Why not a wizard? One of my favorite characters in a fantasy environment are wizards. Gandolf the Gray is a great example.

Oh sorry I thought I was in the fantasy thread here for a moment. I apologize and please go back to the daily discussion as I practice to shoot lightning bolts from my finger tips.

Again, name one thing is this statement you just made that is divergent from the concept of "actions have consequences."? I will give you a cookie if you do.

Come on Jeannie.

That's terrible envangelism for the Law of Attraction!

You sound as bad as the Christians when they tell eveyone they are sinners and need to repent.

You need to learn how to do Positive Preaching if you're going to proselytize the Law of Attraction.

You've been hanging around on the General Religion Forum too much.

Stay away from there. You're picking up bad technique.

Ah wha????????

Look who is talking

I agree that people who are not aware of how to tap into their personal power and who believe they are powerless or victims will not understand a statement that they are 100% responsible for their personal reality, and they will reject that idea.

They are not 'in control' of their lives or their personal realities in the way they would want to be, or in the way they think they should be, but they are unknowingly responsible for their state of affairs and their personal reality by way of their thoughts, attitudes and decisions.

As you gain awareness of how you manifest your reality, you will gain the power to manifest it in the way you want it instead of the way you do not want it.

That is why the first step is to begin to understand the law of attraction and begin to practice it until you have some personal experience with it.

Shooting lightening bolts from your fingertips is the first lesson in the first book of Penczak's "The Temple of Witchcraft" series.

Seriously it is.

But don't expect large bolts of lightening when you first start out.

If you shut of all the lights and are real careful, (and suffle your feet along a carpet in a dry room) you can see the sparks fly from your fingertips when you bring your hands together.

If you can't get the lightening to jump between your fingertips, try touching a metal doorknob.

If that doesn't work, try sticking your finger in an electrical socket.

We'll make a Wizard out of you even if we have to pay the electric bill.

I don't disagree that actions have consequences, so I am not sure what your point is, but that is not the message I want to express with this statement.

a. If the desire is to have more personal power and freedom...

b. the journey begins with the willingness to accept responsibility for your personal reality and state of affairs.

c. ..and to accept responsibility for the consequences of everything you proceed to do.

That means that you don't look around for who is "at fault" if something undesirable happens. You just examine the event and learn something from it.

Or just study Witchcraft.

It's the same thing but it comes with more interesting tools and folklore.

I am rolling on the floor laughing so hard

I did buy some Tarot Cards James. I mentioned it on "The Other" thread. I am still reading a 200 page book at the moment, but it already says I have to buy a crystal quartz so negative energy doesn't surround the deck of cards. Then it asks you to buy some cloth and a wooden box to put the cards in it. Then it asks you sleep with the cards under your pillow one day.

but before I do all of this, I am going to have a bowl of chili with crackers

I have yet to see anyone in this thread suggesting otherwise.

It's not necessary to point blame just because you recognize that you don't have 100% control over everything.

I mean, just because it's not 'your fault' doesn't mean that you need to point the blame at someone else.

Why does anyone need to be at fault?



Sh!t happens.

In fact, that was my point a long time ago. Some things are just random. No blame, yet no responsiblity either.

Just randomness.

No 'fault' required.

Now you're thinking like a true Buddhist.

That's probably why Buddha was so fat.

And I say it's all your fault

Hey!

Don't be blowing my cover now.

Ok, I'll say nothing, and I'll keep saying it.

All I’m trying to say is that “blame” and “liability” are determined after the fact, that those determinations are based on evaluations of the “willingly causative” actions of the parties involved before the fact, and that the evaluative process involves including or excluding pre-fact actions based on rules set down by the agreement of the majority.

Simply put, blame is assigned to the drunk driver because he violated a law. Period. No other reason. (Well, more accurately, because he acted contrary to what others determined to be acceptable.)

Unfortunately, I agree with you. And therein lies the biggest problem with it. By its very definition, it can only be demonstrated to oneself through one's own actions and observations. If person A demands that person B demonstrate it, person A is not taking responsibility (the "willing cause") for it. In other words, if we decide we're not to blame, then we haven't taken responsibility. Or: it can’t be proved that we are responsible if we deny having taken responsibility. Or: the only way to demonstrate that one is responsible, is for one to be responsible. (Remember that I’m using the before-the-fact “willing cause” definition of responsible, not the after-the-fact “assignment of blame” definition.)

Assuming you mean what I think you mean by “blame”, the answer is no.

The bottom line is that the “responsibility” I’m talking about is a self-determined acceptance of the results of one’s actions, whereas “blame” is an other-determined evaluation of acceptable conduct. The two are completely different.

So really, it seems to me that the definition of responsibility is at issue. So here’s how I see the difference between responsibility and blame:
Responsibility is assigning “cause” to oneself.
Blame is assigning “cause” to someone else.

My point is abundantly clear. You keep talking about this "personal reality" as if its something new and different. If all you are attempting to say is "actions have consequences" then I agree.

You are in effect preaching to the quire and attempting to make it sound like you have conjured up some new, philosophy of sorts.



I have all the power and responsibility I need in this life because I take full accountability for my own life and my own course of action. Nothing new there. That is the concept of "actions have consequences"



Same concept, different presentation and grammatical arrangement.



So this means the drunk driver is not at fault? Does this also mean that the sole survivor of the plane crash attracted this outcome? I disagree.

This is the kind of thing that I would attribute to true randomness. Just a toss of the dice.

Christians would attribute it to a 'miracle'.

Jeanniebean would attribuite to the 'Law of Attraction'

Skyhook would attribute it to a drunken pilot.

Smiless would eat another bowl of chili.

Invisible would say nothing.

And Jill and Ruth would just abandon the thread altogether.

Well, there has been at least one of us talking for 3 then.

I wonder who that was?

Uhh. It is a crap shoot I tell ya. Our entire lives are selective roles of a dice.Sometimes you are playing with suicidal kings wild and other times it might be one eyed jacks. Im stopping now because this kind of topic belongs in Philosophy and not "Wicca".

I would share some of my chili, but it is too good. sorry