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There is a passage in scripture that talks about the wide and narrow gates. And whether you are a religious person or not, I do believe the concept offers good advice on living your life well.
Most people go for the wide gate. It’s easy, everyone else is doing it, and when you do so you are in the majority. The wide gate is like a big tent, anything goes, nobody judges, and the standards are low (or nonexistent.)
Few choose the narrow gate. The narrow gate asks one to rise above their basest natures and desires and to forgo short term pleasures and ease for a long term vision aligned with Truth and doing the right thing simply because it is the right thing to do.
At first glance there are few drawbacks to the wide gate, and many to the narrow one.
But in reality the wide gate is the path of pain, disappointment, betrayal, anguish, drama, and loss — not only in some life-after-death way, but also very much in the here and now.
The narrow gate, at first glance costly, actually is protection against pain, loss, betrayal, hurt, deception, and the like. Today, in this life, right now. It is the path of wisdom, the path of self-love.
I have watched many friends take the wide path in “love” and to end up suffering horribly for it. Men who used them. Men who lied to them. Men who cheated on them. Men who gave them lifelong illnesses. It seems only in movies and fairy tales that the wide path leads to true love and happiness.
Taking the narrow path may mean not dating as much, sitting home on Saturday nights, even being made fun of for not doing what everyone else is doing. But in the long run, all that is a small price to pay for having standards that will lead to true and lasting love and happiness.
As I wrote before, bake cookies. Be that girl. And once you find love, stay on the narrow path. That would be my advice.
Let those who have ears hear!
Bake cookies for the bear one might
Appreciate he would
Bears, cookies, slingshots… there’s a modern-day metaphor for dating in there somewhere.
be like Bloom 🙂
– – –
and don’t just whip up one batch of cookies … mix up several … form them into cookie-size balls, and freeze them. then you have homemade cookies ready to bake at any given time 🙂
Cookies for me? I would be so happy!
Leave slingshots out of this, please.
It may be different for women, but from what I see, the path of virtue is pain while the wicked seem to be rewarded.
Soundtrack to this post:
;-P
I usually say that in life, you rarely ever escape the “cost”… for instance, you can pay in the form of spending the extra money and energy to ensure you are eating a good diet, or you can pay in the form of suffering from many chronic conditions and the associated medical bills. The same exact thing applies here too, and for men as well. Take your time… don’t be in a rush to settle down but when you do find a gem, make sure you act right! Thanks for sharing, I look forward to these.
Agreed chubaoylou, I really do think doing the right thing pays off in THIS life too, not just in some afterlife. We don’t always see the direct results but I think those who do bad get bad and those who do good get good, maybe not every time, but overall.
Upon reading the link given above about wide and narrow gate, it strikes me that the narrow gate must be found. It’s not a matter of seeing both, and choosing one. It is a matter of knowing to look for something that is not visible.
How does one even know to look for a narrow gate if it is not visible? If it is not visible, it isn’t going to be in your concious thoughts. Yet that is given as the only path to life. There is no other way to avoid destruction, according to the link, yet it is not visible.
For the distinction to be meaningful, “few” must be far less than 50%, and “many” must be far larger than 50%. So, are we talking about a secret society that passes out in code form to a select few the fact that the narrow gate exists and where to find it. Masons, maybe?? And, assuming we’ve been tipped off about the narrow gate and where to find it, how do we get a mate that also has that knowledge? We are pulling from an already small pool of potential mates if we look only in the “few” pool. Are we allowed to somehow signal potential mates that we “know” so they can signal us back that they “know” also?
Because, the small number of the total population that are going to “find” that narrow gate are the only ones who are going to proceed on to life. How shattering it must be to discover that we are sharing our journey here below with someone who got onto the path of destruction and cannot now get off of it?
Is that the hopelessness that God wanted us to consider when he told us to go forth and multiply and replenish the earth? No warning about paths there. Just a command to go do it. Seemingly with exuberance. And probably leave that salvation thing up to God and the work of the Holy Spirit. Otherwise, we’ll spend our lives standing by the narrow gate, evaluating everyone who passes by, looking for our soul mate. And, in so doing, maybe fail to notice that we never stepped through the gate that so few ever find (according to the link given above).
For fuzzie.
