09-27-2010, 01:42 AM
(This post was last modified: 09-27-2010, 01:51 AM by Questioner.)
Crimson, I apologize if my attempt at humor came across as condescending. You are raising serious points here.
My intent is to have a respectful exchange of ideas. With close to 1,000 posts from me here, you are certainly welcome to examine the evidence as to whether you can believe what I say about my intent. What seems to me to be a preponderance of positive reactions to these thousand posts by other forum participants, including moderators, may, I humbly submit, also be relevant evidence. I believe my present lapse of judgment was a sincere mistake of the moment and nothing more offensive. That said, I agree civility is important here and I ask forgiveness for my lapse.
I already asked if there was some kind of confirmation that the messages are indeed from Castro. I haven't seen your response. I apologize if I overlooked it.
May I try again to express my opinion, in a more factual way?
When walking down a street, one may have a goal of safety. One might also encounter various dangers, which seem to contradict that goal. Some dangers seem quite likely, some might seem plausible, some seem rather farfetched. Yet we simply do not know what we will encounter, until we encounter it.
A prayer for safety and harmony is all encompassing. In my own opinion, I suspect that such a simple, positive prayer is not made more powerful by enumerating all the dangerous harms which one knows about, or could imagine. I attempted to illustrate this point with a satirical exaggeration, for which it appears an apology is in order. I apologize for trying to use hyperbole, rather than making my point in a more direct way.
My desire was to make an analogy towards a prayerful invitation for divine contribution to world peace. I am unable to physically do anything about evil dictatorships, which certainly seem too entrenched for anyone to overthrow. The utmost I could possibly do to thwart them is to pray that they be removed through some spiritual means beyond my comprehension; beyond my ability to contribute in any way other than praying for peace.
My question is whether a prayer for peace and justice is more powerful if it includes requests that divine resources oppose specific scenarios of war and corruption which one might know about. My own personal answer is that the prayer for world peace is all inclusive, and not made more powerful by my ability to enumerate the specific evils and threats in the world.
If I ask and invite heavenly forces of good to block the efforts of evil, are they better able to do so based on information I might assemble in researching current events? I don't see how this could be the case. Spiritual forces would already, I assume, be in a better position than me to know where humanity is injured by political evils.
This is just my own perspective. It comes from my own attempts to use logic and intuition to conclude what I can personally do, when confronted the abundance of scary bad news available concerning current events and political woes worldwide. Without anyone else losing anything, I feel my own mind, heart, and spirit are better uplifted, and my potential to serve my fellow humans, is increased as I focus on things clearly in my power to bless, to love and to take action that can make tangible improvements.
Despite how I feel grounded and astute as I express this opinion, it may well be a foolish, unbalanced, spiritually immature perspective for me to have about my own life. Of course I've been mistaken about many things in my life. If that's the case here, I'd appreciate guidance towards a greater wisdom. May it be said that, from this perspective - however limited and ill-advised it may be - the Castro information might be interesting. It would not, however, be on the critical path towards my own healing and spiritual evolution.
I was quite taken aback with the apparent vigor of your offense at my post. I hope that we may be able to mend a relationship of mutually respectful conversation. Perhaps you might let me know if I've reasonably shown goodwill towards this goal. If you see me as having failed at this attempt, please let me know what else you believe would be fair.
My intent is to have a respectful exchange of ideas. With close to 1,000 posts from me here, you are certainly welcome to examine the evidence as to whether you can believe what I say about my intent. What seems to me to be a preponderance of positive reactions to these thousand posts by other forum participants, including moderators, may, I humbly submit, also be relevant evidence. I believe my present lapse of judgment was a sincere mistake of the moment and nothing more offensive. That said, I agree civility is important here and I ask forgiveness for my lapse.
I already asked if there was some kind of confirmation that the messages are indeed from Castro. I haven't seen your response. I apologize if I overlooked it.
May I try again to express my opinion, in a more factual way?
When walking down a street, one may have a goal of safety. One might also encounter various dangers, which seem to contradict that goal. Some dangers seem quite likely, some might seem plausible, some seem rather farfetched. Yet we simply do not know what we will encounter, until we encounter it.
A prayer for safety and harmony is all encompassing. In my own opinion, I suspect that such a simple, positive prayer is not made more powerful by enumerating all the dangerous harms which one knows about, or could imagine. I attempted to illustrate this point with a satirical exaggeration, for which it appears an apology is in order. I apologize for trying to use hyperbole, rather than making my point in a more direct way.
My desire was to make an analogy towards a prayerful invitation for divine contribution to world peace. I am unable to physically do anything about evil dictatorships, which certainly seem too entrenched for anyone to overthrow. The utmost I could possibly do to thwart them is to pray that they be removed through some spiritual means beyond my comprehension; beyond my ability to contribute in any way other than praying for peace.
My question is whether a prayer for peace and justice is more powerful if it includes requests that divine resources oppose specific scenarios of war and corruption which one might know about. My own personal answer is that the prayer for world peace is all inclusive, and not made more powerful by my ability to enumerate the specific evils and threats in the world.
If I ask and invite heavenly forces of good to block the efforts of evil, are they better able to do so based on information I might assemble in researching current events? I don't see how this could be the case. Spiritual forces would already, I assume, be in a better position than me to know where humanity is injured by political evils.
This is just my own perspective. It comes from my own attempts to use logic and intuition to conclude what I can personally do, when confronted the abundance of scary bad news available concerning current events and political woes worldwide. Without anyone else losing anything, I feel my own mind, heart, and spirit are better uplifted, and my potential to serve my fellow humans, is increased as I focus on things clearly in my power to bless, to love and to take action that can make tangible improvements.
Despite how I feel grounded and astute as I express this opinion, it may well be a foolish, unbalanced, spiritually immature perspective for me to have about my own life. Of course I've been mistaken about many things in my life. If that's the case here, I'd appreciate guidance towards a greater wisdom. May it be said that, from this perspective - however limited and ill-advised it may be - the Castro information might be interesting. It would not, however, be on the critical path towards my own healing and spiritual evolution.
I was quite taken aback with the apparent vigor of your offense at my post. I hope that we may be able to mend a relationship of mutually respectful conversation. Perhaps you might let me know if I've reasonably shown goodwill towards this goal. If you see me as having failed at this attempt, please let me know what else you believe would be fair.