#Layperson

[discoveringorthodoxy]

"…the Lord does not seek the monk or the layperson, the scholar or the simpleton, the rich man or the pauper, but only the heart that thirsts for God, full of a sincere desire to be true to Him and His commandments!"

-Venerable Ephraim the Syrian-

Excerpt from: Everyday Saints and Other Stories p.328

#Eastern Orthodox #Orthodox Saint #Quote #Monk #Layperson #Scholar #Simpleton #Rich man #Pauper #God #God's Commandments #The Lord #Lord #Ephraim the Syrian

[onemindzen]

The Vimilakikrti Nirdesa Sutra tells the storyabout a lay practitioner who exhibits wisdom unlike many of the monks & Bodhisattvas. Where the Bodhisattvas who tried to reply could not when Manjusri asked  how to enter the gate of non-duality, Vimilakirti is famous for his "Thunderous Silence," perfectly describing entry into this gate.

More importantly, Vimilakirti lists what constitutes the great gift of bestowing the Dharma to others. It springs from acts of kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity. It springs from generosity, self-discipline, egoless from showing patience, relinquishment of body & mind from by practicing zealously. It springs from practicing contemplation, and from realizing the perfection of wisdom. Teaching the emptiness of all things dependent on causes and conditions, not to reject the mundane worldly activities, not to attach to preferences and non-preferences and to realize their  one-ness, understanding the eradication of troubles, hindrances and evil, and to realize the wisdom and good virtues which lead to awakening. And to do all these things on as skillful a way as possible.

In short, practice the Immeasurables and the Perfections (Paramitas) is to bestow the Dharma. And to bestow the Dharma is to rid ourselves of the nagging clinging to "I," "me," "my." That is true generosity--to do all of this without any notion of ourselves and what benefit they will bring us...even the notion of "enlightenment."

So I ask you, which of these are you incapable of practicing? Not which ones you'd rather not practice, or only want to practice sometimes, but which ones are totally beyond your abilities? I think you'll probably find the total is 0.

Myeong Jin Eunsahn gave the Dharma talk on September 6, 2023 at One Mind Zen.

#zen #dharmatalk #layperson

[santaclaralocalnews]

Santa Clara University celebrated the historic inauguration of Julie H. Sullivan, Ph.D. on Oct. 7. President Sullivan is the first woman and the first layperson to lead the university in its 171-year history...For more updated news visit SVVOICE.

#santa clara university #historic inauguration #layperson #president #santa clara news #latest news online #Santa Clara Latest #silicon valley voice

[serpentscree]

fway

#you cant tell its them to a layperson without the armor lol #but i did start painting this earlier and sketched some armor in so we’ll see #ffxiv #fray myste #fray #my art

[felikatze]

diversity win my coworker asked me to install firefox and libre office on the company computers

#feli speaks #notorious IT disaster Feli designated store IT guy #thinks. hey wait no my IT skills ARE above average arent they. huh. #compared to someone who knows what they're doing i'm a bumbling idiot #but compared to a layperson i'm a fucking wizard.

[neighbourhoodtwo]

knowing things about the assassination of julius caesar beyond "dictator gets stabbed" sucks bc like 70% of the posts i see about it are not that funny and/or just factually wrong

#*grits teeth* its just a bit of fun its just a bit of fun its just a bit of fun- #like. i know more than a layperson but far less than anyone with an active interest in the subject yk. so im not one to be correcting #other people and im trying so hard not to well actually a couple posts in the ides of march tag. wheres the 'congrats you shouldnt #have said anything and you didnt!' star i deserve it.

[satellitedusterart]

10/18/23 - whitney-inspired pieces

[after ilana savdie, norman lewis & ruth asawa]

#my art #drawing i #i wish tickets werent 30 fucking dollars for a layperson but augh i wish all lf you the chance to go to the whitney at some point it was #incredible #so many beautiful works...so many impressive mediums...it was a treat #in any case these in particular were derived from 3 pieces i saw throughout the museum! i had to make a choice out of the like #Thirty pictures i took lmao

[uncanny-tranny]

I think it's (understandably) common for people to enmesh their behaviour with their mental illnesses that cause that behaviour, but I think at a certain point, that does need to be challenges.

As a survivor, I really need people to understand that you can be suffering and still cause suffering. No, not every behaviour cause by a mental illness will be abusive. But I really worry that people who enmesh behaviour with unwellness will have an unhealthy and frankly dangerous viewpoint on abusive behaviour.

