Forgiveness

~ Curator for Abode of Light

Forgiveness is a common trait taught in many philosophies, spirituality modalities and religions.

One definition for forgiveness is a conscious and deliberate decision to release feelings of resentment or vengeance toward a person or group who has harmed you, regardless of whether they actually deserve your forgiveness.

To forgive another is a self-empowering tool. It is a decision to put down the burdens that are formed psychologically and emotionally that can hinder your day-to-day dealings in your physical world.

One might ask is forgiveness a power self-empowering tool then? The Curator thinks that it is unlikely to be able to quantify how powerful is forgiveness. This is because it is unlikely for us to quantify our hurt, grievance and resentment that caught on us from the unpleasant experiences that we had.

Since forgiveness is a decision to release these psychological and emotional burdens, the Curator thinks that forgiveness is as powerful as how much the hurt, grievance and resentment had hindered or obstructed us. The more these hurt, grievance and resentment had sucked us deep, the more liberated one ought to achieve when forgiveness is given.

There are some spiritual and religious ideas that the person who is hurt, instead of forgiving his or her perpetrators, the victim ought to thank them for clearing a karmic debt. If you carry on listening or read the proponents of such ideas further, it is likely that they are also the same proponent on the idea of free will. This is, from the Curator’s perspective, paradoxical.

This is because if everyone is acting on free will, then you should not have believed that the hurt done from one person to another is due to the abstract karmic debt belief. Because the latter would meant that the hurt, which is the getting even, has to happen.

Does the perpetrators need to know that you have forgiven them?

The Curator’s answer to this is not necessarily so. This is because by forgiving your perpetrators, it does not automatically transform them into better versions of them. In certain cases, it is even possible for these perpetrators to come to you and make your life miserable again.

Forgiveness is a personal journey and it does take psychological and emotional strength to act on it. You do not have to do so if you are not ready. While it is important to acknowledge our hurt, grievance and resentment because these negative emotion are part of us too, we need to find that balance to then remove ourselves from these bonds so that we can move forward.

Do you harbour strong and deep hurt, grievance and resentment now?

Soul

~ Curator for Abode of Light

Soul, from the physical perspectives, is a intangible subject that cannot be quantify.

From the religious, spiritual, metaphysical and even philosophical perspectives, the soul is recognised as an essence in a living being. Without the soul, this living being would have lose his or her purpose.

The soul is also believed to include mental abilities like characteristic, perception, reasoning, thinking, memory, feeling and consciousness, just to name a few.

Some religions believe that only the human beings have immortal souls. This leads to the issue which that only humans are going to be judge by the Maker after their deaths.

Some religions taught that even animals and even bacteria have souls. The varied in physical forms is due to the manifestation of the different types of karma.

In Animism, it is believed that soul can even be found in rivers and rocks, in non-biological entities.

The belief in the existence of a soul generally leads to the question of where do you, the soul, come from; and where are you headed after this life’s physical death.

Except for a few religions, most other religions and other forms of spirituality believe that your soul has been reincarnated for many times. It is also possible to be reincarnated into a non-physical form.

With that same few religions, rest of the other religions and forms of spirituality believe that your soul will reincarnate into different existence after your physical death.

If skepticism can be applied here for a little while, it can be arduous or even lead to fruitless conclusion to debate which version of the origin and destination of soul is true.

So instead, the Curator suggests to focus what is your soul mean to you now, in this very life. We can accept that in general, regardless of religions and forms of spirituality, the teaching of the soul usually associates conscience to one’s conduct. We can safely say that, acknowledging the existence of our souls is one way to keep our current existence to be as proper a person as possible.

Soul can get hurt or damaged as well even though it is not a physical body.

A damaged or exhausted soul can affect the workings of the energy system in the physical body which eventually leads to a body with poor health or vitality.

Likewise, if we lead very unhealthy lifestyle, the deterioration of our physical body that can affect the energy system therein and leads to damaging or wearing out the soul.

