…a close second? for without food to give us energy, we are good for nothing.
For me… sleep, food, societal-interactions.
Nobody wants to be the pawn of somebody else’s game.
[/quote]
Quite… and yet the ‘dross’ still but try.
…or both 
Yes we must feed, but so too must we flourish.
Video portrays Sagan’s vision of neo-stoic humanistic courage to be in a meaningless universe where meaning is nothing but an act of the will-- a heroic human invention.
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The first Indian Saint
Lazarus Devasahayam: ‘A saint for new beginnings’ - he did it ‘for the love of god’.
A Hindu-born man from Kanyakumari district in Tamil Nadu, who converted to Christianity in the 18th century, Lazarus Devasahayam is set to become the first Indian layman to be declared a saint on 15 May 2022.
While preaching, he particularly insisted on the equality of all people, despite caste differences. This aroused the hatred of the higher classes, and he was arrested in 1749. After enduring increasing hardships, he received the crown of martyrdom when he was shot on 14 January 1752.
I think it’s worth mentioning …
I didn’t… because I dislike that Saints only become Saints, when they become dead martyrs.
There have been living Saints, but they are few and far between.
Ten martyrs were made Saints all-together, whom I will also be posting of, in here.
I used to think love was an undefined term that people used to manipulate each other to gain favor.
That was decades ago. I don’t have an easy answer right now.
Let me think on those decades.
I will offer this though…
double post
My mother once told me:
I don’t have to love you; I choose to love you.
And I even like you.
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How to Be More Spiritual in the 21st Century
The world changes fast, but our need for spiritual connection doesn’t. Rekindle a spiritual spark from your past or try out a totally new routine.
[size=85]By James Quigley[/size]
Spirituality has always been a fundamental part of the human experience, and in the 21st century, people are more empowered than ever to explore spirituality on their own terms. You can dive deep, or just learn a few helpful practices. You can follow an organized religion, or create a personal connection without labels. It’s entirely up to you, and there’s no wrong choice.
The benefits of making space for spirituality in your life are profound. According to Psychology Today, spiritual people are more likely to:
• Have high self-esteem
• Feel optimistic and grateful
• Savor life experiences
• Be compassionate
• Flourish in relationships
If you are interested in expanding your spirit, there are all different kinds of spiritual practices you can try… meditation, mindfulness, yoga, religious and spiritual study, mindfulness activities… being in nature, zen writing, penning a journal.
What does spirituality mean to you?
Spirituality to me is having a different perspective that is somewhat different from my usual perspective. It’s a little bit like having two eyes that gives us depth in seeing. So, it has to do with impressions, and Antoine de Exupery’s “seeing with the heart” is often used to describe it. It is reading between the lines; feeling and following the magic of a moment; remaining in a thought, or in silence; it is having community, but also seeking solitude.
But it also has to do with expressing oneself; revealing what has arrived in the heart, whether good or bad. This happens in conversation, or in writing, which can be like a prayer. It also happens in our actions and treating other people. It happens in our thoughts, which are fearless but also sometimes terribly honest, and stumble out before we have noticed them.
But it is also about avoiding addictions, licentiousness and habits that also afflict us in the form of attachment to things and people. Throughout history, man has been suffering not only from diseases and wars, but also from his insatiable addiction to recognition and power, and from his overestimation of himself at the expense of his fellow man and nature.
It is these two sides of human nature that have always preoccupied spiritual thinkers and led to man’s attempt to redeem himself from the eternal wheel of suffering, whether through noble paths of virtue, equanimity, and compassion, or through discipline and regulations. Initially, intoxication was considered a liberation, but soon people realized how short-lived and chaotic such practices were.
Would you say that you are a spiritual person?
I believe I am, more often than not. But I am often not, when it would be good for me. I am two people, and it seems like sometimes the two take turns several times a day, making you wonder, “Who am I today?” or “Who said that?” When I was a little boy, like many children, I had an invisible friend who did all the things I didn’t want to have done - a little wave from the shadow we all carry around with us perhaps.
Although many say we all need something to believe in, I think it’s more like as soon as we can think, we have a belief, but it has to be measured against experienced reality. There is no-one who doesn’t have faith, or a spiritual component to their lives, even if traditional religions don’t serve as the basis of spirituality for these people. It is just unfortunate that alternatives are sometimes worse for people and lead them astray.
The practice of sports is an important area where people realize that if they live and breathe their sport, they can have a flow experience. Sports can be very meditative and also help with stress reduction, and the regular routines can be like a contemplative practice. I find when I run and practice my breathing that I can get a similar effect to meditating on a cushion, only with sports I have the movement and venting of the lungs to go with it.
