SIMPLE GIFTS: Your relationships as a spiritual path - Softcover

Shea, James F.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1504349970 ISBN 13: 9781504349970

Verlag: BalboaPress, 2016

Inhaltsangabe

Have you ever noticed that your success, work, and relationships often seem to be sabotaged? That may be because it is actually true. There is a dark and destructive, covert conspiracy within. It sabotages our success, work, and our most-important loving relationships. It is busy actively working against you even as you read this synopsis. While it is actually a fear-based illusion, it is typically perceived as reality and is rarely, if ever, examined. Through simple heuristic devices, you can begin to explore the nature of your world, and how you perceive it. What’s more—you can begin to lay the groundwork and build the foundation for discovering who you really are … and it isn’t what you think. Perhaps most importantly, you can work within your relationships to discover your special gifts and the sacred nature of your partner and take the necessary steps to heal the sabotage that would destroy it.

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Simple Gifts

Your Relationships as a Spiritual Path

By James F. Shea

Balboa Press

Copyright © 2016 James F. Shea, BA, MA, CHT
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-5043-4997-0

Contents

Preface, vii, 
Introduction, ix, 
Chapter 1 If It Isn't Broken, Why Fix It?, 1, 
Chapter 2 Discovering ... Discovery, 4, 
Chapter 3 Definition: Heuristic, 6, 
Chapter 4 The Simple Reality, 8, 
Chapter 5 Freedom of Choice, 10, 
Chapter 6 Beliefs vs Knowing, 13, 
Chapter 7 Relationships and All Acts of Creation, 17, 
Chapter 8 Change Your Mind & Change Your Life: The Choice to Live!, 27, 
Chapter 9 Paradise Lost – Paradise Regained, 31, 
Chapter 10 Greatness and the Great Fears, 34, 
Chapter 11 The Ego's Five Great Fears, 37, 
Chapter 12 Introduction to Heuristic Triangle Graphic, 43, 
Chapter 13 Lower Triangle: 1. Arrogance & Oppression, 47, 
Chapter 14 Lower Triangle: 2. Victim & Martyr, 52, 
Chapter 15 Lower Triangle: 3. Competition & Power Struggle, 56, 
Chapter 16 Middle "Workshop" Area, 59, 
Chapter 17 Upper Triangle: 1. Leadership & Purpose, 66, 
Chapter 18 Upper Triangle: 2. Empowerment & Love, 70, 
Chapter 19 Upper Triangle: 3. Partnership & Vision, 72, 
Chapter 20 Relationship Empowerment Triangles, 75, 
Chapter 21 Transpersonal Empowerment, 79, 
Chapter 22 Relationship As A Spiritual Path, 83, 
Chapter 23 A Vision of Greatness, 86, 
Chapter 24 The Final Chapter, 88, 
About the Author, 101, 

CHAPTER 1

If It Isn't Broken, Why Fix It?

"In truth, there is nothing wrong ... anywhere, and all is exactly as it should be in God's creation. And yet people are suffering and dying painful deaths, while war, sickness and poverty still cover an enormous percentage of the planet. How do we resolve this seemingly irresolvable paradox?"

This book really has more to do with discovering your own explanation of the above than reading anyone else's. Rather, we offer a set of simple heuristic approaches to discovering your own solutions and applying these for yourself.

I have come to discover that actual originality and true creativity are hard to claim, but to the best of my knowledge all that is presented is original. Perhaps, it may be best viewed as a creative editing of a lifetime's exposure to the wisdom of the world.

Books abound offering explanations for all of the more profound and perplexing issues of life. These may even offer useful insights and possibly reasonable explanations. The question is – Are they your insights? If they aren't then they will have little likelihood of having more than just a fleeting value in your life.

As Werner Erhard commented, "Understanding is the booby prize." If you only understand something and stop there as if that was it, you never really get to apply it in your life. This happens to be the single greatest challenge to people who are seeking solutions in their lives today. The proverbial coin has not yet dropped into their experience, only into their awareness. As a result, it does not get applied in their life.

For example, I remember in high school reading poems and having a sense of the structural design and general meaning of the poem. It was only when I got to university that I began to understand what the poem was about through the richness and texture of words, sounds, images, and rhymes. It was as if I had discovered new levels of meaning ... the coin had just dropped. The poem took on personal meaning for me. I had made it my own through experiencing different levels of understanding.

How can heuristics help us to discover deeper meanings in our lives? Is this really a gift? How can this improve our lives?

Go back to the quotation at the beginning of this chapter and read it again. It is an interesting paradox that "Everything is exactly as it should be in God's creation, and yet people are suffering and dying painful deaths, while war, sickness and poverty still cover an enormous percentage of the planet."

So how do you explore this paradox from a heuristic viewpoint?

We must first be prepared to take a heuristic idea (just one at a time), and live it "as if true" for us, for at least a few weeks, (three to six weeks). Only then can we say with any real basis in actual application, what our true experience of this heuristic is and has been.

I encourage you to do just that, and to live your life with your heuristic "as if true" for the three to six week period. Longer is usually better than shorter, but at least you will have a sense of how to explore from a heuristic viewpoint.

While it is a simple approach the results can be quite profound. There is a heuristic exercise in the appendix if you would like a guideline on how to evaluate your experience.

CHAPTER 2

Discovering ... Discovery

"Most people live their lives according to rules and dogma they have internalized from the culture, family, friends, religion, school system, etc. Is that a good way to live your life? Possibly for some it may be. However, as a strategy of living, it is limited, because it is not an approach that supports growth, creativity, and discovery. It does not permit the exploration, investigation, or experience of new ideas, or beliefs if they may run counter to the rules, dogma, culture or religion."

As a student I searched for a philosophy of life that was robust enough to withstand continual interrogation and questioning. I did not particularly enjoy having my most recent set of beliefs about life and how to live it shot down by a better, more compelling system of beliefs.

During the first week of my freshman year of university, I sat in the student lounge, listening to the discussions taking place among the senior students regarding some of the larger questions of life. I found it incredibly stimulating and profoundly intriguing to listen to everyone who shared an opinion about their own beliefs.

Some were in direct opposition to each other, but the spirit of discovery lifted each beyond the limitations of being right and propelled the group toward a higher truth. I was so excited I could not sleep that night.

Later in the year, I took a philosophy course, and was stuck at a particular place in my quest. At the end of class I went up to the professor to ask him about it. I said, "Excuse me Professor, I am being driven crazy by a question I can't seem to find an answer to." He paused briefly, as he was gathering up his notes, looked at me directly, and simply replied, "Good." Then he turned and walked out of the room. I was left to work it out for myself rather than subvert the heuristic process of discovery.

CHAPTER 3

Definition: Heuristic

• Encouraging discovery of solutions: relating to or using a method of teaching that encourages learners to discover solutions for themselves.

• May involve trial and error: using or arrived at by a process of trial and error rather than set rules.

• Able to change: can describe a computer software program that modifies itself in response to the varying conditions it encounters.

• Experience-based exploratory techniques for problem solving, learning, and discovery.

• A way to grow that does not involve rigid dogmatic, black-and-white requirements.

So here, in the form of a heuristic approach, we have a method that can allow us to approach all issues in our lives, no matter how challenging they...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: BalboaPress
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2016
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1504349970
• ISBN 13: 9781504349970
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 128
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: preigu GmbH & Co. KG; mail@preigu.de; ; Lengericher Landstr. 19; Osnabrück; Niedersachsen; 49078; Deutschland