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NickHassan,
I need to apologize to you for anything I did that was unkind. This is a good incident for this topic, because I can show how my emotional signatures cause me to “react” (sin). And I can show how I can catch them and change my behaviors.
You were on my other threads, telling me I was incorrect in my beliefs, and that caused me upset. So, there’s the emotion that got triggered.
If I track that back emotionally, I realize that feeling was something I would get when I was young if my parents or others didn’t like me. So my reaction was to explain my side of things to them so they’d agree with me. Once they agreed with my story, they’d usually be friendly and accept me again. But while they weren’t accepting me or my story, there was a tense feeling inside. Initially, that feeling is fear of not being accepted or fear of being punished by my parent. Then there’s anger that comes up, because I don’t want to feel fear and I’m attributing that to the person making me feel fear, as if they’re the cause. Then, that anger gets dampened by shame, because I got the idea that anger was wrong when I was a kid. So I shamed myself to suppress the anger and fear. But I didn’t want to feel any of those emotions, so I would tell my parents whatever story I could to try to get them to see things my way. And when they did, those feelings would be suppressed even more, but it felt like relief to me, because I wasn’t in trouble anymore. That’s why I would lie as a kid–to be accepted and not get spankings. That’s basically manipulating people, trying to control the way they see me. 99% of control is a reaction intended to suppress fear. I was trying to get acceptance from outside of myself, because I did not accept myself inside.
When I was 16, my lies had caused me so much inner turmoil, it broke me down enough to where Jesus could save me. He dropped my shame. I never wanted to lie again. I confessed to everyone I’d lied to. I set everything straight. It was rare that I lied from that point on. I value honesty very much. But the problem is, I didn’t know how to deal with the emotional signature that caused my lying. So it converted eventually into explaining things to people so they’d see things my way and accept me. I did this mostly on forums online. So, forums are the easiest place to trigger that emotional signature in me. Luckily, I’ve learned to catch it. Sometimes, I catch it too late, like this time. So I have to go back and apologize, which is very humbling for me. But it helps me remember next time to just feel that uncomfortable feeling and not react to it. Instead, I can respond with healthy behavior that’s loving and respectful.
So, I apologize for any unkind behavior I displayed toward you. I didn’t catch myself quickly enough and sit with the emotion. That’s one emotional signature that hasn’t yet fully integrated yet. It’s a tough one, because it’s insecurity. It’ll probably get dealt with in little chunks until it resolves out completely. Believe me, it’s very difficult to behave outwardly in an authentic manner without worrying what people will think about you. Insecurity has incredible power over people, because their heart (subconscious) sees love as something to be gotten from outside of themselves–from other people. So they feel unworthy when people don’t love or like them. You wouldn’t believe just how much this controls a person’s actions, not allowing them to be their true self. So, I expect insecurity to take a while to resolve out completely. When a person says “Yes” to someone’s request, but they really don’t want to say yes, they’ve just said “No” in their heart, but then acted against their true nature by saying “Yes.” It’s peer pressure. Happens all the time with us. So, when we can say “no” in our heart and “no” with our mouths too, even at the risk of upsetting or offending someone else, we know we’re starting to be more authentic. This is what Paul’s talking about when he says, “Let your yes be yes and your no be no.” He’s saying that as we get more in touch with our authentic child-of-God nature, our heart’s intentions will line up with our outward actions. Yes will really mean yes and no will really mean no, through and through. Our heart starts to trust us more when we act in accordance with it. We just have to be careful not to act on its dysfunctional desires (anger, fear, grief and anything else that is made up of those emotions). This is called awareness. It’s called “waking up.”
Thanks, Nick, for being a trigger (messenger) for me. I appreciate it. Helps me work on this emotional signature.
