Spirituality w/o Religion

[AkinaTerta]

New to the guild, and new to the subform so Greetings.

I was simply curious and wondering if any of those on these subforms are spiritual but not associated with an religion. I tend to have a hard time finding those of that same mind set. It would be refreshing to throw around some ideas, since it does make a broad topic if you don't involve religion and religious practices/rules.

So... anyone? ^_^;  

[Iron_Felix]

We've actually had a good discussion like this in one of the other threads.

Welcome, I hope you like it here.  

[Corbytt]

I'm relatively new to the guild myself, and I have only posted a few times.

I'm unsure what category of spirituality I fall under. I've been raised and confirmed a Catholic, but it really inspires me no longer, and I'm looking for something else. I feel that the Christian faith - or faith in general - can be a handicap to knowledge and consideration. I see it very often where people who think themselves strong in faith close the doors to any new knowledge or ideas because of the fear that it might challenge them. For those who are Christian and take a moment to consider new ideas and incorporate what that may mean to them, I commend them. It's most important to me to keep my eyes open and challenge myself to new things. I think that's what life is all about.

I've read about Wicca, and I think the principles are really interesting, but I couldn't get into the rituals and chants. I love the God and Goddess concept, as I believe in a being that exists far beyond our comprehansion.

Right now I'm studying Eastern Philosophy and Religion, and I hope to find inspiration to absorb into my daily life.

I think there's something wonderful in all religions, and I want to take the best principles and wisdoms from all and make myself into a better person.  

[AkinaTerta]

Eastern Philosophy and Religion is a very interesting topic to consider. Shinto, Tao, and Buddhist are ones I am currently trying to understand a little more. Especially Japan, how they incorporate both Shintoism, and Buddhism together in their culture and lives.

Don't rush on actually finding a category though. ^_^ I believe everyone agrees upon the fact that when spirituality is involved many people take different paths and view points. I simply classify myself as not following a religion so my ideas are subject to adapt and change over time and experiences.

I was raised and confirmed Catholic, as well.

 

[Iron_Felix]

I havent really studied other religions. I know what I believe in, and it may sound ignorant, but as long as its not destructive, I don't really care what people believe in, as long as they believe in it with there whole heart and soul. I strive for facts, not faith.  

[asgre chan caddug]

You see I say that you don't nessaceraly have to belive in a religion to be spiritual, for example me and my family disagree with our church so much I wouldn't be suprised if we were considered heathens  

[AkinaTerta]

Agreed on both accounts, and points.

Though I enjoy studying religions just because they fascinate me. Always something interesting to learn from a different religion. Though it is amusing when they are all saying the same thing, but in a different way.

Facts in spirituality, never heard it like that before honestly, though I can understand what your saying.

 

[chizuru_chan]

Religions (especialy christian ones) lead by 'fear of God', but they also teach that God is all loving and merciful....

Why would I FEAR an ALL LOVING God???

its rediculous!!!

No two religions can agree on the truth.... and they KILL people in the name of PEACE (hypocritical), remember the Crusades?

There IS a God, and HE does exist, but he is NOTHING like our religions and 'belief' systems portray him as....

I don't believe, I know.... my mind isn't supported by would-be ideas. Beliefs are not solid, they are based on the hope that something is there to back them up.... what if there isn't?

I don't believe, I KNOW

If anyone is interested you can read the Freedom of Choice and Thiaoouba Prophecy at this website (and you don't have to buy them)

bioresonant.com/bookshop.html

(not advertising, i am in no way connected to this site, i downloaded these books and read them myself)  

[chizuru_chan]

Woot, 2 posts in a row (j/k I wanted to add a little more info, not directly relating to my last post).

