Hello my name is John and I have been a member here for over a year. I have discussed religion for a long time trying to understand Christianity, Catholicsm, Muslim, and just recently Buddhism. I really enjoy the wisdom of Buddha but there are no members on Mingle who will reply to my posts in the Buddhist forum. I tried Native Indian Spirituality and that was fun, but again not many Native Indians who joined me.

So here I am in the other religion category, yet again alone

I realized that this is where I will stop and stay. I call this "The Other" thread for those who feel they just don't know where they belong. They like a little bit of everything, but don't know where they belong. I will just call it the thread for individuals.

Here I would like to share nice quotes, talk about peace, love, spirituality, and just make friends here. If of course no one replies, I will continue to post to talk by myself. What the heck I do this anyone when I post half of the time

You are welcomed to visit "the other" and bring words of wisdom or ask questions to keep this thread interesting.

I will start off with something I wrote from my heart and sincerity. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

I believe in order to truly know peace we must first learn forgiveness.

Then once we know how to forgive we can learn how to love.

This love will be quite different than the self-centering love we all are accustomed to. Sure we love the ones who are closest to us. The people who have loved us. That love is easy as if it were unconsciously given and felt. The love you feel for those closest around you comes from forgiveness. You chose to forgive the flaws of your mothers temper or your brothers lack of hygiene. Your fathers absence or your lovers indifference.

From your forgiveness all of these short-comings does love prevail. When we practice forgiveness to total strangers we begin to see through the veil of different beliefs, different skin color, or different situations. When all these issues are stripped down you are left with one thing and that thing is a person.

Just like you or me, both traveling through space and time at the same rate. Confronted with the same challenge, to create a place in time where our existence actually means something.

Without love our existence is meaningless.

Without forgiveness we shall never know what it is to truly love and peace will remain the dream of dreamers.

with love,

John

Here is another one I like.

The possibility of peace is in our hands. But by stating this truth in the plural leaves room for too many to step back and hide. If I say peace is in your hands it is too easy to say,”Whoa, it’s not all up to me.” And if I say peace is in my hands too many people will be content to back off and let me spin my wheels.

People are too good at manipulating the English language to avoid personal responsibility.

All this manipulation of the language does not serve peace.

I’m going to try it again.

The possibility of peace is in our hands. All of us. Together.

Each of us can do something for peace. All I ask is that you do that one thing that you are capable of doing for peace.

Can you talk to any of your coworkers or friends about peace? How about having a family discussion about peace? Can you put a bumper sticker on your car? Can you put a sticker anyplace else?

How about writing a letter? That can’t be too hard to do. An envelope, a piece of paper with a simple message written on it and a $0.41 $0.42 stamp is doable. Isn’t it? You won’t be graded on it this isn’t a school assignment.

This is a peace assignment.

Peace for you, your family, your friends, your community, your state and your country. Certainly you can see how this will lead to world peace. It all starts with you doing something.

And why is it so important for you to get involved? Because the United States is now in it’s greatest state of change since the mid 1800’s. Can you see the big picture? The United States is experiencing its greatest crisis of confidence in leadership in 150 years.

It is now up to us.

It is now up to you.

I am not telling you what to do. I am not even suggesting that you do any one specific thing. I am only asking you to do something for peace. And I am asking this of you because change is happening and if you do nothing for peace then peace will not arrive.

If you want a future for yourself, your family and your friends then you want peace. If you want true prosperity and abundance you want peace. If you desire to live in a friendly environment then you must be pro-environment and at peace with nature.

And to be pro-peace means to stop acting as if war is peace. The idea that war is peace is a lie. Recognize the lie for what it is.

Stop waging war for peace.

Stop using poisons to war against your body, your food and your living space. Wage peace upon your body, your food and your living space. Make peace with your neighbors and larger community.

Who is served by divisions within our families, among our friends, in our neighborhoods and across our country? Divisions serve warmongers. Divisiveness is war. Unity is peace. What can you do for unity?

It really is that simple.

Those who make it complicated wish to disguise divisiveness. Peace is simple. You can see it. See peace with all people. See peace with all men, women and children.

You don’t have to understand them. You don’t have to agree with them. You don’t have to judge them. They don’t have to go to your church. They don’t have to go to any church. They don’t have to vote the same way you do.

But you can still be at peace with them.

Be at peace with your environment. Be at peace with animals. Be at peace with waterways, forests and prairies. Be at peace with mountains and hollows. This is where you live. To live in a peaceful environment it must have a healthy assortment of diverse animals. This is a simple idea. Those who make it complicated do not seek peace.

