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About our own self-balance

Thoughts about getting back to “normal” after the epidemic

1. Our usual interpretations of balance. Finding and keeping balance, in our minds, is somehow like reaching steadiness. We think about balance as if somebody being in balance does not move anywhere but floats. But we often forget that levitation is only seemingly steadiness. Levitation actually is a balance of gentle movements made in all directions. All balances are dynamic. Even the balance of the peace of mind is dynamic – but in a different way (I will write about this at the end of the essay). (If you would like to know more about this, please read my essay here.)

 

2. Balance as an important element of wisdom: especially today when life is slowly getting back to “normal” after the epidemic. It is especially important to find a new balance when the circumstances are fundamentally changing. It was “easy” to find a new path at the beginning of the corona virus epidemic when the compulsory behavior was ordered by the previous fate of unlucky countries and the central regulations resulting from that. It is so much harder now for us to “get back to normal”. Back to there exactly where we were, really? Well, this would be a big problem… It would mean that we have not learnt anything… Are we sure that everybody has to open up her life with the same speed? The elderly and the sick, too? Shouldn’t we generally hold ourselves back even if “everything is allowed” again? Balance used to be one of the basic categories of ancient wisdom. Balance of the golden mean is refraining from extremes. Extremes do not have to be interpreted only in an absolute sense. An extreme can also be where the crowd is going right now. The wise does not drift with the herd. He keeps his head above the herd, looks around and starts to go in another way – if it is necessary. (If you would like to know more about this, please read my essay here.)

 

3. The real balance. How does the soul reach its balance? Balance of the soul does not come from that it learns and follows the rules of the game. Balance of the soul is in another dimension. If we let Jesus touch us and if we feel the Totality of God, our soul will fly to such a dimension in which there is the peace of eternal life. And as a beautiful bonus, the soul becomes refreshed, purified and recharged near to God. (If you would like to know more about this, please read my essay here.)

 

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On the incorruption

Thoughts in the middle of our corruption

1. Interpretation of incorruption in our time. Incorruption reminds a lot of people of preservatives. Our time’s new preservative is: disposal. Our objects are incorruptible – because we throw them away before they go wrong. „Repair” as a category has slowly disappeared from our lives because there is nothing to be repaired any more. The world has become perfect… The avalanche of artificial incorruption has reached the people, too. Today an aged man cannot be old: he must stay artificially young. Grey hair has become extinct. A wife may not appear without a make-up – even before her own husband. Time does not touch us: we are incorruptible. (If you would like to know more about this, please read my essay here.)

 

2. The vanity of our fight for reaching incorruption. We preserve our food and we preserve ourselves, too. We want to stop time. At the same time we do not recognize the moment. We rush: and when life forces us to stop (like now, at the time of corona virus…), we do not know how to deal with it. Why our fight for reaching incorruption is in vain? Quoting the thought of the Hungarian Lutheran pastor, Szabolcs Füke it is because "we do not want to conserve what is uncorrupted but what is corruptible". We do not realize that most of those things we would hang on to eternity are only the surface, the transience. We can see only the means not the objectives: we try to preserve the garnish and we do not notice the Meal besides it. (If you would like to know more about this, please read my essay here.)

 

3. The real interpretation of incorruption. We try to accomplish incorruption in our lives. This is a hopeless pursuit. We are unable to reach incorruption by ourselves just like Baron Münchausen was also unable to pull himself out from the pothole. What is corruptible in us will be taken away from us. And it is very good that our corruptibility is taken away from us: because it is the only way how the uncorrupted part of us can be preserved. God does not use preservatives to conserve the essence of us but He originally created it with this intention. God separates the uncorrupted part in us and preserves it. Our intimate relationship with God and Jesus what is uncorrupted in us. All that is linked to God in us is given a chance to be uncorrupted, which preserves the inner essence of our lives linked to God in Eternal Life. (If you would like to know more about this, please read my essay here.)

