Sprezzatura
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This is more of a critique and sharing personal opinion on specific aspect of part I.
I wrote the first part. I kept having thoughts of "what I should have added," so I decided to write this quickly, including the thoughts I am getting.
Disclaimer: Those are my personal opinions, not opinions of ToZ, and can be wrong. I will talk as if talking about myself, since these are personal thoughts and also to avoid triggering someone.
Feel free to share your opinion below.
The Critique:
To want to help another Zevist and then wait for the Gods to "pay" you is not a good mindset ( it is good, i am saying why sometimes it might be not good, do not take something i say as absolute, i will start talking about this from multiple angles, zoom out to see big picture) . I personally think about it this way: I will always lose at this game. Because to be "paid" in a strict way would require not only the good things I did, but the whole picture:
· The good things I did
· The bad things I did
· The things I should have done and did not
In that game, with strict rules, I will always lose. So I would rather the Gods, when doing things, do them out of their goodness the same way, when I do things for Them, I do them because I am good. I do not want to do business, since I will always lose in this, and for another reason I will mention later in this thread. And third reason is we cannot pay the Gods nor wait for them to ´pay’ us, this is not appropriate.
I would prefer not to start waiting for the Gods to do something for every single good thing I do.
I know the Gods are noble, great, and generous ( the same of what i strive to be). So I would rather do my part and focus on it, while knowing for sure that I will not do better than the Gods in Goodness, Greatness and Generosity..
This also avoids positioning myself as a beggar.
Thinking "I did something, now I must be paid by the Gods" is wrong. It is as if They owe me something. But They too do good things. So who will "pay Them" for the good things They do? There is no such thing as payments for good actions in the literal sense.
I will never donate $10 to ToZ and then sit in meditation saying: "Hear me, O Zeus, I donated $10."
Even if this is a good act, I will not claim something for it, nor will I report it to the Gods. I will do my part, and that is it. The Gods know anyway. Also, I would rather not be this childish and keep reporting like: "Gods, did you see this? So...?" as if waiting for something.
I am not saying one should not be proud of his donations and feel joy about it. And i also do not say its bad to tell the Gods something good you did. Those are different perspectives. Not absolute perspective.
Also. Even if it is $1 donation, it is very good. Thinking the Gods will overlook it defies the very essence of this thread. The Gods do not overlook things the way humans do. Whatever you are able to donate is very good, and know for sure the Gods take your good intention seriously.
Bhagavad Gita
"If one offers to Me with love and devotion a leaf, a flower, a fruit or water, I will accept it."
— Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 9, Verse 26
I am viewing the subject in complex way, please do not fixate on 1 point, a zoom out is necessary.
Reporting successes vs. reporting for payment
I would also report to the Gods every single success with joy. It is not bad, it is perfect. What I referred to earlier is that I will not report every single thing without exception to the Gods.
There are always things I will do on my own without reporting them to the Gods and without waiting for something. I hope you got my idea.
Another aspect: Godhead as the reward
Zevism's ultimate goal is Godhead. Doing something good or helping a Zevist is something one should do as one walking the path to reaching Godhead. So one should start embodying the traits of the Gods. This is one of the goals of the cures and pathologies, and God rituals, etc.
So the act itself is the reward. To be good is to align oneself more and more with divinity. This is, of itself, the "payment", developing godly traits.
Another aspect: Grace
The concept of grace: the Gods can give grace, but expecting Them to give it after doing X, Y, Z is entitlement. The Gods decide when to give grace. They are conscious. They are not robots that will give an exact output after getting exact input.
This means we cannot be entitled to grace. The Gods choose when to give it. So all we can do is focus on ourselves and do our best.
How the Gods may bless and the problem of unnoticed blessings:
Now, how the Gods may bless before going to the last point, which is: waiting for "payment" from the Gods for an ethical act makes it not an ethical act, at best neutral. At worst disrespectful.
The Gods may give an experience as a blessing, or protect one from harm, or help in a thing. What can happen is, for example, one experiences protection and then thinks: "It was my AoP", while it was the Gods intervention. So in his mind, he has not yet gotten "paid" for the good thing he did last week, while the Gods literally helped him with protection.
So I believe it is bad to keep "waiting" for what "you are owed" from the Gods, since it positions one as a beggar. And also, it causes ingratitude. Because ´ The Gods did not give you the car you prayed for after you did pet a cat on the street’.
I believe it is very hard to know every good thing the Gods do for us, since They do many anyway. Many times one will pray, then forget, then do a working, then the Gods intervene, and he claims that he became powerful on his own. So God knows how many blessings we do not see and do receive.
