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www.youngmanoldman.com We hope you've enjoyed our book and if you've benefitted from the spiritual wisdom shared, we'd really appreciate you leaving us a review on the link below. We value your feedback and comments. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09YR1S6W8#customerReviews
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In our story, the Old Man reminds the Young Man of the spiritual principle of Oneness. This he refers to as 'Obligation to ONE'. What does this mean to you? How do you put this principle into practice? www.youngmanoldman.com #spiritual #mystical #oneness #innerwisdom #inspiringfiction
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Meditation Exercise i'd like to share a meditation exercise that i have found helpful in taming those stray thoughts that pop up during meditation. This is not a meditation method as much as it is a way to practice to improve your meditations. First off, i read this somewhere years ago and i regret that i do not recall where and so cannot give that person the credit for this method that i found really helpful. The method: Set a timer on your phone for 1-minute after which a gentle sound like a gong or bell plays. Then, as a mantra, just start repeating the number "one". As soon as a stray thought pops into your mind, increase the number to "two". For example: "One...one...one...i need to get my oil changed, oops, two...two...two, did i set the timer correctly, oops, three...three...three, etc." Notice the number that you're on when the timer goes off. The average person will reach 8 at the end of a minute. Keep practicing until you can go an entire minute ending with "one" (it can take weeks of practice). Then increase the timer to two minutes. The nice thing about this practice is that you can do it multiple times a day, it only takes a minute, you can do it anywhere with your phone and earbuds, and you can track your progress. Practice like this and your regular daily meditation sessions will be much freer from mind chatter. Author: vic smyth The Young Man and the Old Man #meditation #spirituality #mindfulness
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Has The "Great Flood" already happened? The story of 'The Young Man and The Old Man' was written in a mythical time before the Great Flood, which was prophesied by the Great Prophet in the Holy Book of ONE. Young Man, reflecting a popular belief, was expecting the Great Flood as a future, eschatological event. Yet the Old Man explains to Young Man that the Great Flood has already happened to the Old Man. What does the Old Man mean by this? Is Old Man's explanation of the Great Flood relevant to YOUR personal life? Is it relevant to all religions that are waiting for a future, eschatological event? The Young Man and the Old Man The Young Man and the Old Man: A metaphysical story set in a mythical Land during a mythical time before the Great Flood. - Kindle edition by smyth, vic. Literature & Fiction Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com. #eschatology #spiritual #mystical #greatflood #inspirationalfiction
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Is there a difference between Divine Love and Divine Compassion? Browse any modern-day book on spirituality and it'll be filled with the word 'love'. We are to love ourselves, love our neighbors, love those who we find challenging, etc. Yet love is the one word that is missing from the spiritual story of 'The Young Man and The Old Man'. Why? Eskimos have seventeen different words for snow because snow makes up a huge part of their lives. Greeks have seven different words for love. Sanskrit, the language of ancient India, has 96 different words for love. Even in Aramaic, Jesus' native tongue, there are two different words for love. Yet the English language is quite poor in the area of love. i love my wife, i love my step-daughter, i love my bowling buddies, i love dark chocolate. In Greek and Sanskrit there would be a different word for every instance of 'love' in the previous sentence. When Jesus said, "Love your neighbor as yourself", and "Love your enemy", the Greek word used is 'agape'. A definition of agape is 'loving-kindness' or 'human-kindness', similar to the Pali word 'metta', Pali being the language used in some ancient Buddhist scriptures. The problem is that the word agape, metta or even loving-kindness did not quite sound right coming from the Old Man in 'The Young Man and The Old Man'. So, instead of the word love, i used a word that i found in much of the Buddhist literature that i was reading at that time that really resonated with me: compassion. So although 'The Young Man and The Old Man' might be missing the word 'love', it is filled with compassion. For as the Old Man eruditely informs us, God's compassion is indefinable: "ONE's compassion is much greater than we, as common people, can even comprehend!" Blog post by vic smyth: www.youngmanoldman.com #inspirationalfiction #mystical #spiritual #compassion #divinelove
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*What Does The Spiritual Story of 'The Young Man and the Old Man' mean to me?* I understand the story of 'The Young Man and The Old Man' to be one that depicts spiritual exploration. We are introduced to an affluent young man who looks out of his window onto the world and sees suffering, and he finds it hard to reconcile what he's witnessing on a daily basis with the principles taught in his Holy Book. Thus, Young Man begins his spiritual journey by asking himself the question, 'Why?' - why is all of this happening? His contemplations lead him to a meaningful discourse with an older man whom he quickly realises is a spiritual master. Many of us on the spiritual path can relate to the Young Man's frustration as we too began our journey by questioning why we were experiencing suffering. This then causes us to ponder what we can do about it. After a while, when spiritual illumination begins to dawn, we may become overly enthusiastic in sharing our glimmer of understanding with others without realising that not everyone is ready to receive it, nor will they experience Enlightenment in exactly the same way as we do. This is a lesson Young Man is set to learn. When Young Man witnesses an instantaneous healing, he's eager to find out how such a feat is possible. In my own journey, this too was a strong motivating factor that drew me deeper into spiritual truth. The possibility that life is not the way it appears to be and that a wisdom is available beyond our human thinking is, after all, as the Young Man testifies, exciting and liberating. For me, the story ends, and indeed begins, with the realization that spiritual life is far more simple that we try to make it. It's when we separate ourselves from our Existential Self through thought that life becomes complicated! So to the Young Man at the start who was enraged at the scene he was perceiving, I would say: if you want to witness miracles in your life, turn Within and keep your focus there - freedom and happiness come from "seeing" Reality with the eyes of the Soul and then living from that perspective. www.youngmanoldman.com ( http://www.youngmanoldman.com ) #spiritual #mystical #metaphysics #meditation #inspirationalfiction
