Thanks Slip. It's a subject I've given a lot of thought, time and energy to. But I'm not as sure as you there is no result to prayer. Believing in human beings as much as I do, I have a pretty firm belief in our ability to focus our attention and energy so tightly that we can achieve things beyond our normal ken. Power of the mind, if you will or just a galvanizing of the human spirit if you won't. That sort of thing. There are many things which can bring about such focus. Emergencies, inspiration, belief and prayer are but a few. Prayer properly administered can bring about the same focus as meditation, which in fact it is -- or would be if practiced properly. I've seen it in reclusive monks I've lived among briefly and I've read about it quite in anecdotal reports. Prayer and belief have a core value in galvanizing the human spirit -- what some might call the soul -- which can motivate us to do marvelous things. I have always healed quickly and well from injuries and I attribute a large part of that recovery to my state of mind and a belief I'd get well. Yet there were also other things which it took a great deal of energy, time and trying to accomplish -- like quitting smoking. It took me ten years of trying till I finally made it good. And some that I may never accomplish. C'est la vie, eh?
I think this state of mind stems from an experience-born confidence in my own core. I don't mean this egotistically. Throughout most of my life I've managed to get myself into some pretty drastic jams and tight places where darkness threatened and it appeared there was no where to turn, no one to turn to. In and over all those times I began to notice the one thing that was always with me, always there for me, and that was myself. My own consciousness. My ability to think, reason, explore, experience and decide. The more I noticed this the less important things such as gods became. But your point on frustration is well taken. Religion certainly does create a great deal of tension and frustration within and among people. I mean, how well can one really get when being constantly told that a very holy man died horribly for our sins and we forever have to atone for it. Religion creates a great deal of guilt, which while probably only preventing a small amount of sin, does far more harm to the human psyche and spirit. And we've all seen the extremes zealots of every creed tend toward. While religion and belief in gods have been the mainstay of humanity for eons they have truly failed in the real task they are charged with, which is protecting and guiding the human spirit to a higher state of being. The hypocrisy of pretending to attend to those needs itself is sinful. /e On Jan 23, 3:30 pm, Slip Disc <[email protected]> wrote: > Well put gruff! Also I believe that those beliefs lend themselves to > much frustration for the believers when the reality appears in the > form of nothing happening as a result of praying to imagination. > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups ""Minds Eye"" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Minds-Eye?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
