Suggestions for Spiritual Awakening Audios

Yesterday I ordered a 52 week Bible study course. I’d like to learn the ‘lessons’ taught in the Bible without all the thous in there. Most people enjoyed this year long study.
I got the spiral bound . I read that the regular bound book was difficult to write in.
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PeppermintPatty said:
Medication has a lot to do with how I’m feeling lately. I started meds back in autumn. Before that I had a hard time focussing on anything. My husband would suggest movies to keep me distracted . That way my mind was busy.

The other day I listened to Wayne Dyer and he was saying that man’s biggest problem is that they can’t sit quietly by themselves. I considered this as I started studying spirituality. I can sit quietly by myself, but I do know what you mean by feeling fear. It’s not that unusual. My husband will sometimes interrupt my quiet space with worry. He gets scared when I’m too quiet.

I’m glad you found your yourself again. Feeling scared by our own minds IS a scary thought and many of us go through it. The mental health forum is a sad place to be, especially when you’re sad already.

Thanks for sharing that Deb.
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Sorry I took so long to get back to you. Somehow your response got lost in the shuffle, but maybe the universe was arranging it like that eh 😉 . I was just watching a couple of new videos that I'd never come across before and I think I'm going to add them to my tool bar so that I can go to them easily. This first one is just what you were talking about......

Then a second one I listened to .......

I listen to thoughts like these two gentlemen share and I wish I had a personal 'writer' who could somehow write these ways of thinking into my mind when I meditate, when my mind is in a turmoil, when I am talking to my daughter or to my friend.....somehow my own mind fails to find these kinds of quiet depths to go to and I get stuck in the banal of everyday life! I hope you find something in those videos that speaks to your soul as much as they did to mine.
 
Bethmt said:
I've long had an interest in learning many spiritual belief systems. Lately I've been learning more about Hinduism, especially about Lord Krishna. I don't know if you'd be interested, but this BBC documentary is something I recently watched on YouTube.

Hindu Religion Documentary: Mystery of Lord Krishna
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We modern people don’t fully understand much about past civilisations, and we tend to have a binary view that something existed physically or did not exist. I tend to take the position that there are aspects that did exist physically, but there is much which is an interpretation of what happened, like John’s Gospel in Christianity. Historical accounts are modern requirements, but what interested people in the past was how something felt and what the experience was like, with the intention of learning from repeating or enacting the experience.

In spiritual practices, we live inside our heads to a large degree, rather than getting on the floor, dancing, chanting, or involving ourselves in rituals that give us some sensual experience. This is because Christianity regards the body as sinful and cannot be useful for spiritual insight. It is true the body is regarded as a “tent” or an abode for a short while, but it is essentially an illusion of the physicality of life. And yet, it is through our senses that we investigate and perceive anything at all. We shouldn’t be surprised that some practices or rituals can help us achieve spiritual awakening.
 
My 52 week Bible study’ came on Tuesday.
After reading the reviews , I opted for the ring binding. There’s a margin on the right which might have been better on the left. Those who bought the regular binding said the writing was too close to the binding and that in order to read it they’d have to crack the book open , thereby weakening it.

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Im on day 2 of the course and read Genesis 1-12. This is probably my 10th time reading these verses and they still don’t make sense to me.

According to evolution, the first humans were cave men and only lived a short life of about 30 years. These people lived 600 to 900 years.

God becomes angry with us humans and wished he never made us so creates a flood to kill off everything except for 2 of each animal and all the food they’d eat.

The God I know loves us unconditionally.
How can Noah’s ark hold that many animals?
Wouldn’t their ark be filled with animal feces?
That entire ark story seems so far fetched, that I have a hard time understanding it.

My husband says I’m taking it all too literally.
How do others interpret it?

Many people have told me just to read the New Testament but this course starts @ Genesis and I don’t want to skip over it.

Any suggestions.?

I thought the lessons would coincide with the reading suggested but they don’t.
 
Debrah N. said:
Sorry I took so long to get back to you. Somehow your response got lost in the shuffle, but maybe the universe was arranging it like that eh 😉 . I was just watching a couple of new videos that I'd never come across before and I think I'm going to add them to my tool bar so that I can go to them easily. This first one is just what you were talking about......

Then a second one I listened to .......

I listen to thoughts like these two gentlemen share and I wish I had a personal 'writer' who could somehow write these ways of thinking into my mind when I meditate, when my mind is in a turmoil, when I am talking to my daughter or to my friend.....somehow my own mind fails to find these kinds of quiet depths to go to and I get stuck in the banal of everyday life! I hope you find something in those videos that speaks to your soul as much as they did to mine.
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Hi Deb, I finally listened to these two and you are right, they’re wonderful. As soon as that first man opened his mouth to talk, I immediately connected with him especially when he started talking about being connected to the earth and to all the animals in it.

