Leap of Faith: A Spiritual Invitation

[author_by_night]

In today's world, sharing your beliefs is taboo. If you do share them, you are judged, you are told not to share them so loudly, and there are hateful people who actually do horrible things to people of different faiths than themselves.

A few years ago, I did a Livejournal Invitation wherein people shared their beliefs. The purpose was to express your beliefs - whether Christianity, Islam, Taoism, or even Atheism - without fear of condemnation, without fear of judgement. I learned so much about my flisters, and about faiths I knew little about or had never heard of at all. I am going to open the invitation once more.

Say anything, anything at all. And your beliefs do not even have to be specific to a religion - if you believe in reincarnation, if you believe in ghosts, if you believe in parallel universes... those may not necessarily be tied to a religion, (although they may be), but they are still beliefs, and I'd like to hear about them. 

One warning, however - I will state that this is not a debate. We are not here to condemn other beliefs - only to express our own.

Comments

[zoepaleologa.livejournal.com]

I'm an agnostic, because I'd like to believe there is something 'other' but do not feel utterly convinced. I'm also an ex-socialist who used to be more atheistic.

I admire faith, because I have friends who have deep convictions and their religion is a comfort. I hope I'm open minded.

That's it, really.

[twopennystar.livejournal.com]

I have to say as a disclaimer before I write this that I've been over at a friend's house tonight and have had several glasses of wine so I might ramble a bit.

I was raised a Catholic. I went to Catholic schools until I was 18 years old and was pretty much force fed the entire Catholic religion thing and it messed up my religious views somewhat. I wish that I could be a Catholic because I want to believe in something, I really do. But organised religion has a bitter taste to me. We were forced to sit through assemblies and lectures on how evil abortion and sex are and how we were evil and going to hell for watching tv programs with gay relationships in them.

I believe in something. I believe in God I think, but I don't think God judges and condemns people for their sexual choices and opinions. I was in a relationship with my female best friend for almost 2 years and I don't believe that I'm going to hell for that, which is what I was bought up to believe. Not by my parents, they have always been supportive of whatever I choose, but by the Catholic church.

My grandmother died recently and it actually clarified a lot of aspects of my faith I think. I used to say that when you died that was it, there was nothing after death, you were just gone. I don't believe that now though, I have to have faith that there's something else otherwise what's the point? I don't know what there is to come after death but I believe there is something and I believe there is someone watching over us. And I guess that sums up my beliefs really, I don't like organised religion because the higher power I have faith in wouldn't ever judge someone on who they choose to love or any of their other choices if they aren't hurting anybody.

I take comfort in the idea that there's something greater than us, simple as that. And even if that's not the case, I don't think that matters. Just having faith is enough for me.

I'm not sure if any of this makes sense but it does to me :p

[parsimonia.livejournal.com]

I'm atheist, don't believe in anything supernatural, and I hate that I am often made to feel that I'm somehow wrong/guilty about it, or that I am some sort of misfit. I have faith in people, faith in goodness, I have a strong sense of right and wrong, and don't see what the problem is. I don't see it as being complicated or mysterious or difficult.

On a side note, although I understand why it happens, sometimes I get pretty tired of the phrase "people of all faiths" because that usually means I'm being excluded, even if unintentionally. I think being atheist is the only way I've ever had first-hand experience as some sort of minority, and it's given me an inkling of how frustrating it must be for other kinds of minority groups.

[ladyaelfwynn.livejournal.com]

I've known only a few atheists but the ones I've known have all been moral, upstanding, kind people. Far better behaved toward others in general than their Christian counterparts.

It's gotten to the point where I'm far more likely to trust an atheist to behave properly than a self proclaimed Christian. The people that have come up to me and told me they are Christian tend to be the ones that want to convert you, forcably if need be. ;-p

[parsimonia.livejournal.com]

(My apologies, I'm doing a bit of inbox spring-cleaning, and I found this unanswered LJ comment, and I wanted to respond.)

I've encountered several atheists who are fairly self-righteous and pretentious about atheism and seem to want to "convert" everyone they meet. As a group, the only thing that ties us atheists together is the fact that we don't believe in god. In general, I think it's best to avoid lumping people together with a blanket judgement or perception.

