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Katinka - Spirituality
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August 10th, 2009
Religion and social pressure are two sides of the same coin. Religion gives meaning to our lives, shapes our actions – which means that people who let their lives be shaped by other pressures than our own, are by definition strange. Hard to deal with. This comes out, in the USA, in people pretending they’re [...]
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Katinka - Spirituality
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May 13th, 2009
I’ve been reading ‘Rudolf Steiner Erdenleben und Werken’ (aka: Rudolf Steiner’s earth life and works) by G. Wachsmuth. It’s a good biography, though obviously written by someone who is a fierce devotee of Steiner. He tells Steiner’s story as Steiner might have wanted it told. For my purposes this is good: I want to know [...]
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Katinka - Spirituality
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March 25th, 2009
Alright – that title is a bit over the top. The thing is, I’ve been pondering the difficulty of managing groups filled with people who all mean well (you’ll read why later on). Or rather – the majority means well, wants to be kind and all that. The disadvantage is… that unkind people can create [...]
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Katinka - Spirituality
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March 18th, 2009
Michael asked me on my Dutch blog:
What’s the difference between personal and spiritual growth anyhow? I think self knowledge is perhaps the only spiritual or personal growth there is, isn’t it?
It’s a very good question. Depending on ones spiritual background, one can go into this very deeply, or just skimp the surface. Ken Wilber has [...]
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Katinka - Spirituality
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February 10th, 2009
Generosity is, for once, a classic virtue. In Islam it’s called Zakat: the duty to give a percentage of your possessions to the poor.
Generosity is linked to another classic virtue: detachment. In both Hinduism and Buddhism attachment to stuff, money and status is seen as a problem. Letting go of that in the form of [...]
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Katinka - Spirituality
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December 22nd, 2008
Hi all,
I don’t think I’ll be blogging all that much this week. So I think I’ll just say Merry Christmas now, when I still have the time. We’ve got a big Christmas celebration coming up with my family (kids and grandkids of my one still alive grandmother) – since it’s in the town where I [...]
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Katinka - Spirituality
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October 15th, 2008
Whether it’s illness, unemployment or some other reason – sometimes life forces us to sit still, think things through, relax – because there is just no other alternative.
I don’t think anyone is ever grateful for unemployment or disease, but sometimes we can be grateful for their side effects: a chance to reevaluate life.
One of the [...]
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Katinka - Spirituality
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August 30th, 2008
My grandmother is living in a retirement home. She has trouble remembering the name of her eldest brother, and whether he still lives (he doesn’t). There are suggestions she might have Alzheimer’s disease. But when I asked her what spiritual teacher of the last century had inspired her most – the following conversation occurred (I’m [...]