 

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About the benefits of suffering

Good Friday thoughts about the unavoidable antecedents of a new life

 

1. Corona virus: a chance to change. Our welfare society lives in an irreconcilable conflict with suffering. In our time there is no room for suffering. Some years ago the "snowflake behavior" appeared that implies increased vulnerability and a lack of tolerating opposing opinions. As I wrote in my previous essay, we would like to get everything at once: we are unable to bear the ‘suffering’ of even waiting. All these have been "directly hit" by the corona virus epidemic and (I hope with all my heart that) have been sunk by it. It would be very unfortunate to return to where we were after such a global learning process. We could become more trained to tolerate changes than we have been earlier. We may become more cohesive than we have been. We may become more understanding than earlier. Are we doing so? That is The question of this year. (If you would like to know more about this, please read my essay here.)

 

2. About the benefits of suffering. Reading this title the Reader may think that I have gone crazy. Isn’t there enough suffering here? Yes, there is. Even so. It is important to see suffering from another point of view than before. Suffering is not a leftover of ancient history surviving today that modern man can exterminate completely. The proper answer is not shaping our environment to meet our demands. The proper answer is reforming ourselves. The corona virus epidemic forces us to recognize this. Change always causes suffering. Suffering is such a state of being, in which complex systems are not in a resource-rich but in a resource-poor status. Resource-poorness educates to select. It teaches to distinguish between valuable and valueless. Only suffering educates to appreciate the good. We become defenseless without suffering. We have to practice how to stay alive – if we want to survive in the future... That is exactly what we are doing now. We are conducting global survival exercises right now. Suffering is a prayer. A prayer that manifests Jesus Christ’s redeeming mercy in the world and with this it contributes to the world’s purification. A suffering man awakens this mercy in the souls around him which are open to good. This is how a sufferer helps these souls get closer to Jesus with his silent service. All of us, let’s feel this call. (If you would like to know more about this, please read my essay here.)

 

   

3. The necessity of resurrection. When I was kneeling at the Golgotha in November, 2019, and after that when I was embracing the resurrected Jesus’ tomb, I clearly understood that there is no resurrection without crucifixion. Jesus’ resurrection’s world explosion that took place in a split of a second was the consequence of the slow crucifixion full of suffering. It is necessary to get through the narrow gate to see the entire Universe opening up. Our birth, life and death are all these very same analogies. We cannot omit suffering from our lives if we want to receive peace. Our Lord asks us to take up His cross every day (Lucas 9:22-25). So we should not protest – if it is here now. And let’s wait for the Easter Dawn, first with increasing hope, then with certainty emerging from this. Because the dawn of resurrection WILL COME after suffering. Because it has been consummated. Amen. (If you would like to know more about this, please read my essay here.)

 

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What can we learn from our current miseries?

Lenten thoughts about the benefits of slowing down and longsuffering

 

1. Why do not we want to (why cannot we) tolerate longsuffering in this century? Not so long ago, there was a large rush all around the world... We have forgotten even that how to prepare for something. The problem with this was that we never arrived where we were. Because we never know where we are. Because we never let ourselves have enough time to realize where we will be... The moment became unimportant. There will be a new, another moment instead. Only the lack of tolerating unchanging things was bigger than the hunger for changes. "It is unbearable if we have to bear anything!"– we thought. Mankind lived in the illusion of omnipotence. This was a blindfolded road to the abyss. Then the crisis came. Corona virus appeared... I think that mankind learns now a very painful, very awful, but for our long-term survival very important lesson today. We should learn from this. We need to find the path to inner growth in these weeks of coerced silence. Please do not return back to rush even when these weeks will be over. This is the way how we can save the Earth, our home. (If you would like to know more about this, please read my essay here.)

 

2. Longsuffering as a part of wisdom. Inner peace and wisdom can only be reached with the ability of distancing ourselves from our desires. For that we have to become trained at longsuffering. Now we are gaining the very important skill of longsuffering... Lent of the church calendar became a coerced-Lent... Please do observe that we may only prevent individual tragedies with a community longsuffering. Those local communities which were not ready to follow the new rules of life, had many more infections than those which were able to slow themselves down. This slow-down will be (hopefully) over in a few months. Let us build up during this time ourselves in a different, in a better way! (If you would like to know more about this, please read my essay here.)