[ladyaelfwynn.livejournal.com]

I was raised Catholic, though didn't go to Catholic school. I realized right before I got confirmed when I was 18 that I really didn't want to be Catholic because I just didn't believe in their teachings. The big one at the time was birth control; I couldn't understand why they thought birth control was so evil.

I'd always felt an affinity for nature and in college, after doing a bunch of research, I realized I was a pagan.

I'm your garden variety pagan, which means I'm not a Wiccan (too structured for me) or a Druid (again too structured). Pagans aren't Satanists (Satan is part of Christian beliefs.); we're a diverse bunch of people who tend to like nature and see the Supreme Being in multiple guises. (That's really simplistic but there are plenty of books on Paganism that'll explain it really well, if you're interested.)

I think there is a Supreme Being with many helpers. I tend to think of the SB as female but then again it's easier as I am female. I think a part of the Supreme Being is in all creatures.

I think that all religions that support human dignity have a kernel of truth in them but that men, in our fallability, tend to muck things up, a lot.

I think the SB tends to leave us alone but because of my life, I also tend to believe the Fates, play a big part. (The Fates are the representation of the SB that most resonates with me.)

I believe that when we die, we get a period of rest, and then get reincarnated. How you were in the past life determines where you end up in the next.

I try very hard to respect all religions because it's what I want. I have trouble with those that use their religious to harm others; whether it's through terrorism or things like some radical Christians pull (picketing abortion clinics; killing doctors that perform abortions).

I think Jesus was cool. He did some wonderful stuff. I just don't think mankind needed a Saviour. I don't believe in Original Sin. I think Jesus is a good roll model. I wish more people who call themselves Christians would actually follow Jesus' example in their behaviours.

I believe there are a lot of things that go on that science can't explain yet. I think that there are ghosts, though I don't think I've seen one. I think that astrology is as good a way to describe a person's personality as anything else.

I believe that people should love whomever they want. Sex is between the people participating and no one else. As long as it's fully concentual and between adults, it's none of my business.

I think the government should stay out of my business but I also think we should pay more taxes, if it would give us better schools and comprehensive, cradle to grave health care. I'm tired of hearing about how hard it is to teach kids when the easiest solution is right in front of us (pay the teachers more, so better qualified people will do it) but no one wants to "spend that kind of money". I'm also tired of people going bankrupt because of health issues. People shouldn't have to choose between house payments and health bills.

I just want people to get along and treat each other with the dignity and respect that all human beings deserve because we are all part of the Divine.

[ehnel.livejournal.com]

I was brought up with a background of generic protestant Christianity, specifically with influences from the Church of Scotland, though this all came to me through school and friends - religion never really happened at home. I know that Dad is interested in Buddhism, and I know that my mother is highly qualified in astrology (the proper stuff: not the fake stuff mass-fed to the public in "spiritual" books, etc) - but I've no idea where they stand on God, and that doesn't bother me, because religion - as something personally applicable to me - is not a part of my life. I have a strong sense of ethics and morals, why do I need religion? I guess that I won't ever know unless I begin to have faith. :)

As someone studying archaeology I am also hugely bothered by a lot of the things about religion. Obviously, I have to immediately relegate most of the bible to legend and myth. Ditto for pretty much every religious text ever. Furthermore I see people in the past existing perfectly happily without Christianity/Islam/Hinduism/any religion at all, or there's evidence of religions completely unconnected to anything like the ones prevalent today. There's a lot of fascinating thought-fodder there - the evolution of styles of religion is really interesting. (You tend to get evidence of shamanism in hunter-gatherer societies, things like hunting prayers/magic - it's all connected to their daily lives. Early agricultural societies go for a pantheon connected to farming. As societies get more complex deities tend to get more and more remote from people, so you have Greek pantheons of more "abstract" qualities like Love, War, Wisdom - and lastly single deity religions, focused on a sole all-encompassing deity. What's next??) As an archaeologist, therefore, I can't help but see religion as a product of culture - invented, in other words. An ecofeminist sci-fi author who I rather enjoy reading (Sheri S Tepper) had an interesting idea in one of her books. Basically it suggested that gods match the cultures who invent them, but sometimes cultures carry those gods with them as they change: so that a very "civilised" culture ends up with a very "primitive" god who might encourage them to make war and conquer their enemies, even though developmentally/philosophically the culture was not warlike.

