hinduism discussion board

 Interestingly, I find the idea of selfless action to be in line with the Taoist concept of non-action. Selfless action being about doing something for the purity of the duty itself, not because you have attchment to the results and non-action being acting in line with the universe without forcing a particular outcome. This parallel is driven home in Chapter 2, verse 47: "You have the right to work, but never to the fruit of work. You should never engage in action for the sake of reward, nor should you long for inaction." Its interesting as this is all about how one's mental state is while doing something, not in the action itself. 

"Nishkama karma is not “good works” or philanthropic activity; work can benefit others and still carry a substantial measure of ego involvement. Such work is good, but it is not yoga. It may benefit others, but it will not necessarily benefit the doer. Everything depends on the state of mind. Action without selfish motive purifies the mind: the doer is less likely to be ego-driven later. The same action done with a selfish motive entangles a person further, precisely by strengthening that motive so it is more likely to prompt selfish action again. (pg 53)"

I would argue that Krishna abandoning his divine state and reincarnating in human form every so often to guide humanity would be a form of Nishkama Karma. Chapter 4, verse 7&8 : "Whenever dharma declines and the purpose of life is forgotten, I manifest myself on earth. I am born in every age to protect the good,to destroy evil, and to reestablish dharma." 

On the one hand he is taking action because life is out of balance; which one might take to mean he is invested in the outcome. However I didn't interpret this as a "I want good to win so I am getting involved!" I see this more in the way that Ma'at was maintained in Egypt - he is not acting out of a personal desire but rather out of  a duty to maintain balance.  Following one's duty, regardless of outcome, because it is one's duty. 

(I see why Krishna is compared to Jesus often, and why when missionaries first tried to bring Chrisitanity to India Jesus was seen as anaother Avatar of him.)

Final papers....

 I have 3 final papers. 

2 (both 7-8 pages; one with a presentation) due April 13th. Meaning one I need to do the 7th - 11th and the other I need to do the 31st - 4th. 

THE PRESENTATION IS DUE MARCH 3RD. FUCK THATS A TIGHT TURN AROUND. Write paper Monday and Tuesday. Presentation on Wednesday and submit. 

1. Background and community contexts of the care you offered. Be mindful of confidentiality.
2. The main issues of pastoral and spiritual care involved. Consider the topics of race, class, gender, and/or sexuality. --> Forigivenes vs revenge. Why he can't seem to move on even though he has won. 
3. Your theological reflection on the care you provided. --> Forgiveness. Lilithian perspective. 
4. A possible care plan for the person or the community you provided care for.  ---> Chord cutting ceremony and Therapy recommended

Meaning I need to do the short one (3-4 pages) - THIS WEEK. I should do it tomorrow...

https://unitedseminary.instructure.com/courses/1528/assignments/10351

• Consider intersected issues of spiritual care and social justice and provide the reasons why you have these interests.
• Describe the insights or new knowledge you have gained from the readings.
• Discuss what you have found disturbing or disagreeable in the readings.
• How have the readings affirmed or challenged your theological perspectives?
• How would you apply the sociocultural and global aspects in the readings to your practice of pastoral/spiritual care?

I'll just use the chapter I did about the queer community. 

links to read for pagan spiritual direction

•  https://samaracarecounseling.org/on-being-a-spiritual-director-and-clinical-psychologist/
• https://pilgrimsteps.org/spiritual-direction/
• https://www.patheos.com/blogs/naturessacredjourney/2021/02/why-we-need-pagan-spiritual-direction/
• https://www.waht.nhs.uk/en-GB/Our-Services1/Non-Clinical-Services1/Chapel/Faith-and-Culture/Paganism/#:~:text=Pagans%20believe%20that%20nature%20is,that%20is%20of%20this%20earth.
• https://www.tokeepsilent.me/what-is-spiritual-direction#:~:text=For%20my%20Pagan%20path%2C%20spiritual,dialogue%20about%20goals%20and%20reflection.
• https://braidedway.org/spiritual-direction-a-movement-towards-soul-wholeness/#:~:text=Spiritual%20direction%20often%20is%20a,the%20act%20of%20sitting%20meditation.

I want to fight paul.

 I want to fight the apostle paul. He can catch these hands. 

That being said his own words can be used against him. 

“- these things God has revealed  to us through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches everything, even the depth of God….Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit of God, so that we may understand the gifts bestowed on us by God. And we speak of these things in words taught not by human wisdom, butr taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual things to those who are spiritual…Those who are spiritual discern all things, and they are themselves subject to no one’s scrutiny.” 1 CR 2:10, 12-13, 15 

My take away? Listen not to the words of men and instead listen to the spirit of God and the knowledge it brings. 

Who wrote the bible? - Men. 

Do not follow the bible as anything more than suggestion  - it was written by Men. Supposedly enlightened men who are preaching from the knowledge they have been given by Spirit... take it with a grain of salt. 

Use your own spiritual discernment and you will be above anyone's scrutiny. 

pastoral care short paper #2

 Understanding a person’s context through a sociocultural and global lens is key in pastoral and spiritual care. The aim of this assignment is to broaden students’ interests in intersected issues of spiritual care and social justice. For this assignment, students can extend their presentation from Injustice and the Care of Souls or Postcolonial Images of Spiritual Care or choose other topics related to social justice and care from the reading materials. The paper should be 3 to 4 pages in length.

In this paper, students should address the following:

Consider intersected issues of spiritual care and social justice and provide the reasons why you have these interests.

