Donald Hawley

Happy Fourth of July

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Donald.. I am also a Baha'i! wow.. I am completely floored to see a fellow Baha'i! Allah'u'abha.

Amazing. Have a wonderful july 4th and I am hitting the friendship button.
You are are still in the air force? my father was in the army and in Korea during that "police action" as he called it. At the battle of the Chosin resevoir. I have a strong feeling of support for people in the military though I do wish for peace. As does anyone probably in the military.

Right now my nephew has just gone to the southeastern US. I will find out where. He has joined the air force and is around 19 to 21. I have to catch up on specifics with my sister.

Since you are in the air force I guess it may sound silly but did you fly?
as a kid I had a great love of the early jet age and all the flyers and heroes and the astronauts of course.

Well anyway.. thanks for all you have done and all that all in the armed forces have done for us over the years and for the world.

Bright Blessings,
Isis

Thank you for commenting on my story Donald, much appreciated.

hi, donald! thanks for the nice ping! have a beautiful morning!

hi, donald! thanks for commenting on my june 29th article, have a beautiful evening!

You aren't going to believe this Donald...I was writing my comment and before I could finish the comment, a paranormal event took place...my comment posted without me posting it! :-)

(I accidentally hit the post button...deleted the unfinished comment and re- posted the finished comment)

Hey Donald :-)

When David writes The Gnostic Jesus, he's alleging that Jesus was a spiritual teacher in accordance with the Gnostic tradition of his day and not some Divine Savior/Lord figure so many have believed him to be over the last two millennia (almost). In this upcoming book, David talks about how he's convinced that the Gospel accounts in the Bible originated from four sources - basically four general time periods where portions of the Gospel accounts were influenced by how people perceived Jesus at the time, As time progresses, Jesus goes from being a simple spiritual teacher who taught small crowds while traveling from place to place, to a Savior figure who taught and influenced the masses and made statements that relate to him being the Son of God or the Savior of the world. I believe the time periods end somewhere in the fourth century A.D., roughly 300 years or so after the time of Jesus. I'm going off of rough memory from reading a portion of his rough draft.

Basically, David draws the conclusion that the sayings of Jesus associated with the earlier time periods are more authentic to him, while the ones from the later time periods are less authentic. He then goes through a number of Gospel passages relating to Jesus' teachings and sayings, explaining their inner meanings to the reader.

The book, of course, explains this a lot better than I do. I think it's worth checking out even if you don't agree with it. I find his explanations on a number of passages to be very thought provoking. It may cause the reader to see a number of famous Gospel passages from a new point of view. Hopefully, it'll be available as a free e-book soon. :-)

I've heard about Red-Letter Christians, those who prefer to focus primarily or only on Jesus' actual words from the Bible. It really does amaze me how a lot of Christians seem to ignore what Jesus plainly said. We're not even talking about something that only makes sense when explained in inner terms. Simple stuff like don't judge others, forgive others so you too can be forgiven and love your neighbor as yourself seem to be ignored a good deal. I think the main reason is because it's a lot easier to get your understanding of the Bible from a relatively short weekly church service than to study the Word yourself to allow yourself to know its contents and confirm your life to it.

I find it much easier to believe in Christ than to live like Christ. A lot less effort is involved here, which I believe is represented in the parable of the road that leads to destruction (loss of ego-based consciousness after physical death) versus the straight and narrow path than leads to life (spiritual enlightenment in this lifetime).

I remember somewhere in the Bible, maybe Psalms or Proverbs, where it talks about hiding the word in our hearts that we might not sin against God. It takes time and dedication to do that, and I imagine most Christians aren't up to the task. They prefer the easy path and are probably more interested in the ways of the world than the ways of God. Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also (Matthew 6:21). The things we spend much of our time with relate to what we value in our heart.

What I love about The Gnostic Jesus and The Gospel of Thomas: A Blueprint for Spiritual Growth is that they keep it simple by focusing on what Jesus is actually saying rather than the teachings of Paul many Christians are so used to.

Take care.
Kevin :-)

Donald-------Thanks for visiting my picture essay. I will attempt another one I have tons of pics. of Sanford. I am glad that you enjoyed it.

Hello Donald :-)

Thank you for these lovely and engaging message pings.

When I talked about our ability to eventually transcend religion and move on to greater and greater truths as one would climb further and further up the rungs of a ladder, I wasn't trying to imply that we would isolate ourselves from other people and disengage from positive social interaction regarding spirituality. The spiritual growth I'm attaining actually allows me to better interact with other people over time by removing my social inadequacies (fear, insecurity, jealousy, shyness, disrespect, etc.). By taking the time to resolve my negative thoughts and emotions, I improve my ability to help others as well as have fun with people and share meaningful experiences.

For the moment, I am mostly to myself because the spiritual exercises I do can cause me to experience negative moods from time to time, much like someone experiencing headaches and other forms of physical pain as they cleanse harmful toxins from their body. However, in the long run, my overall decrease in negative thoughts and emotions and increase in the love-based counterparts allow me to enjoy life and my time with others. Inner healing works if you do it right!

The kind of spiritual growth I'm talking about isn't about shunning social interaction, at least not in the long run. If it's appropriate considering the circumstances, then OK, but ultimately I feel all this inner healing and spiritual growth is meant to bring us all together in freedom, harmony and holiness (wholeness). After all, what good is it to be One if we're just going to isolate ourselves from others? That kind of lifestyle appeals to our ego, not our spirit. The ego is into separation while the spirit is into Oneness.