[quote]
Originally posted by Ulrike
[b]Roy,
I would also be interested hearing from you or anyone else, how their belief in god or in something eternal effects their everyday life. For instance: Does it effect how you handle conflicts in a relationship?
*Yes. for me, The idea of karma comes into play here. By accepting everything that happens to me, whether "good" or "bad" being my responsibility in terms of my past actions and thoughts whether this lifetime or other lifetimes makes these experiences easier to accept. Likewise, one could say that we are either taking on karma or burning off karma. In a conflict, we can burn off karma and finish our karma with others...that is if we do not create more karma via our actions in how we resolve the conflict in the first place.
Does it effect your level of engagement in political processes?
*Yes. As a gift of love to others but also recognizing my own limitations in terms of intellect and other things, I try to choose the best candidates to the best of my ability. Thereafter, I detach as best as I can from the outcome. So when I vote, for instance, as I make the selections, I say, "Thy will Lord, not my will" and then thereafter, I say, "I did the best I could Lord, I give it over to you now." And this is so much of what I feel our lives are about. God will work through us not for us (In my opinion) so after we have tried our best to do the right thing, we then give the situation etc over to Spirit and then we can move on physically, emotionally and spiritually.
Are there personal disadvantages in being more conscious?
*Yes. The old saying is, "Use what you are" which has a twofold meaning:
1) OFten, We need to first recognize the smaller gifts of god in order to earn the larger gifts of god.
2) The answers to our "problems" and our "concerns" and our means to achieve "happiness" is often available to us right in the present moment and or within our present lives.
So becoming more conscious can be a very helpful tool in our lives. Not the least of which is helping us to understand and find meaning in our lives and all the joys, sorrows, challenges and tradegies that make up our lives.
Are you making personal sacrifices because of your belief?
*No. Whatever I've had to "give up" has been replaced by things much better. No sacrifices at all. But the process of learning how my actions, words and thoughts can cause me untold difficulties is and was a very difficult, long and unfortunately on-going learning process. (smile)
Does it make you less critcal of the choices that the society you live in makes?
*No. Just more detached about things. As an example, I may watch the news and say, "what a stupid idea" etc etc but I will tend to do so with less attachment than before. So I will be critical, but will do so without anger etc. Also, I have a better capacity to let people, governments, etc just be. That is, I allow people, organizations and nations a greater lattitude in learning the lessons that they need to learn without interfering. Because what is the best teacher for people and nations to raise their consciousness? The best teacher is the experiences we have. And the sooner we learn the lessons we need to learn, the sooner we can raise our concsiousness' more and move on to other lessons. Yet, some people, some organizatons, some governments feel the need to relive unpleasant experiences over and over again until hopefully one day they get the lesson. Or maybe they don't!!
p :p
Sincerely,
Dave