So, personally, I don't know what I'd call myself. Atheism is a very hard word and there have been occasions when I get a sense of something spiritual, although not in a way I would connect to a single higher consciousness. Agnosticism, to my ears anyway, implies that I am maybe actively looking for faith? And I'm not.

I think people should be able to make moral judgements without having to use a religious text to justify them. That's what my rambling thoughts are coming down to. And I don't care what faith a person has, as long as they are personally decent and do not condemn other faiths/beliefs.

Sorry for the ramblingness. :)

[train-in-vain.livejournal.com]

As you know, I am entering the Kemetic Orthodox faith. I was raised Catholic, and long story short, I entered into a period of avid and militaristic atheism before I mellowed out and realized that someone or something was reaching out to me. It was a hard decision to join another organized religion, considering my previous experiences with it. But I'm glad I did. I'm far more religious than I let on in my LJ, actually.

I also believe in ghosts most wholeheartedly, for reasons that are way too long to explain here.

[rosedemon.livejournal.com]

I don't see God as an being that causes miracles or vengeance like the Bible says. I don't question his existence just because there is misery in the world. However I do see that our connection to him may have started a million years ago when we were given the freedom to make choices instead of living by instinct. This trait has made us uniquie among living things, perhaps put God in each one of us.

How we have handled this gift can be questioned more so than whether or not there is a God.

[sixth-light.livejournal.com]

Atheist. My parents both are, I guess, but it was more that religion just wasn't really touched on - they let me attend a few church services of varying denominations with friends, but nothing about it attracted me at all. Then when I was fourteen or so I started reading a lot of Sagan, and the logic of his explanations, especially for supernatural phenomena, and the way he set out the criteria for proving stuff - it just all made so much sense to me. I gradually got more atheistic as I got older, mostly through discussions with religious friends who believed in things like Creationism - the older I got, the more ridiculous I found the whole thing.

I understand that faith is something a lot of people rely on to help them, and I respect it as part of their lives, but I have no tolerance left any more for the intrusion of religion into public life (especially in the realms of reproductive health and science education). I see it as a personal thing, not as something that should lead one to try and dictate how other people live.

[ronluvshermione.livejournal.com]

I'm a Christian. Officially I'm Catholic, but personally I see myself more as a Christian without a specific church affiliation. I don't believe that people with different beliefs are evil. I see sexuality as something sacred, not as a sin. But I do believe that Jesus gave his life for us so that our sins are forgiven, and I do believe in his teachings.

I was raised a Catholic, but like a lot of people in my area, I think my parents had us take the sacraments because "it's what everyone does" and not because of devotion of faith. I never really had a model of faith and devotion except for my grandmother or priest when I was young, hence associated religion with something elder people believed in. Also, when I was 7 or so I became fully aware of my disability and its impacts on my life and I became very angry at God. If He loved me, why had He done this to me?

And then I met my fiancé, and made some Christian friends. I had some healthy, thought-provoking debates. I searched within myself, read books... And finally went back to church. It was a revelation. Forgiving God and trusting in Him again was the hardest thing I ever did, but I'm definitely more at peace with myself and everything else. I feel that my fiancé and I share something very special and that having Jesus as a pillar in our future marriage will give us a lot of strength. I've also made many more Christian friends since and they are truly some of the most amazing people I have ever known.

[alexiscartwheel.livejournal.com]

I apologize in advance that this will likely be very long, but it's an interesting topic. :)

My parents are both Catholic, and I grew up in the Catholic Church. I attended Catholic school in grades five through eight. I was an altar server for nine years. And I wasn't traumatized by any of these experiences.

