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

[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