Showing posts with label Existential questions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Existential questions. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 29, 2019

Casey Parker is looking for a church to ease his existential crisis.


Casey Parker, 28, is struggling with the meaning of life. His girlfriend, Kali, whom he has been dating for 6 months and living with for 3, broke up with and asked him to have his stuff out of her apartment by Friday.

Casey works at Walmark monitoring the self check-out lanes and constantly undoing the errors caused by the machines and the customers. There are 8 check out machines and when they are all being used, he is busy running back and forth dealing with frustrated customers who are mad at the machines and whole check out fiasco.

"I replace 7 cashiers," said Casey, 'and I've got to say it is a hell of a deal for Walmart to get their customers to do their work for them by making them do their own cashiering and bagging."

"Dealing with the constant clusterfucks puts me in a bad mood and I'm sorry to say, I took alot of my anger and resentment out on Kali," said Casey. "It wasn't her fault that I was acting like such a prick, but she didn't have to be such a bitch about it."

"I'm 28," Casey explained, "with an Associates' degree in retailing, and this is what my life has come to. I might as well go back to drinking and getting high."

"When I left work yesterday, I bought a 30 pack of beer to take home, and the freaking cashier ID'd me and asked me for my license. Then she called the manager for approval which seems to be his primary job these days approving alcohol sales."

"Maybe I need to go back to church. My buddy Chris from AA said drinking isn't going to solve my problems and suggested I find a nice church for support because I'm going through what he called 'an existential crisis.' I don't even know what that is, but it sounds serious. Do you know any good churches?"

Tuesday, January 9, 2018

What have you come here to teach?

The first of the six sources for the living tradition of Unitarian Universalism is "direct experience of that transcending mystery and wonder..." The second source is "Words and deeds of prophetic women and men..."

Do you understand your role as a prophet? We are told in A Course Of Miracles that we all our teachers. By virtue of the fact that we are alive and interact with others and with life, we teach what we believe. Some people are more aware of what they believe and teach more intentionally than others. If you were to teach more deliberately, what would you teach?

Did you ever wonder why you were born, what the purpose of your life is?

They say there are no two snowflakes alike. There are no two human beings exactly alike, even identical twins. So why did God go to all the trouble to make each one of us unique?

And why were you born at this point in human history? Why not 500 years earlier or 1,000 years later? Why now?

During this lifetime, your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to figure out why you were created to become the person you are destined to become, and why you were born at this point in human history. There must be a reason, otherwise, why would God, the Creator, go to all this trouble?

How do you discern God's will for you, to become the person you were created to become, and to do at this point in human history, what you came here to do?

The essential strategy of discernment is to ask the Holy Spirit, your muse, the Spirit of Life, whatever you want to call your source of inspiration, for help. Discernment is not a solo activity. We all need help. Not only can we not do this alone, we shouldn't do it alone because we will, undoubtedly, on our own, go astray.

Jesus tells us in Matthew 7:7-8  Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: 8 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.

Neale Donald Walsch in his Conversations With God books tells us that God is talking to us all the time. It is we who are not tuned in and not listening.

We are so distracted these days with media and so many consumer choices and so much drama that we rarely pay attention. To tune in and listen to the Holy Spirit, our muse, the Spirit of Life, we need quiet, stillness, silence. The Holy Spirit does not speak above the roar that we create in our won minds and hearts.

What we need to do is shut up. Stop. Step down. Back off. Disengage. Get quiet. Listen.

The Christmas song says, "Do you hear what I hear? A song, a song, high above the trees, with a voice as big as the sea......."

Today, take some time to listen, at least twice, and more if you can tear yourself away, and make time for your muse. Try to understand your purpose in this life and then endeavor to do God's will to Love yourself and humanity.

Sunday, October 8, 2017

The major existential questions.


Question - How can I think about spirituality so I can enhance it in my life in a more deliberate way?

Answer - There are many models of religion but only one of spirituality. This one model of spirituality has been called the perennial philosophy. The perennial philosophy describes the elements of spirituality that is described in all major religions. Over the next several weeks we will be describing these elements.

In this article let's consider the major existential questions that all human beings become aware of and reflect on.

Why was I born?

What is the purpose of my life?

What happens when I die?

Who (What) will make be happy?

Who loves me or will love me?

Who (what) should I love?

When I make mistakes how should I correct them?

Life is a school room and as it teaches in A Course In Miralces we are given the above curriculum. We have no choice in the curriculum. Free will only allows us to choose when and how we take it.

Saturday, September 9, 2017

Existential crisis of midlife when life falls apart.

The UUAW)L fiction book of the month is Dave Eggers' book Heroes Of The Frontier, a story about a 40 year old woman who takes her two children, Paul 8, and Ana 5 and flees to Alaska to avoid her ex-husband, Carl, and find herself after losing her dental practice in a law suit.

Heroes Of The Frontier is low on plot and high on character and scene development. It's over all theme concerns a woman having an existential mid-life crisis going on a quest to the last of the American frontier.

"Now, at forty, Josie was tired. She was tired of her journey through a day, the limitless moods contained in any stretch of hours. There was the horror of morning, underslept, feeling she was on the precipice of something that felt like mono, the day already galloping away from her, her chasing on foot, carrying her boots. Then the brief upward respite after a second cup of coffee, when all seemed possible, when she wanted to call her father, her mother, reconcile, visit them with the kids, when, while driving the kids to school—jail the people who abandoned the manifest right to school buses—she instigated an all-car sing-along to the Muppets soundtrack, “Life’s a Happy Song.” Then, after the kids were gone, an eleven-minute mood freefall, then more coffee, and more euphoria until the moment, arriving at her practice, when the coffee had worn off and she grew, for an hour or so, more or less numb, doing her work in a state of underwater detachment."

Eggers, Dave. Heroes of the Frontier (pp. 24-25). Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Josie is acting out the dream of running away that many people have when are feeling suffocated by a life they are trapped in. Have you ever felt that way? Has your UU faith helped in any way with these existential quandaries?



Thursday, August 31, 2017

The thee highest and ultimate existential questions for our consideration and reflection.

The three ultimate existential questions can be used for personal reflection, personal discussion with an intimate partner, and/or part of a small group discussion. Socrates said that an unexamined life is not worth living. It is healthy and joyful to examine our own.
 
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