Nov. 17 Discussion Topics
DISCUSSION PROMPTS / NOV. 17
Chapter Three:
“How many of us can vividly recall childhood moments where we courageously practiced the honesty we have been taught to value by our parents, only to find that they did not really mean for us to tell the truth all the time.”
Does this resonate with anyone?
Do you agree with bell hooks when she says,
“lots of children are confused by the insistence that they simultaneously be honest and yet also learn how to practice convenient duplicity. As they mature they begin to see how often grown-ups lie. They begin to see the few people around them tell the truth.”
If so, at what age did u recognize this in the adults around you?
While one may know their own truth, how should that reality be maintained in the presence of opposing views being held as opposing “truth”?
Chapter Four:
Have you recognized the power of using affirmations to eliminate negative thinking in your daily life?
Did you share the same sentiment for affirmations as bell hooks in that she thought affirmations were “a bit corny”? If you haven’t tried them would you be open to trying them for a 21 day Mindfulness challenge?
Do you believe
“one of the best guides to how to be self-loving is to give ourselves the love we are often dreaming about receiving from others”?
Chapter Five:
Everyone I know is at times brought low by feelings of depression and despair about the state of the world. Whether it is the ongoing worldwide presence of violence expressed by the persistence of man-made war, hunger and starvation, the day-to-day reality of violence, the presence of life-threatening diseases that cause the unexpected deaths of friends, comrades, and loved ones, there is much that brings everyone to the brink of despair. Knowing love or the hope of knowing love is the anchor that keeps us from falling into that sea of despair.”
Do you agree or disagree with the sentiment that the longing for love and the movement of love is underneath all of our activities?
“Artist Barbara Kruger created a work proclaiming "I shop therefore I am" to show the way consumerism has taken over mass consciousness, making people think they are what they possess. While the zeal to possess intensifies, so does the sense of spiritual emptiness. Because we are spiritually empty we try to fill up on consumerism. We may not have enough love but we can always shop.”
What are your thoughts on Americans being unable to access their spirituality because they are addicted to production-centered material demands that force a focus on consumption rather than communion & self-transcendence?
Is the belief in a divine spirit or soul required to connect to this conception of love? If yes, is this concept of love exclusionary?
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