Spirituality for Living

There is giving, and then there is bribery. The difference between genuine giving and bribery is in giving there are no conditions. You give because you are adding to the world. It’s bribery if you are giving to induce a condition, and there is no reason to accept bribery.
Love. Expect nothing in return? Yes, and [...]

Reciprocation is the balance of giving and receiving. Ecosystems function on a web of giving and receiving, growth and predation, generation and consumption, but we think we are different don’t we? We think that we can function as independent systems. Be cause and never effect. What does this create for us?
Misery and duality. Exactly, and [...]

What does it mean to be a guardian of an innocent? A guide to a newly born mind? In this day and age it seems many people just follow the “expected” life.  Get a job, get married, have kids, and their role as parent seems to be more the acting out of an idea. Just [...]

The subject is love, and I will be attempting to discuss love in a broad sense. There is a principle in nature, and by nature I don’t mean the conventional sense, but nature as the primal essence from which evident things emanate. The principle seems to be a healing/balancing force.
As a matter of general balance, [...]

Being alone, as I understand it, is often a production of our thoughts making us think we’re alone? Yes, I agree, but it’s not an original thought. It’s an afterthought that arises from the series of expectations we are taught, and seems true in that system of thinking, though it is in no way factually [...]

We begin with generosity to ourselves. Generosity is forgiving. Forgiving is powerful generosity, but it’s also in a sense greed.  Because when you allow yourself to see, you realize that whatever you are forgiving isn’t something “personal”. You won’t forgive the person for being who they are, and where they are. You realize it wasn’t [...]

I have heard people say that to be spiritual in a material world; all materialism must be rejected for the spiritualist needs nothing, but their spiritual essences. I believe to live a spiritual life in this materialistic world is the opportunity to break illusions and delve deeper into the understanding of what life becomes as [...]

Do you have a desire to reach out to others? Then you can treat that desire to reach out to others the same as you treat those obligations you hold to yourself, and do it for the same reason.
Personal fulfillment. Recognize that you have a use for others, and select those others for your own [...]

The subject is obligation. I will start with a bit about one of my own obligations. I was sought to do meetings here in Second Life, because they felt I had something to contribute, and I accepted their invitation.
This did create an obligation for me. One I respect and honour as the founders of this [...]

Productivity is a big concern in the real world, is it not? Have any of you had a day where you did absolutely nothing? Really? Tell me how this was possible?
Define “doing nothing”? Literally nothing. Think nothing. Do nothing. Not change in any way.
Literally nothing? Not since between incarnations. I would debate even the do [...]

Everyone expecting the class? First off, I will start with why I asked that question. Do any of you have no expectations at all?

I have at least one.
I find it hard not to expect.
My duality brings some, but I try not to acknowledge them.
I always have at least some, even though I try not to [...]

We are in a world that is moving and growing. We are living in it and with it.
What the process of expectation is with the blinders off is being aware of your place in the dance. Being aware of your neighbours as well as knowing what you do will affect others, and what they do [...]

Quick poll. For who do expectations feel disempowering?

I really felt them to be at work limiting. I felt they limited what I could achieve.
I’ve never felt disempowered.
They can be discouraging if they are given too much emotional weight when they are not met.

For who have expectations felt empowering?

Not me.
Me, I get all tingly.
I haven’t felt [...]

Did today go as you expected friends? There is a lot of teaching against expectation in today’s spiritual circles is there not? Almost as if it were a serious moral faux pas. Anyone gotten rid of it yet? If you have rid yourself of expectations, how did you do it?

Don’t plan anything just let it [...]

Circumstance. People really believe in that idea don’t they?
Circumstance, yes. People giving me the long list of how I could do something, but they can’t even though they say they want to. People have long lists of circumstance. The blind expectation thing again.
With proper awareness expectation can embrace a range of outcomes, and allow you [...]

If you are afloat on a river in an inner tube, it’s an absolute certainty you will go down river. Yes, you might be able to get out in a rough spot. You might be able to make a huge painful effort and force your will on the situation, but is that necessary? And are [...]

There is not one way and we should all be on it. There are many ways, like many blood vessels in the body. Thank God/nature/providence for that, no?
The best results are the ones I couldn’t have thought up or expected. But you can be in touch with what takes you there. We all can with [...]

What is meaning?

What is skilful and what is not so skilful.
How can you discredit one thing and credit another?
It depends on the moment.
Meaning is purpose.
Who decides meaning and purpose?
How can anything be right or wrong if it has true meaning?
Because everyone has their own path.

Meaning is nothing, and you decide anyway. That is meaning.

You can’t [...]

I will try to be patient with the topic. The topic is frustration, and it’s a condition that people tend to trip over a lot. What do you think folks?

Definitely.
On a regular basis.
The worst one, I think.

People generally see frustration as something caused from “out there”, but can anyone tell me what out [...]

How to reconcile interpersonal frustrations? How do we live with a world that still believes in frustration? Any ideas?
Communication. Meaningful communication. Yes, and there are many levels of that, but what are we going to communicate of meaning?
Our actions / reactions in relationship. You can talk until you’re ‘blue in the face’ to some people [...]