Review of 'The Courage To Be Transformed' by Dr. Robert Moore - Part 4

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None of us is without a generator in there.

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Humans create spirituality to deal with the problems of the world that can hinder the courage to be. There is no such thing as a non-practical spirituality, to the extent that it is an authentic spirituality and not a facade.

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Authentic spiritual practice is an attempt to connect to those energies that serve life and to do so in such a way that they actually do serve life and don't turn demonic.

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Religious forms can both connect you to the energy and they can get in the way of the energy.

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Religious forms are ambivalent. You can tell whether a symbol is creative in a person's life by whether it is creative in a person's life.

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Tillich says either the religious form promotes good like courage, peace, love, kindness, etc and whether it promotes bad like fear, anxiety, hate, etc. But the context matters. These are all different for different people, cultures, organisations, etc.

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Tillich believes that every single Christian symbolism can be used in demonic ways. He was quite hard on Christianity but Tillich did believe in every tribe, all of their symbols can be used in demonic ways.

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Alfred Adler once said that it did not matter what a person believed, but how they used it in their life. You do not examine the religious symbol itself but rather whether that symbol promotes life or promotes death.

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An effective religion or spirituality must have power. Now whether that power is good or evil depends on a lot of things. In this day and age, young people subconsciously look at where there is power. Drug dealers, politics, etc are manifestations of the evil energy of society. They represent where there is power. Technology also plays a huge role. It can sometimes be easier to turn to technology uncritically and to avoid the kind of in-depth understanding of the spiritual life.

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The question then becomes about discernment. How can you tell whether this thing is demonic or not.

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Tillich saw people's evaluation of their spirituality on a continuum between two poles, the pole of profanisation (brownout, no or low energy) and demonic (higher energy but lacking in regulation; energy running white hot).

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It takes ritual process relating to prayer and highly developed participation in the mythic symbols and rituals of a variety of kinds to connect to these energies.

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If you use something like an ideology eg political ideology or psychological theories to connect with these energies, you're using that in a kind of symbolic way. Anything can become a symbol for people.

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The question then also becomes when you are low on energy and experiencing brownout, what rituals do you partake in to get more energy.

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If you really want to plug into the power of being, learn how to pray. It doesn't just come from Christians or Muslims or other religions.

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It is important to work on the spirituality thing now so that when the forces of death (as we age) come about, so that we do not embrace the seduction or temptation of despair.

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You cannot keep in touch with the fire of life if you are not "awake". Your spiritual life has got to be tuned. You have to attend to it everyday. You have to attend to it hopefully the first thing in the morning, and the last thing at night, and regularly during the day.

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If you attend to your spiritual life diligently, then you will have the energy you need, to have the courage you need, to face the truths you need to face and to imagine a vision for the next stretch of your journey, and you will have the courage to take action and take a stand in the continuing transformation of your best self.