So, given the fact that I can, by accident, not see the blessings I get from the Gods, I will not obsess over waiting for Them to do something good for me, since this may already be the case and I am not realizing it. So I better focus on getting better. And i am already ´paid’ by being more and more aligned with divinity.
Last point: Doing an ethical act and reporting it makes it not ethical i.e., neutral, or disrespectful. Depends. ( not always, this is small perspective, not absolute, this goes for all the points in this thread)
First, keep in mind all previous points. Those points aside, I will explain this other point, but with the others in mind too. What I will say now is a specific case. I am not saying reporting good things to the Gods is bad, I do it myself. I am simply sharing how I think about all this.
Example:
Imagine you are driving a car, and I am in the passenger seat. You brought two sandwiches. You eat yours, I am grabbing mine. Then I see a starving cat. I tell you to stop. You stop. I get out and give the cat my entire sandwich. I come back. You tell me: “Oh, that's perfect, you helped it, it looks hungry. That was a good act! ”
I tell you: “What do you mean I did a good act? Give me $100 for it.”
You give me $100.
You are driving. You stop at a red light. I see a person in difficulty. I go to him and give him the $100. I come back.
You say: “Oh, that's great, he clearly needs it.”
I say: “i did a good act. Give me 10 times more of what I gave. I gave him 100% of what you gave me, this is very heroic, so give me $1,000.”
What is wrong here?
The sandwich was not mine. The $100 was not mine. I am just taking what you give me, throwing it away, and acting entitled to more. This is literally arbitrage. These are not "ethical" acts. This is business and arbitrage.
The same thing goes in relation to the Gods. I cannot pray for $100, and when I get it, give it to charity, and then claim $200 for giving $100 that They helped me get. That is arbitrage.
What is a true ethical act?
We are driving. You give me one sandwich. You eat yours. I drop you at your house and I am driving back to mine. I see a hungry person. I give him the sandwich and I shut the f*** up. ( of course i feel good about it and how it helped him, and be grateful i am in position of giving. ) I drive home. You ask me how the sandwich was. I tell you it was great, and I make a new one at home or buy food. Or, when giving, I give 20% of it or whatever. I will not report to Gods that i gave a Sandwich to a person in hunger.
So this is something I did on my own, not trying to get something from it. There is nothing bad about doing good things and expecting good things to come. But overdoing it is what is bad and turns it into a ‘business’
Aristotle
"Μέτρον Άριστον"
"Everything in moderation"
I wrote the first part. I kept having thoughts of "what I should have added," so I decided to write this quickly, including the thoughts I am getting.
Disclaimer: Those are my personal opinions, not opinions of ToZ, and can be wrong. I will talk as if talking about myself, since these are personal thoughts and also to avoid triggering someone.
Feel free to share your opinion below.
The Critique:
To want to help another Zevist and then wait for the Gods to "pay" you is not a good mindset ( it is good, i am saying why sometimes it might be not good, do not take something i say as absolute, i will start talking about this from multiple angles, zoom out to see big picture) . I personally think about it this way: I will always lose at this game. Because to be "paid" in a strict way would require not only the good things I did, but the whole picture:
· The good things I did
· The bad things I did
· The things I should have done and did not
In that game, with strict rules, I will always lose. So I would rather the Gods, when doing things, do them out of their goodness the same way, when I do things for Them, I do them because I am good. I do not want to do business, since I will always lose in this, and for another reason I will mention later in this thread. And third reason is we cannot pay the Gods nor wait for them to ´pay’ us, this is not appropriate.
I would prefer not to start waiting for the Gods to do something for every single good thing I do.
I know the Gods are noble, great, and generous ( the same of what i strive to be). So I would rather do my part and focus on it, while knowing for sure that I will not do better than the Gods in Goodness, Greatness and Generosity..
This also avoids positioning myself as a beggar.
Thinking "I did something, now I must be paid by the Gods" is wrong. It is as if They owe me something. But They too do good things. So who will "pay Them" for the good things They do? There is no such thing as payments for good actions in the literal sense.
I will never donate $10 to ToZ and then sit in meditation saying: "Hear me, O Zeus, I donated $10."
Even if this is a good act, I will not claim something for it, nor will I report it to the Gods. I will do my part, and that is it. The Gods know anyway. Also, I would rather not be this childish and keep reporting like: "Gods, did you see this? So...?" as if waiting for something.
I am not saying one should not be proud of his donations and feel joy about it. And i also do not say its bad to tell the Gods something good you did. Those are different perspectives. Not absolute perspective.
Also. Even if it is $1 donation, it is very good. Thinking the Gods will overlook it defies the very essence of this thread. The Gods do not overlook things the way humans do. Whatever you are able to donate is very good, and know for sure the Gods take your good intention seriously.
