Add this copy of Swimming With the Whale: Teaching and Practices of to cart. $52.26, good condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Newport Coast, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2012 by Xlibris Corp.
Add this copy of Swimming With the Whale: Teaching and Practices of to cart. $85.16, new condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Newport Coast, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2012 by Xlibris Corp.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,
declares the LORD.
9 As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Never Stop questioning. The author describes the ego as the evil root of most of our problems. Thus, the ego needs to be destroyed, removed, and/or revealed as an illusion. This attitude creates a paradoxical internal situation rife with cognitive dissonance: It places you in a position of being at war with yourself.
This attitude is toxic. It creates a sense of guilt and a feeling of being trapped in a hopeless predicament. One imagines that somehow one needs to ascend beyond one�s identity and self in order to become a genuinely good or enlightened person.
But relinquishing the ego is monumentally difficult, perhaps impossible. Even if our selves do not have any essential nature, as Buddhism teaches, the vast majority of us are never going to transcend our personal identities and narratives, or let go of all of our attachments, desires, preferences, and expectations.
And would we actually want to? Are such things not important components of our individuality?
Your ego is not evil. It is not your enemy. Instead of trying to eradicate our personal identity, we�re probably better off working to accept ourselves just as we are, while also cultivating spaciousness within our minds, so that we may see ourselves more clearly, take ourselves less seriously, and refrain from over-identifying with our personal identity and narrative, instead learning to see it as one of many possible stories about who we are.
You can train your ego through good habits of body and mind, to be a noble actor in the world. You certainly do not need this book to tell you how to live your life as a better person.
Absolute belief is not necessary for any form of spirituality. The assumption of final knowledge may detract from one�s ability to truly taste the oceanic mystery of this miraculous existence.
seeker
Mar 9, 2014
Rich and Deep
Rich and deep with advanced teachings and practices.... Nice to have Daskalos' teachings on various subjects organized in this one book
Eva
Sep 21, 2013
Useful for those seeking to dive deeper...
A very good book for those seeking to explore, more deeply, the teachings of Daskalos.
I would be remiss not to add that the rambling, near incoherent, diatribes directed at the author by other 'reviewers' are quite perplexing, especially in light their ostensible grasp of Daskalos' profound teachings. Do they not know - even now - nothing is hidden? Did they forget their seven promises? Do they not see the negative elementals they pour out to the world with such behavior? Again, very puzzling. Something tells me Daskalos or The Christ wouldn't comment this way.
I came here looking for objective, sensible reviews by those who actually read the book. Instead, I waded through the walls of disappointing blather, so I just bought it... and I'm very glad I did.
Yiannis
May 23, 2013
The book begins as a ?promising study? but
The book begins as a ?promising study,? but the luster soon fades as flaws and fallacies surface
Some of us have had things happen to them in the past; things that still scare them and have them living in fear. Some of us just sought a chance to start all over again when some arrogant Researcher of Truth members destroyed everything. Took everything hard work, courage and sacrifices had achieved. Some use Daskalos? teachings for personal gain only to fulfill their own egotistic desires using others. Does it get better with time? We try to forgive and forget, to put it all behind us. To just look forward but it just didn't work and we finally realized that this person had won taking every bit of hope God give all of us.
Seems some forgot one of Daskalos? lessons that ?When the intellect is darkened through sin, the whole soul is darkened and defiled?.
In the eastern theology, there is a virtue called ?watchfulness? that some ?researchers of truth? members have forgotten. Those teachings Daskalos once taught at his Stoa in Nicosia Cyprus. The nous (intellect) is the eye of the soul, the heart, while a thought is what functions in a man?s mind. It is one thing to try to keep the mind pure and another to try to keep the nous (intellect), that is the heart, pure. Nevertheless, purity of thoughts is needed, because it is impossible to keep one?s inner self free from sin if one has evil thoughts. Some seem to have a misleading impression that the Philokalia is predominantly a manual on the practice of the ?Jesus Prayer?, with little else besides.
?At every hour and moment let us guard the heart with all diligence from thoughts that obscure the soul?s mirror, for in that mirror Jesus Christ, the wisdom and power of God the Father, is luminously reflected. According to St. Athanasius ?God became man so man can become god." Watchfulness is portrayed as the axe which shatters the large trees, hitting their roots. And when the root is struck, it will not spring up again. When the intellect of man has heed for the soul, it keeps watch over the heart and the five senses of the soul, the bodily as well as the spiritual. When intellect is awake and attentive, it keeps watch over speculations, the thoughts and controls the imagination so the whole man, body and soul, is kept pure. When man is rendered pure through watchfulness and spiritual works, his prayers have courage to go before God as they cross the sky beyond the stars passing through the heavens and draw near to the Divine Throne of Grace, where the blessings of God are granted.
Never agree with what people say until you make your own search for the answer and find it in your heart- like writing your own script on a blank page. The more you learn, the more you will realize how little you know and how nothing is ever certain. Maybe some of us build walls not to keep people out, but to see who cares enough to break them down. To fix the wrongs they created and make them right. And remember the wisdom, a humble and admirable teacher, Daskalos once taught them - making people more important than "things".
It?s not the making of a mistake that is the problem; it?s what you did with it afterward that really counted. When you fix those wrongs, then the level of trust and respect others have for you and Daskalos? teachings will grow tenfold.
Alexander
Feb 14, 2013
Deceptive Practices Do Not Lead to Truth
?Peace reigns in all of us forever. Even if it does not appear so always, peace is the basic pattern of the individual and the deepest longing in every human heart.?
Yet, peace is the hardest element to achieve when so many things are kept hidden and sold for money by self-seeking, egotistic individuals who call themselves teachers.
There may be three or four big choices that shape someone's whole life, and you need to be the one who makes them, not someone else. Imagine if someone else irresponsibly manipulates just one choice in your life which changes your entire future in a negative way. Would the same teacher or healer then be fully capable or knowledgeable to make things right giving back the time you lost from the healers? self-seeking, manipulative control? Or would the so-called healer thoughtlessly just leave the sufferer to deal with the consequences alone? Dealing with what was consciously created by a selfish healers' manipulation. Just live the life you want to live and never let any ?researchers of truth? group member tell you they can improve your life following some ancient indescribable system. It takes a highly conscious teacher to be able to teach Daskalos? teachings. Unfortunately, most of his former students are now only using Daskalos? teachings for self serving purposes to get rich themselves. Mentoring another is an honorable endeavor whereas manipulation only creates fear to promote specific agendas for selfish evil doers.
'A common misperception prevails these days in popular psychology.Many psychotherapists believe that in order for a patient to recover he must relive certain emotions and events, venting memories and frustrations that have been plaguing the personality. In this process of "letting the steam out" more often than not the elementals surrounding a memory, rather then being weakened, are revitalized by the attention with which they are served. This method is counterproductive - except in a limited few cases - to the client's recovery as it lends only more energy to the problems'. - Daskalos