Seek peace.

Hi John,
I'm glad you started this thread. It's kind of like one JB started on the Individual Religions. I have learned a lot from my brief studies into Buddhism. Particularly in the teachings of mindfulness. I can't even begin to explain the serenity this practice has given me. I look forward to having someone who may be able to answer my questions on Buddhism.

My ex became a buddist and decided to stop paying child support so he can support his new family

I'm not bitter tho

Well thank you for replying in this thread. I thought I would be talking to myself most of the time

This is not a Buddhist thread. It is more of a thread for everyone, especially those who are spiritual but don't belong to any specific following.

I hope much laughter and joy will come in here in the near future

I don't think his belief in Buddhism gave him that decision to stop paying the child support. I think it was a seperate decision apart from this belief system.

Hi John,

I studied Zen Buddhism many years ago. Mostly via the books of Alan Watts. I just read about the meaning of Buddhism and didn't actually delve into the religious practice so much. Although I did do some meditation.

Here let me light some incense,...



These are the little incense gods. They aren't part of Buddhism but I think they're cute.

Now let me light some candles,...




Ok, let's meditate.



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Feel better now?

~~~

Let's say a little prayer

Spirit of the universe please grant us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change, the courage to change the things we can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

There. All better now.

Bye bye.

Thank you James

Just the moment of silence and enjoying it is something special to me. I lived in the city for most of my life where you always hear the sirens go off from police or fire trucks or the loud neighbors. The hectic lifestyle of going to and from work and rushing to make it to a deadline is sometimes makes you forget so many great things like "Doing Nothing!"

Just sitting there and resting your mind. Trying to not think of anything just relaxation and create a calm of peace of the mind and body.

I am learning to spend at least twice a day in solitude and just meditate to the point I feel I am on a different nirvana being one with the earth that provides me life and my body that welcomes it. We are one nature and my soul and body.

To many people forget this unfortunately.

I think mindfulness is the key to detachment which is the key to completely overcoming the ego. Most Catholics try to do it by force. Suppressing the ego rather than overcoming it gently.

The profound pleasure that we gain from looking at a painting or listening to music shows how important it is for human beings to have inner satisfaction rather than the gross pleasures of the senses or the possession of material goods.
Nevertheless, even aesthetic satisfaction depends largely on vision and hearing, so it can only yield temporary well-being and this is not so fundamentally different from the satisfaction produced by drugs. When we leave the museum or the concert hall, our aesthetic pleasure is over and is replaced by the desire to experience it again. It never brings true inner happiness.

How important is your inner happiness and how do you attain inner peace?

My inner happiness is of the utmost importance to me and I have found I can only maintain inner happinessby accepting every situation and living it and experiencing it and not trying to get out of it. I stop thinking about the past or the future and just be completely in this moment. It actually works really well.

Of course, I get caught up in life and forget to do that. And, that's when I break the feeling of inner peace and joy. But, the good part is that it's very easy to go back to.

It is good that you are able to get back to inner peace. There are many who cannot.

Once you've been there, it's a hard place to forget.

Ruth, have you heard of the mindfulness bell?

I got there, but I cheated a little bit.

Or maybe I didn't.

You decide.

I used to work in the city with all the hustle and bustle of life, and it was work and frustration, and being around people who were always frustrated and on edge and in a hurry.

I'm proud to say that I never lost a job due to my own fault.

However, I was unfortunately laid off from quite a few companies, usually at a very critical time when I was just about to be promoted. The lay-offs were always due to company problems - downsizing, economy problems, new management, etc.

It never had anything to do with my lack of performance.

Well, it was frustrating. Do the best work you can, keep your nose clean, and get slapped in the face every time you're just about to move into a seriously decent position.

One day I got laid off and thought to myself, "Why do I keep going back for more of this crap?"

So I moved to a little cottage in the country.

There was nowhere to work around here at first. All I could find were min wage jobs as a maintanence man at a campground, and things like that.

The pay was low, but the job was nice. It was outdoors in the woods. Back to nature. I started liking the simple life in the country.

I lived that way for about 5 years. Then I went back to the rat race again.

Big mistake. But at least I got a lot of high-tech experience.

I was doing very well this time. I was the head of not one, but two laboratories.

Yes, I'm egotisically blushing because I'm proud of that achievement. There weren't many people in that facility that were in charge of two entire labs.

I was going to stay there and retire there. That was my plan.