When I attended a public high school, I began to notice a lot of anti-Catholicism among my peers, especially coming from fellow Christians. That really surprised me. I would not have characterized my experience with the Church as oppressive or indoctrinating. Yes, I went to religion class every day and to Mass several times a day. Does that mean I was forced into an intellectual box? Not at all. I remember having a very interesting discussion about Genesis and evolution in my grade seven religion class which has helped shape my stance on the issue--they're not mutually exclusive--ever since then.

I find comfort in the familiarity of the Catholic Mass. I like knowing that wherever I go in the world, even if I do not understand the local language, I can understand what is happening during the mass.

I enjoy the pageantry and the history of the Church. Catholic Churches are, in general, beautiful. They are full of color and symbolism. Just going into a church has a calming effect for me.

I love liturgical music. Especially the "old standard" type hymns accompanied by the organ. For me, music is one of the most moving elements of worship. There are certain songs that whenever they are played in Church I will cry. (I used to make fun of my mom for doing the same thing, but now I understand.)

All this is not to say that I don't have problems with some of the Church's teaching. The official policies about women, particularly concerning women's involvement in the liturgies and women's right to choose, do give me major pause. In the past four or five years I've begun attending Anglican services sometimes. The beliefs and practices of the Anglican Church are very similar to Catholic beliefs, but I've found Anglicans to be a little more--modern, I guess. More liberal. However, at this point, even though I split my time between Catholic and Anglican churches, sometimes tending more towards one or the other, I consider myself Catholic. It's part of my upbringing and my identity.

I don't think the Christianity is right for everyone. I think that each person should practice whatever faith leads them to spiritual fulfillment, even if their faith is contradictory to mine, and I respect the views of atheists as equally valid (my little brother, unlike me, considers himself an atheist). I cannot make myself believe that God would only accept one spiritual path or one way of being a good person. I simply practice what is meaningful to me, and I hope that others do the same.

[alexiscartwheel.livejournal.com]

I just noticed I typed that I went to Mass several times a day! Make that several times a week. I did go to Mass daily some weeks--when it was my turn as an altar server--but rarely more than once in a single day!

[dreamer-marie.livejournal.com]

Oh, boy, beliefs...That's a though one!
I was raised a Catholic, and as a child I was pretty devout. As I grew up, though, I had stints of doubt, and I realised that I was incapable of faith, so I stopped being a Catholic. For a very long time, I felt really guilty about that, and I wondered if my life was incomplete without spirituality. A few months ago, I decided that my life had been OK without it, and I stopped worrying. So I went from devout Catholic, to agnostic, to atheist, because even if there is an entity that set the Universe in motion, it's irrelevant. Like Laplace said, I don't need it as a hypothesis.
I know there are many people who take something positive from religion, which is why I don't want to be lumped together with people like Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens and Michel Onfray. People are people, and religion was built as an image of mankind, with all wonderful things and horrific things and everything in between. If people decide to kill someone in the name of religion, it is because they chose the scripture to justify it and if they want to help the poor, the sick and the orphans in the name of religion, that they chose the scripture that justifies it. I think religion serves more a role of validation for whatever you want to do and a role of guidance or rule.
That said, there is one thing I do believe in very strongly, and that's karma: if you do something good or bad, one way or another you're going to pay for it, whether through punishment or your conscience making you very uncomfortable.
Oh, and the Monster of Loch Ness. I don't care what people say, it exists, and that's all I want to hear about it :-)

[pseudo_tsuga.livejournal.com]

I'm here from a flist of a friend, so I hope you don't mind even if I don't personally know you.

I grew up Presbyterian and I still find a lot of things in it very moving spiritually. I love the formal language used at times, the concepts and the worldview it provides. The hymns I sing in service have also given me moments of my strongest belief-when I hear a certain hymns, sometimes I feel like God is here undoubtedly. This also goes for some classical music. What can I say, I'm a band geek!

But...when it comes to calling myself Christian I can't do so. The Bible seems more like a text to be studied than a source of absolute truth. Sure, the language and phrases are beautiful, but I just can't believe in it. Same for Jesus. I like the guy, but I can't call him the Son of God.

