DISQUS

Sounds like great advice - and very timely for a lot of folks...

Have to say, I found the Myers-Briggs uncanny in its ability to figure me out! That was the reaction of all of us - that is, my classmates also found it amazing when we were getting our MAs in counseling. Thanks for the info on these other tests as well.

Good suggestion! I think I didn't do it more often because I often felt that the person sitting next to me may not have wanted to be bothered. But that would have been a very small risk to take.

If the other person doesn't really want to talk, that would be readily apparent and you could just stop.

The reason I don't strike up conversations with strangers nowadays is that I literally haven't left the house for four years. Good reason!

It's not possible to forget a major blow. But it's possible not to dwell on it - not to think about it over and over again.

Forgiveness is something we generally do for ourselves, not the transgressor, who usually moves on with his or her life and is likely to forget about us quite easily.

But perpetually seething over the wrong that was done to us only harms ourselves. This is why forgiveness is generally more for the sake of self than others.

Justice is a different issue and about more than our own feelings. Society can't afford to simply let criminals get away with crimes because crime would become more widespread.

Your first comment from Brigit sums it up I think.

I'd just add that many people today err on the side of over-activity - often from out of an egoistic mind set that's invested in being perceived by others as energetic, successful and productive.

I see two signs: love and egoism. Egoism is certainly the sign of the times. Our long-term survival as a species depends on learning to read these two signs clearly so as to notice which of them says "Wrong Way..."

I think it's what you do with it and where you go from there. Vanity, like other human weaknesses that we work through, can leave us wiser when we come out the other side.

The danger is remaining stuck, whether with vanity of other manifestations of egoism.

In my experience it's felt more like "myself was reinvented" than "I reinvented myself."

You're right, I've noticed this on my own blog. Although I seldom get "flamers," when I do, they're often anonymous - whereas people who leave comments on my blog generally use their names or leave their URLs.

I'm in my 15th year of a progressive disease that by now severely affects bone, nerve, muscle and connective tissue. I'm mostly bedridden and dealing with multiple pressure sores.

While I think some adversity is important and even necessary to spiritual development, it's clearly possible to have "too much of a good thing..."

Paul Maurice Martin

To dream of retiring since childhood! If only George Bush had had such a dream...

-Paul Maurice Martin

Seems to me political correctness has its up and down sides. On the upside, ugly, bigoted, chauvinistic remarks aren't publicly acceptable anymore. On the minus side, they can keep people from speaking truth, as when any criticism of the Israeli government's actions is represented as anti-Semitic.

-Paul Maurice Martin

Why not? Because they "know" that a fertilzed ovum without a central nervous system is fully human just like you and me.

Honestly, I don't understand it at all and never have.

Nice. Music truly is a wonder.

My little voice is singing Staying Alive by the Bee Jees because the tune got stuck in my head after hearing it on the radio.

I hate it when that happens.

For me, a good thumbnail rule of esthetics is that whatever the context - an exhibition, a museum or the street - if you can't tell whether a monkey or a human did it, then it's status as art is questionable...

Acceptance of someone despite their flaws doesn't to me point to the essence of love. While love would include that, the same sentence could describe "enabling."

It's a complicated topic for sure....

Growing up Catholic, the closest I came to this kind of thing - very similar, I believe - was a retreat at a monastery. I especially remember the meal shared by the brothers with us guests. There were only three or four of us, and they let us participate in a number of their activities.

It was the most comfortable and truly loving shared meal I ever experienced. I hadn't realized how impactful group silence can be.

It truly is a strange thing to see a literally crusading mentality emerge among some Christians in our own time.

It truly is a strange thing to see a literally crusading mentality emerge among some Christians in our own time.

Sounds wonderful. There's nothing like a singer who truly loses him or herself in the song.

As to the military aspect, I love the Star Spangled Banner too. I don't think that finding these two songs inspiring means you have to be a Christian Crusader or jingoistic. In both cases, it seems to me that it's the music more than the lyrics that impart a truly joyous sense of victory and not a narrow, self aggrandizing one.

The idea of "believing in oneself" to me primarily denotes confidence. "Belief" in a religious/spirituality context suggests doctrine, whether mainstream or alternative.

To me, the two appear independent: there are both self confident and underconfident atheists and theists.

I sure can understand it, but wish it didn't have to hurt.

In discussions of race and ethnicity, there seems to be a well accepted platitude that "everyone is prejudiced." And if you think you're not and you're a white American, then it's "liberal guilt" or it's "unconscious."

Maybe I unconsciously like George Bush or still believe in Santa Clause...?

Anyway, where I wanted to go with this is to say that it's possible to be in the ethnic majority and not see bigotry as anything but ridiculous as well as ugly. Through personal experience as well as extensive observation of young children, I'm convinced that bigotry is learned.

So it's possible to grow up white in America and not believe in bigotry - that is, not to take it seriously - any more than Martians. Naturally, as someone who belongs to a minority group that's sometimes on the receiving end of bigotry, it's impossible to grow up innocent of it in the same way. If you're the one who's being dumped on, it's pretty hard not to notice!

I hope someday the world as a whole will see the ridiculing of other races as itself being so ridiculous as to be unworthy of notice. We're so far from being there, however, that I understand why this incident got your attention and would have felt the same.

Physical Product: Ironically, I think technology may still not measure up to the reading experience of a physical book. Such a very simple but very enjoyable object...

Publishing:If the trend of recent decades continues, all books will be published by one giant multimedia conglomerate publishing under several hundred different imprints so that the general public will be no more aware of the situation than it is now.

I think the result will be fewer and fewer authentic voices like yours and Tolle's having a chance to get through. Btw, something I particularly admire about you is that you remain engaged with your readers. Most authors who have succeeded with trade publishers today have at most a perfunctory site with little to no reader interaction.

Amen...

Paul - originalfaith.com