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What can we learn from our current miseries?

Lenten thoughts about the benefits of slowing down and longsuffering

 

1. Why do not we want to (why cannot we) tolerate longsuffering in this century? Not so long ago, there was a large rush all around the world... We have forgotten even that how to prepare for something. The problem with this was that we never arrived where we were. Because we never know where we are. Because we never let ourselves have enough time to realize where we will be... The moment became unimportant. There will be a new, another moment instead. Only the lack of tolerating unchanging things was bigger than the hunger for changes. "It is unbearable if we have to bear anything!"– we thought. Mankind lived in the illusion of omnipotence. This was a blindfolded road to the abyss. Then the crisis came. Corona virus appeared... I think that mankind learns now a very painful, very awful, but for our long-term survival very important lesson today. We should learn from this. We need to find the path to inner growth in these weeks of coerced silence. Please do not return back to rush even when these weeks will be over. This is the way how we can save the Earth, our home. (If you would like to know more about this, please read my essay here.)

 

2. Longsuffering as a part of wisdom. Inner peace and wisdom can only be reached with the ability of distancing ourselves from our desires. For that we have to become trained at longsuffering. Now we are gaining the very important skill of longsuffering... Lent of the church calendar became a coerced-Lent... Please do observe that we may only prevent individual tragedies with a community longsuffering. Those local communities which were not ready to follow the new rules of life, had many more infections than those which were able to slow themselves down. This slow-down will be (hopefully) over in a few months. Let us build up during this time ourselves in a different, in a better way! (If you would like to know more about this, please read my essay here.)

 

3. Longsuffering: God’s exceptional mercy. The driving force of longsuffering is love that "beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things" (1Corinthians 13:7). Let me repeat my previous sentence here: we may only prevent individual tragedies with a community longsuffering. We do see now why love is the driving force of longsuffering, do not we? We may only save those who are the fragile members of our community with the longsuffering of the whole community. We did not receive corona virus as a punishment. However, it is our education which proceeds right now. Let us observe that despite the sad tragedies this education comes with much love. Let’s feel the love flowing on us even amidst our current misery and we will be given the grace of inner peace with it, too. With this love and inner peace let us start re-building our communities. (If you would like to know more about this, please read my essay here.)

 


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Two ways of existence of human life: Martha and Mary

Thoughts about the right way of serving and the relationship with Jesus

1. The truth of Martha. A lot of Marthas have always served others. The typical "Martha-behavior" is the idea of the perfectly working family. But this "dream-Martha" sometimes freaks out. "I have done so much right for the people around her but they do not help me at all... Moreover, they do not even notice or appreciate my hard work either. They never say a kind word to me! They let me work myself to death, lying silent, unsympathetically and sluggishly. I wish someone would ever move!" In such a case Martha shouts or maybe cries. There is nothing more legitimate than her anger and sorrow. Isn’t there? (If you would like to know more about this, please read my essay here.)

 

2. The truth of Mary. Why does not Jesus set Martha as a good example for us? What would we do without Marthas? Why is Mary the role model who does not do anything? "This Martha is a self-sacrificing saint!" Is she really a saint? What do we think, does it happen so frequently that our Lord’s only-begotten Son knocks on our door and starts to teach us there? How do we think about Jesus? Like a piece of furniture in our room? No way!!! We do not dictate to Jesus when, how much, what and how He should share with us. The relationship with Jesus is not symmetrical. It is not a relationship on an equal footing. We have only one thing to do in our whole lives: to adapt to Jesus. Completely. This is what Mary did. That is why Mary IS the role model and NOT Martha — who rebuked the Lord. The creature may not rebuke the Creator. A part may not act as it was bigger than the Whole. (If you would like to know more about this, please read my essay here.)

 

3. The truth of Jesus. Mary’s truth is the example, who recognizes Jesus as the Son of God, recognizes the peculiarity of the moment, sits down to Jesus’ feet and fully immerses in the strength and miracle of God’s presence. But the story does not end here. Jesus does not invite us to sit down at his feet and stay there for the rest of our lives. Jesus initiates an Action in us. But one thing makes a big difference. The order. If we act first and do not listen to Jesus before, we will do things our own way. If we listen to Jesus first and we start acting afterwards, we will do it exactly when and how He has shown us. With this our lives fall into their proper place. (If you would like to know more about this, please read my essay here.)

 

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What is a good decision?

Thoughts about the power of conscience

1. In how many ways can we make a wrong decision? One of the worst decisions is non-decision. One type of non-decision is to follow the crowd, when the majority (without considering the situation) copies the behavior of the „neighbor”, the „influencer X” – uncritically. A hasty decision almost always focuses on the short term objectives. Following the long term objectives is much more important than that. (For further details, please read my essay here.)

 

2. What can help us make a good decision? For making a good decision it is important to estimate whether I am in an appropriate state of mind. A very useful example is that of the rabbit. The rabbit EITHER listens OR runs. It does NOT do both at the same time. A good decision needs time. I have good news: time is subjective. If we can create silence in ourselves, our inner time expands and a moment becomes "a thousand years". For making a good decision it is important to control our emotions, since only "indifference" which is free of unsettled inclinations may lead us to good decisions. The most important compass of a good decision is our conscience, which is the reflection of Totality living in ourselves. (For further details, please read my essay here.)

