Quote:
Originally Posted by Merrick1  I know I am able to help others, and I believe that’s a good way to live a life. So I’m going to continue to do it. And if one day I find out that all the information I thought I was getting from spirit guides was actually coming from a bored alien on a spaceship who had nothing better to do than broadcast this information to me, so be it. I will have chosen to spend my time in service to others, and that’s a choice I would make regardless of what is real and what is not.
I like this attitude, Erin. However, I do not agree with you that we cannot know. There is an insurmountable difference between awareness and thinking, between reality and opinions. As far as I am concerned, how can we even talk about personal development if we don't understand the difference?
Awareness is the key. Without it, we really live in the realm of beliefs and opinions.
Merrick |
I think the issue here is the difference in the definition of "knowing."
For me, "knowing" something leaves one result and absolutely no possibilities open. Delving into the spiritual realm has surpised me, added to, and even changed my beliefs MANY, MANY, MANY times. There were things that I thought I knew.
When I was a kid, I used to know there was a big dude in the sky with a big white beard and a staff who was highly pissed at me because I ate candy even though my mother told me not to. Then I grew up, had lots of personal experiences, and now I know that I don't know any of that. LOL. I know that I believe that God is everywhere and in everything and is more of a collective experience and source than a being. I also believe it doesn't care what I believe. GOD I hope I am right about that. LOL.
I also used to know that Santa Claus put presents under my tree every Christmas and that if I didn't clean my room every night, he would know about it and give all of next years' presents to kids that were grateful for their toys. LOL. Then one Christmas we got no presents and my mom had to explain why. So that knowledge turned to former belief. And now I hear that Santa may have once been a real man, but I don't know for sure. I choose to believe it though because it's a beautiful, nostaligic thought.
I used to know that my father was a faithful, loving, and kind husband who just drank a little too much. Now I believe that he is loving and kind, but I know he's not faithful and I believe that he was an alcoholic, although he believes otherwise.
There are things I've known throughout my life, and those are just silly little examples, but there are things I've known even as an adult WITHOUT A DOUBT that all of the sudden change.
I don't BELIEVE anything is really set in stone. I also BELIEVE if we allow it to be, then we don't have room for flexibility and we rob ourselves of the possibility to learn to our fullest capacity. But I don't know any of that for sure and others might believe otherwise, and I'm ok with that.
