Serinity Prayer: 

"God grant me the serinity to Accept the things I can not change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference"

I think too-- as you learn ballance in detachment you will learn how to detach your actions from your emotions without killing the emotions and to use the emotions beneficially when needed

Okay -- before I move on.... lets just say-- detachment has not been a problem for me. I'm trying to move away from it.  Its a circle you will start to move away from it again, especially if that is what you want.

First-- for a short time-- please everyone answer this-- I don't want a huge debate-- just first instinct-- opinions.  

What is the purpose of following a spiritual path?  Then tell me why you started on yours.

faceonmars9 : reaching the goal, the goal of existance

spiritualmyst : to perfect my abilty to love

intense_female : thirst

gidget600 : to reach enlightment

What prompted you to it? (the goal and the journey... the path its self)

faceonmars9 : seeing the magic, the order

intense_female : first because I felt God and KNEW then I lost my path and desperatly wanted it back. Also because leaving path is no longer an option, i've done it... I wont do it again. 

In the absense of God-- of feeling or knowing God--- what is the purpose of spiritual path? (Also in the absense of psychic energy since many of us seem to define path by psychic growth)

intense_female : i dont know

faceonmars9 : experiencing god again

spiritualmyst : to know thy self

What happens when it goes away?

intense_female : the hope you can feel God again.

How then do you walk path?  When the psychic energy goes away and you no longer feel God.  How then do you walk path?

ok--- just think about that

. . . . . .

I started out numb myself I was an atheist most of my life, so walking path without knowledge or feel of God is something I have done. ok-- more on that later -- maybe.

In the absence of God--- we have choices, maybe too many to choose but let me propose four possible ones:

1. Grow apathetic about life, self, resposibility, environment, others, etc. everything

2. Get angry and rage against God or the lack there of and act out in anger as a result or become self destructive

3. Become selfish, believe there are no repercussions to your actions, no karma.  Even actions made against others-- or their responce to you-- do not matter this can again be socially or self destructive

4.  Belief or not study the ideas of God and Spirit define God within define your own set of ethics define and choose your own path even in the absense of "spirituality" see the value in walking a spiritual path try to walk a "Godly" path as much as possible treat others well knowing that even if its purely kinetic--- physics your actions do effect the world around you and the people wether God exists or not.

Ok-- taking a step sideways.  When I was an atheist I did not believe in God but I knew I had choices  I decided that I atleast wanted to know what a was considered a Godly path I knew I wanted to treat people well to live honorably see-- if God did not exist-- then I realized the way I treated others the way I chose to influence the universe was just that much more important The same thing goes for psychic phenomena when the psychic energy goes away

Ask yourself :

What is really important  Why do I walk a spiritual path? What are the most important things we have learned in here (slc chat)?

Is it how to move a pencil with our mind? or to read other's minds? or is it finding ballance?  focus. and defining our ethics and intent  is it learning to help others in their path? is it to heal?

Its all of these things but you do not have to be psychic to effect the world or the people around you to find ballance to focus to change the world for the better to walk a path.

I can tell you working film sets there are many people there strongly on path without being psychic or atleast not knowing it some may have messed up family or personal issues but I have never seen so much focus and intent in terms of work and social cooperation I can also tell you artists also follow path they touch on these same issues of ballance-- focus-- etc. and they create and in doing so-- they touch "God" even if its not by psychic means

So-- the questions comes back to:  Why do we follow a spiritual path? and Why at times does God leave us alone?

See-- its just my opinion but I believe God teaches us lessons and then he pushes us out of the nest for a little while to see if we can fly but the flight does not have to do with the psychic growth God takes away at times-- his touch and the psychic abilities to see if we really learned the important lessons to see if we have enough faith to walk path even when we can not feel it and even if the psychic never comes back you all have been given an enormous gift because the lessones you learned here can be applied to art to work to relationships to every interaction you have with the world and at times-- when your strong enough when you walk path effortlessly you will not be able to tell the difference between your choices and God's and at times when you feel disconnected from path it might just mean that you are so in sinc with it That you no longer feel the difference between path and yourself. 

So-- tell me everyone your opinions now--- Why do we choose to walk a spiritual path?

intense_female : its who i am

faceonmars9 : i define following spiritual path as following my heart

You do realize you do not need the energy feelings and the psychic stuff to walk path right?  What is important?

intense_female : our etiquitte, how we treat the world, and in turn treat ourselves

spiritualmyst : to become one with god to evlove

.... and THAT is the purpose of the SLC --- the psychic stuff is just icing-- the reward at times-- at times a tool--- but never our only tools-- not nearly.