seagull wrote on Mar 19th, 2014 at 5:37pm:Sure, people make mistakes, from any perspective you might describe. It's happened to you, me and everyone at some time or another. But, I don't dwell on those kinds of things because it keeps me from moving forward. It's almost always better for me to take more responsibility for my own life and my own choices, good or bad -- "turning poison into medicine" -- and leaving what doesn't work behind. Gotta go now, take care.
I understand what you are saying, agree, and think it's a good general philosophy and approach.
Sometimes, people carry wounds around, and usually fear and attachment is at the core of it.
I don't think this the case with me, for me, it's more of a detached pragmatism which includes even some caution. The same kind of caution and pragmatism that says, "Don't step out in front of a bus moving at high speeds." There will most likely be an obvious, not sought after or wanted, consequence if i do something like that.
I think it's helpful to be aware of limiting or misleading forces, for similar reasons, but spiritually--and ultimately, i consider spirituality and ones spiritual growth much more important than anything else, even including the well being of the body.
In my case, the last time this little probe was in the Earth, there were some not so loving people who wanted me out of the scene. They came up with a pretty clever and manipulative plan to do so. I fell for it, hook line and sinker. This ending up causing not just me a lot of problems and pain, but also negatively affected many others because i was very involved with large groups at the time.
This could happen, because i was too trusting and naive when it came to people's dark side, or bigger dark forces outside of humans (who had had a hand in all this too). I wasn't discerning enough. If i had been, i wouldn't have let myself get hoodwinked.
For obvious reasons, i don't ever want to fall into another manipulative trap that leads me off the spiritual path or negatively affect others, and so i do spend some time trying to discern others intents, motivations, and quality of energy. This and other experiences taught me a valuable lesson, don't ignore or repress the shadow side of reality.
There is a quote from Yeshua's teachings, which i think says it very well and sums it up nicely-- speaking to those who wanted to grow spiritually and be helpers to others: "Therefore, be wise* as serpents/snakes, but as harmless/innocent as doves."
*i think what was really meant, was not so much wise as we usually think of it, but more meant to be a combo of clever, shrewd, and aware/observant. There are those references again to serpents/snakes.