 

3. Good decisions made at the right time and at the right place. We rarely recognize that we are in a life-changing situation. So it is worth paying attention to the surprising situations VERY carefully. In these cases we have to stop and think. For the most important decisions of our lives we have to leave our own viewpoints and have to rise high (Saint Ignatius, Spiritual Exercises, 184 to 187). If we have accepted Totality with a humble heart, we will see ourselves as God sees us. If we succeed to leave all the earthly affections behind that we ourselves have been in our everyday lives, then we can feel God’s intentions and will with us. In such cases those miraculously new paths that cannot be imagined by a human mind are to be revealed in our lives that link us together with Totality, bring us our real freedom and lead us to good decisions made at the right time and at the right place. (For further details, please read my essay here.)

 

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Our love networks

How can we become peace-sources?

1. Disenergizing people are avoided. People spreading negative emotions are avoided by all others. Those leaders are inefficient who spread negative feelings around themselves. If I exude positive emotions, empathy and satisfaction around myself then I become the central point of my social network. On the contrary, if I spread negative feelings, I get to the very periphery of the social network. (If you would like to read more about this, please read my essay here.)

 

2. Our love networks. How can we create love around ourselves? We are very lucky. Love can be spread. We are very unlucky. Hate can be spread, too. Anger spreads five times faster (and makes five times more damage) than joy. Let us be open to the love poured upon us even if it does not come where we wanted to get it from. If we forward love to others persistently, then after a while we notice that we are reached by love, too. Let me encourage the Reader to write a kindness journal for a few days. If the ratio between our good and bad deeds is much worse than FIVE to one, then we should think about how we could change this in the future. (If you would like to read more about this, please read my essay here.)

 

3. How can we become peace-sources? Accepting and forwarding love and thus the enrichment of the love network around us is realized in small steps. As this feeling becomes permanent in our lives, it is not love any more we experience, but peace and serenity. The one who has found the source of peace becomes peace-source himself in his surroundings, too. (If you would like to read more about this, please read my essay here.)

 

 

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What are the best qualities of a good leader?

Thoughts about a life spent to serve others in love

1. The trap of a self-centered life. It is a great experience of development when a child realizes that he is able to live his life alone. From one will comes the next, and from the next will comes another. In the big rush to grow this willpower bigger and bigger this giant will never thinks about what is the broader aim of what it actually wants. The time will come when man gets tired. He still wants something but he is not able to fulfill all his wills any more. Midlife-crisis sets in. Our poor fellow realizes that he has become alone in the big rush. He has reached his limits: he has burnt himself out. A lot of people finish their lives here. Old age comes but it is only a prolonged agony of a man falling apart. (If you would like to read more about this, please read my essay here.)

 

2. What are the best qualities of a good leader? The strength of service. It is possible to break out from the circles of the "self-made man" that closes himself inside himself, and after reaching our full potential we can discover the world’s "deep dimension" again. The key to the discovery of the world is: the strength of service. God wants to use us all for awaken the good in others. The good can spread only by the power of example. The only example that really reaches and affects the other person is the one that we serve this other person unselfishly with. A good leader listens and serves. A good leader deliberates, and tries to shepherd the community assigned to him towards the golden mean always supporting what the majority of the community do NOT want, moreover, what is not even needed just then. A good leader is decisive, responsible, peaceful, humble and knows when to resign. (If you would like to read more about this, please read my essay here.)

 

3. How can we change the life of our environment to happiness? Fulfillment in a life spent to serve others in love. What is service? Service is passing the love to others, which was given to us by God. If we became open to accept the love of God, it is impossible to keep it in ourselves. This is how to serve others in love becomes a way of living. This is how we become love-sources in the life of all people around us. Thus, a good leader is the love-source of his environment. This is THE best quality of a good leader. (If you would like to read more about this, please read my essay here.)

 

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A biweekly blog of short essays offering deep thinking on the meaning and purpose of human life

The blog is a continuation of its Hungarian predecessor reaching 1.3 million clicks

 

The blog is a continuation of my Hungarian blog (its Google translation can be read here) operated between 2009 and 2012 reaching more than 1.3 million clicks. Posts appear on each second Friday and hope to please those Readers, who feel responsibility for their spiritual development, other human beings, their natural environment and for the whole World.

 

During the past years my spiritual life and thinking have both deepened and intensified. Since the beginning of 2017 I meditate at least one hour per day (that can be considered more and more a contemplating prayer), I regularly participate in spiritual retreats providing and requiring Silence, and I visit places offering spiritual engrossment. Besides experiencing and spreading love, values like wisdom and humility have become much more important to me than before. These changes are reflected by the Luther rose in the header of the blog that also refers to my Lutheran faith. One of the 2017 Golden Mother Award winners, Zsuzsanna Szilvássy Kecskemétiné summarizes the essentials of being Lutheran as follows: "This is an open, welcoming, very friendly faith.” I agree with her. Several thoughts of the blog will help spiritual enrichment. I hope that these thoughts will support deep thinking of those Readers too, who do not consider themselves believers.

 

I am full of ideas, which I wish to share with the Readers. At the same time, I also wish to learn from You. I invite the Reader to register at the blog to make comments, and join the blog's group at Facebook and/or at LinkedIn. I would like to thank Your help to build a deep thinking blog community, where members share and modify each-others thoughts!

 

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