What is your Spiritual Compass?

[Cage]

What is it that keeps you on your path, and guides you? I suppose Love [God's Spirit] is my compass, and the Bible is the [sometimes confusing] user manual for it, lol! Still, I'm always able to refer to the user manual when in doubt.

The needle of my compass always points towards God, though. (At least in my mind)

What's yours, and why?


Much Love,

[wil]

My spritual compass is the discernment I receive in meditation/prayer. I may read from different books and listen to different teachers, but the contemplation, concentration and circumnambulation of documents and words edited, translated and written by man creates consternation and confusion often for me...

So the only way to ascertain understanding from the plethora of information we have out there is for me to go to the source and find out. Of course often the answer I get applies to me and not humanity.

[Thomas]

The Church

Within that – Patristics

Thomas

[Dondi]

The Spirit and the Word, particularly the words of Christ.

[Paladin]

Originally Posted by Thomas

The Church

Within that – Patristics

Thomas

Wow great word, I had to look that one up. I get such a great education here, thanks Thomas BTW your website is great, what a store house of wonderful writers!

Cage, I started to answer your question but got so verbose I just decided to blog it instead, that saves these good people here from having to wade through another of my tedious posts. I posted it at: The Art of Life just in case you have too much time on your hands

peace

Mark

[Cage]

[wil] I get inspiration from others, as well as from written text, but I think in order to be guided we must go to the source. Whatever that means for each individual. Some through meditation, some through nature, some through Love, some through rigid doctrine, and others through the Bible itself, as it is often believed to be God's own words. All of our answers, and guidence rests soley on the individual in question, but surely we can benefit humanity by what we find as truth. I believe we can make a difference in the lives of others through what God shows us.

[Thomas] you rely on the church, and I can understand why. Catholicism has many years of undertanding under their belt, and probably a better understanding of what Christianity has become than all other sects put together. I would think so, anyway, as the Roman Catholic Church is who put the Bible together in the first place, right? That in and of itself suggests that they/you have a very good grip on Christianity.

Btw, what is patristics? I don't know much about the church.

anyway, I try to keep things simple, but it doesn't always turn out that way for me, lol! (Obviously)


Love,

[Cage]

Originally Posted by Paladin

Wow great word, I had to look that one up. I get such a great education here, thanks Thomas BTW your website is great, what a store house of wonderful writers!

Cage, I started to answer your question but got so verbose I just decided to blog it instead, that saves these good people here from having to wade through another of my tedious posts. I posted it at: The Art of Life just in case you have too much time on your hands

peace

Mark

That's a great blog you got there, Paladin. I read only about the compass, but I saw other entries that interested me. I think I'll go back later and read more. Thanks for posting this; I think it could be of great benefit.


Much Love,

[Cage]

Originally Posted by Dondi

The Spirit and the Word, particularly the words of Christ.

I like the words of Christ, too. I almost missed this post, btw. What is it about Christs words that move you, Dondi? For me it is the depth of them all. They can cut like a knife, but also be as gentle as a dove, depending on where we are in life.

Love,

[JosephM]

Originally Posted by Cage

What is it that keeps you on your path, and guides you?
What's yours, and why?


Much Love,

Hello Cage,

An inward drawing. A built in actualization of consciousness that says 'time to return home'. It is that same spirit that started the process that keeps me on the path and guides me. It is most definitely not a Book and is inseparable.

Love in Christ,
JM

[Eudaimonist]

My daimon, as understood through Eudaimonistic philosophy.

My daimon is my "ideal self" -- my best potentials, which are my own and no one else's. I cannot perceive my daimon directly (since it is not actual, it doesn't exist as anything other than an implication of the power I have to grow as a person), I can only get glimpses of it, or make projections based on self-knowledge and knowledge of ethics.

I can get glimpses when I act excellently and actualize my potentials as well as I can in that moment. Consider the follow quote from Abraham Maslow where he describes "self-actualization", which is edited merely for brevity.

An episode...in which the powers of the person come together in a particularly efficient and intensely enjoyable way, ...he is more integrated and less split, more...fully functioning, more creative, ...more truly himself, more perfectly actualizing his potentialities, ...more fully human. -- Dr. Abraham Maslow

I have experienced this on occasion, and I think of it as experiencing a "connection" with my daimon.

Through pondering Eudaimonistic ethics, reading good literature, self-examination, knowing people of character, etc, I can form a projection or impression of my daimon, and this is my guide to self-improvement.


eudaimonia,

Mark

[Thomas]

Hi Cage –

Patristics is the study of the Fathers of the Church – with the death of the last apostle (no-one knows precisely when) the Apostolic Age closed and the Age of the Fathers opened.

From 1st - 7th century approx (what followed was the Scholastic Era).

So the Fathers are the founders of Christian Theology – whilst the testimony of the Apostles is Revelation, and Infallible Truh is contained and transmitted therein, the testimony of the Fathers is not infallible, but can be treated as sound when the Fathers are in accord.

This was the Golden Age of Pneumatology and Christology.

+++

Paladin/Mark –

Thanks!

Thomas

[Prober]

Originally Posted by Cage

What is it that keeps you on your path, and guides you?

The holy spirit and the witness of good people around me...

[Dondi]

Originally Posted by Cage

I like the words of Christ, too. I almost missed this post, btw. What is it about Christs words that move you, Dondi? For me it is the depth of them all. They can cut like a knife, but also be as gentle as a dove, depending on where we are in life.

Love,

I had sorta wandered from Christianity for a time because I was troubled with the idea that non-christians are going to hell merely for the fact that they were born into the wrong religion. I just can't imagine God in His Wisdom would condemn someone because they just didn't have their facts about God straight. There are 6 billion people in the world and most of them are going to hell? What kind of track record is that for God? Is His hand that short that He cannot save? And I began thinking about the Jews. Here is the original people of God now being condemned because they don't recognize Christ as Messiah? It just didn't make sense.

So I decided to strip down everything I learned about Christianity and go back to the roots of Christianity. I wanted to start from scratch. I figured the best approach was to start at the beginning, with the Jewish religion.

So with that in mind, I, for practical purposes, became a Noachide, and delved myself into the God of the OT. What I discovered opened my eyes to a God who is more merciful than I thought.

To make a long story short, after a time of study, I approached the NT with a Jewish mindset. What hit me particularly is the Jewishness of Jesus' teachings, after all, He was called "rabbi". I found that Jesus taught many rabbinical principles in his parables and sayings. He really didn't teach anything new, but He did bring to life the Law, both with his life and teachings.

I believe the central teaching of Jesus is found in Matthew 22:36-40:

"Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
This is the first and great commandment.
And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."

Everything Jesus taught centered on this passage. To love thy neighbor as thyself is the embodiment of the Golden Rule found in just about every religion on earth. All that we ever learn in our relationships with each other revolves around this.

I'm a follower of Christ and His teachings because I believe He is the best example in what God is trying to accomplich in us. But I also believe that those who follow the basic principle of loving thy neighbor are also following Christ so to speak, though they may not realize it. And I have to believe that somehow, someway, God's mercy spreads to those who abide in this love.

[Paladin]

Beautiful Dondi, thank you.

[Cage]

^^What he said^^

[Thomas] thanks for clearing that up. [Joseph] [Eudaimonist] [Prober] thank you for your thoughts...


Much Love,