Ed,
I agree. I see it like this: If we’re stuck in our old ways, we’ll cause ourselves a lot of suffering. But if we turn to God and accept His help (for instance, what Jesus did for us), then He’ll walk with us through our pain so we can resolve/integrate it. As it gets integrated, we become much more peaceful and loving. Our hearts don’t have all of those dyfunctional emotions in them anymore, the world around us stops reflecting those issues back at us. Since we have healthy, mature emotions in our heart at that point, the world starts to reflect those healthy emotions back to us. However, this doesn’t mean we won’t still go through difficult times. When we go through difficult times, we have a wonderful peace about it. And if any unresolved emotions trigger, we at least know how to contain them without reacting sinfully, and instead react in a loving way. As those emotional signatures integrate, our peace comes through even more, even in horrific situations. This is why some of the martyrs in the 1600s would end up being burned at the stake, but they’re not freaking out or screaming. They’re sharing God’s love by speaking it to everyone as they burn. They show no sign of pain. Those people matured emotionally very quickly and God gave them some major peace to endure that. Brother Lawrence, in the 1600s, in an amazing example. He would actually pray for God to let him suffer something for Him. Because when he suffered something for God, he felt God so much more closely and it made him so much more content and peaceful and joyful. I believe he was coming more into his spirit self when this would happen and identifying less with his physical and mental self. And his spirit self was content and peaceful, always interwove with God Himself. Spirit self = child-of-God self.
It’s like Jesus was helping us not have to go to hell to break our pride. He was helping us start our maturing process early. Because if we mature while we’re on earth, we’re so much more of a help to others, and we’re so much more of a help to ourselves. We get to be free and happy and life becomes our playground. And as we play, others are naturally helped by it.
– Brian
@Brian
Amen to these good words of yours:
When a person says “Yes” to someone’s request, but they really don’t want to say yes, they’ve just said “No” in their heart, but then acted against their true nature by saying “Yes.” It’s peer pressure. Happens all the time with us. So, when we can say “no” in our heart and “no” with our mouths too, even at the risk of upsetting or offending someone else, we know we’re starting to be more authentic. This is what Paul’s talking about when he says, “Let your yes be yes and your no be no.” He’s saying that as we get more in touch with our authentic child-of-God nature, our heart’s intentions will line up with our outward actions. Yes will really mean yes and no will really mean no, through and through. Our heart starts to trust us more when we act in accordance with it. We just have to be careful not to act on its dysfunctional desires (anger, fear, grief and anything else that is made up of those emotions). This is called awareness. It’s called “waking up.”
Lightenup,
Thanks.
Yeah, I think most people misunderstand what meditation is for and how it is supposed to be done. They often associate it with Eastern religion and immediately think it’s evil. That’s simply a preconceived judgment made out of not knowing firsthand what it is or what it’s supposed to be. Most people from the East don’t know what meditation is supposed to be either, because Eastern religions have messed it up. If someone says they’re going to meditate on something, then they don’t know where the term and practice “meditation” came from or what it was used for originally. And that’s perfectly understandable, because very few people know what meditation is (so I don’t mean to offend you by pointing this out–I didn’t know what it was for most of my life either).
Meditation is about focusing on absolutely nothing at all for the purpose of anchoring a person in their body and in the present moment. Usually, our minds are adrift in the fears of the past and their projected futures. We have bad experiences in our past that triggered our uncomfortable emotions. So, we think about those, and we predict what our future might be like. And then we plan our future events throughout the day to avoid feeling those emotions we felt from the past. In other words, our minds are constantly trying to control our experience of life by pushing away bad emotions and events that trigger them, and pulling more pleasant events closer to them to trigger the more pleasant emotions. But control is always out of fear. Control means we don’t accept our life and our emotions the way they are right now, in this moment. So we sit in the past and future all the time. (1 John 4:18 – There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.)
So, meditation teaches us to quiet our mind so we’re not sitting in fear, and it teaches us to be fully aware in this present moment, instead of the past and future.
The breathing is part of this practice too, because breathing anchors us in the present moment. Breathing cannot happen in the past or future. It only happens right now. And it happens in our body. Our body is our best connection to the present moment, because our body cannot walk or talk in the future or past. It can only walk or talk right now. And when we consciously take control of our breathing, we’re bringing our full attention (mind & body) into our breathing, which anchors us in our body, in the present moment. This prevents us from reacting to the past or future fearfully.
What this also does is pull the dysfunctional emotions into the present moment so they can be processed (resolved/integrated). Yes, we’ll feel peace while we’re breathing, usually, so we’re giving ourselves the gift of peace. But uncomfortable emotions will also surface to be integrated. They might integrate quickly, or they might take weeks or months to integrate. Just depends. But as they integrate, we become much more loving. When we’re happy, we treat the people around us much more kindly and lovingly. And we treat ourselves more lovingly, too. When we’re unhappy, we treat ourselves and others in less kind ways.