Imagine that there is absolute nothingness (true nothingness, not the same as closing your eyes)... and in this nothingness there is nothing...

imagine then that a small fluctuation in the nothingness produced a completely random though.... it created a 'something' .... imaging how different that something would have been for the nothingness.... it was like experiencing something totaly 100% new and foriegn....

imagine that over the course of billions and billions and billions of years that more of these fluctiations occured.... but the fluctiations would fade.... they lasted only moments, 2-3 seconds at most.... but imagine that one such fluctuation provided a 'spark' of sorts... and that this spark is a something....

due to a sort of 'magnetic' effect some future fluctuations would be 'drawn to' the spark.... and the spark provided the 'energy' to maintain the fluctuation....

over countless eons more sparks, each drawn together, and more fluctiations each drawn to the sparks...... eventualy.... the equivilent 'mindset' of something resembling a baby was floating in the nothing....

over more eons it grew.... became 'inteligent'.... and eventualy established a sense of 'self'.... it was something.... it KNEW it was something.... and that it was seperate from the nothing.... just as i am seperate from you, the reader.

Just like any other creater that evolves... it got to a point where it needed something more.... something it couldn't describe, that was wonderfull.... fullfilling...... the thought of this was lovely..... it was love.

BUT, WHO would love this thing that existed now..... there was no one.... nothing but this thing.... this inteligence...... there would have to BE something to love this ineligence, this thing.... this 'person' who existed all by itself....

but how, there wasn't anything...... should this person wait for countless eons in hopes that another something would spark into existance..... would YOU want to wait to be loved.... to be lonely for EONS?!?!?!

It decided to 'speed up' this process....

before i go on, one must understand just HOW inteligent this person was at this point..... as an example, Albert Einstein would not even been a grain of sand in a desert compared to this ineligence that now existed.

It could imagine new things, there was nothing, so everything it imagined WAS new....

back to our story,

should he just speed up this process.... would it create something like itself.... would YOU love someone not like yourself, someone who you didn't get along with..... most likely not....

so it needed a way to ensure that what evolved out of this nothingness would be like itself. It spent trillions and trillions of years coming up with a 'plan', a way to ensure that what came out of this nothingness would be something that would get alond with him.... but durring the course of planning it decide... why one more.... why help create MORE things.... having just TWO things in existance would get boring.....

so the plan was to create MANY inteligences that could get along... and that could make friends with eachother...... but most of all.... that would all LOVE eachother....

they would come into existance just as it did, knowing NOTHING.... so it decided to 'teach' them....

we should pause for a moment and think.... we have been discussing all these inteligences who would keep the other inteligence company.... but who are they, why have a conversation when the reader doesn't even know the topic of said conversatio....

my friend, these inteligences were YOU and Me, and every other human in exestance on earth and every other planet in the universe.

His plan was to creat US, and educate US, and show US love... so that one day we would all be one 'happy loving family'.

All of existance, this life, and others.... is like a large classroom... this life here on earth is like kindergarten, when we die, if we are well developed enough we will graduate to first grade, then second, then third, all the way up to nineth grade.... then rejoin and be with the Great Intelect.

There was a catch though.... in order to for something to love you, you can't put any limits on it...... if your parents told you that you could get as inteligent as you wanted.... but had to stop at, oh say, fourth grade that way you wouldn't be smarter than they were.... you probably wouldn't love them as much as before.

so in order to maximize the chance that we would love him.... we have 100% completly unlimited free will and potential.... that is correct.... each of us has the ability to evolve to a point that is equal, AND even beyond the Great Intelect itself.

for those of you who still don't get it.... you each have the potential to be a Great Intelect (or a god, if that is the term you prefer).

i suppose that is the end of this part of the story.... you and I are still writing this story, so i can't tell you how it ends just yet.

Religions and Cults, and all forms of other 'Belief Systems' lead by fear.... and are aimed at gaining money...... they have distorted the truth and have invented Hell, Satin, and all manner of other lies to keep control over the poeple.... to keep them stupid so that they wont get 'smarter' than they are.

oops, i am on lunch break, i only have 3 minutes left till i go back to work.... think about all i have said.... and feel free to PM me if you have questions....

Also, this is a 'breif' summary of the story told in Freedom of Choice and Thiaoouba Prophecy, i would suggest reading the full story there before coming to any conclusions.

Seek and you WILL find....  

[chizuru_chan]

REAL Quick,

How does all that relate to the original topic....

The purpose of living is to becomre spiritual and to learn how to love, that is the purpose of living.... we don't need religion to learn to become spiritual.... we can learn it on our own.

so yes, it is possible to have spirituality w/o religion, i live that life ^.^  

[Efstathios]

I'll check out those books, I like your story. Some elements of it I recognize.

