cheers,
kevin

To those few who don’t feel their life has been hard, I would say you are truly BLESSED! Or perhaps you were born with a brain chemistry which prevents you from dwelling on the negative in your life. Or maybe you had a parent/early caretaker who instilled in you a great sense of positvity and an attitude of “I can’t be kept down.” Whatever the reason, you are, in fact, in a small minority. Be eternally grateful! I’m so glad for you!

Maryann Macdonald Said:

I think you may be mistaken in assuming that the Christian viewpoint towards other religious groups is that they are “wrong.” Jesus taught us that “in my Father’s house there are many mansions.” He said that many would come from the East and the West who would hold higher places in heaven than His followers.

Christianity is not as simplistic as you seem to believe.

Perhaps if Bill had narrowed the field and replaced Catholic with Christian this might be more accurate. I was brought up Catholic, but in my teens I started asking questions regarding the Bible, Church dogma and “rules.” I couldn’t get any answers to my satisfaction; “It’s just the way it is!” By my early 20’s, I stopped attending church and began researching other religions. Now in my forties, I believe all religions have some positive aspects to offer, but none are without flaws. My Mother has always been very upset with my decision, and she firmly believes that “Catholicism is the best religion,” it’s the only RIGHT religion, and anyone who is not a Catholic won’t go to heaven! She even said it was “the first one,” and I had to enlighten her that Buddhism was much older. We’ve had many discussions/arguments over this, and she still prays for my soul daily, hoping to gain my sinning butt into heaven.

So yes, Catholics (at least in my family-my mother and her 11 brothers and sisters) do believe other religions are wrong. It also seems to me they only use passages from the Bible which suit their needs.

To charles, who wrote:
no matter where you go there you are,and what ever happens good,bad, are indiferent,. it’s your doing,no one else.

Sorry, the last phrase doesn’t fly. Perhaps in many situations, yes. But you cannot make such a blanket statement. A five-year-old molested by a pedophile. Not the child’s doing. A seventeen-year-old walking out to her car after work who is kidnapped and raped. Not her doing. A 25 year old diagnosed with breast cancer. Not her doing. A 30 year old driving home from the jewelers, where he picked up the engagment ring for his fiancee is struck and killed by a drunk driver. Not his doing. Is that enough? I think I made my point.

Bill, this was really interesting. Greatly enjoyed it. Thanks

Another good post. I have put a lot of thought into this subject myself over the years, and I have made a few observations I would like to share.

I tend to take a more philosophical/religious approach to this topic, and I have a strong belief in God (creator, universe, etc.)

But for a moment, I’d like to mention that, from the more psychological standpoint, it seems to me that whatever stage we are at, we tend to be the type of being that likes to make comparisons. If you see what makes many of us unhappy now, you will usually notice that it is because we are comparing ourselves to a self-imposed ideal. We get a view of what we believe the world is like, or should be like and when we can’t place ourselves into that picture, we experience, “hardship”. For instance, someone may look at their car and think, “What a dump.” However, if they were able to take that same exact car back in time just a few short decades, the people of that time would likely consider the same car to be a luxury. At one time, it was not uncommon for duels to occur in the middle of a street, where one man would be dead and the other would be praised as the hero and the righteous person. If that same thing happened today (at least in the U.S.), it would be considered heinous.

So, as you mentioned, no matter what level we are at, life will be hard.

From a more religious perspective, I had often wondered why a loving, caring, creator would allow so much pain to be in the world. Now I see that hardship is actually a blessing in disguise.

As you mentioned. When certain circumstances come into our lives, in order to remove or reduce the hardship, we generally need to move to the next level. So, if God wants us to grow and improve, it makes sense that He would visit pain on us.

I remember listening to someone at one time speaking about this concept, and he gave an example of an airplane manufacturer. He mentioned how one thing that was common practice was to place sandbags on the wings. They would continue to put sandbags on the wings of the prototype until the wings fell off. The reason that they did this was so that it would be clear how much the wings could hold. I think God tests us in this way so that we can see our current level of development and so we can be inspired to improve ourselves.

I met another person who also added some insight on this for me. He said, imagine for a moment, that each of us was born straight into heaven. We would completely skip this world and all the pain that it contains. As a result, we would never have had an experience of pain, and would have no real appreciation of heaven from that standpoint. Additionally, we would know of God’s existence and all of his glory and perfection immediately. This doesn’t sound so bad, except, if we were in such a position, could we possibly deny God’s existence, and what’s more, if we can’t deny that existence, could we even conceive of not loving that existence? The problem that we then experience is that we would instantly be devoid of any free will in loving God.

Another factor that often plays into our “hardship” here is our ego. This is the part of us that wants to make comparisons and strive for more than we have. I see this, too, as being important here.

Again, if we were born directly into heaven, faced with God’s glory and awesome power. In addition we would have a serious sense of personal humility and an unavoidable God fearing nature, we would then be faced with this overwhelming desire to be close to God, while simultaneously realizing our undeservingness to draw closer to Him. In this world, we have an ego, that shields us from God’s overwhelming glory, and while that ego is often the cause of many of life’s evils, it also provides us the incentive to try to become close to our creator. I believe that once we pass beyond this world, it will be much more difficult for us to become closer to God.

I hope this offers some food for thought and future discussion.

bye for now

I enjoy reading your blog as I learn much from it. I haven’t been able to attend any of your workshops but believe me there is much that you teach in what you say in these blogs and I agree we are free to read and/or not read and must be responsible for our own. Thank you for your hard work and I look forward to learning much more. Be Well.