First things first, please do not flame me for this. Ok, I was thinking today like I do every other day, and this question randomly popped into my head. You know how one of the things to salvation is to "repent" and do a 180 degree turn away from your sin, towards God? Well, if you take a 180 degree turn...you are just walking backwards towards where you came from. So wouldn't that be defeating the purpose of what you are seeking? I know most people wouldn't think of it like that...but then again, I have too much time to think. Wouldn't it be a better phrase to turn 45 degrees? Or 90 degrees would be optimum to completely leave the path that you were on. An, what if you keep walking straight...you would get somewhere else eventually... Random thoughts, don't you just love them?
the phrase isnt implying a 180 on your "life path" but in your life style. before, according to Christian doctrine, you are sinning (well, even after you turn to God, you will still sin) but before i guess most would say you are "living in sin". a 180 turn from that would be no longer living in sin.
Okiday..thanks! I was just thinking about it and...I dunno. Random things that aren't very relavent. -Bird
Well, I don't believe in Jesus but I'm all for repenting. So, as far as the 180% turn thing goes; Suppose there was this light behind you and you were walking away from it. Everything in front of you would always be in shadow right? No matter how far you walked everything you see would always be dimmed by your own shadow. If you stop and turn around, now you're facing the light, your shadow's behind you. So even though you're looking back the way you just came you're seeing everything for the first time.
If you walk straight, it may go somewhere. It may go off a cliff, or up against a wall. Perhaps it may lead to better places. But you have to look at your situation. Should a junkie keep heading down his path of addiction? You have to realize that you can't seperate the object from it's situation, it's context, its environment. They define each other and must be taken as a whole. So it's one thing to keep walking down your path if you're talking about a marriage that might be on the rocks. It'd be another thing entirely if the situation is that you're getting beaten by your spouse. NaykidApe, that's true if you keep walking away from the light, all is in shadow. But if you turn to the light, you'll be blinded by it. A 90 degree turn would offer you a lighted path where you can see the sights, hampered neither by shadows or blinding light. Just a thought.
that's why all real spiritual seekers wear these cool sun glasses . that's why their called wayfarers.
ok..ive never heard of that, but, i dont dont beleive u can just say "the magic words" and boom ur saved from eternal damnation, i mean hello, i am carasmatic and we have very different veiws, plus i am a hippy, raised by hippy parents, so were a lil weird with our beleifs. but i beleive, that if u choose to follow wat is good according to God, than you are a christian, it has nothing to do with those "magic words" thats jsut stupid, Now, i made a promise to GOd that i would commit my life to him, and follow his teachings and be his child, but thats just me,,
Why are we here? First we need to know where here is. This is the material creation which is part of the total creation, material and spiritual. The spiritual is what we call the kingdom of god. The material is the place where an individual can go when he doesn’t want to be with god, where one can forget about god. We all came here out of our own free will because of envy. God is the center of attention and we are not. that rubs us the wrong way. So this is our place. Each little house is a little kingdom of god so that we can pretend. This is an illusion, we can’t be god, we are very small and have limited power. We will not be successful in stopping the violence until we understand the reason and cause. We are eternal spirit souls who have come to the material world to exploit the resources of the property of god. We were advised not to do this but chose to come here out of our free will. It was understood that there is going to be happiness and suffering when we came. All bodies are a machine for the soul and all living beings are eternal persons be they a human, animal, insect, bird or plant. The reason we are feeling compassion for animals is because of the presence of the spirit soul that is an eternal soul and an eternal person with in the material body. real compassion is to free the person from the cause of his suffering by releasing him from bondage of this existence eternally by going back to god in his abode. We all have a relationship with god. Every type of relationship that we see here is a perverted refection of what our relationship is with god. Jesus Christ is a good example because he had a relationship with god as the son. There are different names of god in different faiths and the name that I call god is Krishna. Krishna said The living entities in this conditioned world are My eternal fragmental parts. Due to conditioned life, they are struggling very hard with the six senses, which include the mind. One should understand what the goal in life is first. To go back the kingdom of god by developing love for god is the supreme goal in life. The reason god allows suffering in this world is to frustrate the living entity so he will want to get free from this world which god doesn’t want us to be here. SB. 6.10.9 If one is unhappy to see the distress of other living beings and happy to see their happiness, his religious principles are appreciated as imperishable by exalted persons who are considered pious and benevolent. One generally follows different types of religious principles or performs various occupational duties according to the body given to him by the modes of material nature. In this verse, however, real religious principles are explained. Everyone should be unhappy to see others in distress and happy to see others happy. Ätmavat sarva-bhütesu: one should feel the happiness and distress of others as his own. It is on this basis that the Buddhist religious principle of nonviolence—ahimsah parama-dharmah—is established. We feel pain when someone disturbs us, and therefore we should not inflict pain upon other living beings. Lord Buddha’s mission was to stop unnecessary animal killing, and therefore he preached that the greatest religious principle is nonviolence. One cannot continue killing animals and at the same time be a religious man. That is the greatest hypocrisy. Jesus Christ said, “Do not kill,” but hypocrites nevertheless maintain thousands of slaughterhouses while posing as Christians. Such hypocrisy is condemned in this verse. One should be happy to see others happy, and one should be unhappy to see others unhappy. This is the principle to be followed. Unfortunately, at the present moment so-called philanthropists and humanitarians advocate the happiness of humanity at the cost of the lives of poor animals. That is not recommended herein. This verse clearly says that one should be compassionate to all living entities. Regardless of whether human. animal, tree or plant, all living entities are sons of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Lord Krishna says in Bhagavad-gitä (14.4): “It should be understood that all species of life, O son of Kunté, are made possible by birth in this material nature, and that I am the seed-giving father.” The different forms of these living entities are only their external dresses. Every living being is actually a spirit soul, a part and parcel of God. Therefore one should not favor only one kind of living being.
