Showing posts with label Compassionate Action. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Compassionate Action. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 4, 2018

ALL LIFE IS ENERGY

THOUGHTS ABOUT ENERGY - BEYOND SCIENCE - AND ITS NATURE

From my conversation with a teacher and his insightful comment about bottled-up energy.

I understand "bottled-up energy" to be the same as restlessness, boredom. These psychological disturbances are the same in old and young, rich and poor. The outlet valve for these feelings if anyone would receive it and test it out, is altruism. But people, when they are focused on self and cannot see Self within, waiting for an agreement with the personality (self) that the soul needs to be active through the service of the personality in good works towards others. That is our "whole duty of man" such that at the end of the day, we are satisfied within that we "go about doing good" because it is in us to do that good. If we don't, we miss the bull's eye and don't connect doing good to others all the time with our purpose for being here.

In the Christian faith that is not fully understood by some because in reality fundamental Christians are discouraged from doing good works if they cannot prove that they do it from a "changed" heart as if the doer can present a piece of paper to the teacher or preacher showing that their hearts have been changed. When we practice altruism (Book of James) - works toward God, it is to God that the service is rendered and it is to us that God renders the reward. The good we do outwardly toward God (Humanity) is rendered back to us as spiritual peace (spiritual satisfaction, time in the secret closet) at day's end. As we lie upon our bed the Spirit of all Good daily takes us back over our life for that day; as we reflect upon the deeds, thoughts, and attitudes that ruled our day. We will get confirmation of either well done or work to be done. It is being in agreement (cahoots) with the Light that gives us peace.


When we have that peace, we seek light and help with those feelings of discontentment, bottled energy, restlessness, boredom that we become aware of. We are rewarded with Devine revelation of what we need to do in any particular thing, and for our acceptance of our part in it. Revelation from the Knower within us is our "sleeping pill" for the night's rest with the eager anticipation that we will be better persons tomorrow to better serve Humanity: those struggling for no fault and for fault, awake (the lighted way) and asleep (in materialism), which, according to the Master Jesus Christ, is our duty to do.

Mary Handy Moore
7/4/18

Monday, January 29, 2018

My philosophy of the banana peel

“Obviously, God has something to say about the relationship between sin and righteousness.  That is another discussion.  For now we need to realize that sin is a function of behavior.  It is not a quantity that must be removed or a substance that I am born with.  It is all about what I do – each and every day.  God says He will never alter His willingness to bring me into right relationship with Him.  He will always accept my decision to turn to Him.  But I have to choose what I am going to do about His invitation.  What I choose to do either encourages the relationship or frustrates it.  Even James assumes this dynamic when he says that sin is knowing what is the right thing to do and not doing it.”
https://www.skipmoen.com/2010/09/a-philosophy-of-sin/

I thought on the commercial about the banana peel and its status as a banana peel; it was still a banana peel when I thought it through. Imagine thousands and millions of people who are continually fed the lie that the banana peel is really not a banana peel ("people get hurt"). “Are you sure it is a peel? Is it possible that you do not have it right? Are you sure the information is valid? Can you be sure it is not a pomegranate instead of what you think you see?” These types of questions are legion.

Imagine if this scenario is continually fed into the psyche of certain types of personalities or souls if you will. Imagine how propaganda can defunct some people’s ability to “rightly divide the word of truth” (2Tim 2:15) if they ever had the ability in the first place. The latter would be very sad indeed. That would mean that the right way was known yet forsaken for the sake of mammon of some sort, mammon or love or admiration – these are also mammon if I, for example, see them as self-preservation or serving the personal self selfishly with no thought of the well-being of others. That is the pity. To know what is right and refuse to do it, is sinful. What is sin theologically or philosophically? I found a deep thought in the above quote about sin.

 I suggest this article by Skip Moen (September 2010) shows sin as what humans do for or against the better angel nature, which we are born with; the other side of this coin is that of being “altogether born in sin” and “iniquity.”  I suggest here that this appeals to knowing what the right thing to do is yet refusing to do it, is sin – as the verb; on the other hand, I fully understand what it means and its application as a noun. That is what inspired me about this commercial. In all things, life is a progression or regression – from light (right thought) to darkness (error, confusion, deceit, etc.). It is a choice to progress – or regress, but it is still a choice until we make the ultimate choice; then it is “Not my will…” when choice becomes internalized when we no longer struggle in the war between the right and wrong thing to do, sometimes called the “Will to Good.” By personal experience, I know this to be true in my continual progress toward the light.

Thursday, October 30, 2014

Suffer the little children

Suffer the little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: For such is the kingdom of heaven (Matt 19:14 KJV). For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? (Matt 16:26 KJV).