 

3. Longsuffering: God’s exceptional mercy. The driving force of longsuffering is love that "beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things" (1Corinthians 13:7). Let me repeat my previous sentence here: we may only prevent individual tragedies with a community longsuffering. We do see now why love is the driving force of longsuffering, do not we? We may only save those who are the fragile members of our community with the longsuffering of the whole community. We did not receive corona virus as a punishment. However, it is our education which proceeds right now. Let us observe that despite the sad tragedies this education comes with much love. Let’s feel the love flowing on us even amidst our current misery and we will be given the grace of inner peace with it, too. With this love and inner peace let us start re-building our communities. (If you would like to know more about this, please read my essay here.)

 


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When does the right time come?

Thoughts about when there is a gap in time, and when time falls into place

 

 

1. What problems do we have with our own times? We are struggling with time intensely. We would do anything to make it pass more quickly – and we would do anything to stop it going so fast. Time has speeded up by our century. There is not enough of it for anything really. From the masters, we have turned to slaves of running minutes. Some of us are living in the past, while others are running after their desired future. There is one thing in our lives missing: "now". We can live even a whole life without experiencing one single moment really. (If you would like to know more about this, please read my essay here.)

 

2. How can time be controlled? Time is not an enemy but a friend. Of course, we have to change to gain the friendship of time. We have to accept what happens to us. Patiently and attentively. It is how a moment can become eternity, it is how rush can become timelessness, and it is how little can be – enough. When this essay is published, Lent has just begun. What if we vow a time-Lent this year? What if we see what it is like to do less – but to do it more deeply? (If you would like to know more about this, please read my essay here.)

 

3. When does time fall into place? Time becomes complete when we can feel what God’s time like. We can be real masters of time if we do not experience it from our own viewpoint but if we ask God for His. What does this mean in our everyday lives? It is not the right time for something when we think we have to do it. It is time for something when the time comes when it has to be done. (If you would like to know more about this, please read my essay here.)

 

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What makes a dialogue life determining?

Thoughts related to the fourth commandment

 

1. In how many ways do NOT we honor our parents? The rebellious phase often takes place between the 3rd and the 5th years of the formation of a young person. It is when he realizes for the first time that he himself exists on his own. At the tween age of 11-14 comes the second phase of emancipation when the detachment from parental behavioral patterns starts. At the end of adolescence we start to determine those parental behavioral patterns that we consider false and we do not want to follow. At the time of mid-life crisis the situation starts to turn over: the former parent becomes the child and the former child becomes the parent. Jesus emphasized love towards God and our neighbors (Matthew 22:37-39) instead of respect, as the big commandment.  Love, that is not a fake self-love, creates respect because it loves the other one for what he is and not for our expectations we would like him to be. Let’s love our parents (and we always have a new opportunity for that even if they are not with us any more!) and we will live long on Earth. (For further details, please read my essay here.)

 

2. Fruits of respect arising from love: how does a determining dialogue develop in our lives? Unconditional love makes us continuously open for the next moment when we can meet a new form of creation. This loving openness is actually not else, but respect. We all can remember one or more such dialogues that have been determining in our lives. Determining dialogues can be absurdly varied. Why is that so? Because in a determining dialogue there are not two but three parties present. The third one is the Holy Spirit, the all-seeing and all-arranging, huge love of our Lord Jesus and the Father. The Father lets us know our lives’ most important messages in the most incredible ways – because He knows well that a significant life-message has to be "presented" to a certain man in a certain moment just in that incredible way in order that he becomes able to receive it. (For further details, please read my essay here.)

