How to Know God and Know His Will for You - with quotes from Spinoza, Stephen Hawking and the Bible
In a very real sense, objectivity is seeing things from God's perspective. Right now you are undoubtedly subjective - where outside suggestions, emotions and imagination mix together, and left over baggage from all your yesterdays color each new moment.
Fixated to thought, wherein the ego thinks it will find answers, you never meet the moment with fresh eyes as you did as a child). Now you prejudge people. If your child did something naughty yesterday, you wait until he does it again today (or your mind plays tricks on you and you think he is doing it again), and you say "I knew he would do that."
Nor do we live and move and have our being in a spontaneous way. We drag around a self image which we either struggle with, try to hide, or seek to maintain.
It is a struggle to try to keep together the house of cards of our life and our fragile pride--soon the struggle makes us fatigued, and we have a nervous breakdown, get depressed, or get drunk.
When we are objective, on the other hand, we set aside our ego and look at things objectively. We don't have any grudges or preconceived notions. We see what there is to see, and we look to intuition, not thinking, for guidance as to what to do (if anything).
With our ego out of the way and our emotions idling, we can have a detached attitude of friendly neutrality. We are neither for nor against. We neither love nor hate. We are friendly, calm and dispassionate. This is a healing balm for our our frazzled nerves and our overworked organs. It is also a healing balm for relationships. We let go of resentment and judgment. We become free to speak the truth, and also to love unselfishly.
The best part is this: not only are we objective and reasonable, but by not being emotional and judgmental, and by getting out of thinking and fantasy, our soul is receptive to wordless intuitive guidance. We wait until we know in our heart what is right or fair. And this insight is wisdom from God.
Every lady who ever took a self defense course is told to "trust your gut." She is told to trust her intuition. This is excellent advice. If only we could all follow it. Not just in moments of danger, but in every moment of our life. It would lead us to safety, happiness, fulfillment, creativity, and even to the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
Mostly we ignore it. We doubt it, and we believe more in what someone on the outside says than in the quiet testimony in our hearts. And when we have a choice between doing the right thing and doing the selfish thing, most of us will do the selfish one--then of course rationalizing and excusing it.
But there is an even bigger reason why we don't follow our intuition. We inherit a prideful nature, and this pride never wants to admit it is wrong. Most of us get angry if someone catches us in a wrong. We defend our wrong as if it were right, and we try to confuse people about what they see in us.
The key moment in a person's life is when he or she has erred (such as by resenting our partner or our parent, by being cruel to someone, or by denying principle to be selfish) and our intuition (which now feels like conscience) makes us quietly aware that we erred.
As long as we flee from conscience into thinking, fantasy, distractions, or drugs--we deny God His moment. Were we to be still and quietly bear the little bit of pain for seeing our wrong, and were we to be sorry in our heart--we would be reconciled to the God of conscience.
It is so simple. But most people are stubborn and won't do it. Besides, lovers, seducers, motivators, the feel good experts, and a bevy of friends know how to tease, challenge and irritate you on the one hand, and then comfort, soothe, and give you tension relief on the other. Between loving and hating them, you never have the space to find yourself.
Take heart. Peace of mind and intuitive insight to live your life properly and face the next moment with poise and reasonableness are as near as the meditation exercise (combined with a willingness to know the truth).
"It is the nature of mind to perceive things from a certain timeless perspective"
Baruch Spinoza, philosopher
"However, if we do discover a complete theory, it should in time be understandable in broad principle by everyone, not just a few scientists. Then we shall all, philosophers, scientists, and just ordinary people, be able to take part in the discussion of the question of why it is that we and the universe exist. If we find the answer to that, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason--for then we would know the mind of God"
Stephen Hawking, theoretical physicist, from his book A Brief History of Time
For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.
Hebrews 8: 10-11
Fixated to thought, wherein the ego thinks it will find answers, you never meet the moment with fresh eyes as you did as a child). Now you prejudge people. If your child did something naughty yesterday, you wait until he does it again today (or your mind plays tricks on you and you think he is doing it again), and you say "I knew he would do that."
Nor do we live and move and have our being in a spontaneous way. We drag around a self image which we either struggle with, try to hide, or seek to maintain.
It is a struggle to try to keep together the house of cards of our life and our fragile pride--soon the struggle makes us fatigued, and we have a nervous breakdown, get depressed, or get drunk.
When we are objective, on the other hand, we set aside our ego and look at things objectively. We don't have any grudges or preconceived notions. We see what there is to see, and we look to intuition, not thinking, for guidance as to what to do (if anything).
With our ego out of the way and our emotions idling, we can have a detached attitude of friendly neutrality. We are neither for nor against. We neither love nor hate. We are friendly, calm and dispassionate. This is a healing balm for our our frazzled nerves and our overworked organs. It is also a healing balm for relationships. We let go of resentment and judgment. We become free to speak the truth, and also to love unselfishly.
The best part is this: not only are we objective and reasonable, but by not being emotional and judgmental, and by getting out of thinking and fantasy, our soul is receptive to wordless intuitive guidance. We wait until we know in our heart what is right or fair. And this insight is wisdom from God.
Every lady who ever took a self defense course is told to "trust your gut." She is told to trust her intuition. This is excellent advice. If only we could all follow it. Not just in moments of danger, but in every moment of our life. It would lead us to safety, happiness, fulfillment, creativity, and even to the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
Mostly we ignore it. We doubt it, and we believe more in what someone on the outside says than in the quiet testimony in our hearts. And when we have a choice between doing the right thing and doing the selfish thing, most of us will do the selfish one--then of course rationalizing and excusing it.
But there is an even bigger reason why we don't follow our intuition. We inherit a prideful nature, and this pride never wants to admit it is wrong. Most of us get angry if someone catches us in a wrong. We defend our wrong as if it were right, and we try to confuse people about what they see in us.
The key moment in a person's life is when he or she has erred (such as by resenting our partner or our parent, by being cruel to someone, or by denying principle to be selfish) and our intuition (which now feels like conscience) makes us quietly aware that we erred.
As long as we flee from conscience into thinking, fantasy, distractions, or drugs--we deny God His moment. Were we to be still and quietly bear the little bit of pain for seeing our wrong, and were we to be sorry in our heart--we would be reconciled to the God of conscience.
It is so simple. But most people are stubborn and won't do it. Besides, lovers, seducers, motivators, the feel good experts, and a bevy of friends know how to tease, challenge and irritate you on the one hand, and then comfort, soothe, and give you tension relief on the other. Between loving and hating them, you never have the space to find yourself.
Take heart. Peace of mind and intuitive insight to live your life properly and face the next moment with poise and reasonableness are as near as the meditation exercise (combined with a willingness to know the truth).
"It is the nature of mind to perceive things from a certain timeless perspective"
Baruch Spinoza, philosopher
"However, if we do discover a complete theory, it should in time be understandable in broad principle by everyone, not just a few scientists. Then we shall all, philosophers, scientists, and just ordinary people, be able to take part in the discussion of the question of why it is that we and the universe exist. If we find the answer to that, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason--for then we would know the mind of God"
Stephen Hawking, theoretical physicist, from his book A Brief History of Time
For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.
Hebrews 8: 10-11