• Describe the insights or new knowledge you have gained from the readings.
• Discuss what you have found disturbing or disagreeable in the readings.
• How have the readings affirmed or challenged your theological perspectives?
• How would you apply the sociocultural and global aspects in the readings to your practice of pastoral/spiritual care?

***most of my quotes will come from my presentation. Bring in the 4 pillars from Pastoral care textbook

Pastoral care final - notes

•  Classism... i tend to be a bit prejudice towards though in an upper class
• sexism ... i enheriently trust me less. however i try to remain as empathetic as possible to their struggles and try to make sure i don't cmpare them to the level of women... "its not the struggle Olympics" 
• sexism: I tend to have a overly protective initial emo0tional reaction to women i feel are forced into traditional or not healthy dynamics and roles 
• pagan perspective working with a former Christian turned atheist. 

intersectional  - where my iceburg crosses into his experiences and influences my care (above points)

life limiting belief that he had 

values, emotions, beleifs, coping -- identifying his 4 pillars  --- alcoholism 

wanting to be non religious... opening with a reading and then leading into questions of forgiveness, grudges, revenge, and being unable to let go. pleasure at one upping, etc. --- leading into different points of view - you don't owe anyone forgiveness. Then it turning to psychoology with narcassistic abuse and understanding the power dynamic and manipulation - cptsd and human nature. which also leads to his coping mechanism - alcoholism. weaing his drinks. dry january. he went 6 months and relapsed over new years. 

look at highlighted and dog eared pages for quotes 

Ecclesiastes discussion board

 Hey guys. I actually struggled with this chapter a lot. There seemed to be a lot that I felt really conflicted about.

At first it felt very Nihilistic and honestly a bit judgmental. He kept treferring to how meaningless everything was ( All was vanity - EC 1:2) and how foolish people are to persue happiness. Any attempt to to influence to seek happiness was like "chasing the wind"... but to me he just seemed ungrateful. There is joy in chasing the wind, there should be gratitude for the ability to chase, for the wind itself, and for the desire to do so (to continue his anaology). So the beginning of the book immediatley rubbed me the wrong way. 

I only pulled a few examples but can easily add more - I had a few trains of thought as I read. 

1) Certain verses were truly depressing and nihilistic 

• 1:8-10 "All things are full of weariness;  a man cannot utter it; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. 9 What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun 10 Is there a thing of which it is said,  “See, this is new” It has been already in the ages before us. 11 There is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembranceof later things yet to be among those who come after."
• 7:2-4 "2 It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, for death is the destiny of everyone; the living should take this to heart. 3 Frustration is better than laughter, because a sad face is good for the heart.4 The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of pleasure."

1) in some areas I could see how it could be used to bring comfort. Almost in a very Buddhist/Taoist sort of way.

•  3:12-13 "12 I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live.13 That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God.
•  3:19-22 "19 Surely the fate of human beings is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath ; humans have no advantage over animals. Everything is meaningless. 20 All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return. 21 Who knows if the human spirit rises upward and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?” 22 So I saw that there is nothing better for a person than to enjoy their work, because that is their lot. For who can bring them to see what will happen after them?"
• 5:15 "Everyone comes naked from their mother’s womb, and as everyone comes, so they depart. They take nothing from their toil that they can carry in their hands."
• 7:14 "When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider this: God has made the one as well as the other. Therefore, no one can discover anything about their future."
• 8:15 "So I commend the enjoyment of life, because there is nothing better for a person under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad. Then joy will accompany them in their toil all the days of the life God has given them under the sun."

2) In others I could see how it could easily be used for opressing others.

• 5: 12 The sleep of a laborer is sweet, whether they eat little or much, but as for the rich, their abundance permits them no sleep.
• 5:18-19 "This is what I have observed to be good: that it is appropriate for a person to eat, to drink and to find satisfaction in their toilsome labor under the sun during the few days of life God has given them—for this is their lot.19 Moreover, when God gives someone wealth and possessions, and the ability to enjoy them, to accept their lot and be happy in their toil—this is a gift of God."
• 6:10 "Whatever exists has already been named, and what humanity is has been known; no one can contend with someone who is stronger."
• 7:26 "I find more bitter than death the woman who is a snare, whose heart is a trap and whose hands are chains. The man who pleases God will escape her, but the sinner she will ensnare."
• 7:28 "while I was still searching but not finding— I found one upright man among a thousand, but not one upright woman among them all."

3) And in a similar vein... It speaks about the opression from God. 

• 2:24-26 "A person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own toil. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, 25 for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment? 26 To the person who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.
•  3:14 "14 I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that people will fear him."
•  5:7 "7 Much dreaming and many words are meaningless. Therefore fear God."
• 9:1 "So I reflected on all this and concluded that the righteous and the wise and what they do are in God’s hands, but no one knows whether love or hate awaits them."

I promise I am not trying to beat a dead horse, but the more I read of the bible, the more flawed I see the Christian God. I would not go so far as to describe him as an evil god, not by a long shot, but he is definitley just as flawed as any other deity. As much as I like the peaceful parts of this book, the thing that just stands out to me the most in the most frustrating way is how much of unpelasant deity this description of the biblical God is and how that can have such a negative effect on those that follow him - such as the depressive nihilism of the beginning chapter

EC 2:17-20

"17 So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. 18 I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me. 19 And who knows whether that person will be wise or foolish? Yet they will have control over all the fruit of my toil into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun. This too is meaningless. 20 So my heart began to despair over all my toilsome labor under the sun."

Although I find it odd that almost the entire chapter 9 contradicts the energy and angst of the first 8 chapters.