 

3. How can we fulfill the fourth commandment? In a determining dialogue it is determining that we have not determined anything at all during the dialogue but God determines everything. That is if we would like to have determining dialogues in our lives, first we have to learn humility. If we are able to accept the purifying mercy of Jesus we may get closer to represent the Face of Jesus in the world less distorted. If all this has started to take shape in us, we begin to feel that we do not desire to have unnecessary words any more. We long only for the Word of God and for passing it to others. That is how ALL dialogues slowly become determining dialogues in us and around us. The dialogues that we have as parents and also the ones we have as children – with anyone. Because these two, parents and children are in their depth the very same: Jesus. In Jesus we got united with our own parents – and with our children, too. By the grace of our Lord that is how we can fulfil and complete God’s fourth commandment: Honor your father and your mother! (For further details, please read my essay here.)

 

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Life situations of fulfillment at young and old age

Thoughts about the Totality of a life in Jesus

 

 

 

1. What is the difference between the young and the old? Being young is identical with our openness to the world, the diversity of our responsiveness and our capacity to lifelong learning. The old age can be described with an experience encoded as an effective behavior pattern, the wisdom of distinguishing the substantial issues from the unimportant ones and the restraint from the extremes. The young and the old behaviors are not linked to the chronological age. Systems become complex if they are capable of both behaviors – alternately. (If you would like to read about this more, please, read my essay here.)

 

2. Life situations of fulfillment at young and old age. Young age is the age of exploration and enrichment of the information of the environment. In young age there is no permanent order. The young cannot be controlled, it is vigorous and happy. For the young every moment is a whole life. The fulfillment of the young breaks the limits and creates a new world. The old age is the age of clarity, the capability to identify what is important and what is not, thus the age of wisdom. The old age has learnt to wait. The old age has learnt to listen. For the old the whole life is a moment. The old age has experienced the beauty of purity and silence. (If you would like to read about this more, please, please, read my essay here.)

 

   

3. Life situations of fulfillment in Jesus. The man living in Jesus is not alternating between young and old but he has entered the timelessness of the Holy Trinity where he can be both young and old at the same time. Jesus as the Door (John 10:9), opens the Totality of the Father that gives an unlimited space for the youth to grow and enrich. As the Path and the Truth, Jesus endows the old age’s capability to identify the essence with the Totality of Vision. Jesus, as the Life, joins the impulsivity of the youth with the timelessness of the old. Man living in Jesus lives in the Resurrection where death is not the end but the door opening to God’s Totality. (If you would like to read about this more, please, read my essay here.)

 

 

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What is the ultimate rebirth and how can we help others' rebirth?

Thoughts about conversion

1. Our self-made paths to rebirth. Psychology has diagnosed a number of life phases that can be characterized by fast transformations. They all offer occasions of rebirth. However, we should note that there is no inexhaustible energy behind these honorable efforts. So our rebirth (either self-made or helped by others) remains hopelessly bound to Earth. (If you would like to read more about this, please read my essay here.)

 

2. The touch of Totality as the start of ultimate rebirth. Thoughts about conversion. The Totality of rebirth requires the touch of God, the acceptance and experience of love of Jesus that transforms our whole lives. This is that inexhaustible energy that provides strength for everything. Conversion is the maximum satisfaction of the most comprehensive sense of mankind's loss and deprivation. Conversion is experiencing the infinity, permanency and faithful love of God. The essence of conversion is not a unique experience but a process of immersing in humility and emptying our own egos, in which man becomes the property of God. Many conversions remain only virtual. Gospels show beautiful examples what are the essential characteristics of conversion and how many different ways it may happen. The protagonist of conversion is God (and not the converted person). That is why conversion is not a matter of will. Conversion is by far not a "free ticket" to eternal life.  That is why the word "daily" in the daily conversion of Martin Luther becomes extremely important. There is no justification without conversion. At the same time conversion is not the "result", not the "end" of mercy providing justification, but the path itself going there. (If you would like to read more about this, please read my essay here.)

 

3. How can we help others' rebirth? The reborn man is charged with new and new energy continuously by his strengthening contact with God. He must pass this energy to other people. The preacher has to see people in the same way as God does: from inside. A man spreading the Gospel helps a love-bridge be built between Jesus and the other person. So he is never allowed to build a wall between himself and the other person but he shares the inexhaustible love of Totality with others. He does not speak "from inside" to outside but with enormous humility he recognizes as the image of Christ becomes visible in the other person, and he makes the other person to notice this in himself.

