Questions of Virtues, Failures, Afterlife, and Karma

 

“Realize that everything connects to everything else.”

--Leonardo da Vinci

What's a skill you learned from your friend?

How to “satisfy” a woman.

What is the greatest confusion about taste?

That it is personal? What I like has no bearing on what others like or don’t like. We tend to think, “If I like it, they’ll like it,” and that so rarely works out to be true.

Is virtue considered the moral excellence of a person?

Virtue is how “excellent” they are at exercising their moral “ethics,” their personal moral code. How well they exercise their moral ethics will determine how excellent they are. It is, after all, what defines them in the eyes of others. 

“The problem with people who have no vices is that generally you can be pretty sure they're going to have some pretty annoying virtues.”

-- Elizabeth Taylor

How do you deal with a long-time friendship betrayal?

If they don’t already realize it, I explain it to them, in no uncertain terms. In this way, my treatment of them with little or no respect will come as no surprise. Betrayal is the worst, and very hard for a “friend” to try and rebuild. However, how hard they try can be good evidence of their understanding of the mistake.

Who is a person you will remember for your entire life?

Leo Buscaglia, a great philosopher on life, love, and happiness.

What's the meaning of love? Love is life.

Okay. Are you answering your question?

“Tell me about love when you've been with someone for years, cared for them when they're ill, put up with them when they're miserable or grumpy, taken the sharp side of their tongue, and still come back. Tell me about love when you've acted quite appallingly, and the other person has still accepted you.”

-- Mark Chadbourn

Can success sometimes be more frightening than failure?

Not if you understand success is simply feeling true happiness always and in all things, even failure. Failure is simply another opportunity to learn. What you do when you fail is the lesson. Do you learn from the failure or do you wallow in that pit of misery?

How come we learn how to deal with failure but none teaches you how to deal with success?

If we truly knew how to deal with failure, dealing with the attainment of our goals would be no big thing. Success is about being truly happy at all times and in all things, even in failure, since failure is simply another opportunity to learn. Whether you attain goals or not, strive to be happy always and in all things. This is true success in life.

Do losers never prosper?

Oh, my, yes! But, first, they need to learn to be truly happy in loss and failure. Regardless of monetary prosperity, true happiness, regardless of your circumstances, can make you wealthy in ways money cannot.

Everyone needs to look upon loss and failure as it is what it is until it isn’t. It is up to the individual to change their own circumstances. If the change is handed to them, they will probably return to their misery in short order. Here, the Chinese proverb has much meaning, "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." 

“Be patient. Your skin took a while to deteriorate. Give it some time to reflect a calmer inner state. As one of my friends states on his Facebook profile: "The true Losers in Life, are not those who Try and Fail, but those who Fail to Try.”

-- Jess C. Scott

How do you relate religious beliefs with science, when it has to do with life after death?

All we have is anecdotal evidence from those who have passed over and returned. Is that proof? To those few that have returned, yes, but for the rest of us, life after death remains a matter of faith, and as the definition states, faith is the belief in something for which there is little or no proof, especially where science is concerned. 

How much pain do atheists feel when their body is being cremated, compared to living in hell?

None. Nobody feels pain when they're dead.  They’re dead. But, atheists expect nothing when they die, so hey will probably have that wish granted. I like to leave that door opened, just a crack, just in case. There is a special place in “hell” for people like me. Hell won’t be any cakewalk, but I also have unwavering faith in my God and wasn't a serial killer, either.  When you cross over, hell or heaven, you'll probably get all that feeling back, however.

Do dead people have respect for the living?

They’re dead, and if they haven’t moved on maybe there’s a reason, like to learn to have some “respect for the living.”

“To the living we owe respect, but to the dead we owe only the truth.”

-- Voltaire

Why is life not balanced?

It’s supposed to be. What are you doing wrong?

I feel like I’m behind in life. I have no girlfriend or haven’t moved out yet. What do I do?

My son didn’t start dating till he was almost out of college. Now, at 45, he has a great job and is still with the girl he met in college, who also, by the way, has a great job. So, how old are you? No, I’s say you’re not cutting yourself enough slack. Just a suggestion, though? Get a job and move the hell out! Everybody is hiring right now.

How important is "physical appeal" in mate selection?

True love is blind. Go with that, and appearance means very little.

“Physical appearance has nothing to do with the quality of a person.”

― Richelle E. Goodrich

Can you not like someone and still marry them?

My wife did, then, 25 years and two kids later, she divorced me. Who knew? Everyone but me, it would seem.

Is it selfish to do good deeds with the motive of making good Karma for ourselves?

As strange as it sounds, doing anything, strictly for your benefit, is selfish, not selfless. The only “motive” for doing good deeds should be because it’s the right thing to do, not because of any karma you think will come your way.

Have you ever done a good deed and gotten something back without anticipating it?

Almost always. I put in a mailbox at the curb for an elderly couple across the street, recently. The husband was on a “walker” and kept saying he could handle it. I finally insisted on doing it, because I saw the mail carrier get out of the truck and bend down to put mail in the leaning box. A couple of days after resseting it, I found a nice thank you note in my mailbox. Doing it for them didn’t take very long, and it made me feel good which was probably selfish had I expected it. Righting the box in a concrete base for them was simply the right thing to do. The husband passed not long after that, and the wife has decided to stay in their house. I look forward to helping her more in the future.

“Selflessness. It should be the basis of every relationship. If a person truly cares about you, they'll get more pleasure from the way they make you feel, rather than the way you make them feel.”

-- Colleen Hoover

 

Editor's Note

(Re: disclaimer cum "get out of jail free" card)

Before you go getting your panties in a bunch, it is essential to understand that this is just an opinion site and, as such, can be subjected to scrutiny by anyone with a differing opinion. It doesn't make either opinion any more right or wrong than the other. An opinion, presented in this context, is a way of inciting others to think and, hopefully, to form opinions of their own, if they haven't already done so. This is also why, occasionally, I will present an "opinion" just to stir an emotional pot. Where it may sound like I agree with the statements made, I'm more interested in getting others to consider an alternate viewpoint. 

It is my fervent hope that we keep open and active minds when reading opinions and while engaging in peaceful and constructive discussion, in an arena of mutual respect, concerning those opinions put forth. After over twenty years with military intelligence, I have come to believe engaging each other in this manner and in this arena is the way we will learn tolerance and respect for differing beliefs, cultures, and viewpoints.

We all fall from grace, some more often than others; it is part of being human. God's test for us is what we learn from the experience, and what we do afterward.

Pastor Tony spent 22 years with the United States Air Force Intelligence as a planner, analyst, briefer, instructor, and senior manager. He spent 17 years, following his service career, working with the premier, world-renowned, Institutional Review Board helping to protect the rights of human subjects involved in pharmaceutical research. Ordained 1n 2013 as an "interfaith" minister, he founded the Congregation for Religious Tolerance in response to intolerance shown by Christians toward peaceful Islam. As the weapon for his war on intolerance he chose the pen, and wages his "battle" in the guise of the Congregation's official online blog, The Path, of which he is both author and editor. "The Path" offers a vehicle for commentary and guidance concerning one's own personal, spiritual, path toward peace and the final destination for us all. He currently resides in Pass Christian, Mississippi, where he volunteered as a chaplain at the regional medical center.

Feel free to contact Pastor Tony:  tolerantpastor@gmail.com