I thought a long time ago that each life was like a grade in school and you learn more each time. I came to the conclusion that when you are reincarnated, since you're born not knowing anything you kind of have to have something guide you 'coincidence' or 'luck' to make sure you learn what you were supposed to learn, if you 'fail' you 'repeat the grade'.
When you die you add your new experience and knowledge to that which was gained in previous lives, in fact your current consciousness is just a tiny part of the whole you.
I also thought that once you graduate maybe you go on to other planets, or you even get to make your own to be a "God" or headm(istress/aster.

Some theories I've gotten from other people include the idea that the...rest of you, for lack of a better term is actually sentient and even controls some things in your life.

Someone else believes the ego, to be a construct to survive in this world and that when you die, the ego dies. You don't have to be greedy about food and such anymore.

I have to go to sleep soon...  

[ax77xa]

Maybe I'm looking at it through a biased sort of view, but isn't all religion based on some kind of spirituality?
I mean, Christianity, Judaism and Islam is all based on the One True God.
Hinduism, Shinto and Daoism is based on natural dieties/forces.
Shamaism/Animism is based on spirits of ancestors.
Buddhism is based on cleansing your spirit to enter nirvana.
...
Wouldn't that make all religions/beliefs spirit-based?
Because it's either directed towards a higher spirit or an ideal that would get your own spirit into eternal happyness...  

[Rai Sasaki]

AkinaTerta

New to the guild, and new to the subform so Greetings.

I was simply curious and wondering if any of those on these subforms are spiritual but not associated with an religion. I tend to have a hard time finding those of that same mind set. It would be refreshing to throw around some ideas, since it does make a broad topic if you don't involve religion and religious practices/rules.

So... anyone? ^_^;

I used to go to Sunday school to learn bible stories when I was 4/5 yrs old. My family is Catholic, but I study Falun Gong now.  

[Inugo]

In my family I stick out like a sore thumb in terms of spiritual beliefs. My Grandma and Great-Grandmother on my Father's side are ridiculously Catholic, as are my Aunt's and Uncle's on my Mother's side. This puts me in an awkward position as they all believe in a single omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent deity, while I myself straddle the fence in terms of my beliefs of God(s).

At one point I wanted to make my own religion; I wanted to gather the best elements from all the religions I possible could to make a single awesome religion, the only flaw is that I didn’t want to force these beliefs on people, I wanted everyone to pick and choose what they wanted. How could that possibly work? If I were to make a buffet religion, what was the point of gathering elements from other religions when I could just say “read about everything, gain enlightenment and do what thou wilt.”? I realized at that point I didn’t know what I believed in, and I sort of drifted from faith in terms of spirituality in general. I acted like I knew what I was talking about when someone spoke to me about faith, but in truth I made it up as I went along.

I’ve now two personal theories on higher beings. The first I acquired after reading a comic series my friend lent me. The series, Johnny the Homicidal Maniac shows a psychopathic killer going through his day to day life, torturing his victims and killing whomever he deemed unworthy of life. Near the end of the series Nny was shot in the head (who shot him escapes me), but he is then sent to the afterlife. He was first sent to heaven where he met God. The God who was shown was not a great being; in fact he was nothing more than a fat, balding man who slept at all times (drifting to sleep in mid-conversation with Nny). He was later sent to hell, however getting into the events that unfold would be a digression. This made me picture an indifferent and apathetic God who did little more than create the universe.

My second belief is one that is probably less sacrilegious and blasphemous (although one of my religious friends has told me on several occasions that I and anyone not of the Christian faith are slighting against God and all his creations). Instead of a single God, I believe there are several higher beings which control the aspects of our daily lives, without directly becoming involved. They don’t decide what will happen, nor do they judge us if our actions oppose their ideals, instead they control the simplest of things and keep the world rotating as it should.

Of course, psychology tells us that spirituality is a belief in something more powerful than ourselves. Being a vocalist I find solace in music, whether that is writing it, partaking in it, or simply listening to it. I’m not saying music stops me from feeling dejected, but one cannot say that believing in a sole God stops feeling of dejection and self doubts at all times.