I believe there is God, and it's beyond gender. It's beyond any concept our limited, faulty brains can come up with so for the most part I don't try. However, I'm very skeptical whenever someone attributes an event or coincidence to a higher power. I'm a rational person and for the most part I don't believe in direct heavenly intervention or at least not the way we think about it. (If someone is there to help, God set it up long ago and it's not like he set it up now, it was part of the fabric of the universe...or something).

I'm convinced that almost all religions hold some truth. I want to learn about them more so I can steal parts from them to use for my own purposes. I don't know and don't think about the afterlife because I'm a pragmatic person and I'll find out anyway eventually. Because I'm so pragmatic, I don't usually do a lot of self-reflecting about what I believe. So that's why I'm posting this. Thanks a lot for the opportunity!

[discord-harmony.livejournal.com]

I won't writie a long dissertation, but I will write a few things that I normally wouldn't advertise.

I inherantly believe in people.
I believe that everything works out for a reason, but it isn't necessarily the work of a higher being. I think the world just works that way.
I believe there has to be good and evil, not just one or the other.
I believe that people fall in love with a person, not a gender.
I believe that the Bible is a historical text, and while can provide some basis in religion, should be treated as a work like the Iliad, Odyssey, Aenid, Gilgamesh, etc. rather than an absolute doctrine of a religion.
I believe that whomever created the world set a fabric of how it would work. Now this being doesn't intervene at all and just lets things happen.

[moonreviews]

Parallel universes! I typed up an entry with info about my dreams and stuff, and parallel universes things are in there too. Because those things have to do with each other~
And the "shadow-beings" (which are people and animals and other things like cars and bicycles) I see in the corners (or not-so-corners) of my eyes, mostly when I'm walking outside, are people who're in another parallel world (rather close to ours) and who are outside at that time. Sometimes I see so many of them it's irritating I can't talk to them. I want to communicate with people from other worlds when I'm awake too... and hopefully find a way to transfer books (or something...) from that world to this... or something...

Also, I don't know if this'd count as 'belief', but me* communicates with my subconscious XD It's very useful, for example when I need an idea or solution or need to wake up at a specific time etc... Since a few years I visualize it** as a red panda which I called Ryn [you probably saw that on my drawings too, especially on my Hogwarts Online drawings...]. I got the animal idea from The Golden Compass books (movie is coming out next week! 11 years after I read the first book... that seems so long o.o ... I should make a drawing of some characters before I go see the movie, maybe tomorrow... based on a conversation I had with someone yesterday about daemons.. XD ). Because it is easier to talk to something you can 'see' than to.. just your brains (but when I "talk to my brains" I 'see' my brains too, so then an animal is nicer to look at... and when he is 'projected' I can feel his energy too, but then I can feel energy from other things too XD [but energy from living things is easier to feel]).


*didn't want to use the word "I" XD Btw, when I first learned that the word for 1st person singular in English was, I asked why it was just one letter and why it had to be written as a capital letter, because the other persons (you, he, she, we, etc) aren't written that way. My mother said it was because the 1st person was important and when you write something with a capital letter, that word is important.

**not 'it'. I want to use another word that can refer to 'subconscious' but doesn't have a person or non-person contained in it XD [there are such morphemes - there are languages with separate morphemes for numbers and persons. Just not English XD]

[dmp.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the invite, first of all -- I've been reading everyone's comments here and find them absolutely fascinating! It's interesting to have someone talk about their faith in a public forum that doesn't erupt into religion-bashing or theological arguments of dooooooommm... . :)

Warning: This took me about an hour to write and I'll have to break it up into two parts. If it's tl;dr, I totally understand!

My personal spiritual beliefs have always been a source of struggle for me growing up and still moreso today. I never had any formal education in religion -- my family has Mahayana Buddhist beliefs influenced by cultural traditions (ex. ancestor-worship, not eating meet on the full moon). I'm an Asian-American who grew up in a mostly white, Catholic & Protestant community, and so in school I got a lot of mixed messages on what my religious identity should be and made strange associations between religious identity and racial identity. I was never discriminated against because of my family's religious background, though I had been discriminated because of my racial identity. Thus, I always felt awkward and isolated in terms of religion between me and my white friends, and many times it hurt knowing that they had a church community and different life outside of school that connected them together -- one that I was never involved in and didn't want to be. Internally, I felt like I was different because my family didn't believe in Jesus Christ, but I couldn't believe in him myself -- partly out of family pride and partly out of fear of betraying my own sense of racial identity by "giving in." As a child, I associated being Christian with also being Anglo-Saxon, and because I was Asian, I felt that Jesus was a "white person's" god and by believing in him I was betraying the core of myself. I suppose part of me still feels that way, though I know that is ridiculous.