When I was young, I also enjoyed being by myself in nature. I’d walk the dogs on the railroad tracks and through the fields. I was connected to something that brought me intense peace but could not understand it. The more I tried to understand it the further away it would get. The more I accepted it as is, the more peaceful I’d become.

Some things in life are just unexplainable.

Thank you for adding these. I shall try and listen to them daily. It helps me stay connected to the inner me. The inner me that’s connected to everything.
 
PeppermintPatty said:
My husband says I’m taking it all too literally.
How do others interpret it?

Many people have told me just to read the New Testament but this course starts @ Genesis and I don’t want to skip over it.

Any suggestions.?

I thought the lessons would coincide with the reading suggested but they don’t.
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The biggest problem modern people have reading the Bible is that we read differently to the people who wrote it. First of all, we know how poetic language enchants and conjures images in our minds, which the authors associated with the magic of existence, which is why it was considered divine.

The second thing is that for our modern categorisation, much of the Bible is mythology, legend, or allegory, but not fact. There are historical intimations, but they are very often taken out of context. The intention is not to give a historical account but to give readers or listeners a feeling of an unfolding cosmic drama in which Israel is centre stage.

It is essentially a narrative explaining why Israel has this central role as the people called out of the nations and set aside to fulfil a special role. The problem is that the people who became known as Israel had suffered massive defeats, and the story of the 12 tribes, of which 10 are said to have been assimilated into surrounding empires, is a warning that the supposed "remainder" must adhere to the precepts of their God, which have been set before them. The Bible says that the law that the legendary figure Moses brought, can be a blessing or a curse.

So you can see how the scribes who wrote the Bible, drawn from diverse sources, including Mesopotamian and Sumerian mythology, are setting up a path for their people from a majestic past that went wrong into a future blessed by their God. I think it is a work of literary genius, but historically, it is full of holes, misappropriated and dramatised events, and fiction.

However, the problem is not that the Bible is as I have described but that we want it to be something else. All ancient sources have similar backgrounds. The difference is that most of them were written as epic poetry, immediately giving them a different character. When we read something in prose, we think it must be fact, which is a wrong presupposition. The Bible is also a source of great wisdom, and there are poetic books that are masterpieces if we can only read them in the way they were meant.
 
Stoppelmann said:
The biggest problem modern people have reading the Bible is that we read differently to the people who wrote it. First of all, we know how poetic language enchants and conjures images in our minds, which the authors associated with the magic of existence, which is why it was considered divine.

The second thing is that for our modern categorisation, much of the Bible is mythology, legend, or allegory, but not fact. There are historical intimations, but they are very often taken out of context. The intention is not to give a historical account but to give readers or listeners a feeling of an unfolding cosmic drama in which Israel is centre stage.

It is essentially a narrative explaining why Israel has this central role as the people called out of the nations and set aside to fulfil a special role. The problem is that the people who became known as Israel had suffered massive defeats, and the story of the 12 tribes, of which 10 are said to have been assimilated into surrounding empires, is a warning that the supposed "remainder" must adhere to the precepts of their God, which have been set before them. The Bible says that the law that the legendary figure Moses brought, can be a blessing or a curse.

So you can see how the scribes who wrote the Bible, drawn from diverse sources, including Mesopotamian and Sumerian mythology, are setting up a path for their people from a majestic past that went wrong into a future blessed by their God. I think it is a work of literary genius, but historically, it is full of holes, misappropriated and dramatised events, and fiction.

However, the problem is not that the Bible is as I have described but that we want it to be something else. All ancient sources have similar backgrounds. The difference is that most of them were written as epic poetry, immediately giving them a different character. When we read something in prose, we think it must be fact, which is a wrong presupposition. The Bible is also a source of great wisdom, and there are poetic books that are masterpieces if we can only read them in the way they were meant.
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Thank you for explaining all that. I shall keep that in mind why reading it.
 
PeppermintPatty said:
My 52 week Bible study’ came on Tuesday.
After reading the reviews , I opted for the ring binding. There’s a margin on the right which might have been better on the left. Those who bought the regular binding said the writing was too close to the binding and that in order to read it they’d have to crack the book open , thereby weakening it.

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Im on day 2 of the course and read Genesis 1-12. This is probably my 10th time reading these verses and they still don’t make sense to me.

According to evolution, the first humans were cave men and only lived a short life of about 30 years. These people lived 600 to 900 years.

God becomes angry with us humans and wished he never made us so creates a flood to kill off everything except for 2 of each animal and all the food they’d eat.