I have seen so many men taking the narrow gate: marrying, having children, having a mortgage… and losing their peace, their money, their self-steem, their temper, their house…
I have seen so many men taking the wide gate and becoming alcoholics. drug-addicts, bingo-addicts, beta orbiters…
I have seen a few men taking the way of Tao, the Wu-Wei… not going so fast, not rushing, not going the sheep way, avoiding unnecessary responsibilities, going their own way… and getting everything.
The way of Tao is it in Christian tradition too… “be like the birds of the sky and the flowers of the ground”.
Mathew 6:26-33
Last news: Barcelona: a truck full of Butane gas barrels, driven in the wrong direction at high speed, by a Pakistani guy with Swedish passport (the truck was previously stolen by the Paki) has been stopped by the cops, they had to shoot to the truck. Driver under arrest now. No victims, thanks God.
The “guests” are so nice….
RPG, a very interesting view you have concerning the “narrow gate” vs the “wide gate” concept. What event(s) triggered your thoughts towards this gate metaphor in the first place?
Since I am Asatru the Bible has no sway over me. IT is just a book of Fairy Tales to me – but I do respect others Faith. But if you look it up, Norse Mythology has beautiful examples of how women can become valued and respected People.
Richard P.,
Thank you. One of the things i have had to deal with since taking the red pill is that everything is questioned. That includes God’s relationship to man. Something is very wrong in this world and God created the world,
Nice post, RPG. The warrior must always maintain a sense of time. He must see the hidden and the manifest, the subtle and the obvious. All events unfold as progressions in time. One critical difference is in the speed of those progressions. A bullet travels too fast for the eye to see. The wasting of one’s younger years, for many, travels too slow to see.
RichardP, true, although I think the info about the narrow gate is available and presented to all, even today although it is less common for people to attend church or know scripture. Also, this is just one passage, in other parts of the text it clearly says the passage thru the (eternal) narrow gate is available to any and all who ask, no matter how long they have been on the wide road or what they have done. No “earning” it is needed, it is a gift freely given if one asks. Good reading, all that! I try not to get too preachy here, but I think about spiritual matters all the time!
This is true too, Iberian. Sadly I have seen it as well.
LarryG, it is inspired by the scripture. I am somewhat taking license to extrapolate it to the here and now life, but I do often feel if people could just follow the book as laid out, they would have few problems in this life (at least self created ones.) There are advantages to doing the right thing not because of some reward or because forced, but simply because it is the right thing to do.
@emershee, if you want to link to some passages or to share them, I would be most interested to read that! Please never feel I am pushing the bible on anyone, it is not my intent to make anyone feel uncomfortable. I believe a spiritual life is important, whatever form that takes! 🙂
God created the world Fuzzie, and (according to the bible at least) it was perfect. It was Eve’s disobedience to the one and only rule, and Adam following suit, not to eat the fruit of the tree of enlightenment, that mucked things up. I suppose God did give them free will, and being omnipotent already knew what the choice would be. Sadly. People just can’t seem to get that choosing well is better than choosing poorly. You’d think if we were the most intelligent species, we’d figure that out but — nope! I envy the animals and how they just do what they do and they don’t fret about it or rebel against it, they just ARE.
So true Alex, well put! Youth is wasted on the young!
“Something is very wrong in this world and God created the world,”
Fuzzie, did God not give man(mankind) the right to choose? I could bake a beautiful cake, and you choose to start cutting it in the middle which will create a mess, does that make the mess my fault because I baked it?
What I get from the link RPG gave is that each person must think about the consequences of each action they choose to take.
The state of the world is the fault of mankind not (any) God.
I am not a religious person but I do enjoy reading about various religions and they all have a list of rules that need to be followed for the world to be a good place according to that religion. Wiccan has the shortest list with just one – Do whatever you want so long as you Do No Harm. I like that one the best even though I am NOT Wiccan. It is also probably the hardest one to follow especially since there are no examples to follow.
I can only live my life and make choices that pertain to me. If I make a mistake then it is me who must pay. That does not mean that we must live in a vacuum we are free to choose others to counsel us but ultimately the final decision is ours.
Right now I miss having people in my life to give me counsel or to at least offer alternatives to my choices. I even miss the words “I told you so”. But I can only go forward and hope my bad choices are few.
