Hard part of genuine spirituality

[donq]

I already posted about the movie Hereafter (2010), directed by Clint Eastwood. And I was moved by the following scene a lot. It seems many people still don’t understand spirituality and their minds are not ready to accept it. It’s too painful to accept it?
(I could not find the video of this whole scene on the internet, just only a part of it, sorry. Anyway, I'll put its script here instead.)



"Could I ask you a question?"
"You know, these are probably ready to go in."
"George?"
"Would it be okay if I told you the answer was no?"
"You don't even know what I was gonna ask."
"Yes, I do. You're gonna ask me if I can do a reading for you. Look, Melanie, I barely know you...but I like you a lot. Really, a lot. Is there any way we could pretend that maybe we go back in time...and just forget about the phone ringing, and my brother's message...And we never had this conversation?"
"Why?"
"If we open the door and go down that road...any chance that we had of having something normal will just be gone. It just will. Believe me. I have enough experience of that now. I mean, sometimes, I mean....You know, knowing everything about someone, it's--You know, it seems nice, but, really...maybe it's actually better to hold stuff back."
"I hear you."
"But you can understand."
"I'm curious."
"No, of course. I mean, yeah. Yeah."
"Please?"
"Okay. Come on. Here, take a seat."
"Okay."
"I'm gonna take your hands for a second, to get a connection...and then I'll let go, and I'll just ask you a couple questions."
"All right."
"Okay. Give me your hands."
"Okay."
"Okay....There's a woman. And she's tall...Thin. She has brown hair. Do you know who I'm talking about? Is this woman your mother?"
"Yes."
"And I'm feeling a pain in my chest."
"Yeah. That's how she died. Of a heart attack."
"I'm sorry...Okay. You ready to eat?"
"There's not something else?"
"No, there's nothing..."
"No, no, no, I can tell. Please, there is, I can tell. I mean, what's the matter? You don't think I could handle it?"
"All right, um...When you touched me before, there was a...There was a man. Dark hair."
"My father."
"He passed away not too long ago?"
"Last year."
"And...All he kept saying, all I kept hearing was..."
"Was what?"
"How sorry he was."
"What for?"
"For what he did to you all that time ago. And he hoped that you could one day forgive him..."
"..........."
"I'm sorry....I'm sorry. I'm sorry...for pressing you like that. Maybe we shouldn't have gone there."
"I don't know what to say. Except if I...If I go now...if we draw a line under this...pretend it never happened...we'll be okay. I'm sure."
"Good."
"Good."
"We still have the competition to win. Right?"
(Both were going to compete, as a team, on cooking competition at school they had attended.)
"Right."
"I should've listened to you. You know, too much knowledge and all that."
"I'll see you next week?"
"Yeah, you betcha."

P.S. After she had left him she cried so painfully. And you can guess, she never showed up in his life again.
Ok, goodnight everyone. Sleep well and have a sweet dream.

[gruntal]

My experience with readings hasn't been exactly perfectly comfortable. A saving grace is I didn't even have to see the answer if I wasn't in the mood for it although the others - part of my group - might be curious to know. It was not inappropriate they were ready for what I was not. Much closer to home is talking with one relative about another relative as to what they did or thought in the past. The memories are subjective; the letters and pictures left behind are not so! These things were begging for clarification but how relevant can anything be after so many years?

I guess as long as emotions remain questions are sought. Over time and distance the very qualities of detachment that make things less important also enable them to be analysed with less prejudice or urgency. On the other hand what was swept under the rug was done so for a purpose too. Does it hurt any less after hundreds of years?

The hard part of spirituality is that it is totally incompatible with amnesia and myopia.

[tribunalofmercy]

This one's be down awhile (over a month), but I was reading and Thinking about where all we Go on our "paths", and how Much our perspectives change along the way. This is a common theme/teaching among cultures, in one form or another; it relates to our ability to Connect with more than what we see in Front of us, and builds with each experience we add to our lives.

If I am to walk the Entire Earth as my "life journey", and I begin...and the first place I go is to the great Cathedrals in Rome, or to the palace in London, etc - places that are Filled with wonder, and I meet Happy, helpful people along the way.... someone Else may then ask me what the "journey" is like, I may tell them it is Wonderful! But truly, their Own journey may start with getting lost in a war-torn country with no food and no one there to Help them along, and they will feel Terrible, because I told them it was a Wonderful experience!

We all know this part of the story. Yes. And as our journey continues we gain more and more experience, expanding our perspectives to include both positive and negative, we can identify with Both sides. But one of the Hardest things in the world for Me, I have found, is to know When to share What, with Whom, and Why...this is where I give Up my control, let my intuition and my Faith lead me, and I'm not Nearly as good with that as I should be. :/

I talk too much; I have always felt it's my Worst trait, and I was thinking about gruntal's answer on this one...no matter What I learn on my path, in This life it is Never going to give me a Complete perspective. There is Always something I will learn 5 minutes from now that could change my Entire answer, if I could do it over. ....like buying something I Really want, and then find out in tomorrow's paper that it has gone on sale, 1/2 price. (gah!) lol


My guides have done that all my life (even when I didn't Know it was them); they have Told me things when I Really wanted to know, but the answers they gave me were Obviously not always what I Expected. Early on, when I was young and newly married to God and I was still Completely Christian in my understanding, I went to bed wanting Jesus to be the Last thing I thought about at night, and the First thing I thought about in the morning, and I wanted to Dream about him if I could, to know as Much about him as possible....that particular night I had a Horrible dream that I was experiencing Jesus, and that I was in Great Pain because I wanted to Go somewhere, to Do something, to Be something and No one else wanted me to. I was taken away in chains, put in a prison and hated by all...

They did not make me experience Everything in the dream, but the point was that I wanted to see all the Glory of him, the pleasant things, and (as usual) that was Not what I got; I got Perspective.

Be careful what we ask for; we might just Get it.