Bhagavad Gita
"If one offers to Me with love and devotion a leaf, a flower, a fruit or water, I will accept it."
— Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 9, Verse 26
I am viewing the subject in complex way, please do not fixate on 1 point, a zoom out is necessary.
Reporting successes vs. reporting for payment
I would also report to the Gods every single success with joy. It is not bad, it is perfect. What I referred to earlier is that I will not report every single thing without exception to the Gods.
There are always things I will do on my own without reporting them to the Gods and without waiting for something. I hope you got my idea.
Another aspect: Godhead as the reward
Zevism's ultimate goal is Godhead. Doing something good or helping a Zevist is something one should do as one walking the path to reaching Godhead. So one should start embodying the traits of the Gods. This is one of the goals of the cures and pathologies, and God rituals, etc.
So the act itself is the reward. To be good is to align oneself more and more with divinity. This is, of itself, the "payment", developing godly traits.
Another aspect: Grace
The concept of grace: the Gods can give grace, but expecting Them to give it after doing X, Y, Z is entitlement. The Gods decide when to give grace. They are conscious. They are not robots that will give an exact output after getting exact input.
This means we cannot be entitled to grace. The Gods choose when to give it. So all we can do is focus on ourselves and do our best.
How the Gods may bless and the problem of unnoticed blessings:
Now, how the Gods may bless before going to the last point, which is: waiting for "payment" from the Gods for an ethical act makes it not an ethical act, at best neutral. At worst disrespectful.
The Gods may give an experience as a blessing, or protect one from harm, or help in a thing. What can happen is, for example, one experiences protection and then thinks: "It was my AoP", while it was the Gods intervention. So in his mind, he has not yet gotten "paid" for the good thing he did last week, while the Gods literally helped him with protection.
So I believe it is bad to keep "waiting" for what "you are owed" from the Gods, since it positions one as a beggar. And also, it causes ingratitude. Because ´ The Gods did not give you the car you prayed for after you did pet a cat on the street’.
I believe it is very hard to know every good thing the Gods do for us, since They do many anyway. Many times one will pray, then forget, then do a working, then the Gods intervene, and he claims that he became powerful on his own. So God knows how many blessings we do not see and do receive.
So, given the fact that I can, by accident, not see the blessings I get from the Gods, I will not obsess over waiting for Them to do something good for me, since this may already be the case and I am not realizing it. So I better focus on getting better. And i am already ´paid’ by being more and more aligned with divinity.
Last point: Doing an ethical act and reporting it makes it not ethical i.e., neutral, or disrespectful. Depends. ( not always, this is small perspective, not absolute, this goes for all the points in this thread)
First, keep in mind all previous points. Those points aside, I will explain this other point, but with the others in mind too. What I will say now is a specific case. I am not saying reporting good things to the Gods is bad, I do it myself. I am simply sharing how I think about all this.
Example:
Imagine you are driving a car, and I am in the passenger seat. You brought two sandwiches. You eat yours, I am grabbing mine. Then I see a starving cat. I tell you to stop. You stop. I get out and give the cat my entire sandwich. I come back. You tell me: “Oh, that's perfect, you helped it, it looks hungry. That was a good act! ”
I tell you: “What do you mean I did a good act? Give me $100 for it.”
You give me $100.
You are driving. You stop at a red light. I see a person in difficulty. I go to him and give him the $100. I come back.
You say: “Oh, that's great, he clearly needs it.”
I say: “i did a good act. Give me 10 times more of what I gave. I gave him 100% of what you gave me, this is very heroic, so give me $1,000.”
What is wrong here?
The sandwich was not mine. The $100 was not mine. I am just taking what you give me, throwing it away, and acting entitled to more. This is literally arbitrage. These are not "ethical" acts. This is business and arbitrage.
The same thing goes in relation to the Gods. I cannot pray for $100, and when I get it, give it to charity, and then claim $200 for giving $100 that They helped me get. That is arbitrage.
What is a true ethical act?
We are driving. You give me one sandwich. You eat yours. I drop you at your house and I am driving back to mine. I see a hungry person. I give him the sandwich and I shut the f*** up. ( of course i feel good about it and how it helped him, and be grateful i am in position of giving. ) I drive home. You ask me how the sandwich was. I tell you it was great, and I make a new one at home or buy food. Or, when giving, I give 20% of it or whatever. I will not report to Gods that i gave a Sandwich to a person in hunger.
So this is something I did on my own, not trying to get something from it. There is nothing bad about doing good things and expecting good things to come. But overdoing it is what is bad and turns it into a ‘business’
Aristotle
"Μέτρον Άριστον"
"Everything in moderation"