When I was thirteen I had a nervous breakdown of sorts and dedicated myself into a full exploration in Buddhist doctrine. That was when I realized that while I agree with the basic tenants of Buddhist belief, I could not believe in the Mahayana & cultural traditions my family upheld -- at least in a literal sense. Deciding these things was a struggle in itself, because at the time then idea of heaven & hell were still floating in my imagination as a very real possibility, and in my understanding, Buddhist hell truly existed and was a million times worse than any Christian version I had read. I was debating that if I chose not to follow the exact religious beliefs of my parents, my soul would spend its next million lives in torment -- a lot for a kid to think about!

[dmp.livejournal.com]

My spiritual beliefs are still something I think about and debate with myself, but here are the few things I've come to realize:

1) I do not believe in the Mahayana form of Buddhism: mainly in the existence of bodhisattvas (kind of parallel to Christian saints) or that Buddha is a powerful, omnipresent force. I believe that there lived a man who became Buddha -- became Enlightened -- and his teachings are the true path to attain Enlightenment. I believe in reincarnation and karma and their impact in controlling all of the ever-changing life forces in the universe. I believe that Buddha saw the cogs of the machine in his Enlightenment, but that he does not exist in this world any longer, because he broke out of it eons ago.

I practice ancestor-worship because I believe that our ancestors are important and should be respected. Mostly, however, family altars serve as a memorial for them -- I don't believe that my ancestors live in them or that they have any "powers from beyond" that could influence my life. I bow to them out of respect for them and respect for myself and where I come from.

2) I respect Christianity and am fascinated by concepts of damnation, redemption, and deliverance, but I can never believe in Christianity at all. Mostly because I feel that Mahayana Buddhism and modern Christianity had changed from their original, philosophical intents that their founders had. They both were simply good ideas that got mystified and perverted through time to become a set of superstitions and dogmatic beliefs.

3) I believe in miracles, namely one miracle that should be repeated by everyone: that miracle of pure human connection. There are so many aspects that block out full understanding between people: a person's upbringing, their prejudices, their ignorance, or simply their "self-centered" viewpoint (not that a person is arrogant or narcisstic, but that they simply cannot understand something they have not experienced themselves. People may sympathize, but they can never empathize). Humans in this sense are raised "blinded," by their own viewpoint. As a result, they can cause pain and suffering to others, willfully or unintentionally. It's horrible, this blindness. And it cannot be controlled by a person -- a person can live out their whole life with this blindness and never realize it. That's what makes it so terrible.

That is why I believe that for a person to connect, for even two people to see each other for who they are -- that is a miracle. Because those moments happen only a handful of times in a lifetime, I suspect. That you can look at a person and see them for themselves and accept them and feel like more of a whole person because of it. I'm not taking about love motivating this connection, religious love or otherwise -- because love itself is a blindness, it smooths over the cracks, it makes exceptions, because I believe that no one can love everyone equally. I'm talking about acceptance truly and wholy without judgment but still being able to care for them. Buddhism calls it compassion; Christianity calls it grace. I call it a miracle.

4) I'm an agnostic, because while I believe in forces greater than ourselves, but I also think that because of humankind's inherent blindness, it is impossible to believe in the validity of one answer or even if the answer can exist for us.

5) Humankind will never fully understand the spiritual realm, but that it exists, along with other supernatural creatures. Ghosts, energy forces, fairies, demons, werewolves, vampires, zombies -- the whole lot of them -- are real beings, but do not exists in same way portrayed in pop culture or conventional mythology.