Different souls brought with them different vibration and karmic seeds that can influence the experience with their physical bodies. In layman term, this can called as fortune or misfortune.

So how are you feeling lately? Are you full of energy or are you getting tired easily?

Is this due to your lifestyle or is it possible to have it coming from somewhere in you?

Memory

~ Curator for Abode of Light

Memory is a function of our brain that stores data and information and having the ability to retrieve them when they are needed. These data and information are not only the experience that we have had but also the knowledge that we acquire through reading or hearing from other people.

Memory is an important function because the retention of information over time is meant to aid us in functioning properly in our lives. From daily routines to handling ad hoc situations, we recall the information and knowledge needed to manage all of them.

Memory can shaped the impression we have on a matter. It may make us more rigid and unable to see a matter from other angles at first instance. This can cause us to have stereotypical perspective on a matter or person.

Memory can also bring back strong emotions that are attached to it. Perhaps recalling a loved one that had passed away long ago can still evoke tinges of sadness. We have an ‘walking down memory lane’ to mean reminisce over memories of past happy events.

Studies show that memory can be altered.

Every time when we are sharing our memory with other people, the ways and words that we choose to use can interfere how recall that same memory in the future.

Wait. If that memory is altered, it should not be seen as the same memory right…?

From spirituality and healing perspective, unknown causes of chronic symptoms including varied degrees of anxiety can be caused by memory that you have carried from your past lives.

What memories do you have that can immediately change your mood upon recalling?

Light

~ Curator for Abode of Light

What are the similarities and differences between a rainbow and a beam of white light?

The similarity is the both contain 7 colours.

The difference is they are viewed through a different lens. A bean of white light, well, view as it is a merging of all colours while, rainbow is viewed through a refracted lens that allow us to appreciate the difference spectrum of the white light.

How about smudges of colours like the one showed in our feature image?

This perhaps reveals a closer truth.

Our moods and emotions do not follow a certain arc that rises and falls but rather, shifts to a different spectrum with the right external stimuli. An untrained mind is bound to react because whatever lies underneath our subconscious is always quick to grab onto the corresponding bait that is waving at us.

So what is Light?

There are so many definitions given to Light by different cultures, traditions, religion and spiritual modalities. The three common traits that I prefer and feel close to is warmth, truth and wisdom.

Warmth

I prefer to to use the word warmth over love because I find the word ‘love’ is too often used and it may be misunderstood as a stronger, egocentric possessive emotion. Warmth can mean being nice to another, being kind to another or just being there for another. There is no raked up desire, lust or even the thought of owning another.

In the actual practice of giving warmth, other than offering the actual help, being a listening ear is a tangible act that can offer comfort to another up to a certain degree.

Truth

Truth is truth…? Truth is presenting a fact that is true either backed by direct evidence or convincing circumstantial evidence. The problem with truth is the acceptance of the truth. This is common in certain spiritual movement that overvalues individuality that led to the lesser appreciation of truth.

There used to be a comic that went around the internet with 2 person standing at opposite side of the number 6 (or 9) and with it explained that both are true but coming from different perspectives. This is probably one of the worst analogies around. Because in the real world, one would be correct and the other one would have been miscommunicated.

Although spirituality touches on the intangible and beyond physicality, it should not have caused a person to deviate from facts. While feelings and emotions are subjective, they ought not to negate things that are factual.

Wisdom

Wisdom is the synergy of the former two…the balanced choice between rendering the warmth from a human to another human and presenter of the truth. The latter usually is hard because without the correct sensitivity, you can be mistaken as someone insensitive and much less spiritual!

It is through the process of this synergy, we are to find solutions to answer, manage or mitigate problems. Spiritual should not be mistake that everything is pink, fluffy and there are no hard decisions to make.

Let There Be Light…

Being spiritual does not position one to be higher in moral grounds. It can simply just being an ordinary person who constantly observing his or her thoughts and emotional processes.

In many beliefs, Light is always deem to be the first creation or first discovery. So, Abode of Light jumps onto to this same meaning and begins this interesting journey…