Zigzag Idiot

This will be a junction for all Christian perspectives. The backbone of today's Contemplavtive Christianity feeds on the roots of Eastern Orthodoxy. I'll be adding videos with sparse commentary unless meaningful dialogue ensues with others. I hope this is alright for this new community endeavor.

Becoming more grounded in the hara or belly center is usually a key ingredient for embodiment. There's some good excerpts about the belly center and embodiment on these two glossary pages. https://www.diamondapproach.org/glossary/refinery_phrases/embodiment https://www.diamondapproach.org/glossary/refinery_phrases/belly-center

This one came to me during my last psychiatric hospital stay. God is Great. I'm just good.

“We’re all fucked up.” ? “Hatred is perfectly normal.” ? “Be kind to yourself.” ?✌️

Reaching Up "Pills Don't Teach Skills" by Dr. Jim Rosen ©2021 Dr. Jim Rosen Pills don't teach you how to like yourself. They don't show you how to manage stress. They don't instruct you on how to be more assertive. If you want to be healthy, you have to live a healthy lifestyle. Pills make the pharmaceutical companies filthy rich, but they don't guide you into a healthy lifestyle. They don't teach you self-esteem or how to relax or how to get rid of painful emotions. They don't educate you in relationship and communication skills. Pills don't give your life purpose or meaning. They don't teach you fulfillment or enjoyment or how to develop a support group. They don't give you control over your own life. Pills take away a few symptoms and then give you other symptoms (called "side effects"). But pills don't teach you how to get rid of anxiety, how to overcome depression, how to control anger, or how to be a more effective parent. Pills don't teach skills, period. Dr. Jim Rosen is a PhD Clinical Psychologist. He is an experienced psychotherapist, hypnotherapist, and couples counselor. He offers treatment for anxiety disorders, panic attacks, depression, relationship problems, self-esteem issues, assertiveness training, anger control, stress management, and overcoming the effects of sexual, physical, and emotional trauma. Dr. Rosen works with his patients primarily over the phone. When needed, face-to-face therapy sessions can be scheduled in his home in Magnet Cove, Arkansas. Because he does not accept insurance, his fee is only $60 for a full 50-minute hour of treatment. He can be reached anytime by email at drjrosen@ipa.netor by phone or text at 501-623-2050. If you like Dr. Rosen's Reaching Up column, you are free to share it with other people. There is no fee for this column. It's free. If you're not on the list to receive it, just send an email that says "Please Send Column" in the subject line. You will receive a new column each Sunday. If you are on the list and you don't want to receive Dr. Rosen's column anymore, just send him an email that says "Stop Column" in the subject line.

Just joking,,,,, This is a paraphrasing of the Bible which often puts meaning in a different frame of reference. With the lightheartedness; metaphorical interpretation is sometimes more realized.

Poem by Red Hawk. Inspired by Lao Tsu's Tao Te Ching The greatest love seems indifferent The greatest love is Holy, and wholly impartial, which does not mean cold, uncaring; it means without judgement, indifferent regarding the arising of phenomena; it loves all equally, beggar and saint, friend, and enemy. The fool says he is "in love" which is how fear distorts relationship: the mind seeks an object to focus on; it seeks to claim and control, and it calls this love. The greatest love is without preference, Emptiness showering its fullness: the Sun warms flower and beast alike, shines its light upon the darkest heart.

" If you could float above the earth and become aware of all the negativity that is going on, you would never laugh again. The world is ruled by negative emotions." - Ocke de Boer

I've never had children but it's something I've thought a lot about from time to time. I know what it's like to be sleep deprived and under stress and how irritability often creeps in. My mother experienced postpartum depression after I was born I was told. One of my favorite Authors uses the work of Margaret Mahler in his overall Teaching. Mahler did quite a bit of research on what's going on between infant and mother. https://www.diamondapproach.org/glossary/refinery_phrases/merging-love Hope the days ahead smooth out for you and your baby. Your allowed to be angry or frustrated if that arises. Feel it fully so you can then let it go. Don't let guilt divide you against yourself. You seem wise so you probably already know to do that. Bless you and thank you for sharing,,,,

Okay Here's a good one,,,, The world of the schizophrenic and the world of the mystic are of the same dimension. It's not either/or. It's all of the above,,,, Delusions are the imagination running amok. Astral Beings exist as well

Christ is not Jesus’s last name,,,,,, https://cac.org/anointing-with-love-2019-04-10/ https://cac.org/wisdom-jesus-weekly-summary-2017-04-15/ Jesus was not a priest or a prophet in the usual sense of those terms. Rather, he was a wisdom teacher. He stayed close to the ground of wisdom: the transformation of human consciousness.

