Groups > The Golden Rule

The first book that I read that really spoke to me in a spiritual way was "The Road Less Travelled" by M. Scott Peck. For some reason, at that point in my life, the first sentence in his book really hit me in the face and gave me a different perspective. He starts out by saying "Life is difficult". Then he goes on to say that life is meant to be difficult, that life is the process of meeting and overcoming a series of obstacles and difficulties, and in that process we grow and learn and fulfill our life's purpose.

At that time, that whole idea just blew me away. I had always had the idea that life was supposed to be easy and fun and wonderful, and I couldn't figure out why MY life wasn't like that. Reading his book helped me realize that my life was normal and that the people who went around all the time in this happy-go-lucky, mindless state were the oddballs who were missing out on the real purpose and meaning of their lives.

I highly recommend this book and then after reading "The Road Less Travelled" move on to any of his other books. Maybe you'll be moved in the way I was moved, or maybe not, but I guarantee you'll learn something!

Hope everyone has a good day and I'll be back later!

Growing up, I had very little exposure to (my term) formal religion. So my journey began when I started to attend Al-Anon. They talked about turning our lives over to God, as we understood him. I learned then to use the term Higher Power, which felt more true for me. This journey really started to take hold with authors such as Wayne Dyer and Louise L. Hay. They planted seeds that have continued over the years to grow and expand. There have been many over the years, M. Scott Peck; Neale Donald Walsch; Dan Millman; Gary Zukav; Mary Summer Rain...that have touched the spark within. These authors and many years of soul-searching have contributed to help me to grow, expand and become more consciously aware of being a student of this Earth School.

I hope it's okay, I'd like to include a quote from Gary Zukav's book: The Seat of the Soul.

"As you come to recognize the power of your consciousness, that what is behind your eyes, so to speak, holds more power than what appears in front of them, your inner and outer perceptions change. You cannot become compassionate with yourself without becoming compassionate with others, or with others without becoming compassionate with yourself. When you are compassionate with yourself and others, your world becomes compassionate. You draw to yourself other souls of like frequency, and with them you create, through your intentions and your actions and your interactions, a compassionate world."

You are so right to put compassion here, Durqu. That is a word I have more regard for than love. I know when I experience compassion, I feel I'm on a higher plane of life. When others have been compassionate towards me or ones I love, the feeling that best describes the moment is awe. I want compassion in my life, as much as I can get.

So, being compassionate with ourselves seems to come first. I have a little trouble here, but it's getting better. It helps to know that by using compassion as my motivation for the messages I tell myself, then my actions will conform to my thoughts, and compassion for others naturally follows; the circle becomes complete.

I also loved what you said about us being in Earth school. Why else would we struggle so to learn and grow? Plus, in school, there's something for everyone to study. People who aren't drawn to spiritual subjects study pure science, or something else that makes them eager to learn.

Exactly, DeeD and durqu! This is exactly how I feel about life -- it is our Earth school. I've always felt that my most important "mission" in life is to try to learn as much as I can. But not just about ordinary school subjects. I want to learn about what makes people tick, what does it "all" mean, how did "we" (meaning mankind) get to this point, etc. etc. You know the deep, heavy, important stuff!

Of course, part of the problem with this, is that most of these questions are unanswerable, at least definitively. Also, it doesn't make for the best cocktail party conversation, does it? :-) In fact, it kind of puts a damper on a lot of conversations and friendships I've found!

That's why I'm really enjoying talking to you guys and others here on tbd. Even though not everyone agrees, at least we are tackling some of these difficult topics!

Yes, there's more to us than "just" psychology. If psychology could explain us, then we would know it all by now. This more than anything has convinced me that we are spiritual beings engaged in physical complexity. We are all the same on the outside, and we can all agree that facts are facts. But more people than not know there is a lot more going on in our inner lives than we can easily express, something that exceeds what we know from physical experiences: growing from a baby into an adult, and all that entails. As we mature, we find that we've collected esoteric questions that stick to our minds the way thorny weeds stick to our socks.