RPG and Linny,
He knows how things are and He knows how things will turn out. That is where the trouble lies. In the meanwhile, we are all on the hook.
Linny…”Wiccan has the shortest list with just one – Do whatever you want so long as you Do No Harm.”
But that seems about like providing pilots with an instruction book that says “Do Not Crash This Airplane,” or giving doctors a medical education consisting of “Make that patient well, fast!” The whole point of a moral code–at least the *earthly* point, ignoring for the moment any supernatural considerations–is to provide guidance on the *how* human beings can live with one another.
Linny I am glad you found us! These guys have often been my counsel when there was nobody else I could tell. These guys are an awesome bunch! 😀 They talked me down off the ledge many many a time! Lol.
Fuzzie, can I challange you to something? I hope you won’t mind, but I would suggest your start feeling YOUR power more and feel like others have all the cards LESS. Like Linny said, God gave us the freedom to choose — it’s up to us to choose well. If we were forced to choose only “right” that may seem ideal, but without free will saying, “I choose the light regardless of the darkness” it’s not as meaningful.
True David, but trying to do no harm is a good start! 😀
Also Fuzzie, God may know how things would turn out, but he gave people the chance to prove an exception to the rule anyway! I am so glad for the life I have been given, as imperfect and at times hard as it has been. It is a gift to be here! If I can leave the world a better place somehow, in some small way, I will die happy!
Fuzzie,
I think the Red Pill philosphy is beyond theism and atheism. “God exists” or “God doesn´t exist” are both false.
God exists… for me, and that is enough. No need more proofs.
God is a subjective truth.
As as subjective truth is totally real being.
Exactly Iberian. Personally I think doing the right thing in life is it’s own reward. If that leads to happiness eternal, bonus! 😀
David
Are you being silly?
Do No Harm (to me, this person) means that one must take into consideration all the implications that one’s choice would have.
One must gather all the knowledge one can about the situation and seek guidance and direction on how to proceed before just doing something. Therefore flying lessons and medical school would be a must before doing either.
I cut my finger to the bone on the weak side with just a sliver of tendon still holding on. The doctor did surgery and wanted to splint the middle joint but leave the other two joints freedom for movement. He came up with the perfect solution, he used a safety pin. Now I had had no pain at anytime until the middle of the night when I woke in the worst pain I had ever endured including child birth. He failed to put any padding between the pin and my finger which he knew would swell. So when I returned to the hospital the next day they had to dig the stupid pin out of my finger.He failed to take everything into consideration. I hope he learned from that, I know I did.
Do No Harm is much more complicated than one might think.
Linny…”Do No Harm is much more complicated than one might think”….but that’s why we have medical schools and flying schools and checklists and….and also things like the ethical principles of various religions and various schools of humanism.
My point is that while “Do No Harm” is an admirable starting point, it does not *by itself* provide a framework for a society’s survival or for the thriving of individuals within that society.
RPG,
Thank you for the advice.
Iberian, you too!
RPG,
Re-reading your article and reading the Versicle now I see the Narrow Gate has a lot to do with Mathew 6:26-33.
I misread it and thought the Narrow Gate had to do with the conventional way, the “proper” way. Nope. The Wide Gate can be both “proper” and “wilde”.
The Narrow Gate is the Red Pill way.
This?
Do Not Worry
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life[e]?
28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
One of my favorite passages!
But this is what more what I was referring to in my comment before, how the old testament sacrifices for sins (goats, sheep, cows, etc) plus works (being good) were the path to salvation was replaced by the blood of the Lamb, Jesus, the ultimate sacrifice for all sin, open to any who ask forgiveness:
Ephesians 2:
2 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh[a] and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Not to get all churchy, and this may not make sense out of context! Hopefully, it does.
My pharaphrase: God gave people 10 rules, that’s it, and they still could not follow them. There were not enough goats, sheep, oxen, etc. and that wasn’t working anyway. So God sent Christ (his son and himself in human form), blameless and free of sin, who died on the cross for all sins. Any who believed in him is instantly forgiven and all is forgiven/forgotten. I am sure the goats, sheep, oxen, etc. rejoiced! There’s more to it than that but that’s the condensed version! All one need say, between themselves and God, is something like, “Lord I recognize I have fallen short and that I am sorry and will you forgive me and help me be and do better.” 🙂 And the angels have a big party and all of heaven rejoices in the lost lamb found again!