For me, watching sports has more to do with belonging, as it often does in organized religion. If the team wins, life is good, like feeling affirmed in your faith life; if the team plays poorly, life is bad. Rightly or wrongly, the game or the players are gods, and people worship them with fervour.
Nature is another area for alternative spirituality. People love nature, which they often refer to as Mother, feel connected to her, and each use their gardens as a kind of altar. Many bring flowers into their homes, just as others have a religious sign on their wall. Nature also shows us the riddles of our existence by showing us beautiful scenes and cruel natural events side by side.
I believe that Mother Nature deserves serious respect, and that we underestimate our interaction with her because of her influence on us. We are a part of nature and did not come “into” the world, but out of the world. We are like the fruit of a tree, or, as a doctor once told me, like maggots in a corpse.
I also can be taken away by meditative music and even walk on the treadmill with it in my ears sometimes. It certainly keeps my pulse lower than without.
To say I don’t believe in a God would be wrong, I just don’t believe as many others do, and have to wince sometimes when I hear the statement of some believers, which, amongst other things, has led to my leaving the Church. What God is, is not yet clear to me, and I can say more about what he is not for me than give a clear definition. I have an underlying faith in a benevolence which is guiding me.
I believe how you treat people is often how it comes back to you in life - but it is far from certain. It is not obvious what benefits virtuous living brings one, only that it is better overall for everyone. The potential, however, should be undeniable from my point of view.
I meditate, read spiritual texts from various sources, know a little more about Christianity, but above all I try to be attentive, and pay attention to my fellow human beings and my environment. I try to honour life and the source of our existence, as little as I understand what it is I’m honouring, and love my neighbour as I love myself, despite obvious incursions on that commitment, which cause me to struggle.
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Pakistan: Government puts end to menial job ads targeting religious minorities
The Punjab Department of General Services and Administration in Pakistan stops employment advertisements for menial tasks that target candidates from religious minority groups.
Following a petition of the National Human Rights Commission (NCHR), the Punjab Department of General Services and Administration last week put a stop to the mention of the religion of candidates in public advertisements for jobs.
For years, Pakistani civil society organizations have criticized employment advertisements targeting religious minorities who are hired for sanitation and other menial jobs reserved for “non-Muslim” candidates.
The recent notice, issued with the approval of the chief minister of the Punjab province, was sent to all the administrative departments, with directives to nullify any provision that promotes such discrimination.
The word for me has come to mean the general standard for survival as a spirit in a world of matter;
love is resilient enough for it, and yet not born of matter. Hence the association with God is apt, of course.
Love is the law, love under will (Crowley)
or: love and do what you will (st Augustine)
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We are not the answer to All prayers, least of all Our own.
I like that list.
…an esoteric approach?
Did Crowley know what love was? …or St Augustine non-infidelity love?
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The Euthyphro dilemma is found in Plato’s dialogue
Euthyphro, in which Socrates asks Euthyphro, “Is the
pious loved by the gods because it is pious, or is it
pious because it is loved by the gods?” Wikipedia
It sounds like his gods loved conditionally, for him to even think of or pose such a question… local gods/local problems.
Should all Faiths be based on (an) unconditional loving god/s, otherwise what is the point in having unconditional faith in One’s Faith… for its a reciprocal endeavour, of a seemingly symbiotic nature.
Even if we stop caring about ourselves our god/s or our Faith/s, they should never stop caring about us, earned… by being faithful to One’s Faith, through devotion.
The resolution is that God is the Good (Love)… he exists his essence. That is why he fulfills his promises (remains faithful/true) even if we don’t. Romans 3:3-4.
Love bounds very widely dispersed latitude, from the apperant logicality of ‘ love your enemies, your brother, your neighbor, (since not acting accordingly thus can logically turn them into contrary positions)- all the way to boundless, non descript absolute concern- which only absolute faith can bind .
Such absolution is only possible with full recognition of the precise identity of form and content I’ve role both God and the individual assume of each other: this is why this assumption falls totality to the individual, sine God by definition is perceived and known as One so possesses each mortal sentient being.
Such love needs no further proof from God, but conversely is asked and even demanded by Man, over again.
The Self Sacrafice , of God, is appreciated as the act that tears The Son Of God from an unbreakable bond, to prove that the Wird of God was literally Created , so that men could believe. and stop sacrificing their own sons to gain Gods favor, and see literally their sacraficial acts causing miracles of favors that could make them believe -generation after generation.
However God saw that man will forget to sacrafice their beliefs in the Wird, as if they would forfeit their material gains and trade them as Faust did and sell out, so He, God had to save His Creation, for He So Loved Mankind.
…a reciprocity in kind, is necessary… sorry! 
Faith is a two-way street, not a one-way alley.
He forgives those, that forgive themselves… so a subsumation of sorts… so a responsibility of Self, not of All… We ain’t Atlas!