 

„watching it from the viewpoint of resurrection we may understand
that placing the body into the grave, it is not a cold depth of a hole for us any more,
but the image of Christ’s opened side,
a meeting of our fragile humanity with the endless love.
Because the grave has become the gate of Paradise since Christ was lying there.”

(Peregrin Kálmán OFM)

 

(If you would like to read more about this, read my essay here on Reformation Day, October 31st, All Saint's Day, November 1st and All Souls' Day, November 2nd.)

 

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What are the best qualities of a good leader?

Thoughts about a life spent to serve others in love

1. The trap of a self-centered life. It is a great experience of development when a child realizes that he is able to live his life alone. From one will comes the next, and from the next will comes another. In the big rush to grow this willpower bigger and bigger this giant will never thinks about what is the broader aim of what it actually wants. The time will come when man gets tired. He still wants something but he is not able to fulfill all his wills any more. Midlife-crisis sets in. Our poor fellow realizes that he has become alone in the big rush. He has reached his limits: he has burnt himself out. A lot of people finish their lives here. Old age comes but it is only a prolonged agony of a man falling apart. (If you would like to read more about this, please read my essay here.)

 

2. What are the best qualities of a good leader? The strength of service. It is possible to break out from the circles of the "self-made man" that closes himself inside himself, and after reaching our full potential we can discover the world’s "deep dimension" again. The key to the discovery of the world is: the strength of service. God wants to use us all for awaken the good in others. The good can spread only by the power of example. The only example that really reaches and affects the other person is the one that we serve this other person unselfishly with. A good leader listens and serves. A good leader deliberates, and tries to shepherd the community assigned to him towards the golden mean always supporting what the majority of the community do NOT want, moreover, what is not even needed just then. A good leader is decisive, responsible, peaceful, humble and knows when to resign. (If you would like to read more about this, please read my essay here.)

 

3. How can we change the life of our environment to happiness? Fulfillment in a life spent to serve others in love. What is service? Service is passing the love to others, which was given to us by God. If we became open to accept the love of God, it is impossible to keep it in ourselves. This is how to serve others in love becomes a way of living. This is how we become love-sources in the life of all people around us. Thus, a good leader is the love-source of his environment. This is THE best quality of a good leader. (If you would like to read more about this, please read my essay here.)

 

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What is the mechanism of effective learning in life?

Thoughts about the strength of spiritual retreats

1. Alternating good and bad periods are needed for learning in nature. During the past centuries mankind increasingly identified the idea of good with wealth. However, escaping from the bad is a wrong strategy because hardships coming from time to time are necessary to slow down, to stop, and to think about that from all that we have collected what are the few ones worth taking forward. It is important from time to time to deprive ourselves from the comfort and from the unbelievable information input in which we have lived before and go to "meditate in the wild". Spiritual retreats are very good forms of this. It is crucial to help our fellow human beings, who live their lives continuously in poor and bad times letting them to overcome this situation. (If you would like to read more about this, please read my essay here.)

 

2. Alternating good and bad periods are also important in the development of our souls. In nature learning may only proceed by the alterations of resource-rich and resource-poor periods. Alternating good and bad periods play a very important role in soul development, too. Alterations of good and bad are required that a nation, a church, an anything, which is valuable in the long term, may be formed. Thus the consecutive emotional "ups" and "downs" of sermons and spiritual retreats reflect exactly the same Knowledge which appears in the whole nature, and which is the most efficient way to obtain new experiences. (If you would like to read more about this, please read my essay here.)

 


3. What is the result of the learning process? There is an increase in the complexity, response-range and information content of the system, which learns. In other words: those who may learn from the ups and downs of life become wiser. Still in other words: the soul, which successfully passed some spiritual exercises gets closer to God. God is the Totality of knowledge. If we think about this, we may recognize that the three processes described here, are, in essence, exactly the same. Nature seeks after and heads to the place from where it was born: God’s Totality. (If you would like to read more about this, please read my essay here.)

 

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