spiritual development

[anemos]

thank you . if you don't mind I will use your words to make a point.
I have many UK, US friends that like you say that admire us who know more than one languages. I can't comprehend why it is so special because for us here its a necessity. But i would feel probably the same for those can speak and write Chinese.

I wouldn't miss the fun of the Writing Games thread just because my English are not perfect or my poems are not much deep or cultivated. Its kind of what 22.1 prompts , and yes 22.6 its the "vision" .

I agree with you h21 comments too and I fell that whether the discussion is about spirituality or poetry the essence remains the same. We have to bite through the obstacles... and while for each of us represents different realities or circumstances, there are the 'same" in some respects. again 22.6 , i think.

there are a few other things I would like to share when I'll find the time. I need to attend to a very very spiritual practice called "napping"

 

[Trojina]

Sshhhhhhuuuushhhhh


Maria Asleep
v
v
v
v
v
v
v
v












doesn't she look sweet when she's asleep​

 

[anemos]

Me and Morpheus

 

[anemos]

have been thinking about "spiritual development" and the only way I can conceptualize it resembles the transition from a hex 29 state to a hex 30. Yet, 30 I doesn't feel like a task to accomplish but it what we found before at the exit of the ravine. It doesn't feel a lot as a goal to achieve.

If , lets say, we have a triune nature, body, soul, spirit, then , to me, feels I can only have "control" on the first to. the spirit is something I can't "grasp". So maybe its not a direct development but an indirect one. To my understanding you don't DO it , but it happens.

There is a kind of suffering we try to decrease ; most of religious talk about that in one or another way. So when we pay attention to this suffering and become aware of what hurts and the root of pain, then , like in operant contitioning ( sorry for the un-spiritual association) we change. There is a kind of "pleasure" we are after , aren't we ?

I don't do any formal meditation- any attempt has fail! But yesterday I was so tired and 99%of my brain cell appeared to be burned, lol. but I had what i suppose is the goal of meditation. Thoughts crossing my mind , various concerns, but I could "participate" I needed want to involve my self on that chattering. Was listening but in a very detached way. "That feels nice" i said to myself . That's the drive; it feels nice and an small aha moment.

What if we say that spiritual development its those small aha moment we encounter and not something we are after it ?

Wonder how the rest of you see it.

 

[anemos]

What if we say that spiritual development its those small aha moment we encounter and not something we are after it ?

Hmm, 22 ?

 

[Annamaria]

My recent mantra, thank you dr Cha Zay!!!!

I choose to know nothing
And allow the divine sparkle om My soul
To lay all the possible things before me.

 

[Trojina]

Just posted in the poetry thread but felt it deserved a place in this thread too



How It Is with Us, and How It Is with Them

by Mary Oliver


We become religious,
then we turn from it,
then we are in need and maybe we turn back.
We turn to making money,
then we turn to the moral life,
then we think about money again.
We meet wonderful people, but lose them
in our busyness.
We're, as the saying goes, all over the place.
Steadfastness, it seems,
is more about dogs than about us.
One of the reasons we love them so much.

"How It Is with Us, and How It Is with Them" by Mary Oliver, from Dog Songs. © Penguin, 2013

 

[Annamaria]

"Humility is a beautiful thing,
Being a doormate is not.



Source as in My previous post.

 

[Trojina]

"Humility is a beautiful thing,
Being a doormate is not.



Source as in My previous post.

a 'doormate' ? I presume you mean a doormat ?

 

[Annamaria]

The answer is always in the question

 

[Trojina]

no it isn't

 

[Annamaria]

Mine was

 

[Trojina]

 

[Annamaria]

As i mentioned once before i look at life from a holistic point of view, on My spiritual journey i Try to be in Nature at least one hour and i meditate there with help of a Christian prayer, i read i ching interpretations in the two books i mentioned in post no 1 every day, i follow some people on youtube and on different webbsides, i search for answers in hinduism, buddhism, taoism, christianity and so on but the final Word for which path to take and go, my every day decisions on the action or non action i find within my self.

 

[anemos]

Found it today . Couldn't resist

 

[Annamaria]

Lovely, Anemos!

 

[Annamaria]

The question is... Who is the one asking that question

 

[anemos]

the son of the .. family

 

[Annamaria]

"...and what the soul is, also
I believe I Will never quite know.
Though I play at the edges of knowing,
Truly i know
Our part is not knowing..."
(Mary Oliver)

 

[sooo]

The soul is the who. It includes our character, our strengths, weaknesses, doubts, faith, virtues, short comings. I think the Yi has much more to do with the shaping of our soul than with our spirit, which is our what.

 

[anemos]

The soul is the who. It includes our character, our strengths, weaknesses, doubts, faith, virtues, short comings. I think the Yi has much more to do with the shaping of our soul than with our spirit, which is our what.

Yes !

 

[moss elk]

Ok found this and wanted to share:

IF....

If you can live without caffeine,

If you can be cheerful, ignoring aches and pains,

If you can resist complaining,

If you can understand when your loved ones are too busy to give you any time,

If you can take criticism and blame without resentment,

If you can ignore a friend's limited education and never correct him or her,

If you can resist treating a rich friend better than a poor friend,

If you can face the world without lies and deceit,

If you can conquer tension without medical help,

If you can relax without liquor,

If you can sleep without the aid of drugs,

If you can honestly say that deep in your heart you have no prejudice against creed, color, religion, gender preference, or politics,

--Then you have almost reached the same level of spiritual development as your dog!