"Yes," I thought in my dream, "that young girl
Will someday be a Fay - least esteemed
Notwithstanding." I heard them approaching,
Loving little children coming around the bend.
I heard them gaily looking for the good. One of
Them, I heard her say, “I have my tooth that I
Pulled the other day, and I’m waiting for the tooth
Fairy!” Time passed and no fairy came to her at
This location either. Then in my Spirit-dream, I heard,
"I have lost my tooth since I got here." They looked
For it in the car and in other places, as I watched
Them in my Spirit dream. “I brought it with me
Because I am looking for the tooth fairy. Now,
I don’t have it!" As time went on, no fairies came
Among them, with or without the extracted tooth.
The beautiful little girl became despondent as little
Ones do when they feel ignored and unimportant.
She had lost her extracted little tooth that she
Brought with her but nobody cared. I watched and
Listened to them in my Spirit-dream while they were
Discussing the issue in a bathroom. I could see so
Clearly the sadness and pain in the little girl's eyes.
She had lost her tooth and no fairy came yet.
There is no tooth, so will a fairy still come? I think
Since they had no guidance and no wise one to
Intervene and console her and therefore all of them,
I heard resignation in her beautiful little child's voice
When she said while watching the water flow:
"Somebody said the tooth fairy is supposed to be
The parents." I was shocked at the blatant denial of this
Child’s childish heart wish. In my Spirit-dream, I heard
Myself say, "And the grandparents can be tooth fairies."
Hummm, the parents and grandparents let her down
And shattered her childish dreams. To her, the evidence
Of that was the lost tooth. They even shared the
Truth of there being no real Santa Clause, and
Dumped the tooth fairy in the bag with him. I kept on
Thinking that some of the most unselfish blessings
Come from Strangers even though we are discouraged
From talking to strangers.  However, I also remembered,
In my Spirit-dream, that we are also told to be
Careful how we entertain strangers because we could be
In the face of angels and not know it (a stranger can be an
Animal or a human being. Once, God showed up –
And spoke - in the form of a donkey to get a message across).
Why can God not lighten a little girl's heart by proving to
Her that fairies still exist in this world of trouble as well
As happiness? It just depends on how one chooses to
Conceive them to be or look like. Considering all this
In my Spirit-dream, I exclaimed to those little philosophizers,
"I am a tooth fairy!" Then I said, "I am a Fay!"
The little girls smiled at me but did not ask me what
I meant. They left off the conversation and went out to play.
I thought on this while in my Spirit-dream: why did
I hear this and especially look into the sad little beautiful
Faces of the girls who were lamenting for the disconsolate
One who will one day be a Fay I believe, being so
Little-esteemed (probably sadly unawares) by those
Most precious in her early-little-childhood-life? In my
Spirit-dream, the Fay had the power to make someone
Happy, and the Fay took that opportunity. When the Fay
Announced that the tooth fairy had left something on
The bureau top, the little girl made a bee-line toward it
To see if there was a fairy after all. In my Spirit-dream
I saw and heard all these things. The most precious
Sight was when the little child responded as the child
She was, happy and grateful, with a lovely big smile
And a hearty "Thank you!" In my Spirit-dream I
Remembered to be grateful for being alive for that
Moment on the Wheel, when I was the destined Fay, chosen
Among others either not willing or not able to "Suffer
The little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me.
For such is the kingdom of heaven."  Then, either I
Woke up or I was wide awake all the while. Amen and OM

MaryHandy Moore
10-30-14

Sunday, June 1, 2014

Thoughts on giving help and withholding help

HELPS IN THE SERVICE OF HUMANITY

Thoughts on the power of helps and its opposite, with thoughts on the articles by Darley and Letane (1968), which is a study on whether and to what extent people will not respond to others in trouble if there are other bystanders around.  People at this stage of personality “stand by” while a victim is suffering because of what the bystander might perceive the other bystanders might or might not do.  It suggests or predicts that a bystander will not act to help someone if another bystander does not come forth.  The other work I studied and meditated on is an article by Letane and Darley (1968), which studied, among others, the real world event of the “Kitty Genovese murder in which 38 people witnessed a killing from their individual apartments without acting, in many other emergencies several bystanders are in contact with and can influence each other. In these situations, processes other than responsibility diffusion will also operate” (Letane & Darley, 1968, p. 215).  This diffusion means that everybody and nobody is responsible for reaching out to help the suffering in collective eyes.

Thus, after researching and studying the above material on the subject of helps and refusal to help others in danger, I garnered the following ideas about what help is and is not:  Nature never made help dependent upon any outside variable such as whether people have a good day or not (Fiske, 2012, p. 355). Some people have very bad hair days, yet they can be the most helpful people who put grievances and afflictions or trials and tribulations aside while helping others in their difficulties as far as possible. They do it with a straight face, washed, greased, and looking like they have no problem in the world (Psalm 42:11).  The researchers did not control for cheery attitudes that influenced their demeanors in those studies (Cf. Fiske, 2012, p. 355, where attitudes or moods influenced helping or not helping others in distress), that is, whether bystanders were in a certain mood or held insensitive attitudes toward the scene.  Further, people are more likely to help others if alone than when in a group; it further suggested that groups should be more prone to help rather than be passive, which was not the case in the murder scene and many present day scenes (Latané & Darley, 1968, p. 216) .  Certainly, some people cannot help others in some situations, but that was not the case in the murder of a woman with 38 witnesses looking on (Latané & Darley, 1968, p. 220, para. 2), unless all onlookers faced obstacles they could not overcome to seek help for the victim. Alternately, what if all bystanders thought it was not their obligation to attempt to help or assist?