Reaching Up "Stripped Naked" by Dr. Jim Rosen ©2021 Dr. Jim Rosen It irritates the heck out of people when you try to be a “feeling reader.” That's like trying to be a mind reader, but instead of telling other people what they're thinking, you tell them what they're feeling. "You're angry... You're afraid... You know you like it... You don't need that; you need this... Don't be hyper... You're just excited... You don't have to panic about it." You insult the other person when you presume to know their feelings. The truth is, you really can't know. None of us have the ability to get inside another person's body and feel their feelings for them - no matter how close the relationship. It's good when the other person can be open and honest about his or her feelings. But openness and honesty cannot be forced. When you presume to read the other person’s feelings, it's as if you're forcing him or her to strip naked. Then very quickly, you have that nasty control issue in the way. And out comes the resentment. Dr. Jim Rosen is a PhD Clinical Psychologist. He is an experienced psychotherapist, hypnotherapist, and couples counselor. He offers treatment for anxiety disorders, panic attacks, depression, relationship problems, self-esteem issues, assertiveness training, anger control, stress management, and overcoming the effects of sexual, physical, and emotional trauma. Dr. Rosen works with his patients primarily over the phone. When needed, face-to-face therapy sessions can be scheduled in his home in Magnet Cove, Arkansas. Because he does not accept insurance, his fee is only $60 for a full 50-minute hour of treatment. He can be reached anytime by email at drjrosen@ipa.net or by phone or text at 501-623-2050. If you like Dr. Rosen's Reaching Up column, you are free to share it with other people. There is no fee for this column. It's free. If you're not on the list to receive it, just send an email that says "Please Send Column" in the subject line. You will receive a new column each Sunday. If you are on the list and you don't want to receive Dr. Rosen's column anymore, just send him an email that says "Stop Column" in the subject line.

Jung advised to integrate the opposites, Integration of the many facets of your existence. We are all multidimensional. Integrate, integrate, Integrate; individuate, individuate ,,,,, On average a woman's strength is the capacity to feel more than us men who are often conditioned in youth to shut off our feelings. So in general we can often work on building the trait (virtue) that is strongest in the opposite sex. The New Testament councils to become as little children and enter the Kingdom. We can learn from children how to regain lost innocence and not be cynical. Outside a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside a dog it's too dark to read - Groucho Marx. Being lighthearted can be a healing balm for the soul. Sounds awful close to witness consciousness.

Re: To be the most moral is to be most conscious. I like that notion. It would fit with the concept that Mercy is the best we can do for giving it the value of being the highest law. Another notion that I'm fond of is that awakened conscience is the same in everyone and is the intelligence of the universe juxtaposed with our conditioned morality which gets handed down and forced upon us. The following I copied from an old post in my journal and is from a 12th century Egyptian Sufi named Dzou'l Noun. To me, it contains a whole world of meaning having to do with Conscience and the consequences of being awake in a culture that is asleep. All men are dead, except those who know. All those who know are dead, except those who practice. All those who practice are dead, except those who act. All those who act are lost, except those who act with righteous intent. And All those who act with righteous intent are all in grave danger.

https://youtu.be/e8fxrX-YidM Black Sabbath; The Wizard Great song because it has both harmonica and cowbell!

