This story has CHANGED MY LIFE ... it may change yours as well., page 3
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reply posted on 7-10-2010 @ 12:52 PM by WakeUpAndLive
I had this same realization some years back. I had it for different reasons though. It started when I realized that I was put into situations where I acted on what I thought was best, and still had to do hurtful things. I know that I'm a good person, and that I try to do what is best for everyone these days, but at any given time, our actions are determined by our circumstances and the personalities we were born with. I have now come to understand that life puts us all in bad situations from time to time. The situation at hand is irrelevant. We all arrive in our situations in the same way, be it random or decided before birth. Therefore, people of all kinds of personalities who are all in different positions deserve compassion and understanding. We are all a product of our circumstances, and so our flaws and strengths are beyond. Instead of demonizing people who "make mistakes", realize that at any given time, everyone is acting on what they believe to be best. Even murderers, rapists, and other ill people. Imagine the amount of abuse and mental sickness it takes for someone to believe that rape or murder is their best option. Therefore, the best method is forgiveness and understanding.

I understand these truths, but there are many who don't. When I talk about being understanding, many people say that its just making excuses for those who are at fault. If you are one of these people, I ask you this. What determined your personality at birth? What determined what you liked and disliked? Why were you different from other kids? We are all born with different ways of perceiving and reacting. And we all have unique circumstances in life, whether you compare your life to yours brothers life, or someone across the world. No ones life is the same, and therefore we cannot harshly judge anyone. Keep your inner peace through forgiveness and understanding.


reply posted on 7-10-2010 @ 01:03 PM by gatorboi117
Originally posted by WakeUpAndLive
I had this same realization some years back. I had it for different reasons though. It started when I realized that I was put into situations where I acted on what I thought was best, and still had to do hurtful things. I know that I'm a good person, and that I try to do what is best for everyone these days, but at any given time, our actions are determined by our circumstances and the personalities we were born with. I have now come to understand that life puts us all in bad situations from time to time. The situation at hand is irrelevant. We all arrive in our situations in the same way, be it random or decided before birth. Therefore, people of all kinds of personalities who are all in different positions deserve compassion and understanding. We are all a product of our circumstances, and so our flaws and strengths are beyond. Instead of demonizing people who "make mistakes", realize that at any given time, everyone is acting on what they believe to be best. Even murderers, rapists, and other ill people. Imagine the amount of abuse and mental sickness it takes for someone to believe that rape or murder is their best option. Therefore, the best method is forgiveness and understanding.

I understand these truths, but there are many who don't. When I talk about being understanding, many people say that its just making excuses for those who are at fault. If you are one of these people, I ask you this. What determined your personality at birth? What determined what you liked and disliked? Why were you different from other kids? We are all born with different ways of perceiving and reacting. And we all have unique circumstances in life, whether you compare your life to yours brothers life, or someone across the world. No ones life is the same, and therefore we cannot harshly judge anyone. Keep your inner peace through forgiveness and understanding.



Wow, I never thought of it that way. The fact that everyone acts on what they think is best is just mind-boggling. Of course, this isn't true for ALL actions. Whether they think it is best for them at the immediate time, or they think it will be best later on down the road, everyone acts in their own self-interest. To be angry at someone for acting in their own self-interest is nearly hypocritical.
Now, if only we can get everyone to realize that we all act in our own self-interest, and that we all need to act in the interests of others instead. THAT would be a truly great world.

Thank-you for your addition to this discussion!


reply posted on 7-10-2010 @ 01:24 PM by pro-all
reply to post by gatorboi117



Thanks to the OP for this great story. I have had a similar realisation as you but mine is centre around the concept of infinity. I came to the conclusion that for one to be a true world or universal citizen, one has to be all things. That means ion a nutshell, somewhere, I could be a president, a peasant, a soldier, a doctor but wait a moment, this gives me goose skin, also a serial killer. I also believe one can be the lord of a planet somewhere in the universe. But I guess this idea is too much for people to grasp. In an infinite universe, all things are possible. This idea would help definitely if practised by a lot of people. Then one doesnt have to deride people because of their shape and color because they are also you.


reply posted on 7-10-2010 @ 02:01 PM by sailormon
reply to post by gatorboi117



Good thread and I wish there was more of this, yet dealing with others or parts or ourselves is really hard. I am going to tell you something, I just shared with a couple of young, but advanced people last night, I being in my 70's.

