1 result for (book:nopr AND session:650 AND stemmed:concept)
[... 8 paragraphs ...]
Reality, then, is viewed through this system of beliefs. If you hold them you will feel that those characteristics are given by God. According to the fervor with which you cherish these ideas you will find that they enclose you, for in a very limited manner they will define your concept of good. People entertaining such beliefs are often very religious in conventional terms. Countries emphasizing like beliefs send missionaries to “convert” those who are pagan, and therefore inferior.
[... 3 paragraphs ...]
In that chart of belief, disease, poverty, femininity to some extent, non-Christian concepts, and a non-Caucasian racial heritage, are all considered wrong to one degree or another.
Now: Any intrusion of other beliefs here will be considered threatening. Both racial problems and religious dissension will be rationalized from the standpoint of these beliefs. Some of my readers may consider themselves quite enlightened, believing, for example, in reincarnation as a series of consecutive lives. However, they may then use that concept to justify their belief in the inferiority of other races. They may say that since an individual chose his or her problems in this life — deciding for instance to be born black, or poor, or both — that karma is being worked out; therefore such issues should not be adjusted through a change of law or custom. Period.
[... 8 paragraphs ...]
Now: The third diagram can cut across the other systems of belief, of course. In the first two groups there are many leeways. You may have one, two or three preferred characteristics that correlate with your ideas, for example, but your concepts about age leave you no such freedom; for at one time or another all of you, “if you are lucky” in your terms, will approach old age.
[... 17 paragraphs ...]
The peculiar chemical changes that occur are often precisely those that lead to greater conceptions and experience, but these are free from what you think of as practical application. There is a trigger set off then, an impetus in which the personality tries to free itself from time-space orientation released from the usual necessity to participate in “adult” terms.
[... 1 paragraph ...]
Ideas of the “wise old man,” and similar legends apply here, as do the mystical concepts of the powerful old woman. In their natural progression, and left alone, the old understand their own “visions” quite well. Body and mind operate beautifully together.
[... 2 paragraphs ...]