rondele wrote on Nov 9th, 2015 at 4:26pm: We should focus on living a good life, helping those in need, being compassionate, and just being grateful for our life and our human consciousness. All the rest is just background static and meaningless noise.
Would very much agree that the above is the most important part and focus, but that doesn't somehow dictate that all the rest is meaningless. It doesn't have to be so black and white, extreme, and "either or".
Clearly both beliefs and knowns can have a powerful influence on perception, which in turn has a powerful influence on choice and thus behavior. This influence can be very expanding or hindering, depending on the beliefs and knowns and how they relate to that individual and it's various patterns and idiosyncrasies.
But ultimately, it's what you do and choose with what you know and believe, that really directly causes consciousness growth or stuckness.
For a person who has had the kind of experiences i've had, it's very hard to believe that reincarnation doesn't exist in some form or manner.
I think i will go with my own direct, transformative experience involving multiple synchronistic events involving other people with much, much higher odds over what chance allows, over someone's intellectual opinions and leanings. One's a positive and one's a negative. Very hard to confirm/verify a negative.
I wonder, have you ever deeply and sincerely over a time period, asked God, guidance, Jesus, or whatever or whomever you may view as a "higher power", to show you the truth of the matter in a way that you can perceive and understand?
This combo of prayer and listening is a great practice to get into, as it's a way to set aside self, and the ego's preconceptions and be humble and open to the fact that the personality self might not know what is or isn't true about the big mysteries.
The ego side of us, does not like to engage in this though. Because it can sense when a belief system crash might happen, and these tend to be very painful to that human, largely body based side of us that we all have to varying degrees.
Nonetheless, it just may be an important part of that spiritual growth process as a human. Or why did even Jesus constantly pray both to know the will of God, and that the will of God should be done over his own little will and awareness?
He was humble enough to recognize that he probably didn't know it all and needed help and guidance from that which was more aware and expanded than his personality self.
When others sincerely do likewise and with positive, service oriented intentions/motivations, they will be led to expanded truths and perceptions.
If a person is not practicing this daily, deeply, and sincerely, then they should probably not be giving spiritual advice to others.