Religion and Spirituality

usakat said:

Faith and The Golden Rule
Yes, indeed, such a beautiful post, Kimby. Very eloquent and very open-hearted. It’s so refreshing!

And ah, yes, The Golden Rule, the Ethic of Reciprocity – do unto to others…. With great fascination, I had the opportunity to study The Golden Rule in college in a Comparative Religions class. I loved it. It truly made me appreciate the need for tolerance and actually made me more receptive to God and all the world’s faiths and belief systems. In fact, my sister, an Anthropology professor, now teaches a similar course to the one I had so long ago, although modernized and expanded.

The interesting thing about The Golden Rule – the idea of do unto others - is that it is a universally held belief system among nearly every religion that exists. Nearly every religion promotes an element or elements of reciprocity among people. It transcends time, boarders, cultures, religious belief systems, and laws. You could say it is the origin of human civil rights, and after the acknowledgement of a deity or supreme knowledge or power, it is a nexus of most all the world’s religions, something that I wish would connect us more powerfully than other doctrines divide us. Wouldn’t it be great if it The Golden Rule could truly unite and hold the world together in peace? Actually, I think that’s the point! And I think this is where we could truly see God in action for all people of all faiths, for I believe that God does not exist for one man – God is for every man, woman, child and creature on the Earth.

Phil, you’re right, it’s sad that not enough citizens and rulers of the world appreciate the value of The Ethic of Reciprocity AKA The Golden Rule. I feel certain if they did we would have far more peace, tolerance and prosperity in the world today.

As for Karma, Karma is another form of The Golden Rule – it’s a rule of cause and effect. And Phil, you cannot know at what point on the wheel of Karma your cancer became part of your existence – perhaps your cancer is not an effect of something, but rather is to cause something else? It could be that your cancer will/has cause(d) some other effect in your life that leads you further down the road to Enlightenment. The Buddhists teach us that a goal in life is to further ourselves down the road of Enlightenment, to achieve Bodhi, some would say Nirvana. Maybe this is something for you to meditate on. I would venture to guess that if you were to seek the counsel of a Buddhist teacher, they would be happy to explore this with you.

In any case though, I do not believe that anyone is “given” cancer. It’s worse than a cold, but maybe not as bad as other illnesses – I suppose it’s in the eye of the beholder. Either way, cancer is a group of rogue cells brought on by not even God knows what and it makes us sick and threatens our lives. It’s just one more thing out there to remind us we’re fragile and life is precious.

As for answering the age old questions? Phil’s comments/questions, “Wow, so many questions. Why are we here? Is there a God? Is there a Devil? There are so many faiths that have different paths to the same questions I think, yet it is a question that no one can answer with certainty that would end the discussion for all.” …This is why we call it faith…belief in something for which there is no proof. I believe faith is something that allows us to connect to each other, connect to the Universe, to our own personal God and to life itself. If we had no faith or the ability to be faithful, what would be the point of living?



PEACE! Paix, Paz, Pace, Frieden, Rauha, Béke, Fred, Friður, Barış, Pokój, Heddwch, Ειρήνη, Mier, Mir, Taika, Miers, Rahu, Paċi, Sìth, Rongo, Amani, Paqe, Damai, Nabad, Hòa Bình, Alaafia, Udo

blueroses said:

My Two Amazing Miracles
As promised, in my previous post, here I am sharing with you an event that occurred during my bone marrow transplant isolation that changed my life and ways of looking at the whole topic of religion and spirituality. Grad a coffee, this is going to take awhile, lol.

First let me say that I am far from a bible thumper, lol. I don't carry around a bible and preach at or to anyone and rarely get to church - mostly due to my physical problems - but even before that I was not an avid church goer. Having said that though I have always believed in God and have had a very personal relationship with Him. I don't get into examining the bible or all of the saints and personalities in the bible - I just know that there is indeed a God and a Divine plan.

So, since I have this type of christian outlook it was even more remarkable as to what I experienced those 2 Fall days in 1991.

I was in isolation, after my bone marrow transplant was completed, and not doing all that well. I had tubes coming out of everywhere, fed intravenously - all kinds of fun going on in that room. lol. Anywho, one day I was sitting up in bed - unable to even get to the bathroom on my own after all the intensive treatments I had had - and unable to lie down even to sleep because of pneumonias I had that made lieing down a danger with too much fluid in my lungs. But even with all of this going on, all of a sudden something came over me and I realized that I felt better. Not getting up and going out and playing tennis better, lol, just not like I was going to pass on for a change. After a few moments of this great feeling I called my then husband at the time and asked him to get a video for him and I to watch that night in my room because I felt so much better, happy to hear that he agreed and hung up - he was at work. Remember that cause it's important to the story in a minute here.

So I sat back and was feeling happy that I was feeling so much better when all of a sudden I realized that 'yikes, I can't catch a breath'. I started to panic and looked over in the chair in the corner and waved frantically to my husband to go get help, as I couldn't even think straight enough to hit the call button. He was reading the newspaper and threw it down and ran out to get help. The nurses rushed in with crash carts and that's all I remember. I went into a coma from congestive heart failure. After a few days in the coma I woke up and a day or so later was speaking with my husband about the incident and talking about how lucky I was that he was in the room to get me the help I needed when I went into distress. He looked me rather strangely and said 'I wasn't in the room, I was on my way to the hospital after they called me to say you were in trouble?' So why did I see him clearly in the room that day? Who went for help then? What the heck was going on? I put two and two together later on that day. That was my first miracle.

