24

Bhikku

Hi Violet- I completely understand what your saying, as well as your refference to the War. It would make sense to do what you mentioned about the fuel conversion, and have though of that in general several times myself. The reason that it won't happen though, is because too much big business here in the states depend on that oil. Eventually, this is something that is going to happen anyway, once the fossil fuels are all gone. They have solutions now, i.e. hydrogen power, etc. but won't imply them because too much money is in the companies that distribute them here. It really is stupid on our (USA) part, but if I was going to tell you everything I thought was wrong with my country we'd need a much bigger website. What is all boils down to is the root of all evil, money. Sad, but true.

"Look within, thou art the Budda"

MJ-12


Violet

Dear MJ-12,

I have always had a deep respect for those who truly understand the philosphy behind martial arts.  Martial arts is truly much more than self defense.  It has been a long time but in my teenagehood I studied Karate.  I really liked my dojo because they did not believe in the colored belt system.  You were white until you became brown then black and you were a true master when your black belt had faded back to greyish-white again.

Respectfully,
Violet





bitsmart

I see Christianity being taken out of context, and I see a huge problem with self-esteem in the world today. Can we maybe get a thread going on self-esteem?

I was meek and passive (not to mention the smallest of my school) and bullies used to ravage my self-esteem. Now I've finally got it back (at age 20) and I would stand up for and defend myself if the need arose. Fortunately I have not had to...yet. I am passionately opposed to violence, but I advocate self-defense. I see violence as being bullying, and self-defense being protection of yourself. Both involve physical confrontation, with different intention. There's a fine line involved with standing up for someone else, especially if they aren't able to stand up for themself.

So I guess to sum it up, I'm for passive/self-defensive/SOME defense for others, and I'm against aggresive actions. Passive, but not submissive.

Don't EVER, EVER let anyone push you around. If you can't stop it yourself, go get help. If that doesn't work, get more help until it stops. Whether you think you should be able to handle it yourself is irrelevant; it must stop. It traumatized me because I took the submissive attitude. Big mistake.

bitsmart -
information illumination -
bitsmart@bitsmart.org -

Dog Faced Liar

The bible can be seen as a bunch of flowery metaphors


Violet

I feel that a lot of the bible has been misinterperted due to it being taken out of context of the ancient times.  Here is one example.

Apparently at the height of the Roman Empire the Romans would only strike a slave with the back of their right hand.  When they struck a peer they used the palm (front) of their hand.  What this means is that a new interpertation of Christ saying turn the other cheek is not that you must be meek and humble but that by turning the other cheek the person if they wish to strike you again is forced to strike you as a person of station in life.  In other words, never be a door mat.

I feel the church really wished people to be meek and submissive so they could be controlled and all the wonderful teachings that Christ had regarding self respect and self love were ignored or suppressed.  

My belief is that 'judge not others', means always keep in mind that you have not lived the other persons life so you can not fully understand what and why they do what they do.  But I do not think that 'judge not others' means that we allow others to get away with unacceptable behaviour and actions.  We really need to clarify this in our minds.  Should a bully be allowed to reign as king in the school yard?  Never ever allow anyone to say they are better than you.  If they say they are better... then they are on an ego trip born out of lack of self worth.  I believe the goal is to be confident yet always humble.  Striking the balance is the goal.  Confidence in our self worth so that we never have to prove ourselves to others.  Humble knowing that there is always something to learn and gain from a new perspective and that we can never know enough.  Many heads are always better than one.  A persons greatest strength is knowing their greatest weakness and then asking others to help rectify it.  

Love and Light to the One and All,
Violet



Edited by - Violet on 17 March 2002  21:23:54