Also there are slightly differing takes on that, depending on the branch of Christianity, but basically it is not by WORKS (being good) that one is saved, it is by Grace (recognizing our need for God.)
RPG,
Now, I am even more confused.
Sorry, bear! Basically God loves you and the invite is wide open. Anytime. To all who ask.
Whatever choice you make calls for sacrifice. The narrow gate requires death to self and the dedication of all we are to God. The wide gate is eternal separation from God and a life empty of the reason for our existence. Pay up front or pay later. Either way there is pain because life is pain.
RPG
Catholic myself, but I agree with Lutherans that Salvation is by Grace not by works.
And Grace is by surrender to God.
Last night I heard on the radio one of the most bluepiller mangina statements ever, from the mouth of a Spanish writer: Carlos Zanón.
He said that since God does not exist, men (“men” not as “mankind”, but male gender) shoud be saved by being “accepted” by any woman in particular. Once a man is accepted by any particular woman he is not only saved but he EXISTS. Otherwise he is “lost” and he does not exist. He is a tshandala in the better of cases.
Well, this is too much: not only a religious curse but as well, an onthological curse and a classist curse.
LOL
So… this is what atheism is about: The substitution of God by Women.
Believe it or not dozens of millions of local men here buy that crap.
Taking that to the limit… every time a married woman initiates divorce from hubby is rejecting the Grace from him, and he get “lost” again, unexsistent and tshandala.
Bloody hell….
Even though Loki works actively to end the world, his Wife Sigyn is an example of a truly great Woman and there are a few lines written wich make her an ideal to strive for. She endured. She consciously chose to honor the commitments of Her heart and to endure in the face of unprecedented loss, grief, and misery. She lost her Sons. One was forced to murder the other. As a revenge for Loki killing the Sun God Baldur. Loki was bound in a Cave with a Wurm(Snake) over his body from whose fangs venom dripped. It caused him unbearable pain. Sign stayed with her Husband, holding a basin to catch the venom giving him a respite. Only when she needs to empty the basin does he suffer. She is portrayed as a good mother and Wife.
Naturally few Asatru honor her, she is after all the Wife of the bad guy, but I do strife to be as strong, loving and compassionate.
Iberian,
This is not blue pill, nor is he a mangina. This is something that would have gotten him burned at the stake by the Inquisition. You are right. He is substituting ordinary mortal women for God and worshiping them. I have the sinking feeling that there is a lot of this going around, but at a level where people are not conscious of it. No doubt that women will buy into this. Men should run as fast as they can to get away from this.
Emscherfee,
I liked that. You’d think that Loki would mend his ways with a wife that dedicated.
That’s so true DJ. If I have to choose pain, pain for God seems like the better pick, to me! 😀 Welcome!
Wow Iberian, that is deep. He really said that? We need to red pill that guy, fast!!!
RPG, you have utterly amazed me in a very good way with your public confession of faith.
Awww Larry, shucks. I am a cracked vessel. Trust me! Only by the Grace of God go I! But thank you. I figure what else do I have to do with my life? Share love and light! Try to help others, leave the world a better place! 😀 It keeps me busy and out of trouble mostly, anyway! Lol.
RPG, If I may add this…
Romans 10
9 If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.
11 As Scripture says, “Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.”
12 For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him,
13 “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
RPG,
that guy you wanted to “red pill”? I think what he needs is to be tied to a chair and made to watch a number of videos of women behaving badly. That might do it.
Bear, RPG
I think that guy is not so naive. He is part of the conspiration. He does not believe a word of what he is saying. He is just a false prophet spreading the “good news”.
Larry,
In a certain, irrational, emotional, intuitive, instinctual level… I have declared with my mouth that Jesus is Lord. Many times.
In the rational level… I never did it.
I always had that struggle, but lately I don´t care so much about the “rational” thing.
“conspiracy”
Iberian,
Nobody ever went broke flattering women.
When guys like this fall, it is pretty spectacular. I hope that someone uploads video.
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