Thus, on the other hand, it could be said of all of the onlookers that collectively and individually, they failed humanity by choosing not to come to the aid of the victim (even if only by calling 911 from afar) for any number of reasons including fear (Crisp & Turner, 2010, p. 307; Darley & Latané, 1968, p. 377). For example, the Bhagavad Gita says of fear that, “Many whose craving, fear and anger are gone, who are totally focused on Me, who are purified by austerity and education, attained My level of existence. (Beloved, Chapter 4.10, p. 32). However, the fear factor among those witnesses was not documented or disclosed (p. 355), as it was shown to be a factor in Darley and Letan (1968, p. 377), where fear was an excuse for not wanting to get involved.  That is about the same as other excuses such as it is not one's business that people are being harmed in some way.  That sentiment is not an example of turning the other cheek. Some people, on the other hand, cannot help in some given situations (Fiske, 2012). It might not be their perceived Karma, debt, to act (no matter how much they possibly wish they could) (Latané & Darley, 1968, p. 220, para. 2) in that possibly one has no arms and legs, or one is mute, blind, among other things. 

Another factor could be that the onlookers knew the victim and the culprit, and made judgments calls about those two facts. One thing is not good about helping, which is why people's mere existence needs time to morph into genuine humanness (sublimated). This change enables us to know the difference. Otherwise, we can experience many delusions on the subject of helps. Conversely, the vain-glory helper still blesses the one who needs the service, whatever the reason for giving it.  No matter what the situations are that we find ourselves in, or the circumstances we face in our lives, if there is a need and we can fill it, then that is our need to fill because competent, able, and thus obligated (Crisp & Turner, 2010, p. 207; Latané & Darley, 1968, p. 220; Luke 17:10; Proverbs 22:9). If we do not have what is required to satisfy that need, it is not our obligation to do the impossible because someone else has the wherewithal to fill that Karmic deed – they know in their hearts who they are.

Conversely, people fail themselves and humanness when they are obligated to help in some situation where the help cannot be repaid sooner or later. For lack of altruistic compassion, one can walk past an assigned (by one’s own Inner Guide) obligation to reach out.  That negative response to need therefore generates a karmic debt that must be repaid (good bread versus bad bread: Eccl. 11:1; Proverbs 25:26); it means one has not possessed his or her own soul and is thus not self-directed).  In that case, one may fail to render altruistic service individually or in a group if like-minded. Thus, people refuse to lend a helping hand or fulfill a requirement due to arrogance and other variables (Micah 6:8). When we act as if we see nothing, no matter what the excuse, we have failed as human beings in the name of something, because "The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord: and he delights in his way" (Psalm 37:23). That something can be fear or envy (the worst enemies) or anything else short of mental incapacity to know the difference.

We are not required to help someone at the expense of our own lives unless conviction persuades us that it is our calling (purpose) and obligation (dharma) to perform it:  soldiers, firefighters, parents, stranger for stranger, etc. are good examples.  According to the Bhavagad Gita (2009), "Thus having understood what is higher than intelligence, keeping the personal energies under control of the spirit, uproot, O powerful man, the enemy, the form of passionate desire which is difficult to grasp" (Beloved, Chapter 3.43, p. 30). If that is the case, it is a good and altruistic sacrifice (with good reward). If we martyr ourselves in any form for vainglory, we will not profit – even if we give our bodies to be burned (1 Cor. 13:3) on the funeral pyre. Further, if it is not our purposed obligation, we bear thorns for fruit (Isaiah 5:6; Proverbs 16:19, 22:6). Our acts are in vain when we perform those acts for less than altruistic (harmless) reasons for the lack of understanding (Fiske, 2012, p. 385; (bit.ly/SnojIs).

Thus, it would not be prosocial behavior (help for the good of others). It would be promoting one's self-serving egoism. For example, in its highest sense, prosocial behavior is not personally biased in that it will help anyone, human or animal, without distinction and unconditionally, being free of egoism or has experienced a sublimated and elevated ego (integrated self). This type of behavior in its highest aspect looks beyond whether the needy is familiar, tied to the actor by blood or common interest (ingroup or my group), or of a certain ethnicity or race. Therefore, there should be no hesitance to help outgroups (not my people; not my friends; not my church; not my children; not my business) when one has the power and resources (not always money) to help the victim – another social being (Fiske, 2012; (bit.ly/SnojIs).

Mary Handy Moore
BA Sociology, Ashford University
Ordained Minister, Independent
MS Psychology,Walden University


References


Beloved, Michael. (2009, November 6). Bhagavad Gita In English. Kindle Edition.
Crisp, R. J., & Turner, R. N. (2010). Essential social Psychology (2nd ed.). Los Angeles, CA: Sage.
Darley, J. M., & Latané, B. (1968). Bystander intervention in emergencies: Diffusion of responsibility. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 8(4), 377–383.
Fiske, S. T. (2012). Social beings: Core motives in social Psychology (2nd ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Latané, B., & Darley, J. (1968). Group inhibition of bystander intervention in emergencies. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 10(3), 215–221.