In regard to Jesus and Buddha and Religion:
I have no problem with Buddha himself, but I don’t care for religion anymore. Buddha was extremely loving and kind. He was 300-500 years before Christ and he didn’t know the Hebrews since he was in Northern India. He probably knew the same Eastern practices as Abraham knew and practiced (research shows that Abraham was Eastern philosophy, oddly enough–not to be confused with Eastern religion). Buddha was getting to God the only way he knew how, and he developed the practices even more, I think. He didn’t start a religion. He was teaching his followers to do what he was doing–connecting with God and his true child-of-God nature. His followers turned his practices into a religion, eventually, thereby screwing it up. Buddha never deified himself or wanted that. That happened well after he died.
With Jesus, I think the same thing happened. Jesus didn’t start a religion, even though He was part of God. He showed us a way of life that reconnected us with our child-of-God nature, and then His followers, down the line, eventually created a religion out of it instead of what He intended–a way of life. Jesus spoke out against the Pharisees, Sadducees, and the Pagans (Paganism was a religion), but he hung out with the “sinners” (the normal people–the non-religious). Jesus was showing us how to get back to our true selves, and He died to save all of mankind from their shame and dysfunctions. I even think He died to save us from religion. He took us back to the Garden–to relationship with God. There was no religion in the Garden–only relationship. That what life’s about, in my opinion. Sure, some people see God differently and some are worshipping a false god, but that’s okay. God’s got that all taken care of one way or another. I’ll leave that to Him. My job is to be my authentic child-of-God self, which will naturally display His unconditional love. I think all humans are children-of-God since He created us, but many of us are very disconnected/unaware of that due to emotional dysfunction (not to be confused with the New Testament’s saying of “children of God” that referred to Christians). I think God will make sure we all come back to our true child-of-God selves either in this life or the next (by “next” I mean after we die, not in a reincarnation sense–I have no clue if reincarnation is true or not. I tend to think people experiencing “past lives” are misinterpreting what they’re experiencing. I think the emotional signatures carry memories with them when their parents pass them down to their children, then they to their children, and so on. I think people are experiencing memories from their ancestors’ lives, probably, and thinking that they lived that life before. But I could totally be wrong, so don’t take my word for it. And my view of the purpose and function of hell is very different than most, so I won’t get into that right now).
Hi Brian,
you said:Meditation is about focusing on absolutely nothing at all for the purpose of anchoring a person in their body and in the present moment.
That seems like a contradiction of thought…allow me to paraphrase so you can see how I perceived your definition of meditation -focus on nothing at the same time focus on something-anchoring yourself in your body in the present moment. I am just trying to understand you, maybe you can explain how that isn’t a contradiction.
I don’t think it is possible to focus on nothing and empty your mind so to speak. Sorry that I disagree with you here. Instead, I think our focus should be on these things:
Philippians 4
4Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5Let your graciousness be known to everyone. The Lord is near.d 6Don’t worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. 7And the peace of God, which surpasses every thought, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.f8Finally brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable — if there is any moral excellence and if there is any praise — dwell on these things. 9Do what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.
Also, you speak of Jesus as a ‘part’ of God. I understand Him as a part too but not like us. I understand Him to be the eternal offspring part while we were merely a part of His imagination. It would ‘sort of’ be the difference between the offspring as part of the pregnant woman vs. the thoughts of her imagination as part of the same person. Both are parts of the woman but vastly different. One part is an actual living being just like the person to which they are a part of and the other part is not living at the time and not just like the person to which they are a part of. I say that just so you know where I am coming from.
I’m glad you are here and it is good to meditate to help lead us to exercise self control over our sinful reactions. I hope we can have many meaningful conversations.
God bless!
Hi Brian.
I would accept your apology if it was valid but you have not treated me badly.
It is the message of Jesus Christ from God that you trample on and deny.
That is a much more dangerous path.
Lightenup,
Thanks for sharing your beliefs without belittling mine, and discussing rather than debating. I greatly appreciate that.
Thanks for bringing this up, because I clearly need to work on how I describe what meditation is. I see what I did that confused you, and that makes sense. My wording wasn’t very good. I’ll describe what I do. That’ll better convey it.
1. I get comfortable somewhere, usually the same place, usually in a sitting position. I make sure it’s fairly quiet and I won’t be disturbed.
2. I close my eyes so there’s no visual interruptions to distract my mind. I do not move, no matter what (I’m not very good at this part sometimes).
