ciel,
Thanks Ciel.![Smile :) :)](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
--Dauer
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Leo,
It's okay. Sometimes I don't state myself clearly and I often embrace seeming paradox.
Are you asking if I know this cognitively as an absolute or if I experience God as a part of my reality?
In answer to the first question, I avoid holding absolute truths. I make an effort not to allow myself to become convinced that my way of viewing the world is an absolute truth. Certain spiritual practices leave us more open to the power of suggestion so I do what I can to prevent any experience, awareness, or thoughts that arise during spiritual practice from becoming too concrete.
In answer to the other question, God is my reality.
Absolutely.
There's a hasidic hanhagah, an instructional teaching from hasidism, concerning prayer. In prayer there is a motion some Jews make of rocking back and forth called shuckling. This teaching suggests that when a man prays (it is, as you will see, quite clearly directed to a male audience and does not reflect any personal bias against women practicing an analogue to this hanhagah) he should imagine he is making love to the shechinah. In Judaism the shechinah is God's presence and the Divine feminine. Can you imagine the power of that, starting off the davennen maybe by engaging in a little spiritual foreplay. Whispering a few sweet nothings to the Beloved, garbing oneself in something that makes you feel holy, then maybe just standing there, still, looking into each other's eyes, drinking each other in. Then you start off slowly in your prayer, fully present for each moment. As you get more excited the intensity increases. The words are pouring from you. Your heart breaks open in a climactic moment of union with the Beloved.
Standing still, you catch your breath, ground yourself, offer gratitude and smile.
Dauer
If I were to quote from your posts on this thread....... I would wish to quote and requote them all....You excel...... I agree.
The divine loves when love is the ascendant key.
Thanks Ciel.
--Dauer
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Leo,
ok, dauer, i am confused.
It's okay. Sometimes I don't state myself clearly and I often embrace seeming paradox.
do you know, without a doubt in the fiber of your entire being, if God exists?
Are you asking if I know this cognitively as an absolute or if I experience God as a part of my reality?
In answer to the first question, I avoid holding absolute truths. I make an effort not to allow myself to become convinced that my way of viewing the world is an absolute truth. Certain spiritual practices leave us more open to the power of suggestion so I do what I can to prevent any experience, awareness, or thoughts that arise during spiritual practice from becoming too concrete.
In answer to the other question, God is my reality.
and if you KNOW He exists, do you love Him, with all your heart, mind, and soul?
Absolutely.
There's a hasidic hanhagah, an instructional teaching from hasidism, concerning prayer. In prayer there is a motion some Jews make of rocking back and forth called shuckling. This teaching suggests that when a man prays (it is, as you will see, quite clearly directed to a male audience and does not reflect any personal bias against women practicing an analogue to this hanhagah) he should imagine he is making love to the shechinah. In Judaism the shechinah is God's presence and the Divine feminine. Can you imagine the power of that, starting off the davennen maybe by engaging in a little spiritual foreplay. Whispering a few sweet nothings to the Beloved, garbing oneself in something that makes you feel holy, then maybe just standing there, still, looking into each other's eyes, drinking each other in. Then you start off slowly in your prayer, fully present for each moment. As you get more excited the intensity increases. The words are pouring from you. Your heart breaks open in a climactic moment of union with the Beloved.
Standing still, you catch your breath, ground yourself, offer gratitude and smile.
Dauer