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"What sort of ONE is this? How can ONE punish all people because of First Man and First Woman's mistake? How can ONE cause or even allow such suffering?" This is the age-old, perennial question that Young Man asks in the opening of our story (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09YR1S6W8) a question that philosophers and theologians have been asking for millennia: If God is Good, why is there evil? This is the question of theodicy. And it's the question that the story answers -- or at least gives one answer, actually two. For, just as in a past contemplation about our inability to define God, there is no clear answer to the question of theodicy either. Many answers have been proposed. CS Lewis gives a Christian perspective in his book, "The Problem of Pain". John Hick, Ph.D. Philosophy of Religion, in his book "Evil and the God of Love" gives a myriad of answers from many different religious and philosophical perspectives: ? Maybe God is testing us? ? Maybe we are working off bad karma from a past life? ? Maybe we are slowly evolving towards being one with God (aka ONE)? ? Maybe God is in a cosmic struggle with Satan? ? Maybe evil is just an illusion, like in our story of the Disillusioned Man? ? Maybe Gnostics got it right when they believed that the creator God was not very Good and/or not very competent. ? Maybe atheists are right and there is no God? ? Or maybe it's all Maya, an illusion? What answer resonates with You? youngmanoldman.com #spirituality #meditation #mystical #contemplation
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Having read books written by mystics, many say that God is beyond definition. In Hindu traditions they say, "Neti, neti", meaning "The divine is not this, not that." No matter how we try to define God, we fall short. However, although we cannot define God, we can find analogies that might bring us closer to understanding God. For example: If you have a group of individuals that are all working together towards a common goal, you have a Team doing Teamwork. In our analogy, Team is a metaphor for God, Teamwork is an analogy for God's Will. (Note also that there is a symbiotic relationship: You cannot have a Team without individuals, and you cannot have a Team without Teamwork). What does this say about our world and God? What does this say about the Way back to the Good Land of ONE? Are we waiting for God or a Messiah to save us? Or is it up to us to be a Team doing Teamwork? www.youngmanoldman.com #spirituality #metaphysics #meditation #innerwisdom #contemplation
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Commentary and First Study Group Contemplation
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*Commentary on YMOM* You can read 25% of the eBook for free on Amazon’s ‘Look Inside’ feature which will take you midway through chapter 4: https://www.amazon.com/Young-Man-Old-Metaphysical-Mythical/dp/B09ZJ7F5QW ( https://www.amazon.com/Young-Man-Old-Metaphysical-Mythical/dp/B09ZJ7F5QW ). This should allow you to participate in following the commentaries without having to invest the $3 to purchase the eBook or $7 for audiobook. Let’s start with a general outline. The story actually begins with Chapter 3. Young Man is reading about the Fall of First Man and First Woman in the Holy Book of ONE. Chapters 1 and 2 (which we also refer to as a Prologue) are what the Young Man has just finished reading. Chapter 1 is about ONE creating the Universe, similar to Genesis 1 in the Bible. Chapter 2 is about the Fall of First Man and First Woman, similar to the story of Adam and Eve in Genesis 2 & 3. It is after Young Man reads Chapters 1 and 2 of the Holy Book of ONE that he expresses his dilemma, the age-old perennial question of how ONE can allow so much suffering in the world to exist. Then, pondering his question while looking out the window, Young Man witnesses a curious event in the marketplace involving an Old Man. His curiosity piqued, Young Man is drawn to seek out the Old Man. The rest of the story is about the day that Young Man spends with the Old Man listening to his stories and being shown strange sights. By the end of Chapter 9, Young Man’s life is transformed by the Old Man’s wisdom. Young Man vows to share that wisdom with everyone in the Land. In the final Chapter 10, however, Young Man wakes up to an unexpected surprise! Many readers have told me that as soon as they finished the story, they immediately re-read the Prologue looking for clues to what i refer to as the Ultimate Spoiler (one that i will not reveal). So, let's commence our study with the first contemplation: ~ *The first two chapters of ‘The Young Man and the Old Man’ (also known as the Prologue) are based on the first 3 chapters of Genesis. In what ways are they similar? In what ways are they different?* Any thoughts, comments and questions are welcome. #spiritual #mystical #biblical #metaphysics #audiobook #mythical #cosmicconsciousness
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Third Contemplation
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#mystical
"Man represents the carnal mind and Woman represents reason". Do you agree with this statement? What are the ways in which Woman demonstrates the qualities of sacred feminine wisdom? Join us for Spiritual Contemplations: www.youngmanoldman.com ( http://www.youngmanoldman.com ) #spiritualpath #innerwisdom #divinewisdom #mystical #metaphysics https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMNfoHFXg/?k=1
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The first two chapters of 'The Young Man and the Old Man' encapsulate the entire illusionary spiritual journey back to Self, which vic has captured in his 'minimalist' Haiku poem: Separation Ordeal Return (See: https://youngmanoldman.com/?action=blog&blognum=4 ( https://youngmanoldman.com/ymom/?action=blog&blognum=4 ) ) Discuss. Image: 'Sunrise in the Motherland (Yosemite National Park)' by mojo3jojo (Reddit) #spiritualpath #innerwisdom #haiku #divinewisdom #mystical #metaphysics
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