3. I consciously control my breathing, meaning I’m not letting my brain breathe for me–I control my breathing myself. I make my out-breaths the same amount of time as my out-breaths. I breathe deeper than normal, and I let the out-breath flow out by itself instead of forcing it. I don’t breathe too fast or too slow.
4. In my mind, I say, “I am here now in this.” I say each word as I breath in or breath out. So, on my first in-breath, I’d say, “I” in my mind, then on my out-breath, I’d say, “am.” Then on my in-breath I’d say, “here.” Next out-breath: “now” Next in-breath: “in” Next out-breath: “this.” So, technically, I can’t say I’m not thinking about nothing. What I’m doing is consciously controlling my thoughts by giving my mind something to do that anchors it in the present and in my body. Thanks for pointing that out.
5. I do this for 15 minutes straight, every morning and every evening for consistency. If I feel any felt resonances in my body while I do this, I put my focus, my attention, on them (there’s always an emotion within the felt-resonance that I feel along with it). But I still keep breathing and keep saying “I am here now in this.” If I need to cry due to the emotion, I cry as long as needed. When the emotions passes, I continue my breathing. If the emotions continues past the 15-minute mark, I let it continue till it’s done, then I’m done with my breathing for that session (unless I want to breathe some more).
6. When the 15 minutes is complete, I stop breathing and pay very close attention to my body to see if any felt resonances or emotions are wanting to surface. If they do, I let them come up and I am with them unconditionally till they pass. Then I’m done with that session for the day.
Some might say that’s meditating on nothing. But it might also be true to say that it’s meditating on the present moment, on the “now.” I’m meditating for the purpose of anchoring/directing my mind and emotions into the present moment with my body. I’m lining them up with each other, in a sense. As I do that, the emotions come up and process and integrate. Often, they integrate later in the day.
You mentioned Philippians 4:8. Sometimes, “dwell” is translated “meditate” or “think,” which I is an inaccurate translation. “Dwell,” as the translation you used says, it’s fairly accurate, because it means to “live in.” That’s a state of being. My “dwelling” is my home. I live in it. So, when this verse says to “dwell” on these things, it means to live them–to be them (not to imitate or force them, like most Christians and society tries to do). In our society, we’ve used the word “dwell” to mean “think about too much.” In a way, this indicates that we live in our thoughts, which is not a good idea. If we need to contemplate the Bible and good things, then sure, we can do that. But to obsess in the mind about anything is not a good idea, because we aren’t living our lives at that point–we’re living in our thoughts.
For an quick and easy reference for this word’s meaning, you can look at the Strong’s Concordance. Don’t pay much attention to all the different ways this word has been translated (those conflict each other and are the opinions of different translators). It’s more helpful to read the explanation of this word below the translations. Here’s what it says:
“This word deals with reality. If I reckon (logizomai) that my bank book has $25 in it, it has $25 in it. Otherwise I am deceiving myself. This word refers more to fact than supposition or opinion.”
Suppositions (hypothesis) or opinion (conclusion) have to do with thoughts, ideas. This word is a statement of being.
So, the reason I meditate to resolve the dysfunctional emotions is because it causes me to function more out of my true nature–my positive emotions. And positive emotions naturally drive us toward those actions in Philippians 4:8. Does that make sense?
Hi Brian.
I must decrease . He must increase.
We must be transformed by renewing of our mind.
Eph 4
‘..lay aside your old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you will be renewed in the spirit of your mind..”
It is not about control but about surrender.
NickHassan,
Well, I’m glad you don’t feel slighted.
And the practice I am discussing here is all about surrender and laying aside the old self. So, thank you for backing up what I’m discussing here.
I asked you to respectfully keep your judgments about me to yourself, because you’ve already stated them publicly several times. We get the message, and your work is done here. Enjoy your day! Have some fun! No need to repeat yourself. Thank you for your input.
I laid out my boundary respectfully, and you keep choosing to cross it. So, as I stated before, I’m going to ignore your comments respectfully now. Hopefully, you’re not offended when I no longer respond to them. Have a good day.
– Brian
@Brian
Nice picture!
you said:Thanks for sharing your beliefs without belittling mine, and discussing rather than debating. I greatly appreciate that.
My pleasure. I am glad that you perceived me that way, it is what I hope to achieve but sometimes fail at.
Thank you for your clarification on meditation. I take this away from what you are sharing: You are surrendering your time of being busy with life in order to seek what God has to show you in the stillness of your mind to promote healing and love in your mind, body and spirit. That is certainly healthy for anyone. Anything we are shown needs to be tested though because there can be deceiving spirits influencing us.
