Search results for tag "Experience" - 5 answer(s)

157 Vote

An antidote to anger (2): kindness

By - Jan 10, 2017 - Category Practice
anger kindness

This is the second – in vivo – stage of practical work introduced in December (see An antidote to anger (1): analysis): going deeper into what triggers anger, reframing our relations to others as central to our practice and making kindness the active ingredient in the struggle against anger. Literature review: I started reading up about anger in books on child psychology. I was initially looking for passages on parental anger, but what I mostly found in the end were studies on anger in children, and they helped me understand a lot.

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146 Vote

An antidote to anger (1): analysis

By - Dec 26, 2016 - Category Practice
anger interrogation

The kind of anger we are dealing with here is not the “fashionable fault” that goes under that name when sudden changes of mood are perceived as the mark of an impetuous character or an explosive temper. It is a tendency that, in the long run, may eat your life away and ruin the atmosphere of your home. When it is not expressed outwardly, anger is often combined with a state of depression and dark thoughts. You may stifle it and endure it for a while, but with accumulated fatigue, you will inevitably vent it on others sometimes triggering uncontrollable effects. So how can we break the vicious circle?

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225 Vote

Who is in charge of my free will?

By - Nov 10, 2014 - Category Practice
a man with a hat

Human beings are endowed with free will. This exceptional distinction enables them to aspire to the ultimate goal for which they were created: Perfection. But such an aspiration requires that they make good use of their free will when they are facing choices in everyday life, with family, at work, etc. Anyone who wishes to pursue that spiritual goal should thus, at all times, ask themselves the following question: “how and to what avail will I use my free will?”
Will I use it to pursue my personal interests in a purely egotistical manner? My ego would then be in charge of my free will, and all my decisions would be made without regard to what is spiritually at stake in a given situation or to my true goal.
Or will I use my free will to fulfil my spiritual duty, that is, to practice ethics out of a sense of human duty and with the intention of divine satisfaction, in order to nourish my soul and to progress towards spiritual perfection? In this case, I am fully in charge of my choices, because when I make a decision I take into consideration the aspirations of my true Self, and I am aware of both the material and spiritual issues of the situation.

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274 Vote

Words for prayer

By - Apr 8, 2014 - Category Practice
bottle on the sand

I am convinced that prayer constitutes a fundamental experience and an essential reality. I have, however, always had some difficulty with it. My acquaintance with the writings of a large number of “explorers” of the spiritual world (from various origins and religions) have convinced me a long time ago of the importance of this slightly disconcerting act. Those readings used to always trigger the same emotion in me. I would sense that prayer meant breathing the perfumes of the “homeland” (as Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus could have put it) or communicating with the World of the Truth (to use a different vocabulary). In practice, however, my prayer would not even come close to the emotions inspired by these beautiful texts. I had learned some prayers and picked a couple that I would try to recite on a regular basis and with as much attention as possible. Once in a while, I would also experience those fleeting impulses towards the One who is usually referred to as God, or towards those who knew how to speak of Him. But I knew these were all just babblings, attempts that did not reach their goal. I aspired to more.

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250 Vote

Truth seeker

By - Dec 2, 2013 - Category Articles
Newton and the apple

I noticed recently, as I was listening to one of these debates we all too often get to see on TV or hear on the radio, how little Truth is expressed in these exchanges. Perfectly malleable minds, weaving through this verbal universe; ideas and concepts going back and forth, one after the other, but carrying no weight, relieved of all reality, emptied of all knowledge.
Why is that? Because knowing, truly understanding, involves more than this mere game of ideas and theoretical scaffolding, no matter how ingenious and brilliant. Knowing involves a personal experience of reality, it involves the challenge of confronting our convictions and beliefs to reality.

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