Hi @fridjonk , You're the kind of shit stirrer that's actually good for the world! The smell of cow shit and horse shit are agreeable to me. Evokes nostalgia,,, I dislike hog, dog, and cat shit and have a strong aversion to human shit. Rabbit shit when raked from underneath their pens puts off an ammonia that instantly clear the sinus passages, I raised rabbits when I was 8-10 years old and remember that distinctly. I guess I'm through talking shit,,,

Reaching Up "Embracing Life Again" by Dr. Jim Rosen ©2021 Dr. Jim Rosen I am updating the mailing list for the Reaching Up column. If you would like to continue receiving my free column each week, please reply to this email with "Yes" in the subject heading. That's all you need to do. If I receive your reply by December 4, you will be on the updated list and you will continue to receive this column each Sunday. Thank you for giving this your attention. When I was a kid and someone would die, my mother used an expression that brought her comfort. She would simply say, “Life goes on for the living.” As my life unfolded and I experienced the losses that came with it, I found wisdom in her words. As a psychologist, many people come to me with their own losses. And here is what I have seen. Allowing yourself to feel the feelings of grief, as much as it hurts, enables you to get to a place of letting go of life as it used to be and accepting life as it is now. When you accept what happened (and accept that you are largely not in control of what happened), you find peace of mind and release from the pain. And when you take it a step further and get to the place of embracing life without the ones you’ve lost, you open yourself up to experience joy again. Dr. Jim Rosen is a PhD Clinical Psychologist. He is an experienced psychotherapist, hypnotherapist, and couples counselor. He offers treatment for anxiety disorders, panic attacks, depression, relationship problems, self-esteem issues, assertiveness training, anger control, stress management, and overcoming the effects of sexual, physical, and emotional trauma. Dr. Rosen works with his patients primarily over the phone. When needed, face-to-face therapy sessions can be scheduled in his home in Magnet Cove, Arkansas. Because he does not accept insurance, his fee is only $60 for a full 50-minute hour of treatment. He can be reached anytime by email at drjrosen@ipa.net or by phone or text at 501-623-2050. If you like Dr. Rosen's Reaching Up column, you are free to share it with other people. There is no fee for this column. It's free. If you're not on the list to receive it, just send an email that says "Please Send Column" in the subject line. You will receive a new column each Sunday. If you are on the list and you don't want to receive Dr. Rosen's column anymore, just send him an email that says "Stop Column" in the subject line. Dr. Jim Rosen Clinical Psychologist Magnet Cove, Arkansas Ph: 501-623-2050 Email: drjrosen@ipa.net

I would say mood stems from emotion. Also the degree to which one is identified with a thought or an emotion.

I began learning the enneagram years ago as Helen Palmer presented it. Similar to Almaas' work in that whatever 'chief feature' (vice) one has when worked on over time can become a virtue that one has,,

As a child I attended a Church of Christ that didn't allow musical instruments or Sunday school. We sang four songs then had communion and then sang one more song. Then listened to a 1 hour + sermon. Somewhere in there among the songs we past around the basket for tithing. The way I understood it. If someone shot off your left arm and you cussed them out as you bled to death. You probably were headed for eternal hell. Here are some of the songs that I remember that was in our hymnal.

Reaching Up "Your Response to the State of the World" by Dr. Jim Rosen ©2021 Dr. Jim Rosen I am updating the mailing list for the Reaching Up column. If you would like to continue receiving my free column each week, please reply to this email with "Yes" in the subject heading. That's all you need to do. If I receive your reply by December 4, you will be on the updated list and you will continue to receive this column each Sunday. Thank you for giving this your attention. You don't need to take it personal that the world of today is such a crazy place. In other words, you can realize that the state of the world is not a personal attack on you. You can acknowledge that it's a crazy time and that people are acting differently now. But don't take it personal, and then you won't feel empty, hurt and hateful. It's true that the world is busy and in a hurry, and people don’t take time for each other. Yes, people have become inconsiderate, competitive and self-centered. They're angry and ugly with one another. They seem willing to do anything for money, and they ignore the consequences. It's not your fault, and it's not a personal attack on you. The world is scared, and it's acting out with anger. But you don't have to follow in lock step with the world. We each make our own choices. You can still be kind, considerate, and giving. In the words of Mother Theresa, "The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow; do good anyway. Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough; give the world the best you’ve got anyway." Dr. Jim Rosen is a PhD Clinical Psychologist. He is an experienced psychotherapist, hypnotherapist, and couples counselor. He offers treatment for anxiety disorders, panic attacks, depression, relationship problems, self-esteem issues, assertiveness training, anger control, stress management, and overcoming the effects of sexual, physical, and emotional trauma. Dr. Rosen works with his patients primarily over the phone. When needed, face-to-face therapy sessions can be scheduled in his home in Magnet Cove, Arkansas. Because he does not accept insurance, his fee is only $60 for a full 50-minute hour of treatment. He can be reached anytime by email at drjrosen@ipa.net or by phone or text at 501-623-2050. If you like Dr. Rosen's Reaching Up column, you are free to share it with other people. There is no fee for this column. It's free. If you're not on the list to receive it, just send an email that says "Please Send Column" in the subject line. You will receive a new column each Sunday. If you are on the list and you don't want to receive Dr. Rosen's column anymore, just send him an email that says "Stop Column" in the subject line. Dr. Jim Rosen Clinical Psychologist Magnet Cove, Arkansas Ph: 501-623-2050 Email: drjrosen@ipa.net