I’m interested in your thoughts!
Lightenup,
I suppose that’s one facet of it, Lightenup.
I look at my heart as a seven-year-old child, or younger, who needs to be loved unconditionally in order to mature properly. Since my parents didn’t know how to deal with their hearts, they couldn’t teach me how to do that. And they couldn’t practice unconditional love and authentic faith on me either, as a result. So, I was never given the freedom I needed to mature my heart (boy, that’s a loaded subject! LOL). Most, if not all people, experience this, because we get all of this stuff passed down to us and hardly anyone knows how to deal with it properly.
The Ancient Hebrews and their Old Testament is all about addressing the heart of a person so that they may get it balanced out (matured). As they bring their heart, mind, and body (actions) into alignment with each other, they connect with their child-of-God self (spirit body–authentic self). I believe our spirit body is naturally interwoven with God. So, as I go into my emotions and the felt resonances that are at the spirit level and resonate in my body, I get amazing insight from those emotions (insights God conveys to me through them) as they integrate. When I was saved at age 16 (19 years ago), I realized that God speaks to people through their emotions (and to some, He speaks audibly in addition to that for some reason). However, lots of people function out of their dysfunctional emotions (the flesh/ego/self), and they think God’s speaking to them there. But He’s not. That’s the ego (self). One must go through those dysfunctional emotions to connect with God and get His insights. We are not to fear “feelings.” We must courageously dive into them and conquer fear with unconditional love.
So, with this practice, I’m simply becoming a 100% authentic person who’s totally in touch with my spirit (child-of-God self) and lets that part of me lead me. That part is interwoven with God, so God is leading that part of me. As I get better at feeling, I feel both my negative and positive emotions. My negative emotions are good indicators of whether I’m acting lovingly or not, because they’re the source of my actions/behaviors. I have a pretty good sense of what’s loving and what’s not. God’s developed that in me over the years, especially recently. So, sure, I needed people and the Bible, at times, to know whether I was on track or not, because it’s easy to be deceived. But I’m at a point now where God’s pretty good about showing me when I’m being deceived or negatively influenced. Most of the time he shows me directly, but sometimes it comes from my wife, or someone else. Sometimes I learn it through study. It comes in different forms, but God always makes sure I get the message one way or another. The key is this: am I reacting to my negative emotions, or am I responding in a responsible way to them? That’s the key to understanding why I do what I do, and whether it’s healthy or harmful. You’d be surprised how much wisdom God provides us in our authentic selves since He’s interwove when that part of us. I don’t fear being mislead. If it happens, God has a purpose in it, and He’ll take care of it eventually. The pain it will cause me and others will snap me out of it eventually by breaking the pride that’s causing it. So, I now trust myself. I also feel like I am actually exercising free will properly for the first time in my life rather than being driven by my subconscious negative emotions.
I hope this clarifies it a little better.
Lightenup,
Oh, I just realized you said “nice picture.” Thanks! That’s my good side. All other sides are horrific. LOL 😉
– Brian
Hi Brian,
Thanks for all the time you have taken today to put your thoughts down. The things you say are interesting to me. I am very interested in becoming a more mature follower of Christ and as healthy in mind, body and spirit as I can be. I particularly like some things you said like:”We must courageously dive into them and conquer fear with unconditional love.”
That is one benefit with being on Heaven Net, I have lots of practice dealing with those rejecting my beliefs. If it doesn’t kill me, it will make me stronger, right?!It seems like you are a man that has learned how to cast his burden on Jesus and find rest trusting in Him even though you think of Him as being a created being which I vehemently disagree with. That is a completely different topic though, although an important one.
Also, regarding your picture, having one good side is better than none, lol. God bless!
My opinion is that “meditation” should only involve meditating on God in prayer.
Meditation or Yoga is the latest trend in the world, especially among the young, and it often stems from Kundulini.
“Kundalini (Sanskrit kuṇḍalinī, कुण्डलिनी, About this sound pronunciation) stems from yogic philosophy as a form of shakti or “corporeal energy”. Kundalini is described within Eastern religious, or spiritual tradition as an indwelling spiritual energy that can be awakened in order to purify the subtle system and ultimately to bestow the state of Yoga, or divine union upon the seeker of truth “. The Yoga Upanishads describe Kundalini as lying “coiled” at the base of the spine, represented as either a goddess or sleeping serpent waiting to be awakened. In modern commentaries, Kundalini has been called an unconscious, instinctive or libidinal force.