The God I know loves us unconditionally.
How can Noah’s ark hold that many animals?
Wouldn’t their ark be filled with animal feces?
That entire ark story seems so far fetched, that I have a hard time understanding it.

My husband says I’m taking it all too literally.
How do others interpret it?

Many people have told me just to read the New Testament but this course starts @ Genesis and I don’t want to skip over it.

Any suggestions.?

I thought the lessons would coincide with the reading suggested but they don’t.
Click to expand...
Have you heard of Richard Dawkins? A brief bio : British evolutionary biologist, ethologist, and popular-science writer who emphasized the gene as the driving force of evolution and generated significant controversy with his enthusiastic advocacy of atheism. But he explains he has had an "Appetite for wonder" sense early childhood.

Dawkins describes his "appetite for wonder" as a deep sense of curiosity and awe about the world around him. He writes about the joy he felt as a child exploring the countryside around his home, collecting insects and fossils, and gazing at the stars in the night sky.
Dawkins also talks about the influence of his parents, who encouraged his interests in science and fostered his intellectual curiosity. He recounts the trips they took together to museums and zoos, and the many books they read on a wide range of subjects.
Overall, Dawkins portrays his "appetite for wonder" as a lifelong passion for learning and discovery, fueled by a desire to understand the mysteries of the universe and the complexities of the natural world.

The myths that come from ancient texts are delusions, illusions, fantasies, stories, and I would include gossip. I will even warn that in the wrong hands these myths can be deadly., and have indeed been the root cause of mass killings between warring humans. It is fun to find stories that make us feel good, and seem to put life in perspective for awhile. But like all myths, they fade away unless they are repeated and proselytized.

If you are having difficulty understanding the old testament it would be to tour advantage to watch and listen carefully to this video, so that you have another perspective on how to understand it. I am not advocating for anyone adopting any particular view. But, being a believer is not the same as being a skeptic. Both are real and important to understand regarding ancient religious texts.

As a primer, an example of Dawkin's over view of the "god" of the old testament :

“The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.”​

 
Paco Dennis said:
Have you heard of Richard Dawkins? A brief bio : British evolutionary biologist, ethologist, and popular-science writer who emphasized the gene as the driving force of evolution and generated significant controversy with his enthusiastic advocacy of atheism. But he explains he has had an "Appetite for wonder" sense early childhood.
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That's the nicest introduction I've ever seen of Richard Dawkins. Richard Dawkins is a militant atheist. He has made a career of being an atheist.

When he talks of the God of the Bible as being a bunch of terms that are now outdated ways of being, it should be said that anti-trans is a term that might be said of him. His humanist of the year award was taken away for trans remarks made by him.
Richard Dawkins loses ‘humanist of the year’ title over trans comments

People can read the Bible in whatever way they choose. Looking at it through the lens of a militant atheist is one way. Looking at it through the lens of a particular religion is another. Both are fair as long as people are clear which lens they're using.
 
caramel said:
militant atheist
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The term militant atheism is described here...it has to do with "a community for atheists and freethinkers in the military, both within the United States and from around the world. The MAAF can assist U.S. military members to respond to illegal and insensitive religious proselytizing on military bases. It is an independent 501(c)(3) organization building community for freethinkers and other nontheists in the military. The MAAF supports constitutional separation of church and state and First Amendment rights for all service members. It also educates and trains both the military and civilian community about atheism and Freethought in the military." wikipedia
 
Paco Dennis said:
The term militant atheism is described here...it has to do with "a community for atheists and freethinkers in the military, both within the United States and from around the world. The MAAF can assist U.S. military members to respond to illegal and insensitive religious proselytizing on military bases.
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That's military atheists. The MAAF is the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers.

Militant atheist is what Richard Dawkins describes himself as in this TEDTalk. "Richard Dawkins urges all atheists to openly state their position -- and to fight the incursion of the church into politics and science."

Militant atheism
 
caramel said:
That's military atheists. The MAAF is the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers.

Militant atheist is what Richard Dawkins describes himself as in this TEDTalk. "Richard Dawkins urges all atheists to openly state their position -- and to fight the incursion of the church into politics and science."

Militant atheism
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It is the same thing. It is just semantics. Yes, they will fight the illegal and insensitive religious proselytizing on military bases. Some people are in the military who are involved, but not all citizens need to be IN the military to fight for the separation of church and state/policy. Like the "war" on poverty. Or fighting for your day in court. It feels to me like your inference is that it is physically involved in the fight, it is not. I hope I am misunderstanding...?
 
Also something I have always thought odd. What are is "the book" needed for when that very book says Romans 1:20 " For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse." ? Why is the book necessary if we see it all around us all the time? Isn't that a good enough reminder, or proof, or way to be spiritual? To actually be involved fully with our surroundings?
 