ACIM and stuff I continue to observe my own multiplicity in both subtle and obvious changes of personality. Personality linked to the conditioned mind is false personality. ACIM uses the term 'mind', differently than some Teachings but speaks about us having our being which I equate with Almaas' personal essence attaining the (station) of the pearl beyond price or the embodiment of the essential Self. The way I link this may not be the way Almaas would put it in more exact terms though, A while back I announced that I would start a year long group reading of ACIM in its own journal here. As an example of my multiplicity, I have yet to organize this endeavor. I may or may not... That's how it kinda goes and for me to deny it would only be pointing to my own self deception. The course is about forgiveness and that's about as unpopular as any message out there. Especially in the world of the collective ego or as some would say the parallel reality in the demonic sphere of consciousness, where big extroverted personalities are king. I'm not sure how much I'll continue in my other Journal for Universal heretics recently started. Using circumstantial evidence manifested in my world, it would seem that God's beard really got pulled on. And as it's said, discretion is the better part of valor. Below is the preface to ACIM for those who may be interested,,,, What It Says Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists. Herein lies the peace of God. This is how A Course in Miracles begins. It makes a fundamental distinction between the real and the unreal; between knowledge and perception. Knowledge is truth, under one law, the law of love or God. Truth is unalterable, eternal and unambiguous. It can be unrecognized, but it cannot be changed. It applies to everything that God created, and only what He created is real. It is beyond learning because it is beyond time and process. It has no opposite; no beginning and no end. It merely is. The world of perception, on the other hand, is the world of time, of change, of beginnings and endings. It is based on interpretation, not on facts. It is the world of birth and death, founded on the belief in scarcity, loss, separation and death. It is learned rather than given, selective in its perceptual emphases, unstable in its functioning, and inaccurate in its interpretations. From knowledge and perception respectively, two distinct thought systems arise which are opposite in every respect. In the realm of knowledge no thoughts exist apart from God, because God and His Creation share one Will. The world of perception, however, is made by the belief in opposites and separate wills, in perpetual conflict with each other and with God. What perception sees and hears appears to be real because it permits into awareness only what conforms to the wishes of the perceiver. This leads to a world of illusions, a world which needs constant defense precisely because it is not real. When you have been caught in the world of perception you are caught in a dream. You cannot escape without help, because everything your senses show merely witnesses to the reality of the dream. God has provided the Answer, the only Way out, the true Helper. It is the function of His Voice, His Holy Spirit, to mediate between the two worlds. He can do this because, while on the one hand He knows the truth, on the other He also recognizes our illusions, but without believing in them. It is the Holy Spirit’s goal to help us escape from the dream world by teaching us how to reverse our thinking and unlearn our mistakes. Forgiveness is the Holy Spirit’s great learning aid in bringing this thought reversal about. However, the Course has its own definition of what forgiveness really is just as it defines the world in its own way. The world we see merely reflects our own internal frame of reference—the dominant ideas, wishes and emotions in our minds. “Projection makes perception” (T-21.in.1:1). We look inside first, decide the kind of world we want to see and then project that world outside, making it the truth as we see it. We make it true by our interpretations of what it is we are seeing. If we are using perception to justify our own mistakes—our anger, our impulses to attack, our lack of love in whatever form it may take—we will see a world of evil, destruction, malice, envy and despair. All this we must learn to forgive, not because we are being “good” and “charitable,” but because what we are seeing is not true. We have distorted the world by our twisted defenses, and are therefore seeing what is not there. As we learn to recognize our perceptual errors, we also learn to look past them or “forgive.” At the same time we are forgiving ourselves, looking past our distorted self-concepts to the Self That God created in us and as us. Sin is defined as “lack of love” (T-1.IV.3:1). Since love is all there is, sin in the sight of the Holy Spirit is a mistake to be corrected, rather than an evil to be punished. Our sense of inadequacy, weakness and incompletion comes from the strong investment in the “scarcity principle” that