#mental health #mental health advocacy #abuse #abuse tw #abuse mention tw #and it's like... my abuser WERE unwell. they happened to have their OWN traumas. but i was a fucking *baby* and a *child* #my sympathy runs dry when the behaviour happens to be abusive to others #saw something earlier where people took somebody criticizing a behaviour to be... #...'you HATE people with [x issue]' and it's like... that wasn't even what they were saying... #...and it's extremely upsetting to me as a fellow mad person. i am far from wellness in general... #...so i'm not a layperson who's being like 'lul look at THESE people being unwell' #ask to tag (genuine)

[mxtxfanatic]

After so much backtracking with my reading of multiple translations, it was really funny to see the pattern with how every (unbiased) explanation of each of Wei Wuxian’s techniques—some even from his own POV!—emphasized how “anyone can use it,” and exactly why that would threaten the already-established clans who built their reputations on exclusivity and techniques that could only be achieved after generations of effort…

…only for Wei Wuxian to then demonstrate exactly why just anyone can’t use his cultivation, actually, and that’s why they mostly stick to the orthodox path with a few of his prototype inventions thrown in 🤣

#human reads mdzs: take 2 #love that for him #’anyone can do this!’ but can they tho? #forreals? #where’s that post about experts in their fields #heavily overestimating how much a layperson actually knows about their specific field? #that’s wwx about his ghost path 🤣

[lightthewaybackhome]

What's your favourite thing about Reformed theology and why?

Asking as someone who doesn't like Reformed theology much who wants to know what its followers like about it.

Thank you for this question. I'm going to do my best to answer it while saying up front that I'm not discussing doctrine. I'm not a good debater. I'm taking your kind question as a subjective question, not one that wishes a doctrinal answer or a compare and contrast with other denominations answer.

For me personally, two things that I love about Reformed theology are this:

A High View of God. Reformed Baptists hold and teach a high view of God, His goodness, transcendence, simplicity, and attributes. The higher my view of God, the greater and more wonderful my salvation is. I also deeply appreciate the focus being on God and not on me and my feelings. This equips me to view myself correctly and not be overwhelmed by my feelings which are many and a bit all over the place.

I love the truth of Christian liberty expounded in our Confession: (I also love our confessionalism because it provides clarity and safety.) The liberty which Christ has purchased for believers under the gospel, consists in their freedom from the guilt of sin, the condemning wrath of God, the severity and curse of the law, and in their being delivered from this present evil world, bondage to Satan, and dominion of sin, from the evil of afflictions, the fear and sting of death, the victory of the grave, and everlasting damnation: as also in their free access to God, and their yielding obedience unto Him, not out of slavish fear, but a child-like love and willing mind. All which were common also to believers under the law for the substance of them; but under the New Testament the liberty of Christians is further enlarged, in their freedom from the yoke of a ceremonial law, to which the Jewish church was subjected, and in greater boldness of access to the throne of grace, and in fuller communications of the free Spirit of God, than believers under the law did ordinarily partake of. (2LBCF 21.1)

I think that might be one of the most beautiful lists ever penned by man.

I'm going to tag @walkingthroughthisworld who can check me if I put anything wrong or unclearly.

These are two of my favorite things about Reformed Theology. I love its boldness and clarity, but mostly I love its high view of the Lord and I love the liberty in Christ that it brings.

#ask #ask answered #theology #reformed baptist #reformed theology #thoughts of a layperson #personal #2lbcf

[coulsonlives]

Most underrated scene ever!

#this is actually what coffee orders sound like to a layperson lol i cackled #starbucks #coffee #coffee order #just like heaven #reese witherspoon #2000s movies #video

[magdaclaire]

listen you have to have to have to realize how important zines are to the cultural zeitgeist. zines, pamphlets, even fucking brochures have been so essential to nearly every cultural liberation of the past several centuries. are you listening. is this thing on

#buy zines!! support zine creators!! and yes i am including fandom zines in this #the microcosm of culture that is only available through the lens of the creation of the layperson is essential to the understanding of #the culture as a whole #you can read full books from the harlem renaissance and learn all of the essential natures but if you never read a personally released #selection of art and poetry by someone you've never heard of. will you really know what happened there. who happened there. #i'm very passionate about zines and the like #mer rambles #if you take this as an invite to start discourse w me pls know i will just remove it argue with a wall idc #written and drawn records of the personal experience of historical events will always be and have always been inarticulably important

[marzipanandminutiae]

“don’t EVER use ceramics from before 1971, since they might contain lead in the glazes!”

