What Grace Means to Me
- ReyvrexQuestor Reyes
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Re: What Grace Means to Me
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However, humans do make mistakes, and we are better because of it.
- behrenst
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Neha_S wrote: ↑15 Jan 2021, 00:12 Its a beautiful thought which you have penned down beautifully. But I feel something is not right with 2 phrases
1 to be kind but not dishonest
2 to treat your flesh as your temple but not your true self.
Please ignore if you still don't feel so as may be we have different thoughts relating to these lines
I think what it means by "kind but not dishonest" is that at times we can be dishonest in an attempt to be kind, like when you're polite or kind to someone but you really don't respect them or respect the choices they make, yet in order to be kind and not mean you don't say anything so you're being fake... Dishonest... And to treat your flesh like your temple but not your true self is saying we are more than just our flesh, what you see in the flesh isn't who we are.
- EleniCotton
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Can I come in please?Neha_S wrote: ↑15 Jan 2021, 00:12 Its a beautiful thought which you have penned down beautifully. But I feel something is not right with 2 phrases
1 to be kind but not dishonest
2 to treat your flesh as your temple but not your true self.
Please ignore if you still don't feel so as may be we have different thoughts relating to these lines
1 I also had a problem with this. Is it that we should try to be kind without having lie about anything.
2 This is a warning that it is good to care for our bodies but should bear in mind that they are destructible and that our true self is our soul/spirit which lasts for ever.
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It is however, very relevant although demonstrating timeless principles.
Liked it very much indeed. Thank you.
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Yes, that is what I had in mind.behrenst wrote: ↑18 Jan 2021, 02:09Neha_S wrote: ↑15 Jan 2021, 00:12 Its a beautiful thought which you have penned down beautifully. But I feel something is not right with 2 phrases
1 to be kind but not dishonest
2 to treat your flesh as your temple but not your true self.
Please ignore if you still don't feel so as may be we have different thoughts relating to these lines
I think what it means by "kind but not dishonest" is that at times we can be dishonest in an attempt to be kind, like when you're polite or kind to someone but you really don't respect them or respect the choices they make, yet in order to be kind and not mean you don't say anything so you're being fake... Dishonest...
Another area where pseudo-kindness leading to dishonesty can arise is represented with the later idea of being assertive but not aggressive. Non-assertiveness, such as in the form of passive aggressiveness or emotional abuse, could be excused or motivated in the aggressor's mind as alleged kindness. Instead of saying how they feel bluntly and honestly, and letting that be that, a person may instead let it out in more drawn out, unhealthy, or destructive ways, as an attempted unhealthy subcommunication or in a pent up explosion. Even just a cliche nasty violent bully will often say things like, "I'm going to teach you a lesson," as if they are doing the victim a kind favor.
A more common example might be not telling a friend they have spinach in their teeth, or even lying to the friend's face when the friend asks if they have spinach in their teeth.
My intention is not that kindness and honesty are incompatible. Rather, the idea is that dishonesty can falsely be disguised as kindness, or falsely excused as kindness, but dishonesty is not true kindness in my book.
That represents part of the general format I was aiming for in most lines in the piece. For instance, aggressiveness could be falsely disguised as assertiveness; arrogance could be falsely disguised as confidence.
In that way, as I see it, gracefulness emerges not merely in a balance between two seeming opposites but also often in realizing that conscious human beings do not generally experience the world in a one-dimensional way. In other words, grace comes from realizing there is a third transcendental way of looking at most things that are often falsely treated as binary or one-dimensional, such that one can--so to speak--completely have their cake and completely eat it too. For example, I think one can be completely kind and completely honest; one can be completely assertive without being aggressive or passive aggressive at all. In another example, I don't think of confidence as being 50% arrogance and 50% extreme low self-esteem, but rather I see it as transcendental to the one dimension between arrogance and extreme low self-esteem, which is how confidence and humbleness can go hand in hand as a confident humbleness, or gracefulness, or simply grace.
"Non ignara mali miseris succurrere disco." Virgil, The Aeneid
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