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

[(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.