But the company changed management, and the new managment downsized the R&D in favor of upsizing manufacturing. There were also economic issues in the economy in general in those days.

So bingo. Once again, through no fault of my own I find myself standing in an unemployment line.

But not for long.

Back to my cottage I came.

This time to become a Master Hermit.

Am I running away from my troubles?

Or reaching out for my dream?

Let me tell you something. A low-income, low-output lifestyle is NICE!

It's very relaxing and there's no hustle-bustle.

I my case it was a bit lonely, but that was mainly because I didn't have a Mrs. Hermit.

I really enjoyed the lifestyle, but it did have it's social drawbacks.

You'd be surpised how many people would come to visit me and say things like, "I see you're still bumming around. Are you ever going to go back to work?"

Funny how society is brainwashed to believe that if you aren't part of the rat race you're a bum.

I'd like to say that I didn't care, but to be perfectly honest it did bother me that certain people felt that way.

I could have just shrugged it off, but then I got a really Great Idea!

I could TEACH!

That's a cake job!

Everywhere I ever worked my coworkers were always coming to me for help and when I helped them they would always say, "Wow! You really explain things well, and you are so patient! You should be a TEACHER!"

So I started teaching computer classes, in the basement of a computer store. It's not as bad as it sounds. They had two really nice class rooms with brand new comptuers.

That truly was a cake job because I had been using computers since they were first invented and I knew them inside and out (literally).

I never had to study before teaching because my students were always so far removed from my level of computer knowledge that there was no reason to study.

Then I saw an opening at a Vo-Tech and I started teaching computer software classes there. They kept me pretty business with lots of classes, it became a FULL-TIME JOB!

Still a peace of cake though because I was still so far above the students that lesson preps were a snap.

Then one day the head of the Vo-tech actually came to me and asked me if I would like to teach in a real college.

Sure!

He showed me an add for a college position. I kind of shrugged my shoulders and said, "Yeah, but don't they require special teaching degrees and so forth". I never took a 'teaching' class in my life.

But he said that once they read my resume in R&D it won't be a problem.

So I applied, and was hired.

I taught math and physics. And even an English class believe it or not! But only one time for the English and that was enough for me.

I'm a scientist, not a dangling participle.

Teaching college level math and physics kept me on my toes. That did require more lesson preps and those students asked the tough questions. But suprisingly I was able to hold down the ship.

That was a cake job too.

Oh, life is such a piece of cake.

Then I had to quit that due to health issues.

That was sad because I would love to still be teaching today!

And now to think that I'm becoming a witch.

Who woulda guessed!

Not me!

I would have never guessed that I'd one day see the intelligence in witchcraft.

Now I'm a hermit witch.

Did I jump ship from society?

Did I run from my problems?

Or did I merely follow my dream?

You decide.

Owl I know is that I'm happy!


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Remarkable story James! I would say you lived quiet a life and still are! I know you for a year now and have always learned alot from you. I am proud to have you as a friend and am always looking forward in learning more of your knowledge. Just see it as me a student sitting in class waiting to learn from a brilliant teacher

If one is called a bum for following their instinct of what makes them happy then they are not important to even consider recognizing. My opinion and I know that those who study witchcraft are always looked upon as odd, weird, or somehow different just because they have a different idealogy on how the universe or our souls work, yet I like a witche's response better then a organized fundamental religous body anytime. Simply "ignore" and go further, or cast a spell on them! Just joking

I will take the option of becoming a hermit witch isolated from stupidity, agony, and frustrations anytime!

You are following your calling. I believe a cottage in the country is much more admirable then a noisy city full of hectic people worrying about money all the time.

Henry David Thoreau also did this and he came up with so many great philosophical quotes, novels, and understanding of our earth in general. I say you are living a great life. I don't think he was a Wicca though, more of a "Naturlist". Not sure if there is a big difference if you think about it.

Now I wonder for males is it really called that they are Witches?

I always thought a male witch would be called a Druid or Warlock?

I know in Fantasy I call males Warlocks instead of Witches. I mean even a Druid sounds good to me, but again it is my fantasy story so I can do that

No I have not. What is that?

When we grow old, if we have no religous faith the most important thing to recognize is that our fundamental sufferings - birth, sickness, -old age, and death - are an inherent part of life. As soon as we have taken birth, we cannot avoid growing old and dying. That is how it is. It is pointless to say this is unfair or that it should be different.

How do you manage getting old? Do you worry about it? Do you accept it? Do you wonder alot about it?

The same questions apply for death.

Death is easy. It's living that's hard.

It is a quote I have seen before, but I believe living can be easy also It is how you make of it that determines the outcome. Although again some are not so fortunate