[scionofgrace.livejournal.com]

I'm a Christian, more or less conservative, and Mennonite in heritage. I was raised that way by parents who believe that it's not a true faith if you don't let it stand up to logic, and who believed that all good things begin and end in love.

My beliefs start and end with God - He (gender-neutral "he") is a real, omnipotent, transcendent Person who created the whole universe, time and space and everything that happens in them, for his glory. Everything he created was good and beautiful in the beginning, and evil is a result of our decision to do things out of line with him. I believe that he created us as his beloved children, and that Jesus' sacrifice gives us the chance to return to that holy fellowship.

Though I believe God hates sin, I believe just as strongly that God can no more hate a human being than a good mother can hate her child or an artist can hate his magnum opus. If we humans could see, just for a moment, the way God sees the world, all war would end and no one would ever be in need. We'd finally understand what Jesus meant by "love your neighbor as yourself."

I believe that there is no such thing as an unforgivable sin.

I believe that every person has an understanding or perception of the truth, even if it's never perfect (it can't be, we're finite), and that therefore Christians can learn from other religions and cultures.

I believe that everyone has a basic awareness that the world is broken and must be fixed. I believe that the true things God created are reflected everywhere in nature and art, if you know where to look. All the old archetypes in the stories are reflections and refractions of those true things, as we try to work out (or, in a way, remember) who God is and who we are.

I believe that the worst evil is to put oneself first.

I believe that the validity of one's beliefs hinges on the validity of the thing one believes in; that is to say, the thing I believe in must be true for my belief to be worth anything. If Jesus' resurrection didn't happen, then I've got no reason to be a Christian. (But if the Resurrection did happen, how awesome is that? God can undo death!)

I believe that if aliens exist (and they just might) that they were created by the same God and must have their own way of worshiping him. What that looks like I have no idea, and I'd love to find out.

I am one of those rare young-Earth creationists, for several reasons: 1) I believe that the phenomenon of Death is a direct result of human disobedience, 2) I find macro-evolution to be scientifically and logically unsatisfying, and 3) once you decide God is omnipotent, well... why not?

[fuckin-a.livejournal.com]

I find all your beliefs very inspiring.
i consider time and space to be creations of the mammalian brain, by your belief system to be considered in the same way as you consider "sin," that is, an unfortunate by-product.

at the same time sin and time and space are there for us to learn from

[scionofgrace.livejournal.com]

i consider time and space to be creations of the mammalian brain, by your belief system to be considered in the same way as you consider "sin," that is, an unfortunate by-product.

That's fascinating! I know it's an awfully big question to ask, but based on what you said I have to ask it: what do you believe is the nature of reality? Is it entirely subjective, or is there an element of objectivity?

[fuckin-a.livejournal.com]

Well that is quite a big question, but in summation I would say the nature of reality is reality itself, in all its form and emptiness, nondually. And then one level down from that is emptiness, which is essentially god or the eternal witness Which has no properties but experiencing all things subjectively through all beings, and since all matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration, even rocks are beings. the "I-I", or that which precedes my individual ego and body, is the same as your "I-I" and everyone's, a circle whose center is everywhere and circumference is nowhere. So on that level all things are relative and subjective and also inherently without individual self existence, that is, everything is dependant on everything else and the only individual is the same behind all things. But on the "final" or really the "only" level, all is simply all, objective and subjective both. This is my belief, at least at the moment. Time and space are sins in my belief because they are illusions that separate us from the sense that we are all brethren closer than our breath, which is sad. but i don't tend to use the word "sin" because it assumes us guilt where we might more groovily be assuming grace, although i believe in concepts essentially similar to sin.

[scionofgrace.livejournal.com]

Trying to grasp this...

Is it like the conceit we have without thinking that our "self" somehow exists from the perspective of our eyes, so that we say "my foot" or "my hand" like it's a thing we own when it's in fact us, just a little further from where we currently see?

That's what I've come up with initially, anyway. What do you think?

Your bit about matter and energy reminds me of how C.S. Lewis explained spiritual forces (eldila) in his Space Trilogy. He had this fascinating bit about how they were "bodies of a different movement" (matter vibrating at a different frequency, I think) that rendered them as little more than light to us, when to them, they were solid and we were vapor.

