emotional control

[FallingLeaves]

for the record that is not what I meant; and I don't think it what god wants either.

Sigh...

[Redchic12]

Ok this will probably put a spoke in the works, but I just DONT believe in giving control to God. In fact I don’t believe in giving control to anyone or anything. If you did that in life you wouldn’t get anywhere or do anything or achieve anything.
I feel it’s becoming a bit of cliche and people are repeating it because maybe it makes them feel good or makes them feel like they “fit in” (generally speaking)

Another much repeated phrase is, “let go and let God”. I Don’t accept that either. It seems a bit of a defeatist attitude actually.

If you wait for someone else to fix your life then you’ll never get anywhere.

But having said that I must say that if I’ve had a problem and I’ve done everything I could to fix it and yet it still is a problem, then by all means LET GO and wait and see what happens. Wether God or someone else helps the situation then great but if the situation stays the same well accept it and move on.

I just don’t believe in waiting around and hoping and praying something will happen. You just focus on the solution not the problem and generally things work out. Well it has for me anyway.

So do I believe in God. I just can’t say yes and blindly believe just because we’ve been told that and had it rammed down our throats in childhood and because everyone else is saying it. But I can’t say no because there may be some sort of creator/source/energy but until I experience it for myself I’ll just say I don’t know and go on with dealing problems/situations/incidents in my own way without using God as a safety net or back up or scapegoat, so to speak. It’s worked well for me so far.

Yes I do pray and send out healing/love/light to people and focus on peace and love to the world and feel content with that.

Miss H. I know you have had many experiences with God and please don’t think I am knocking them. I totally respect your experiences (and other peoples)

I’ve read that when Buddha was asked, “Is there a God”. He sat and said nothing. I wonder why? (No I’m not a Buddhist but their philosophy certainly makes sense)

Ok so that’s just my personal opinion on the God situation.

[Unseeking Seeker]

@ Redchic12 ~ I think it’s quite alright to believe or not believe in God. Either way it does not matter in my view because belief is a function of mind, of thought. Thought has limitations, relying upon joining the dots to cognise the whole, analysing and grasping, instead of intuiting, connecting, becoming.

In my case, I started off as an agnostic, keeping open to possibility of God but not blindly accepting, more or less as you say your orientation is. The shift of recognising came about slowly, transitioning from separateness to interconnectedness of existence to oneness. This understanding came about by directly seeing in thought rested stillness* (*some on SF say that we cannot be in thought rested silence, making further discussion with them a nonstarter!)

In fact, we may say that God alone is, as self-existent, all pervading luminescence of love & light, power and wisdom and the myriad forms that abound are cleaved from His being, without diminishing Himself even as He Himself breathes life into each form comprised of but dust. However, this statement has no relevance until the entity (we) rests identity (ego), melding, so to speak, with God’s Spirit. The energy of God being love and love never employing force, each soul must choose to entwine with God voluntarily.

Reworded, we may say that ‘there is no one here’ (a non-dual view). Hence, ceding power or control to God is a self-contradictory term since there is no separation in reality. If we negate all that is transient, then that that remains is God, which Buddhists may term as existence or universal consciousness. All that that is manifest, is phenomena arising from noumena or let us say, an appearance, a reflected reality.

Of course, as stated at the outset, none of this can be proved but is realised directly, so perhaps that is why Buddha kept silent when asked who God is.

[Redchic12]

Thank you for your comments Seeker. Very interesting.

[Gem]

I don't even suppose why Buddha said or didn't say things, but I'm not sure if he was asked about God. I think he was asked about a self, and he didn't answer. However, he later explained his reason for not answering to his assistant, Ananda. I wish I could tell you that reason, but I've forgotten what it was. He capped it off by saying self-theory leads to distress, and that he only teaches about the resolution of suffering. I can't remember which sutta it's in, and I barely remember what the sutta says, so you'll have to search around to double check.

The basic theory in Buddhism that remotely relates to 'will of god', which is not the way Buddhist philosophy conceives of it, is the cessation of volition. We don't claim there is a God, let alone a wilful God, but the volition is a central theme. The closest Buddhist philosophy comes to 'will of god' is ceasing to generate new 'kamma', which according to Buddhist thought, is volition.

What a man wills, what he plans, what he dwells on forms the basis for the continuation of consciousness. This basis being present, consciousness has a lodgment. Consciousness being lodged there and growing, renewed existence takes place in the future, and from this renewed existence arise birth, decay-and-death, grief, lamentation, suffering, sorrow and despair. Such is the uprising of this entire mass of suffering.

[Unseeking Seeker]

There’s a great channelled message from Buddha which some may find useful. Vijay Mehra was the medium involved in the session, done at Bhrigu Ashram, Rishikesh, India. I have the audio too, if anyone is interested.

Here’s the link to the conversation ~ https://www.spiritualforums.com/vb/s...Gautama+Buddha

(The information is offered to those who wish to learn from it, not interested in debating the authenticity of the session)

[Redchic12]

Thanks Gem I like your comments.

Seeker, I will have a look at that link you sent and get back to you. Thanks.

[FallingLeaves]

Redchick -

yeah i know it is in vogue to be a control freak, but what you get when everyone believes the way you do is a lot of fights as each struggles for control over the other. In a lot of ways, many of our problems as a people are due to this kind of thing taken to extremes.

I will say it again as well: i never said you should give complete control to god or even that he wants that. That is something someone said I said and you are all buying into it... and such is the way it goes with rumour. But you can't get to the truth if you are going to buy into rumour.

[Redchic12]

Hey Seeker I’ve just read the thread you recommended and I absolutely LOVE IT!!! It just resonates with every fibre of my being.

When I read the part about craving and getting it made me feel so good cos I just don’t have that anymore, and it made me feel that I’m doing better than I thought I was. Lol omg there’s hope for me yet! So thank you so much for that.

[iamthat]

Originally Posted by Redchic12

... I just DONT believe in giving control to God. In fact I don’t believe in giving control to anyone or anything. If you did that in life you wouldn’t get anywhere or do anything or achieve anything. ... Another much repeated phrase is, “let go and let God”. I Don’t accept that either. ... If you wait for someone else to fix your life then you’ll never get anywhere. ...I just don’t believe in waiting around and hoping and praying something will happen. You just focus on the solution not the problem and generally things work out.

This seems to confuse "letting go and letting God" with a state of passive inactivity, a state of waiting for someone or something to act on our behalf.

For me, "letting go and letting God" is the way of Karma Yoga. We still take action - as human beings we cannot do nothing. We do whatever presents itself to be done and we do it to the best of our ability. Having taken action we then let go of our action. We have done what we can, and the outcome will be whatever it will be. And if further action presents itself to be done then we do that and again let go.

And let's face it, much of our life is beyond our control. Maybe some people want to control everything in their lives - perhaps that makes them feel safe and secure. But we only have control over the minor details. In the bigger picture we are swept along by events just like everyone else. Letting go and letting God means that we are at peace with not being in control.

Peace