Category Archives: grass-roots ethics

Social Responsibility is Self-Serving

Posted on by under Finding our unique way, grass-roots ethics, simple spiritual insights

Spirit shares perennial wisdom with me, and
perhaps, some others.

He tells me that whatever we do as work or play,
we do to serve ourselves.

Some people seem to need to do whatever
without much, or any pleasure, but from
a sense of responsibility to self or others.

Why?

Social conditioning?

No.

Then, why?

We each connect to everyone else, with
or without social conditioning. That serves
to remind us of this connection.
It doesn’t create it.

Then, how does this serve ourselves?

To serve ourselves well requires that
some others also benefit.

Why?

It helps to protect us from losing
what we have to others, who might
seek to serve only themselves.

So, sharing with others implies
a reciprocal understanding?

Yes. You help me and I’ll help you.

Should I ever need your help?

Yes, and you will, or might.

A shopping cart of thoughts and emotions

Posted on by under developing awareness, Finding our unique way, grass-roots ethics

Spirit shares words of wisdom.

Spirit tells me that all thoughts and all emotions
have value; some more and some less.

Who determines their value?

We each do.

How can we be said to choose thoughts and emotions
when they sometimes seem to flood, unwelcome
into our minds.

We choose to let them into our minds.

How?

Through habit-forming mental laziness, as in
habitually choosing the same food items at
a market.

Food for thought?

Yes. We ignore those items we do not generally
include in our diet or on our menu.

At the market, it’s easier and quicker to shop
if I know what I’m looking for.

Yes, and you do not pay much attention, if any,
to the many possible alternatives available.

But, I do buy what I believe is nutritious and
that I enjoy eating.

There may be many other available food items
equally nutritious that, perhaps, if you would
allow yourself to adapt to, you might enjoy,
at least as much or more than the foods you
now regularly purchase.

Then I would have to choose which, when I only
need one or another.

Perhaps they could become equal, more or less
alternatives.

Haven’t we wandered from thoughts and emotions?

One of us may have.

How do they connect?

They don’t.

Then, what?

They relate.

How do they relate?

They each require being chosen. Food items do not
put themselves into your shopping basket.

And, thoughts and emotions …

Yes. They do not place themselves into your mind.

My mood determines …

What or who determines your mood?

I’ll have to think about that.

Yes.

To serve only oneself is impossible.

Posted on by under developing awareness, grass-roots ethics, seeking the middle way, simple spiritual insights

Spirit shares words of wisdom.

Spirit tells me that it’s impossible to serve only oneself.
We are, each and every one, too interconnected for that
to be possible.

What if I catch my own fish, grow my own vegies and fruit,
and drink water from my own well?

None of that would be available to serve your needs
if others had consumed, destroyed, or contaminated
what you would otherwise enjoy.

Why would anyone do that?

Why would they not?

It would be self-destructive.

Yes.

Teachers as Messengers?

Posted on by under developing awareness, grass-roots ethics, seeking the middle way, Spirit shares words of wisdom

Spirit shares gems of wisdom.

Spirit tells me that I am not the one who is directing
His traffic, nor is He directing mine, except …

Except what?

Not what, but how and why? We each serve a higher purpose
than our own.

I am free, He tells me, to choose to listen to Him and
the teachings that He would share with me, or not to
listen. He is a messenger and the messages he delivers
to me, for whatever reason or reasons, are far beyond
a one-to-one personal correspondence. They are meant for
whomever cares to hear them and to consider their value.
They were never, He tells me, designed for me, alone.

Why me at all?

You seemed to be ready.

Can you be both a messenger and a teacher of the messages
you share with me?

Is a teacher not as a messenger to his or her students?

Yes, I see. The teacher must first have received the messages
she or he now shares with students.

Yes.

There is no lasting structure

Posted on by under developing awareness, grass-roots ethics, simple spiritual insights

Spirit shares gems of wisdom.

Spirit tells me that everything I say or do should be for a reason
that I understand and can accept responsibility for.

He encourages me to live life here and now, day by day, and to create
a living and lived philosophy of life, and to become what I know I can
become; more and more what I really am, by living with purpose and
meaning.

That sounds beautiful but how do I set attainable goals.

These are attainable goals.

But, the horizon is too distant and unattainable for me. I need
structure.

Yes, and there is none, none that is lasting.

Knowing requires Faith

Posted on by under developing awareness, grass-roots ethics, Spirit shares words of wisdom

Spirit tells me that knowing is not a matter of faith
and yet there can be no knowing without faith.

What has faith to do with knowing?

How do we learn?

Through experience.

Yes, but not through experience alone.

We reflect on past experience and use what we have
learned from it as a foundation for future …

Future what?

To guide us in our responses to future challenges.

And if what experience has taught you differs from
what others would claim to be the way to live?

This is developing beyond intellectual concepts.

Yes.

Then please explain.

Knowing is awareness

Awareness of what?

Awareness of what seems to be true, for us if for
no other.

Where does faith come in?

We each, in time, develop faith in our own
knowing, or awareness, of our own truth.

Is Self-Control an Ego Trip?

Posted on by under developing awareness, grass-roots ethics, simple spiritual insights, Spirit shares words of wisdom

Spirit tells me that He is only one of many Spirit Teachers who
seek to help willing people to create a satisfying lifestyle,
and that His Fellowship Group are not at all interested in
helping everyone, only those who genuinely care for the world
they live in and for themselves, enough to resist as much as
they can, unhealthy habits. Self-control in all things is
our way, He claims.

It all sounds so noble that I’m annoyed at myself for even
listening to a cynical voice from somewhere in my mind that
whispers to me that, perhaps, His ego has escaped self-control.

Is Acceptance Necessarily Contentment?

Posted on by under developing awareness, grass-roots ethics, simple spiritual insights, Spirit shares words of wisdom

Spirit tells me that acceptance is contentment.

How can I feel content about accepting something
that I can’t change?

What else would you feel?

Defeated.

In losing a battle you know or believe that
you never could win?

What else could I feel?

Satisfied with yourself that you did, if you did,
everything you could do to win.

And satisfaction is as contentment?

In this case, yes

Are we referring to a specific case?

Yes, and no.

As particular and general?

Yes.

We Fear Losing Control

Posted on by under A spirit guide shares a precious gift, developing awareness, grass-roots ethics, simple spiritual insights

Spirit tells me tht we express love by caring for and
respecting that or those whom we claim to love.

But, there are unlimited degrees of quantity and quality
of care and respect.

Yes, and there are unlimited degrees of love.

And quality?

Love itself expresses the quality of our soul’s
development.

Can we control love?

No. What we don’t express, we don’t have to express.
Love is limited only by the personal restrictions
we put on ourselves. We each possess the potential
to love unconditionally.

Then, why don’t we?

We fear losing control.

Why Do We Do What We Do?

Posted on by under developing awareness, grass-roots ethics, Spirit shares words of wisdom, Spirit Tells Me

Spirit tells me that our personal behaviour
either serves us well or it doesn’t. But, if
it does not then it must have served us well
at some time in the past, or at least we
must have believed that it did.

What if it just seemed appropriate at a
particular time?

There are no particular times for specific
behaviours.

Why?

All behaviours have a history.

What about spontaneity?

What about it?

If moving out of the way to avoid an
accident that never happened before, then
how could that reflex action have a history.

How could it not?

Because it never happened before.

To you, perhaps, but you would be aware
of a possible outcome for not moving
out of the way.

Perhaps I intuitively knew.

Yes, and intuition is a built-in history book.

A history of what?

Of how to live.