For a lark yesterday, on my 50th birthday, I Tweeted 12 things that I wish I had known at 25. Or more accurately, 12 things that, had I put them into action, would have made my life a lot easier. Some are bits of advice that wisdom figures have told me and took years to sink in. Others are the result of some hard knocks. A few are insights from the great spiritual masters that I've adapted for my own life. Maybe a few will help someone you know who's 25. Maybe one or two will help you.
1. First up: Stop worrying so much! It's useless. (I.e. Jesus was right.)
2. Being a saint means being yourself. Stop trying to be someone else and just be your best self. Saves you heartache.
3. There's no right way to pray, any more than there's a right way to be a friend. What's "best" is what works best for you.
4. Remember three things and save yourself lots of unneeded heartache: You're not God. This ain't heaven. Don't act like a jerk.
5. Your deepest, most heartfelt desires are God's desires for you. And vice versa. Listen. And follow them.
6. Within you is the idea of your best self. Act as if you were that person and you will become that person, with God's grace.
7. Don't worry too much about the worst that can happen. Even if it happens, God is with you, and you can handle it. Really.
8. You can't force people to approve of you, agree with you, be impressed with you, love you or even like you. Stop trying.
9. When we compare, we are usually imagining someone else's life falsely. So our real-life loses out. I.e. Compare and despair.
10. Even when you finally realized the right thing, or the Christian thing, to do, it can still be hard to do. Do it anyway.
11. Seven things to say frequently: I love you. Thank you. Thank you, God. Forgive me. I'm so happy for you! Why not? Yes.
12. Peace and joy come after asking God to free you -- from anything that keeps you from being loving and compassionate.
Agapi Stassinopoulos: Is Your Longing Preventing You From Actualizing Your Dreams?
James Martin (Jesuit) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The list is too big to post here.
Now WAKE UP! Stop pretending and work towards greater enlightenment. The bible and Abrahamic religions are poison that blinds and makes it's users slowly insane but not before making them incapable of experiencing happiness other than short fleeting moments.
Don't you think the Middle East would be a more peaceful and friendly place if ANY of the Abrahamic religions were true?
I believe that practicing what we preach is the best way forward in most situations. If you go beyond prejudices you carry with you into a reading of this list, you may find there's a lot there to agree with at the heart of it.
Wonder if we also need to be thinking about the vision we had at 25 that may have been lost over the years.
Theology is not something that is freeze - dried.
God is taking the risk of being you!
2, 4, 6, and 9 essentially the same, ie: Be true unto yourself..
5 How do you know that Father? You assume that one's heartfelt desires would be acceptable to God.
10 Assumes only Christians know how to do the right thing. Nonsense.
3 Assumes that prayer works. There is no evidence of this whatsoever, in fact plenty of evidence against.
8 Probably some merit in that one.
11. Leave out the "thank you God" and the rest are fine. You would have to have evidence that God needed to be thanked. Not possible - only in your head.
12 Is that an assumption that one needs a God, who is omnipotent and omniscient, knows every thought, emotion, word and deed you will have or carry out for the whole of your life, to be asked to free you? Especially as he knew what you were going to ask him anyway? How does that work?
At age 25 Fr Martin might have got by with a list of 1: "don't believe in anything without evidence."
How do you know? Do you mean that because He did not prevent these natural disasters He did not help people? That seems like a gross oversimplification to me.
That the most important thing to know , is to know who ones self is and that when one knows who ones self is, then; you will know that you are the sons and daughters of the living father. This means that you are God just as much as Jesus was God.
"But if you will not know yourselves, you dwell in poverty and it is you who are that poverty."
All great teacher have said the same thing. In the Vedic tradition, it is Nirvikalpa samadhi.
This is the goal of any spiritual aspirant. After this all other goals are naturaly, effortlessly attained.
Jesus said; the kingdom of the father is spread out upon the earth, and men do not see it.
Hardly an MO at the Vatican, though.
I was thinking especially of the dogma concerning sexual morality, which seems to be predicated on the pre-scientific conception of human reproduction prevalent when it was pronounced upon. The belief was that there were actually TINY HUMANS swimming around in the male "contribution" (the female was just an incubator; still, if she didn't do that job properly, the result would be a female child). This resulted in the medieval scholastic teaching that in cest was morally preferable to (again, male) "self abuse" (I hope that term doesn't offend the delicate sensibilities of the Hufpo moderators), and the equivalent modern dogmatic absurdities.
Number 7 trivializes human suffering. The worst thing that I could imagine happening to me is pretty bad. Even the bad but not worst things are pretty bad. Not all suffering can be risen above by bucking up.
1 - The Bible, Qur'an, Book of Mormon, Baghavad Gita, etc. are all fairy tale books filled with fictional characters, in mythological settings, preaching contradictory messages.
2 - All the world's religions exist for two main purposes: (1) Take control of the mind and will of their unwiting victims, and (2) Make lots of money.
3 - When a person tells you, "This is god's will for you," what they really mean is, "This is what I think you should do."
4 - Prayer is how to do absolutely nothing but still think you are helping.
5 - When a person says, "God hates (insert bigotted reference here)," what they really mean is, "I am a hate filled ignorant bigot, and I'm going to pretend that my hate is backed by an authority figure to make my hate appear justified."
6 - when a person says, "God did it," what they really mean is, "I don't have a clue how that happened, and I'm too lazy and/or ignorant to do some research myself, so I'm just going to make up some bull$#!t answer to sound intelligent and authoritative."
7 - When a person says, "I know god is real," what they really mean is, "I hope if I keep saying this enough times, it will be true."
However, I have noted that there are folks that have a burning desire to belittle any person of faith, and cannot resist the temptation to interject this "god is a myth" rant whenever any person of faith says anything.
The topic is "12 things I wish I knew at 25", You have made no attempt to directly address, either by agreement or disagreement, any of those things. You have, however, apparently decided that you can read the minds of every person of faith.
You do not know what Reverend Martin "really means", nor what anyone other than you "really means" when you say something.
Otherwise, it would be just as relevant and accurate for me to say that when an Atheist starts making inflammatory statements about religion, what they "really mean" isn't that they don't believe in God. What they "really mean" is that they do believe in God, they just don't want to.
Happy New Year to you.
You say "rant" I say "calling a duck a duck."
And I do know what Christians "really mean" when they say certain things, because I was a Christian for nearly 30 years. I said those same things to people with the same intentions.
Really? I thought God has some pretty bad desires:
- God tells Abram to kill some animals for him. The needless slaughter makes God feel better. 15:9-10
- God kills everyone (men, women, children, infants, newborns) in Sodom and Gomorrah by raining "fire and brimstone from the Lord out of heaven." Well, almost everyone -- he spares the "just and righteous" Lot and his family. 19:24
- God orders Abraham to kill Isaac as a burnt offering. Abraham shows his love for God by his willingness to murder his son. But finally, just before Isaac's throat is slit, God provides a goat to kill instead. 22:2-13
Lots more of that out there.
Or just what the human level of understanding of the nature of God in the early days of the Agricultural Revolution?
In my experience people see a God that reflects their view of the world. Those who see the world through the eyes of fear and judgement....see a God whose favor must be curried. A vindictive God who rewards His followers and punishes His enemies.
Those who see the world through the eyes of compassion and respect...see a God who is loving. A non-judgmental God who loves us unconditionally, but (like a good parent) is not willing to rescue us from the consequences of our actions and choices. A God that does not punish us for our "sins"...but one who allows us to be punished BY them. So that we can learn from them.