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Personally, I tend to agree with your second paragraph. I would much rather hear "Run! Run!" than "We can still make the bus!"

• Florin_Andrei 13y ago
  What most people today think about spirituality is childish at best, a hideous deformation at worst. "The Secret" is an instance of that. I've spoken with some Orthodox monks in Eastern Europe, where I grew up. Some of them (a rare few, yes) are surprisingly un-dogmatic, and focused on spirituality instead. Take their prayer for example. It's not so much a naive conversation with an imaginary deity, as most people think. It's more like an old-school mental self-programming technique. They instruct you to never say "give me money", but instead say "give me the strength to attain success" - and visualize it, the process, not the result. They emphasize that you remain the material agent; if you're "given" anything, it's the mental conditions that boost motivation and clear thinking. Even from a purely material and scientific perspective, I'm definitely fine with that view, give or take a metaphoric understanding of the process of "giving" (it's ultimately a change in your mentality that occurs due to prayer and visualization, and even they emphasize that the way the change happens is a mystery better left alone if you're practical-minded).
  • saraid216 13y ago
    > Take their prayer for example. It's not so much a naive conversation with an imaginary deity, as most people think. It's more like an old-school mental self-programming technique. This is historically very, very common. Any deep dive into religious mysticism of any type will immediately blur the line between self-programming and conversation. It's not great (though hardly impossible) as a route to secular authority so it's rarely the dominant understanding.