Category: Life

Simply Love

A song
from simpler times,
when many were running toward the same thing
the thing that mattered most.

And today?
Today, many don’t really know
what they’re running after.

Confusion and pride
seem to rule the day.

Conquering Depression: Heavenly Wisdom from God Illumined Teachers overview

Similarly to a previous overview, I bought this book called “Orthodox Psychology” some time ago. It contains two books inside, and I recently completed the first one:

  1. Neurosis: Spiritual Causes and Manifestations (original Нервность. Ее духовные причины и проявления), 1999
  2. Conquering Depression: Heavenly Wisdom from God Illumined Teachers, 1996

In this blog post, I’ll write an overview of the second book.

Continue reading “Conquering Depression: Heavenly Wisdom from God Illumined Teachers overview” →

Love

1 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

1 Corinthians 13

Don’t forget to examine yourself as you read every word

And the spiritual truly examines all things, and he is examined by no one.

1 Corinthians 2:15

On Whirlpools

  1. Life is given, experienced before it is explained
    • So, we accept life as a starting point
    • We could philosophize, but let’s stay with the experience for now
  2. Let’s imagine that life is a river
    • The river moves with a wisdom larger than our plans
    • I know this sounds too abstract, but stay with me
  1. You navigate with your boat
    • The degree of control varies (depending on wind, etc.)
  1. There are random whirlpools in the river
  2. Sometimes the current gathers and you find yourself carried in one of those whirlpools
    • This prevents you from making progress, and you start running in circles
  1. The first step is noticing: “I am in a whirlpool“
  2. The second step is making a choice:
    • Stay inside the spin: fuse with it, let it amplify, and slowly forget the one who is steering
    • Or step back, become still, defuse the whirlpool, and steer again.

The river continues, and we learn to be present within it…

A reflective exercise for you. Describe a whirlpool that you encountered during the last week.

  • Where were you? What was happening?
  • What changed inside you the moment you noticed you’re in it?
  • What was the whirlpool about? How did it feel in your body?
  • What choice did you make?
Bonus: For the programmers, the same idea expressed formally in Budge-TP.
$ ./budge-tp.py examples/whirlpool.btp
-- The programmer mind defaults to SEARCH — reaching for a system, a fix, an escape.
thParadox : WHIRLPOOL(SEARCH(ESCAPE_WHIRLPOOL))
-- Noticing the trap, the mind searches for escape from that whirlpool too. It deepens.
thDeepened : WHIRLPOOL(SEARCH(WHIRLPOOL(SEARCH(ESCAPE_WHIRLPOOL))))
-- Response A: fuse with it. Become the whirlpool. It grows.
thAmplified : AMPLIFY(WHIRLPOOL(SEARCH(WHIRLPOOL(SEARCH(ESCAPE_WHIRLPOOL)))))
-- Response B: notice it. Step back. The observer is not the whirlpool.
thDefused : DEFUSE(WHIRLPOOL(SEARCH(ESCAPE_WHIRLPOOL)))
-- The whirlpool does not vanish. It is simply no longer you.
thPresent : PRESENT