Several days later I was sitting up in bed and feeling not too bad, all considered. Nothing was going on really - the boredom of isolation only really - when all of a sudden I felt something strange. It felt like a line of heat at the top of my head. I immediately thought 'hmm, strange drugs', lol. However, this line of heat I soon realized was moving. It was moving slowly down my head, deliberately and slowly and seemingly with great purpose. I can't say that I was scared per se but it certainly caught my attention. I pushed myself up on my hands, in the sitting position I was in, as to in some way, I suppose, escape the sensation I guess - not sure, but undauntingly this line of heat kept travelling down my body on some sort of mission it seemed.

'What the heck is this?, I asked myself. So I sat there, seemingly helpless against this line of heat as it moved through me. When it reached my lower chest it stopped and lingered there for longer than in the rest of my body and then it hit me (I'm kind of slow, lol), could this be a healing? I had never directly asked for such a thing or even really thought of something like this but of course like most cancer patients in trouble I was praying my face off most days - mostly praying to please be allowed to live for my children - just let me live long enough to raise them til they are self sufficient. Could this be what was happening? Were my prayers fully heard and the results appearing in such a dramatic way? And why me? Nah, that can't be it. Could it?

Anywho, the line of heat then continued down my body and once again stopped on the top part of my legs - the site of the first cancer. It lingered there even longer and before it started to move on I had this sort of message come to me - not a full blown voice kind of thing, just a powerful thought came over me - but it was put in my head, I didn't produce it - that I know for sure. It said 'This is a healing from God and your cancer will never return'. Then the line of heat continued down my legs and out the bottom of my feet and that was that.

Hmmm, that was interesting I thought, lol - a master of understatement for sure, lol. I can tell you though that from that day on I never ever had one moment of worry that my cancer would return - why would I? I had God's word on it.

This event was important to me, obviously, for many reasons but the biggest gift to me was the gift of peace, at KNOWING like I have never KNOWN anything before, that I needn't fear recurrance. Also just the real genuine feeling of 100% KNOWING something to be 100% true, that God gave me, was like nothing I had ever experienced before. Through our lives we KNOW many things but this kind of KNOWING, right from God, was something totally different. It held not only complete peace of mind but embodied understanding in it's purest form, goodwill, oh my - just everything good all wrapped up in one brief episode. It's so hard to explain but I was certainly blessed many times over to have received it.

I share these two incidents with you because of course it changed my life and I hope in some way will change yours as well. I KNEW now with TOTAL CERTAINTY that yes there is a God, whatever the name you put to Him, there is a higher power - He had just shown me that in no uncertain terms. I share this with all of you who need the hope and the knowledge that you are being looked after - sometimes maybe you won't get exactly what you want but I am sure that you will get what you need. It truly is, I believe, part of His divine plan - all for the greater good.

I hope my story inspires you and gives you the courage and strength to get through the life challenges you face - now and in your future. God Bless you and yours, as he did me and mine. Blessings always, Blueroses.

blueroses said:

Hi AMCP
I second that thank you to CSN for not censoring relgious and spiritually discussion on their site. I left another cancer site because they came down very hard on any talk that was anywhere near spiritual in any manner - talk of miracles and that sort of thing - not even out and out religious discussion. I feel very comfortable on this site in all the different discussion forums for this reason - CSN does not discriminate. I would like to have seen this type of discussion not segregated but just allowed to flow from a person no matter what discussion sector there were in on site but as someone else pointed out a bit ago some people actually feel better talking about spirituality and religion in a separate forum so no biggy, as long as the topic can be discussed somewhere on site.

Welcome to the site AMCP, I am sure you will enjoy and benefit from the folks on this site. It's a very special place. Blessings to you and yours, Blueroses.

tonybear said:

faith
when i stand on the edge of lives problems and look down to see the bottom, i can jump without much faith because i can see the bottom. however, to stand with my back to the edge when i can't see where the bottom is or how far down it is, then it requires faith to fall backwards into the hands of God. that was how i felt when i was facing cancer. i didn't know where the bottom was, how far it was to the bottom or what i'd hit on the way down. all i could do was believe that God would be there to catch me before i crashed into the bottom. i know that i have another 4 1/2 years of check ups, but i am learning to not fear the helplessness of the fall. at the end of the day it is all out of my hands anyway. so i might as well put it in his hands and relax and enjoy the day. tony

terato said:

My mom's faith brought her through many rough times.
Slickwilly,

I wish that I was blessed with a tenth of my mother's faith. She endured everything that life threw her way only with her unyielding faith in God and His unconditional love. During my more stressed-out moments, she would assure me that everything would be alright, if I just had faith. So far, she has been correct!

My younger brother died, not of a life-long disease, but at his own hand. He saw "no options" for himself, but, perhaps, it was just that he had lost the capacity to look for them? Perhaps the tunnel vision brought on by acute depression obscured his ability to see the options that God had presented? In the "Serenity Prayer", we pray for the wisdom to know the difference between what we can change and what we can't. God knows this and knows that we are frail beings predisposed to faults and weaknesses, yet He loves us anyway, despite our uncanny ability to disappoint Him. I know He loved my brother, even though my brother lost the capacity to love himself. If I believe in my mother's wisdom, I know that God loves me, demonstrating it in ways that I don't often appreciate.

Many blessings to both you and your sister's memory, Slickwilly.

Rick