 

[Trojina]

Love it !

The ending took me by surprise

 

[goddessliss]

I think Spiritual Development is about conscious thinking and intention. I don't know about the Yi being a spiritual development tool although for me it certainly has been over the years I've been using it. When I ask a question I don't just want the yes/no/maybe answer I want to know why I'm in the present situation - at the moment for me it's about my lack of employment again which again leaves me struggling financially - I must have missed something last time, so what is it that I need to learn that connects me to spirit to sort it so I'm not in this situation and never come back to it. - Liss

 

[svenrus]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGRO05WcNDk

 

[svenrus]

of course i read both classics the taoist i Ching och Hilarys book i ching following your path, creating you future, how do you work with i ching?

I'll like to answer that question, but first: about spirituality and love in I Ching, (Yijing) I will recomment a passage in Richard Rutts 'Zhouyi, the book of chance, a bronze age document', [part 3: 'The fascination of Zhouyi', "Yijing and spirituality", p. 50 in the 2007 ed.] Quote: "........ If Yijing has been used for spiritual purposes, they are extrintic to the text. Love (ai) , another litmus test for spirituality, is not mentioned in Zhouyi. ....." As I understand R. Rutt here Yijing had a more practical tone.

-------

Today I consult I Ching in the most simply way possible; no meditation/orientation toward South/..... NO ceremonial attitudes at all. I threw a die and build up the hexagram, write it down and take one of several books usually starting with Richard Wilhelms, which very often doesn't make sense: in those cases continuing with Blofeld, Huang, Rutt, Wang Bi.... And if none of those make sense I look at the trigrams ie the underlying traditional meaning of those - and if nothing works I conclude that my consultation hadn't been serious, that the advice from the oracle hadn't been needed - and forget about it.
Those times where I grap the meaning in the oracle I think I've found out that my consultation had been needed/serious and there I really got the help needed.

 

[Trojina]

I think Spiritual Development is about conscious thinking and intention. I don't know about the Yi being a spiritual development tool although for me it certainly has been over the years I've been using it. When I ask a question I don't just want the yes/no/maybe answer I want to know why I'm in the present situation - at the moment for me it's about my lack of employment again which again leaves me struggling financially - I must have missed something last time, so what is it that I need to learn that connects me to spirit to sort it so I'm not in this situation and never come back to it. - Liss

Woa.....don't agree with you here. This sounds like those notions books like 'the Secret' promote that if you are having a hard time you made some mistake and have to learn a lesson. It way over simplifies the way intention interplays with life.

I would argue you are struggling because it's how the world is....so are lots of people.

Spirituality never did equate to having money and comfort and success. Over simplified, populist new age books that make out all people have to do is change their minds and 'Voila !' it shall be, have a lot to answer for. Whilst all this is true on one level...on another it really isn't. What such ideas lack is a dose of hex 15, that is there external conditions too. As long as we are alive there will be challenges and difficulties but that doesn't mean we always got it 'wrong'. Afterall if it did then people who had money, ease and fame and so on would be the most spiritually evolved and they are not they ? They often are still very empty, taking drugs to fill the gap. So ease of life and wealth and success are not a measure of spiritual development.

All paths show this...Buddhism, Christianity...and also the I Ching though not exactly a 'path'.

I'd say never assume you messed up spiritually somewhere just because you are having a hard time.

 

[Trojina]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGRO05WcNDk

what was your point ?

 

[goddessliss]

Woa.....don't agree with you here. This sounds like those notions books like 'the Secret' promote that if you are having a hard time you made some mistake and have to learn a lesson. It way over simplifies the way intention interplays with life.

I would argue you are struggling because it's how the world is....so are lots of people.

Spirituality never did equate to having money and comfort and success. Over simplified, populist new age books that make out all people have to do is change their minds and 'Voila !' it shall be, have a lot to answer for. Whilst all this is true on one level...on another it really isn't. What such ideas lack is a dose of hex 15, that is there external conditions too. As long as we are alive there will be challenges and difficulties but that doesn't mean we always got it 'wrong'. Afterall if it did then people who had money, ease and fame and so on would be the most spiritually evolved and they are not they ? They often are still very empty, taking drugs to fill the gap. So ease of life and wealth and success are not a measure of spiritual development.

All paths show this...Buddhism, Christianity...and also the I Ching though not exactly a 'path'.

I'd say never assume you messed up spiritually somewhere just because you are having a hard time.

Fair enough too - you always do say that and it's always helped me. The last couple of days I've to thinking about how I do always blame myself for the predicaments I get myself into and realised, I've a friend who's very much of that belief that we create these things to happen and it's been really upsetting me lately because she's never been in my position or had to deal with the things I've had to deal with - you know long term supportive husband in many ways and has always been financially supported ie. born with a silver spoon etc. etc. so I need to stop listening to her and realise that yes there are things that just happen. I still think though, that the Yi has helped in the development of my inner self and the inner self is what I call spiritual. - Liss

 

[svenrus]

what was your point ?

None, except following Annamarias passion for Chopin and as this Nocturne Op.9 No.2 (Arthur Rubinstein) sounds like a lullaby hence the

Actually the thread left me with confusion when I firstly tried figuring out it's head and tail this morning.