zoofence.com

Sometimes it seems to me that a huge barrier to "walking the walk" is squatting on the path in front of me. It's like the troll that guards the bridge, waving his big club and growling "This far, no further." It's one thing to "know" mentally, intellectually, what is tr...

I can relate, Jenjulian, being myself a long-term product of the AA program. I have not been to meetings in a long time either, but the principles of the program are always valid. Thus, I can see in myself the "alcoholic personality" at work all too often, with its drive to be in control, ...

While I fully agree with what you both have written, I'd add this: one of the pitfalls along the path is (and was in my case) mistaking one station along the way for the end of the line. By that I mean getting sidetracked into one particular "religion" and thinking (or trying to think) tha...

Gotta agree with what you say: "Surrender is heart felt submission to something chosen by the mind originally, whereas blind faith is usually based on hope, and often lacks discrimination, I think." I think maybe faith is the most mangled word in the spiritual vocabulary, simply because ev...

I can relate to what you say: "I'm not sure either that the rain will come and the light will shine on me. Such a lack in faith." Gradually it is dawning on me that the rain is there and the light is constant, and I simply am not awake enough to be wholly aware of it yet. It's not lack of ...

In the immortal words of some cartoon character .. "thanks, I needed that." Really. It gives me a fresh perspective on what had become a stale subject for me. When I say I am uncomfortable in "religious services" I forget that everything is "religious service" in the se...

WHAT ONE SMALL GRAIN LEARNED A single grain it was, hardly to be noticed among all the other grains on the stalk. It did not know how it had come to be there, nor did it even wonder. “I am one of these,” it thought to itself – for this particular grain had somehow attained command of thought. “We ar...

I too love the Latin Mass ... but not in the setting in which it is usually presented, which is an overcrowded church building packed with people, many of whom who seem by their inattention and fidgeting to be there because they must and not because they really want to be. When we were practicing Ca...

I find it remarkable how closely Ramakrishna's observations compare with those of the so-called "Athanasian Creed:" 5. For there is one person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Spirit. 6. But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit is all one,...

Perhaps the Catholic image of Mary, and the images we hold in our own heads of Jesus, and of angels ... and even the image of Lucifer ... are one and all archetypes of something we knew, but have forgotten. Perhaps, even, chosen for the moment to forget. A Course in Miracles thinks so, and I tend to...

I like that ... "You must be correct, but when I hear Christians and Muslims and others shout at one another Our way or no way it does not sound like mere curlicues to me." The analogy that occurs to me immediately is that of a swamp right after the rain. Millions of little frogs are to be...

Hello, Gulliver! Nice to hear from another ACIM student. "Student" is the operative word: sometimes I feel my brains are dripping out of my ears in the effort to grasp what it is saying to me, but at other times it is so luminously clear... What I am discovering, lately, is that in reading...

With regard to "remembering", A Course in Miracles makes this a central idea. For example: My name, O Father, is still known to You. I have forgotten it, and do not know where I am going, who I am, or what it is I do. Remind me, Father, please, for I am weary of the world I see. Reveal wha...

Stefan, it is wonderful to be back in touch with you! When you say, "Of course, I fully realize that the Divine is not a person and is not personal, and I am comfortable with that, but even so, I continue to want a personal Deity to whom, for whom, and with whom, I can relate" you have sta...

Folks, I've been away from this forum for a very long time, and am not sure I really have anything to contribute ... but this thread seems to speak to whatever is going on with me at the moment. (I thought I'd try to pursue the evangelical-Christian stance, and gave it my best effort. Nor do I regre...