It is reported that Kundalini awakening results in deep meditation, enlightenment and bliss. This awakening involves the Kundalini physically moving up the central channel to reside within the Sahasrara Chakra at the top of the head. This movement of Kundalini is felt by the presence of a cool or, in the case of imbalance, a warm breeze across the palms of the hands or the soles of the feet. Many systems of yoga focus on the awakening of Kundalini through meditation, pranayama breathing, the practice of asana and chanting of mantras. In physical terms, one commonly reports the Kundalini experience to be a feeling of electric current running along the spine.
Some academics have coined the term “Kundalini syndrome” to refer to physical or psychological problems arising from experiences traditionally associated with Kundalini awakening.”
Source: Wikipedia.
So, Brian, I have young boys myself (when I say young the oldest is 23, youngest 9), and the oldest seems to be drawn to yoga and mediation, as a way to cope with today’s demands. I can’t tell him what NOT to do anymore, but I have seen the effects (on Christians) of meditation/yoga/ and kundalini. It seems to lead to non-judgment (which is good), but then a non belief in the commandments of God (from what I have seen). However, if you look at Revelation, the “over-comers” are those who obey the commandments of God.
What are your views on God’s commandments.
A good alternative which I haven’t read, but have heard of is “The Ladder of Divine Ascent” which was written for early eastern Christianity in about 600ad.
http://www.prudencetrue.com/images/TheLadderofDivineAscent.pdfLightenup,
Thanks. And I don’t necessarily think of Jesus as a created being. I’m sorry if any of my posts were misleading.
I lean toward Jesus being part of God, meaning He’s always been in existence. That’s why I capitalize His name. But honestly, I can’t say I know for sure, and I’m okay with that. If God chooses to show me for certain, because He believes it’s important, then I trust He’ll do so. I’m not sure why, in one thread, I said I think Jesus is a created being like us. That subject is so incredibly hard to convey properly, and it’s hard to be certain about, too. The Bible tends to read like Jesus is actually a part of God and has always existed, so I tend to think that’s accurate. But wow…the more I learn about translation, the more I realize just how many problems there are with understanding our translations properly. I think adopting a humble stance is best for me, so I admit that I can’t know for sure. I just have to trust God with this. I figure if Jesus is part of God, then when I talk to God, I’m talking to Jesus, too. I don’t think I can go wrong there. I tend to most think of Jesus as the manifestation God chooses when He wants to interact with people directly. In the Old Testament, it calls Him “one like the son of man” when He (Jesus) appears, assuming that’s Jesus. I can’t be sure.
Sounds like you’re on the right track. 🙂 Thanks for the conversation! Much appreciated.
Camillia,
You bring up great points. I’ve studied a little into some of what you mentioned, so I have a little bit of information on it.
In my opinion, everything can be used for a functional, unconditionally-loving reason, or it can be used for a dysfunctional reason (which is usually a subconscious attempt to get unconditional love). This goes for all religions, all practices, everything. Having said that, there are some practices that simply cannot be used for functional, loving reasons…like Hilter killing Jews. I can empathize with Hitler, because he thought he was helping all of humanity. But that doesn’t make what he did good in any way. It was not a good practice no matter how you look at it. If we’re functional and loving, it comes out of our authentic self (spirit) and through our healthy/mature emotions, into our mind, then our physical actions. If an intention is unhealthy, it starts from our dysfunctional emotions, goes through the mind, and then out into our physical actions. It’s incredibly hard to know which we’re functioning out of until we have a good method to teach us how to read our emotions properly so we know our intent. That’s why I use The Presence Process.
Now, we also have to understand that people in the East who seek God are often talking about the same things we’re talking about, but they use different language to convey it. That different language scares Christians, because it’s “unknown” and they’ve been told that anything outside of Christianity is evil. If we weren’t told that, we get that sense very quickly somehow. I’ll show you an example:
When we talk about the spiritual realm, we say spirit or spiritual. When someone in the East talks about the spiritual realm, they say “the vibrational.” What’s very intriguing is that our scientists’ discoveries, at the subatomic level, are confirming what the Easterners believe about reality and the “vibrational.” Very intriguing stuff. Anyway, the point is that a lot of Christians get scared when they hear these terms, so they immediately run away from whatever it is.