[fuckin-a.livejournal.com]

i really enjoy that c.s. lewis bit, i think that would account for a lot of the confusions in our world, but it's also sort of fun.

i think, yeha, it's sort of like the thing about our eyes. like when i meditate and i try to sense what my right foot is feeling, i realize i often am subtly "looking" towards my foot from my eyes/head, even if my eyes are closed! so a really good first step to realizing this "witness" that pervades all things would be to start personifying our extremities, feet hands elbows etc., and to start depersonifying our eyes, brains, faces etc. so that we have a balance of awareness. once we have de-centralized our sense of self, it becomes very enlightening to then ask... "well, where AM i? who and what am i?" and realize that this question is truly very mysterious... where are the senses i feel when i touch something cold exist? are then in my hands, or in my brain, or somewhere in between, or non-local?

[scionofgrace.livejournal.com]

Y'know, I meant to write you back days ago, but... well, I live in Omaha.

I was just thinking, there was something both Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien said about perspective, that is, being in one place and not in another. Tolkien had the idea (brought up in his semi-autobiographical short story "Leaf By Niggle") that there is a kind of joy to be found in the separation between two things. That is to say, there's a certain positive quality experienced only in viewing things that are at a distance. Lewis said it in a different way in Out of the Silent Planet when he talked about the delight one gets in interacting with something that is very different from oneself, be it another gender or another species. I've felt it myself; that peculiar joy in coaxing a shy cat to leave its hiding place and come be petted. The cat is not-me, a separate intelligence and existence, but it is consenting to me and my will (to pet it) for its own pleasure.

To me, it's a fundamental joy in the balance between our individuality and our necessary relationship to one another, both materially and spiritually. Would you say it's an illusion?

[(Anonymous)]

I wouldn't say that it's an illusion. In a certain sense, the interaction between one and another is the the most real thing that exists, even though the interaction itself seems invisible. I think that suffering comes in when if you believe that there is ONLY separation, and it is very apparent to me that people thinking that they are wholly independant is the cause of the struggle for resources, the destruction of the environment, unkindness, selfishness, you name it. It is very poignant the way you describe the cat and yourself interacting, and important to realize the joy of acknowledging our interdependence. I think our separate bodies are the source of this endless dance that is life, but there is certainly a level of reality, a very important level that transcends but also includes the multiverse reality, where all that exists is in fact a single organism. If you go deep enough we are all the same energy vibrating, and there is nothing "ends" where the tips of your fingers stop. Your atoms and skin and electricity and breath are intermingling with all that is around you, but realizing you does not make you and the cat and the walls and the computer some melded together monster, it just makes the sense of living softer and less of a struggle. There IS a level where we are all just the universe talking to itself, but to only exist on that level is just as insane as seeing yourself as just alone, separate, and vulnerable in a sea of existence that holds only its own agendas.

[(Anonymous)]

very sorry to hear about that mall shooting, i've been in the desert outside san diego all weekend.

also as far as the practices i've been speaking of, in my experience they've only made me more aware of all the idiosyncracies that i think of as myself, and so have made my interactions with others more intricate and interesting, but it is good to be reminded of the importance of our weird and cool differences. something i'm just starting to focus on is that, sure everyone wants love, acceptance, safety etc., but each person, animal, whatever hopes to receive a unique response based on the wholly new experience of any two beings meeting. even if a gave the friendliest smile with the nicest "good morning!" to everyone i walked by on the way to my bus this morning, it wouldn't mean anything if i wasn't feeling and seeing that, the first guy was limping a bit and seemed to have aged roughly but appeared to be in a good mood and was dressed cool, and the little asian woman on the bus was switching between a concerned expression of urgency and a warm, vulnerable smile and made me feel really glad and interested. part of being me, someone who has very strange thoughts and ideas and has never existed before and so on though is that i'm constantly changing and beign changed by society and my experiences and other people, but that doesn't mean i am ONLY the product of my experiences. okay that's my rant! this one maybe doesn't have massive grammatical errors, usually i proofread stuff but i haven't really for this thread