governs the whole world of illusions. From that point of view, we seek in others what we feel is wanting in ourselves. We “love” another in order to get something ourselves. That, in fact, is what passes for love in the dream world. There can be no greater mistake than that, for love is incapable of asking for anything. Only minds can really join, and whom God has joined no man can put asunder (T-17.III.7:3). It is, however, only at the level of Christ Mind that true union is possible, and has, in fact, never been lost. The “little I” seeks to enhance itself by external approval, external possessions and external “love.” The Self That God created needs nothing. It is forever complete, safe, loved and loving. It seeks to share rather than to get; to extend rather than project. It has no needs and wants to join with others out of their mutual awareness of abundance. The special relationships of the world are destructive, selfish and childishly egocentric. Yet, if given to the Holy Spirit, these relationships can become the holiest things on earth—the miracles that point the way to the return to Heaven. The world uses its special relationships as a final weapon of exclusion and a demonstration of separateness. The Holy Spirit transforms them into perfect lessons in forgiveness and in awakening from the dream. Each one is an opportunity to let perceptions be healed and errors corrected. Each one is another chance to forgive oneself by forgiving the other. And each one becomes still another invitation to the Holy Spirit and to the remembrance of God. Perception is a function of the body, and therefore represents a limit on awareness. Perception sees through the body’s eyes and hears through the body’s ears. It evokes the limited responses which the body makes. The body appears to be largely self-motivated and independent, yet it actually responds only to the intentions of the mind. If the mind wants to use it for attack in any form, it becomes prey to sickness, age and decay. If the mind accepts the Holy Spirit’s purpose for it instead, it becomes a useful way of communicating with others, invulnerable as long as it is needed, and to be gently laid by when its use is over. Of itself it is neutral, as is everything in the world of perception. Whether it is used for the goals of the ego or the Holy Spirit depends entirely on what the mind wants. The opposite of seeing through the body’s eyes is the vision of Christ, which reflects strength rather than weakness, unity rather than separation, and love rather than fear. The opposite of hearing through the body’s ears is communication through the Voice for God, the Holy Spirit, which abides in each of us. His Voice seems distant and difficult to hear because the ego, which speaks for the little, separated self, seems to be much louder. This is actually reversed. The Holy Spirit speaks with unmistakable clarity and overwhelming appeal. No one who does not choose to identify with the body could possibly be deaf to His messages of release and hope, nor could he fail to accept joyously the vision of Christ in glad exchange for his miserable picture of himself. Christ’s vision is the Holy Spirit’s gift, God’s alternative to the illusion of separation and to the belief in the reality of sin, guilt and death. It is the one correction for all errors of perception; the reconciliation of the seeming opposites on which this world is based. Its kindly light shows all things from another point of view, reflecting the thought system that arises from knowledge and making return to God not only possible but inevitable. What was regarded as injustice done to one by someone else now becomes a call for help and for union. Sin, sickness and attack are seen as misperceptions calling for remedy through gentleness and love. Defenses are laid down because where there is no attack there is no need for them. Our brothers’ needs become our own, because they are taking the journey with us as we go to God. Without us they would lose their way. Without them we could never find our own. Forgiveness is unknown in Heaven, where the need for it would be inconceivable. However, in this world, forgiveness is a necessary correction for all the mistakes that we have made. To offer forgiveness is the only way for us to have it, for it reflects the law of Heaven that giving and receiving are the same. Heaven is the natural state of all the Sons of God as He created them. Such is their reality forever. It has not changed because it has been forgotten. Forgiveness is the means by which we will remember. Through forgiveness the thinking of the world is reversed. The forgiven world becomes the gate of Heaven, because by its mercy we can at last forgive ourselves. Holding no one prisoner to guilt, we become free. Acknowledging Christ in all our brothers, we recognize His Presence in ourselves. Forgetting all our misperceptions, and with nothing from the past to hold us back, we can remember God. Beyond this, learning cannot go. When we are ready, God Himself will take the final step in our return to Him. (ACIM, Preface)