Re: When bad things happen
It's fascinating to read Aeran's replies here, because they're almost exactly what I used to believe myself. At that time, I was very content with the answers I had. I was right in the heart of 'Wiccaland' so had others all around me echoing similar beliefs and reinforcing in me this feeling of contentment in the knowledge that I had the answers, that the rolercoaster that is our lives here was all part of the beautiful sacred experience..
It's not really that I don't accept it any more. I most certainly do still see the merits of the theory. I just don't feel comfortable with that answer now somehow. Maybe I'm just too angry at things that have happened in the world. Or maybe it is not that the answer I had before was wrong, but that it's the question I'm asking that has somehow changed. I wonder if my discomfort comes from not seeing why suffering is necessary, even as route to spiritual growth. There are other ways to learn, and mankind is rapidly moving away from the concept of punishing errors as a means of teaching children or training animals.. so why on earth would the universe in her wisdom have such an old fashioned 'it's for your own good' attitude towards human suffering?
I'm not expecting an answer by the way, I'm just thinking out loud. It's also worth noting that I'm talking about the big things; a parent losing their child; entire families being wiped out by a virus, or by militants; entire populations being controlled and starved by power-crazed leaders. When it comes to more personal crises; unemployment, the breakup of a long-term relationship, lifelong medical conditions, while still extremely painful, I can kinda get behind these being about our own personal journey. So again, I think it is the question I am asking that has changed, even though linguistically speaking, it seems the same.
Discovering an answer that works well enough for me that I can start getting on with my spiritual life, is an important search for me. One I intend to spend many hours meditating on, and researching. I've already been given an interesting vision in response to this question though, so I figure I may as well share it here while we're on the subject.
I was shown a still in my mind from the prologue of the movie, Watership Down. One of the hardest things for me to reconcile is that deeply religious people put their faith in their god(s) all the time, and live good holy lives, only to still suffer. It angered me that their prayers went unanswered, and made me question what the point was in worshipping at all. So being made to recall this scene, form a movie I haven't seen since my childhood was very moving. Many of you will recall it I'm sure, but for those who don't, the story speaks of how a species (in this case rabbits) grew out of control, destroying everything in their path. Their god gave them a choice to control their own numbers, but their leader the prince of the rabbits, refused. This angered their god who responded by turning other animals into predators. However, their god didn't just leave the rabbits to die. He blessed them too, giving them speed and cunning.. gifts to help them outrun and outwit their predators.
So now I am considering.. is it that there HAS to be war, famine, disease in order to keep human population in check, but we don't suffer because the gods want us to.. so they've actually blessed us with ways to survive, trying to give us a fighting chance. Is that why (for those of us who believe this anyway), we have the ability to use spells, why we have the intelligence to discover medicines and the gift of communication to negotiate with our enemies. People will continue to suffer, but are we as helpless as I thought? Or for every failed attempt to preserve life, were many more lives saved elsewhere?
I can't find the orginal on YouTube, but here's a remake of the prologue I'm talking about (the audio is unchanged): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVMHeqxQlBs
It's fascinating to read Aeran's replies here, because they're almost exactly what I used to believe myself. At that time, I was very content with the answers I had. I was right in the heart of 'Wiccaland' so had others all around me echoing similar beliefs and reinforcing in me this feeling of contentment in the knowledge that I had the answers, that the rolercoaster that is our lives here was all part of the beautiful sacred experience..
It's not really that I don't accept it any more. I most certainly do still see the merits of the theory. I just don't feel comfortable with that answer now somehow. Maybe I'm just too angry at things that have happened in the world. Or maybe it is not that the answer I had before was wrong, but that it's the question I'm asking that has somehow changed. I wonder if my discomfort comes from not seeing why suffering is necessary, even as route to spiritual growth. There are other ways to learn, and mankind is rapidly moving away from the concept of punishing errors as a means of teaching children or training animals.. so why on earth would the universe in her wisdom have such an old fashioned 'it's for your own good' attitude towards human suffering?
I'm not expecting an answer by the way, I'm just thinking out loud. It's also worth noting that I'm talking about the big things; a parent losing their child; entire families being wiped out by a virus, or by militants; entire populations being controlled and starved by power-crazed leaders. When it comes to more personal crises; unemployment, the breakup of a long-term relationship, lifelong medical conditions, while still extremely painful, I can kinda get behind these being about our own personal journey. So again, I think it is the question I am asking that has changed, even though linguistically speaking, it seems the same.
Discovering an answer that works well enough for me that I can start getting on with my spiritual life, is an important search for me. One I intend to spend many hours meditating on, and researching. I've already been given an interesting vision in response to this question though, so I figure I may as well share it here while we're on the subject.
I was shown a still in my mind from the prologue of the movie, Watership Down. One of the hardest things for me to reconcile is that deeply religious people put their faith in their god(s) all the time, and live good holy lives, only to still suffer. It angered me that their prayers went unanswered, and made me question what the point was in worshipping at all. So being made to recall this scene, form a movie I haven't seen since my childhood was very moving. Many of you will recall it I'm sure, but for those who don't, the story speaks of how a species (in this case rabbits) grew out of control, destroying everything in their path. Their god gave them a choice to control their own numbers, but their leader the prince of the rabbits, refused. This angered their god who responded by turning other animals into predators. However, their god didn't just leave the rabbits to die. He blessed them too, giving them speed and cunning.. gifts to help them outrun and outwit their predators.
So now I am considering.. is it that there HAS to be war, famine, disease in order to keep human population in check, but we don't suffer because the gods want us to.. so they've actually blessed us with ways to survive, trying to give us a fighting chance. Is that why (for those of us who believe this anyway), we have the ability to use spells, why we have the intelligence to discover medicines and the gift of communication to negotiate with our enemies. People will continue to suffer, but are we as helpless as I thought? Or for every failed attempt to preserve life, were many more lives saved elsewhere?
I can't find the orginal on YouTube, but here's a remake of the prologue I'm talking about (the audio is unchanged): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVMHeqxQlBs
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