Monday, October 6, 2008

I Was Thinking Today That... [Edited]

I am not interested in using magic to bring harm to others.
I am not interested in using magic to empower myself in any way except to gain powers necessary for the positive spiritual growth of myself or others.
I am not interested in the dark side.
I am not interested in making money off any wisdom or knowledge I gain through my spiritual studies.
I am not interested in becoming a fortune teller.
I am not interested in getting involved in any lengthy debate.
I am not interested in being superior to others.

What I am interested in is:

Truth
Enlightenment
Growth
Becoming a better person
Learning
Knowledge
Wisdom
Kindness towards others
Friendship
Helping others using means accessible to me
Humaneness (towards BOTH humans and animals)
Equality
Forgiveness

I am not interested in focusing on magic though I understand that some magic may be beneficial to growth. My own personal opinion is that it would be easy to get caught-up in the fascination and novelty that comes from magic. I know that there are many interesting roadside attractions on the path that I am taking and that any normal curious human being would be tempted to set-up camp there, but it is my goal as a spiritual seeker and traveler to not become sidetracked by these.

Having made these statements, I am interested in hearing what others have to say about their own interests. While I do not know yet if my stances regarding magic are right or wrong, I believe that the foundation of everything I believe in is said simply by The Golden Rule, which has been stated in many different ways throughout many different cultures, but is probably most easily recognized by, "Do unto others as you would have done unto you."

I am not perfect by any means. In fact, I have quite a bit of growing to do. Putting these statements to paper is useful to me because it will remind me to do the best in all situations, and when I am not able to do the best I seek to at least do better.

Edited 2:20pm, October 7, 2008 to add:

I should say that I do not frown upon fortune tellers or those who make their living doing these activities. It's just that I wish to spend my time differently by continuing to search for answers and realization. Maybe this is self-serving, I don't know. However, if I knew for certain that any of these activities could help heal others, I would give them a try.

One of the things I need to remember is that I should not allow myself to feel spiritual pride by thinking my choices are better than those that others have chosen for themselves. I also should not allow myself to feel spiritual pride because I have consciously chosen to be a spiritual seeker while many on this planet have not.

I also apologize for being so ostentatious on my blog. While I realize I may be giving in to feelings of self-importance by even having this blog, this is my diary and journal where I post all my thoughts, dreams and progress. Also, this blog allows me to converse with others who are on their own paths and who share the interest in seeking the divine. There are no clubs or groups in my area that I know of that focus on the things I speak about on this blog. I am still trying to find others in my area, though.

Most importantly, I am very thankful to others for being so kind to me. I am a very lucky person because people have done wonderful things for me. Also, even in spite of a few occasional obstacles, life has rewarded me in so many ways. Good things continue to happen to me. I feel very blessed. As someone said to me recently, "Life has shown you favor more than once."

10 comments:

Jody said...

Sophia, As you may know from my blogging post yesterday, I am offering a free psychic reading to people. I do this because after a great deal of soul-searching, I believe I can help heal people. The free part is because I'm still a novice. I can't really imagine charging for what I'm doing, except that I could use a little money (being a novelist, even a published one, isn't exactly lucrative) AND, more importantly, people don't respect wisdom that is offered free. They should. I wish they would. But our culture demands that we have to pay for things. So, that's my use, today of my "magic." I agree that the golden rule pretty much sums up all that's important!

Anonymous said...

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

- Arthur C. Clarke

Sophia said...

Hi Jody,

I am sorry if my statements regarding my interests made it seem as if I frown upon psychic readings; I do not. I just think that for me, personally, I could get stuck on doing something like this and would get sidetracked, therefore my personal goals would not be met.

I edited the post to more clearly explain what I meant so that I do not offend anyone. :)

Thank you for your comment. I have not read the post you speak of but I will go now to read it.

Sophia said...

Hi Don,

Yes, magic can be many things. I guess I oversimplified my idea of magic. Truthfully, magic is everywhere. For instance, sometimes I become surrounded by synchronicity. Surely that is magic!

What I meant by "magic" in my post was casting spells. Magic seems to be stereotyped by all the love spells. :)

Anonymous said...

I have absolutely no judgment about who should be charging what for spiritual services. I am only pointing out a possible co-incidence here:

I could not help but notice that the word "scab" was mysteriously introduced in close proximity to and in close association with this post about working for free where other charge.

I see some similarity to the definition of scab refering to one who will work when others are on strike.

goatman said...

Odd that a concert last weekend featured Buddy Buy breaking the bricks out of the buildings in Columbia. Was a free street concert with three stages at differing parts of the downtown city for two days.
His concert was earshattering guitar at night and included a new song which has the words "do unto others as you would have them do unto you": at many megadecibles!

Sophia said...

Hi Anonymous,

Good eye. That is an interesting relationship you have noticed. Thank you for pointing it out. It's one of those things that make you say "hmmm". :)

Sophia said...

Hi Goatman,

This seems to underscore my statement about the Rule being used in different cultures. That "earshattering" guitar music is a culture I hadn't thought of originally; I'll have to add that to the repertoire. :)

goatman said...

I was thinking more of the synchronicity of my experience and your statement of the rule. Most people do not agree that you should treat others' as themselves, else killing would be kind of self-effacing ( and I believe that most people profess a belief in killing: death penalty, war etc.-- lets poll them.)

Frankly, I often feel the odd man out.

Sophia said...

I know what you mean, Goatman. I even feel guilty when my cats kill mice. :(

When I was younger I supported the pro-choice agenda. Now I don't know whether I support it or not. I'm undecided and actually quite confused. I don't want to go against women's right to choose, but at the same time I feel that any kind of killing is wrong, even for retribution as in the case of capital punishment. I think it all depends on when the soul enters into the embryo. Does it enter at conception or at some further time along its development, or even right at birth? What happens to the soul of the unborn child? It hasn't had any time to make positive or negative contributions to its own karma, so part of me thinks that it would just enter into the womb of another pregnant woman in the same karmic state it was in before it was aborted.

It's a moral puzzle. Killing is not right, and yet, what about women who become pregnant through rape? What then?

Anyway, I normally don't like to get into political or ethical discussions, but I couldn't help but point out my own indecisiveness and confusion on this issue.