tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post8267208081757331303..comments2024-03-29T12:03:37.344+00:00Comments on Bruce Charlton's Notions: A vision of life as a Christian, nowBruce Charltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-91261188143075701842021-01-08T19:28:16.888+00:002021-01-08T19:28:16.888+00:00Thank you again, DR, for another post that I neede...Thank you again, DR, for another post that I needed today, this minute. <br /><br />My wife and I have had this same feeling since at least a few months before the birdemic that we were alone on a tiny island of calm and peace in an sea of despair and chaos. Occasionally we've bumped into another such islands of people and for an hour or a minute or just a few seconds where just looking into the eyes of others like us was enough to reinforce what we instinctively know: We are not the ones that were insane or evil, or even just blithely/willfully blind idiots in denial. It is an evident miracle, God is actively nurturing us. We need to spread this message. Avalon Johnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04471473879728546564noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-13715969457717498902021-01-08T14:15:09.873+00:002021-01-08T14:15:09.873+00:00Timely. A few years ago I saw something like this,...Timely. A few years ago I saw something like this, accompanied by a sense of quiet, glad submission on my part. As one does it had receded from memory, but the moment the words "small golden orb" appeared I recalled it with fondness and love. I don't want to speak much more about it, but it is good to be reminded of this and I have already held the thought of this light in my heart for several hours.Bardseyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03759350174776214636noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-29758516314753306072021-01-08T12:27:50.958+00:002021-01-08T12:27:50.958+00:00Besides being True, this is very simple and yet so...Besides being True, this is very simple and yet so difficult to achieve at the same time.<br /><br />The fact that it can be so difficult despite being so simple, points to the presence of "disturbance" in our minds which is clearly impeding us from attaining our goals. <br /><br />This disturbance (or collection of disturbances) is the "false self". And this false self needs to be fed continuously, and is very adept at finding ways to feed itself (in this sense, it has a relationship of a parasitism to the real self - it is not "self-feeding" like the real self, but needs constant input from the outside, which to distort and use to further its aims).<br /><br />With regards to the news media and its ancillary tentacles in social media, specifically, weaning myself off of it completely (Which is what I know I must do, having been "told" this directly) is proving to be fiendishly difficult - I find myself falling over and over.<br /><br />As an ex-smoker, and ex-drinker (was not technically alcoholic, but quite heavy regardless), I can say with heaviness that this is proving to be much harder to let go of.<br /><br />But as you correctly point out on this blog, over and over in different ways, we have the power of repentance at hand, and can continue to ask for help, hope and "realign again" when we fall. What is important is having the right principles, the right alignment, which cannot be erradicated nor diminished through sin.<br /><br />It is not reasonable to assume that we can "disengage" from media addiction merely by willpower alone - we NEED to have direct access to the Holy Ghost to do this - it has to be driven by positive means, not by negative ... the latter means (negative means) are the purview of the false self and to use them is to enter into its quagmire territory and try to fight it using its own weapons.<br /><br />In short: Proper principles (" be like a wise man who built his house on the rock"), prayer ("ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.") and Repentance (" I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance") will guide us to the Golden orb.Gary Bleasdalenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-33655951631343117332021-01-08T12:19:01.532+00:002021-01-08T12:19:01.532+00:00Interesting. A little while ago, I was forced to w...Interesting. A little while ago, I was forced to watch TV while I got vehicle maintenance done, and the nice medical scientist man onscreen said I should imagine all other human beings as surrounded by a black viral cloud of disease and death. <br /><br />Now I'm wondering if one couldn't do exactly the opposite: everyone has a big crown or halo of golden or maybe rainbow light around their head, trying to get in. If you look into their eyes with kindness, maybe it succeeds a little. Epimetheusnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-904023720588119742021-01-08T10:59:58.824+00:002021-01-08T10:59:58.824+00:00Excellent post! I personally refer to this as &quo...Excellent post! I personally refer to this as "system-distancing", which I think of as a primarily spiritual action - a simultaneous moving away from (freedom from) and a moving toward (freedom for). <br /><br />Lately, I have got to thinking about system-distancing as an aristocratic impulse as well. More specifically, that it is not fueled by any fear-based need to defend against contagion, but rather by the dignified revelation that one has far more valuable, meaningful, and pressing things to do in mortal life than nibble at evil’s baited hooks all the time. Put another way, the process begins when the call of God resonates in our divine selves and begins eclipsing the infernal circuses the devil puts on.<br /><br /> <br /><br />Francis Bergerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11063224017320651978noreply@blogger.com