Paco Dennis said:
It is the same thing. It is just semantics.
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I disagree. Military atheists are not necessarily militant atheists. Some may just be atheists who are in the military.

Militant is defined as:
"The English word militant is both an adjective and a noun, and it is generally used to mean vigorously active, combative and/or aggressive, especially in support of a cause. . .

The current meaning of militant does not usually refer to a registered soldier: it can be anyone who subscribes to the idea of using vigorous, sometimes extreme, activity to achieve an objective, usually political. A "militant [political] activist" would be expected to be more confrontational and aggressive than an activist not described as militant"
Militant - Wikipedia
 
Whatever. It is immaterial. People who vehemently oppose things are aggressive. Those in congress. I would even call Bernie sanders militant on some issues. Your making it sound like some war which it is not. It has to do with the importance of separating church and state. If people want to think that is a "fight" fine. I think it is important aggressive action to stop it from happening. Which is the way things have to be done. I guess Martin Luther King Jr. would be called militant also?
 
Paco Dennis said:
The myths that come from ancient texts are delusions, illusions, fantasies, stories, and I would include gossip.
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Why such a destructive and derogatory view of something you seem to know nothing about? Mine was a critical approach, but yours is an outright attack.

In fact, I would go as far as to say that for the situation in which Juda/Israel found itself, the Bible was a brilliant strategy to give the nation a moral direction—born out by millennia and even survival in the Diaspora. The Bible is also open to paradigm change and self-critique, as with the stories of the prophets. It is always the interpretation that causes problems, less the source.
 
Stoppelmann said:
Why such a destructive and derogatory view of something you seem to know nothing about? Mine was a critical approach, but yours is an outright attack.

In fact, I would go as far as to say that for the situation in which Juda/Israel found itself, the Bible was a brilliant strategy to give the nation a moral direction—born out by millennia and even survival in the Diaspora. The Bible is also open to paradigm change and self-critique, as with the stories of the prophets. It is always the interpretation that causes problems, less the source.
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I couldn't disagree more. It is the fabricated myths that came from ancient words that religious extremists and zealots spouse that creates such a fervor. Who needs old myths to hate other people with? Why is one myth superior to another? There not. BUT, people use them for their own selfish motives. This is undeniable. Myths are like gossip, and they spread lies that make people act irrationally. You do not need someone else telling you what to believe or contemplate, because nature itself, no words, is enough for awe and wonder. Myths and stories and imagination are wonderful parts of being human, but we must be aware that they are fabrications that have no proof. They must never be treated as facts.
 
Paco Dennis said:
It is the fabricated myths that came from ancient words that religious extremists and zealots spouse that creates such a fervor.
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You have no idea of the purpose of myths, why not just leave it there? As I said, it is the interpretation of religious extremists and zealots that is the problem.
PeppermintPatty is reading the Bible, let her. If she derives something from it, fine.
Paco Dennis said:
Who needs old myths to hate other people with?
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I haven't seen anyone here hate using the Bible ...
Paco Dennis said:
Why is one myth superior to another? There not.
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No-one is saying here that one is "superior" ...
Paco Dennis said:
BUT, people use them for their own selfish motives. This is undeniable.
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Interpretation ...
Paco Dennis said:
Myths are like gossip, and they spread lies that make people act irrationally.
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Who "makes" anyone do anything?
Paco Dennis said:
You do not need someone else telling you what to believe or contemplate, because nature itself, no words, is enough for awe and wonder.
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Nobody is telling PeppermintPatty anything, she is reading a book ...
Paco Dennis said:
Myths and stories and imagination are wonderful parts of being human, but we must be aware that they are fabrications that have no proof.
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Aha, suddenly they are "wonderful" but since when did you need "proof" to read a story?
Paco Dennis said:
They must never be treated as facts.
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I've already stated that - but with a bit more respect.
 
I’m trying to read the Bible. I’ve tried the King James Version… it’s hard to read due to all the thou’s etc, I bought a kids version but the typeset is far too small, now I’ve ordered another child’s version. I just want to read the Bible. Why? I’ve studied spirituality for decades now and most of the info gives reference to the Bible.

At the moment I’m reading “Tea and Cake with Demons. It’s a book about Buddhism and I’m enjoying it. It’s easy to read and understand.

For some reason, and I’m not sure why, reading the Bible scares me. I think that’s why I’ve always given up. I’m constantly coming across the rath of God and his vengeance.
When reading spiritual literature I’ve never come across such a vengeful God.

Tea and Cake with Demons sounds scary but isn’t.

In order to complete my Bible study in 52 weeks I have to read the Bible. I’m hoping the new book I’ve ordered will work for this course I’m doing.
 

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