listen

I check antique ceramics minutely for cracks, chips, glaze loss, crazing, pitting, etc. before ever using them, and only use them if everything is 100% intact

I check for telltale cloudy residue after washing them

I don’t put them in the fridge, dishwasher, or microwave

I don’t store food in them, or let anything acidic touch decorated areas of the dishes for long

I don’t use them as everyday pieces, much as I might long to. all my everyday china is modern and undecorated

I am an adult, almost 30 years old. I would never let a child eat or drink from antique dishware

I think, given the quantity of precautions I take, that I can be permitted to actually use tableware I also enjoy looking at every now and then. as a treat

#antiques #musings #now I think that given how tiresome a layperson might find it to check every single piece they buy like this #it may make sense to just say 'you know what? avoid it' #under the (correct) assumption that most of your audience won't follow a laundry list of rules #but. please let those of us who ARE willing to jump through hoops- and take an informed risk -for pretty china Live #that being said you will NEVER catch me using antique pewter dishware #there's informed but reduced risk and then there's Guarantee

[pepsinister]

Lots of reactions to today’s Staff post, so here’s another one in the ring.

I’m not so alarmist as to think that the changes Staff laid out today are going to kill tumblr, I think they’ll annoy most of us and drop a few users but ultimately blow over because they’re less egregious than what every other site is up to right now. Also, even though I don’t like the changes, I do like the way Staff is publicizing them.

But I do see a clear pattern in Tumblr’s recent moves - bolder merchandise marketing via Emporium, scrambling for engagement metrics with Tumblr Live, more aggressive prompts to sign in to see content, etcetera. Some members of staff have even publicly said outright that tumblr needs to start making money. What this pattern tells me is that Tumblr as a business entity has probably been given a deadline by which to become profitable or at least financially break even, and what we’re seeing is an aggressive push to meet that goal.

I don’t think Tumblr is going to work out the secret recipe to profitable social media, nobody except Facebook ever has, and nobody else is in the niche that Facebook is in. The secret recipe probably just doesn’t exist outside of that niche. Everything else that any of us do on social media is costing somebody a TON of money that they want to one day recoup.

So my guess is that Tumblr is going to shut down in the near future, not because of these unpopular changes but the other way around.

#other thoughts: #the various fediverses springing up are cool but I don’t expect them to last #not at large scale at least #they’re just taking the social media profitability problem and dividing it up into little unprofitable chunks #other other thoughts: #Reddit’s CEO said last month that they’re not profitable AND that he wants to follow Musk’s Twitter strategy #On it’s face it sounds charitably completely boneheaded #but maybe to a non-layperson perspective Musk is making the right moves? #which would make Twitter maybe the BEST CASE scenario for non-Facebook social media #which is. sad. #Also. I don’t mean ‘near future’ as in like next week. probably a year or two. or more or less #Also also. I’m just some guy! Would be thrilled to be wrong here

[aroacehanzawa]

my villain mad scientist origin story is talking to american astrophysics (!!) students and they're like "what's the european space agency" brother i know what nasa is and you guys don't even know the european equivalent of nasa???? i'm unlearning my knowledge of the north american aerospace industry right now, next time i'll be the one asking what's nasa :/ AND the moon landing was faked btw 👍

#look i don't expect the layperson to know what or where ESA is but if you're literally studying in this field.... wyd............... #this is such USAmerican behaviour.......... #like yeha i know nasa but i also know the japanese and russian and chinese and indian space agencies.... #like all the major ones at least

[arodrwho]

that pathologizing/humanizing post and all the discourse surrounding it is driving me batty if i never see it again it'll be too soon. post block time

#like listen. there is value in translating your symptoms for people who don't have your disorders #there is value in saying 'hey i'm feeling overwhelmed right now' vs 'hey i'm having a sensory overload' #most people understand 'overwhelmed' even if they have never heard of sensory issues #there is value in saying 'i had a knee jerk reaction and felt attacked and overwhelmed and thats why i snapped at you' vs 'i have rsd' #most people understand feeling attacked and angry and upset even if they have never heard of rsd #however i do not think 'humanizing' is the correct word for the act of making that translation #and i dont think its necessarily pathologizing to say 'i had sensory overload' or 'that was emotional dysregulation' #thats just using precise words for things. sort of nd jargon u know #which isnt the simplest way to explain to like. a layperson #and as for the idea that we should apologize rather than explaining our symptoms...like. yeah dude. it is possible to do both #you can take responsibility for snapping at someone and explain why you did in the same breath. it's just easier again if u translate #anyway. fuck that post and its rebuttals. im tired