In my personal growth of late, I have been getting strange vibrations, both asleep and awake as have many others. I at times I think of putting my growth in a thread. A month or so ago I was wakened from deep sleep, entered into a quiet nothingness, and then my first thought triggered the event. I was taken out of body and shown myself within. It was a brilliant light being, pure white energy and all I can say it was joyful and if you can imagine a form of light smiling, it was. Last week or so, I talked to my 17 year old grandson and he began to tell me about his favorite dreams of flying, but friends could not see him, but he could see them. Then he blew my socks off and told me this. "I was floating above my body looking down, and out of my body I saw this pure and brilliant white light , almost like a spot light. It was pretty neat". Add this to your thoughts. Oh yea, I forgot to tell you, a voice told me when I saw my soul, "that is a sacred thing". I am of no religion and so my thoughts here are not tainted not leaning one way or another. To me now, I know we are all sacred and are far more than we know.



reply posted on 7-10-2010 @ 02:23 PM by DJM8507
That was a beautiful story. I have always felt that way and when I attempted to share that concept with others they would just look at me like I was an alien or crazy or something. Although technically I was telling possibly "inferior" cycles of myself something I was not yet ready to understand in those incarnations.

When I was very young I had a near death experience, the part that I remembered from it was the fact that I met myself and when I spoke to myself and asked if they were "God" it told me yes. When I asked why "God" looked like me, "God" smiled at me and said "because I am you, you are me, we are everyone and everything." and that is really all I remembered.

I was only 6 or 7 years old at the time, but it is one of the most vivid experiences I have had, like an ultra hyper realistic dream. Ever since then, even though I was raised Christian, I tried to treat everyone as I would like to be treated, as I always thought deep down that maybe I was everyone and everyone was me and I was really alone in this universe and this was all meant to teach me, to help me grow.

I just find it incredibly fascinating that someone put it into words in a story that mirrors my own thoughts and experience almost exactly! The concept of all incarnations of every human/living thing being 1 conscious sentient being developing in an "egg universe" in order to reach one's full potential.

S&F for you! Thank you for sharing! Or I suppose I should thank myself for posting it through your incarnation so this incarnation could read it myself.
edit on 7-10-2010 by DJM8507 because: (no reason given)



reply posted on 7-10-2010 @ 02:41 PM by gatorboi117
reply to post by DJM8507



Thank-you for the thought! While reading your reply, I had this thought occur to me: What if each life I live progressively gets better. For instance, I may have started out as Hitler, reached an average farmboy somewhere in the middle, and am destined to be the greatest people to ever live at the end of the"cycle". What does that make me now? Could I be the greatest person yet?

Whoa. I don't believe in re-incarnation, but that thought alone made me want to become the best I can possibly be.

Star for you!


reply posted on 7-10-2010 @ 02:53 PM by Q:1984A:1776
reply to post by gatorboi117



Thanks for the post OP S&F! That story made me laugh several times, made me ponder several possibilities and reinforced many ideas I've had already.

I just have to wonder how you can still call yourself a devout Christian, believing the Bible in its entirety, and consider such things...???...

Certainly, such a beautiful ideal as proposed in that story is in blatant contradiction of MANY parts of your holy book.

Here's a couple of examples:
Isaiah 13:9,15-18 contains this message from God: "Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger. . . . Every one that is found shall be thrust through. . . . Their children also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes . . . and their wives ravished. Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them. . . . [T]hey shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb; their eyes will not spare children." (So this is what is supposed to happen to the enemies of God huh? I guess I had better start following God's commandments, like: )

In Numbers chapter 31, the Lord approves of these instructions that Moses gave to the Israelite soldiers about how to treat certain women and children captured in war: "Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him. But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves." (So God approves of pedophilia?)

Or how about Deuteronomy 22:28: If a man happens to meet a virgin who is not pledged to be married and rapes her and they are discovered, 29 he shall pay the girl's father fifty shekels of silver. He must marry the girl, for he has violated her. He can never divorce her as long as he lives. (So God forces the poor girl who was raped to see her attacker every day for the rest of her life, cook his meals, clean his home, fulfill her "wifely duties" and bear his children??? Wow! all you have to do if you want to have a house-slave is rape one and pay her dad a month's wages?)

I don't mean to bash you OP, obviously you are beginning to seek other forms of spiritual guidance and I applaud you for that. I am just hoping that you (and others like you with open minds) will eventually abandon entirely this twisted religion that has molded the minds of the masses for far too long. It truly will be impossible for this world to know peace until the violent and hateful Judeo/Christian/Islamic sects lose their strangle-hold on the hearts and minds of the people.
edit on 7-10-2010 by Q:1984A:1776 because: (no reason given)



reply posted on 7-10-2010 @ 02:59 PM by Yukitup
reply to post by gatorboi117



I would first like to thank me for posting this story.

I would then like to thank me for giving me all of these stars and flags.

(it was a good story with a meaningful message Gator - thanks for posting, although the idea of me being you -- and everyone else -- does seem to take a little bit of the fun out of it)
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