Some Christians get sucked in, and because they’re functioning out of their dysfunctional behaviors, they start these Eastern practices or religions to make them feel better. If they keep searching for God honestly, no matter what, I think He’ll get them through that and into the truth. But if they are only concerned with “feeling better,” they’re stuck in their dysfunctional emotions and they’ll try to use religion and practices to make them feel better. That’s what religion typically does (suppresses our dysfunctional emotions through “righteous” actions). That’s where things like the Kundalini serpent spirit come from, in my opinion (assuming it’s evil).
I can’t say for sure that the Kundalini serpent spirit is evil, but it sounds very suspect to me. Kundalini, itself, doesn’t involve the serpent spirit stuff. In fact, the Sikh religion is very good at Kundalini and they’re wonderfully loving people, more so than most Christians. I choose not to judge what they’re doing. I recommend we use our intuition and ask God to show us what’s healthy and what’s not. Just about anything can be used with a loving intent or an unloving, destructive intent, whether we realize what we’re doing or not. We’re always unaware of the true reasons we’re doing something when we’re doing it out of a dysfunctional place. That’s why Jesus said, “Forgive them Father, for they know not (are unaware of) what they’re doing.”
I hope that clarifies what I believe on that. I do my best not to judge things, as Jesus recommended. I just take a look at them and ask God for insight and intuition in regard to them. Each person has to decide for him or herself.
Good luck with your son. God’s orchestrating whatever he’s going through right now. If it’s not healthy, God has a good purpose in that. When we go through painful things, there’s so much value in them. They humble us. Humbleness/Humility is the goal, which is why pain is so useful. Not self-inflicted pain, of course–that’d be self-hate. And judging and humility don’t go together. Who needs to judge when God’s guiding and providing insight on everything? 🙂 It takes amazing faith to let our children do as they will and trust God is taking care of them. And it is one of the more healthy things we will ever do for ourselves and our children, oddly enough. Control is like a virus, because it’s “playing God,” and it comes from worry (fear). I figure I’ll let God be God, and I’ll stop trying to control everything for Him. LOL I’m no good at playing God.
Thanks for the reading material. Sounds interesting. Hopefully I can check that out sometime, because I’m not familiar with it.
I got the idea that anger was wrong when I was a kid.
Hi Brian,
You were right, ‘anger’ is WRONG! Who told differently?
1. Institutionalized religion
2. Family
3. Friend
4. OtherI eliminated anger long ago. I think I was around 21 or 22.
If you want to know how I did it, I could start a on it for you
at HCBC Forum since you are already a member. Hey wait, we
can talk about it on the dysfunctional emotions thread that you start. 🙂___________
God bless
Ed J (Joshua 22:34)
http://www.holycitybiblecode.org _________________________________________________________________________________________________________
”Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.” – JEHOVAH GODWE SHOULD NOT SEPERATE JESUS FROM HIS WRITTEN WORD;THEY ARE ONE.
THE GOD OF THIS WORLD HAS DONE THAT,SO WE CAN NOT FIND WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR.(TRUTH).The words that I speak to you they are spirit; it is the spirit that quickens.
Understand, that Christ is now spirit, and his flesh is spirit.
Jesus words written in print, they are spirit, it changes lives, it saves souls.
It is creating holy saints; children for God.We need to feed on that spirit only; to have life everlasting.
Jesus is that bread of life. No one can find life by meditation,
because some other spirit can come in place. Emptying the mind will draw other forces in.
Heavenly wisdom comes from above, earthly wisdom comes from the world.
Seek and ye shall find, seek not own wisdom, but God’s wisdom written in scripture.
All scripture is inspired by God; and if any don’t believe this statement, he will seek his own doctrine
and be lost forever.The Word of God is our foundation, not some other word of men.
Men creates doctrines to deceive, the humble and the poor.
1 Corinthians 2:4 And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:
2 Peter 3:3 Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,
2 Timothy 4:1 I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; (They will be judged by the spirit inside them).
2 Timothy 4:2 Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.
2 Timothy 4:3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
2 Timothy 4:4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
Denying the written Word, and going after strange flesh will replace the word of God with some other word.
The spirit of the Son will not dwell in him. Jesus *IS* the Word of God; HIS spirit is in the written Word.
Seek the spirit. The truth will set you free. Free from doctrines heaped up by men.Shalom.
wakeup.
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