Daemon

So something about this felt like an ad hominem to you? What was it that specifically triggered that feeling for you? ☮️

@phil Indeed. Developing sufficient emotional maturity to be able to respond without the need to be led by someone else is where freedom is found. That's real responsibility. People who are free have no need of leaders (or of followers), as @rex pointed out on another thread. ☮️

A teacher is like a needle and his pupils are like a thread. If a teacher is wrong, his pupils are bound to be wrong. The thread follows wherever the needle guides. - Anonymous - ☮️

So did it feel as though there was animosity to you personally or to something else? ☮️

Do you have some sort of problem with my contribution @steve? Is there some sort of issue with your workmates because they reacted normally? Are you struggling with being questioned about your opening assertions about superiority and inferiority? ☮️

Why do you jump to the conclusion that there's animosity? ☮️

@wandelaar The way to proceed is probably to be more selective in your choice of Socratic partners? ☮️

So, @steve is superior because, unlike his workmates, he didn't react normally by getting upset about the fact that someone had thrown his personal possessions in the bin? ☮️

This is all a rather grandiose recipe for disaster cooked up by people who struggle to differentiate between theories about the absolute and the practical steps that are necessary to prevent the abuse of self and others. ☮️

Absolutely :-) ☮️

@wandelaar Socratic Questioning: Changing Minds or Guiding Discovery? Christine A. Padesky, Ph.D. Center for Cognitive Therapy, Huntington Beach, California https://padesky.com/newpad/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/socquest.pdf Socratic Questioning (Essential CBT Skills Series) - 4 DVD Set http://www.psychotherapydvds.com/epages/colt5155.mobile/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/colt5155/Products/12215&Locale=en_GB Sample Worksheet https://www.therapistaid.com/worksheets/socratic-questioning.pdf ☮️

Despite suggestions by various users, I decided that creating a "Personal Practice" topic in a password-protected area of this site, which would exclude possibly as many as 99% (or even 100%) of those[1] who might be interested in such a thread, would not be useful because whatever I may contribute might not resonate with any of the registered users of this site but only with the lurkers. If it resonates, users could easily read whatever I contribute in the public areas, without having to login, which is (to me) a win-win for everyone in terms of both effectiveness and efficiency (unless I'm missing something[2])? As far as my personal practices are concerned, they could all be enhanced by (or in some cases dropped in favour of) a simple, relatively easily-learned but open-ended, heart-centred breathing exercise (as I believe I've already briefly mentioned). I only use this myself on an ad hoc basis, as if it's properly embedded it's possible to return the bodymind to its optimal state without ongoing formal practice (should the bodymind's natural equilibrium state be undualy perturbed). So, it would be a waste of energy to log that anywhere. If I was still learning the basics and I needed to make any kind of record to help me to persevere (with the 60 days of 3 daily 5-minute sessions plus a 20-minute session per week, which are usually required to embed it) it would be far more efficient to note it in a diary. ☮️ Footnotes [1] In Internet culture, the 1% rule is a rule of thumb pertaining to participation in an internet community, stating that only 1% of the users of a website actively create new content, while the other 99% of the participants only lurk. Variants include the 1-9-90 rule (sometimes 90–9–1 principle or the 89:10:1 ratio), which states that in a collaborative website such as a wiki, 90% of the participants of a community only view content, 9% of the participants edit content, and 1% of the participants actively create new content. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1%_rule_(Internet_culture) [2] Perhaps these suggestions are due the inordinate trolling and spamming that occurs on this site, which appears to have forced many users to retreat into areas that give them administrative control over other users? ☮️

That would be a shame, because then I wouldn't have spotted that you might not be somebody I'd class as a troll. :-) ☮️

On the other hand, preventing comments also prevents the trolls from painting a nice target on themselves, which highlights who's worth the time and who is not. ☮️

While that may seem to be obvious, there are other possibilities. For example, the purpose of life may be simply to enjoy life. If that is the case, perhaps it is wise to address any impediment(s)? ☮️

As this topic seemed to have reached its natural conclusion (and to satiate the clamour for details), I've bookmarked a follow-on topic here, in Group Studies, to begin to discuss some of our potentially useful individual practices. At the conclusion of that topic, it should be possible for those with an interest in following a Path of the Heart to facilitate the startup of their own local practice group. In the light of several of the contributions to this thread, I feel that it would be wise to open it with an examination of basic communication skills, namely active listening, which may be considered to be one of the keystones of all spiritual practices because it develops the foundational skill of hearing the Light of the heart. However, before starting to develop that theme, I'll be completing this topic by briefly picking up the issue of why I consider the use of a "Personal Practice Forum" is unnecessary for my purposes. ☮️

Thank you! (Although, I'm puzzled about the apology for taking the time to provide a fascinating and comprehensive reply to my question.) ☮️

I guess that @sean is capable of speaking for himself about that if he wanted to clarify his position? So, I'd just PM him directly in the unlikely event that I came up with any concrete proposals about @Yueya's excellent suggestion about an icon change for the "thank you" function. If he doesn't want to hear it, I guess that he could simply ignore the PM. ☮️

I have a feeling that it works both ways (so both parties would develop their own perspectives). ☮️

So he's also @admin? ☮️

This Sean ( @sean )? ☮️

@wandelaar My suggestion is to follow the example set by Carl Rogers. ☮️

Those are both very interesting books @Alchemical Walrus, I'm glad that they were both included in the text that you recommended. Would you consider me incorrect in seeing the Bahá'í as being Sufis? ☮️

In that case, perhaps another option for a simple thank you could be implemented? ☮️

I must agree, the trophy cup is crass. ☮️