mix-and-match spirituality

[ISFP]

mix-and-match spirituality.

the spiritual path that seeks to commune with the Tao while borrowing from Buddhism a belief in karma and transmigration, the doctrine of ahimsa from Jainism, and the Navajo hozho.

is mix-and-match spirituality honoring or disrepecting the traditions it borrows from? is this sort of borrowing ok, and can it be done respectfully?

[PainterMan6661]

Hi,

I believe that all religions are created by wise and good men who use different methods to get their teachings across because of culture they live in.
Nowadays we have philosophers in those days they had prophets who believed in supernatural powers.

It is a good to study all of the different religions and philosophies and take out the lessons and practices that work for you.

The traditions that were built around religions were built by others who passed on the lessons but didnt really understand what it was all about, and it is these traditions that people fight wars over and should not be respected but disregarded as no part of the original religion.

When we take away all the supernatural stuff and only look at the lessons about how we treat others and what practices to do to purify our minds then all the different religions merge into one.

[PersonaNonGrata]

Originally Posted by PainterMan6661

Hi,

I believe that all religions are created by wise and good men who use different methods to get their teachings across because of culture they live in.
Nowadays we have philosophers in those days they had prophets who believed in supernatural powers.

It is a good to study all of the different religions and philosophies and take out the lessons and practices that work for you.

The traditions that were built around religions were built by others who passed on the lessons but didnt really understand what it was all about, and it is these traditions that people fight wars over and should not be respected but disregarded as no part of the original religion.

When we take away all the supernatural stuff and only look at the lessons about how we treat others and what practices to do to purify our minds then all the different religions merge into one.

clap clap clap )

[ISFP]

Hey PainterMan-

you're right- in general, religious traditions all have their general principals or mottos which ring true with many people- the golden rule, etc.

but when you borrow specific things from another person faith, you are borrowing part of their culture, the "supernatural stuff", not the general ideas or wisdom. a culture in which they (the "original worshippers") find their spiritual and sometimes ethnic roots. is it right to borrow and mix around the symbols of others' roots in a spiritual collage? is this shallow or just a way of showing respect? i'm thinking specifically of white americans who seek to imitate / adopt native american beliefs or rituals, but that's one example.

[Vajradhara]

Namaste ISPF,


thank you for the interesting thread.

i suppose that i'm of two minds about it...

on the one side, i see no real difficulting in gaining wisdom from other religious paradigms.

on the other side, i recognize how difficult it is to make progress along the spiritual path, and confusing the issue with multiple teachings tends to add to the difficulty.

i am rather fond of the Buddhist view, surprise

bascially, what we say goes along these lines:

study the various religions and learn about them. if you find something that seems to be correct, which you can uphold and accept, then do so. however, when one has made the comittment to a partcular path, one should bend ones effort and will to making progress along that path, rather than meandering down some other paths.

[dauer]

To me it seems the best way to do such things is to first have a general path and then, if something else makes sense, find a way to adapt it to your chosen path. Rather than taking so many foreign ideas and practices that may not quite mesh and quilting them together, blend them into your given tradition. It may require innovation and ingenuity, but it seems less disorienting to me, also more personal.

Dauer

[bananabrain]

study the various religions and learn about them. if you find something that seems to be correct, which you can uphold and accept, then do so. however, when one has made the comittment to a partcular path, one should bend ones effort and will to making progress along that path, rather than meandering down some other paths.

i agree with vaj (and dauer, too) - essentially, without commitment and a willingness to subdue your own desire in order to serve a greater purpose, one's path is the path of convenience and whim. labels and systems have elasticity - and there is only so far that each can stretch.

one other thing is the importance of knowing where you start from - how your background, history, ethnicity, etc affect who you are and whether you want to reconnect or divest yourself of it for whatever reason.

b'shalom

bananabrain

[ISFP]

one other thing is the importance of knowing where you start from - how your background, history, ethnicity, etc affect who you are and whether you want to reconnect or divest yourself of it for whatever reason.

that was very well spoken. and i think it's true. knowing where you're coming from can help you understand your relation to those belief systems that ring true, and how to approach them.

it's just a topic that hits a nerve with me. i see alot of my peers adopt aspects or symbols of other religions without understanding what they are or what they mean, and it bugs me (e.g. wearing prayer beads as necklaces, or religious statues as dorm room decoration). understanding and respect is key, i think.

[Vajradhara]

as an aside...


i always wear my prayer beads... like a necklace.. or a bracelet, for the smaller one.

i simply cannot know when i may have to use them... especially as i drive a long distance to and from work... and the potential for killing a sentient being is rather high.

religions are not salad bars where you can take what you want and leave the rest... on the contrary, they are like plate lunches... you get everything that comes with it, green beans and all.

[BluejayWay]

Well, I like green beans

A friend of mine, after living in China for some time, was led to embrace Buddhism. Those whom he took instruction from would gently remind him that he already had a great religious tradition, Christianity, to draw from, but he perservered, and was accepted.
Many years ago, I realized that my exploration of different religious traditions could not take away my childhood experiences of being raised in a particular Protestant Christian denomination. How could I object to Christian missionaries stealing people's cultures and religions from them if I embraced an alien faith?
Yet I find great value in the study of different faiths, and their experiences of the Divine. I was pleased to find in the writings of Thich Nhat Hanh and H.H. the Dalai Lama the belief that Buddhism could inform and support the beliefs of other faiths without supplanting them.
As to practice? In the case of Buddhism, meditation is obviously a discipline that can be freely and beneficially adapted to any faith. The experience of wtnessing the dancing and drumming of the annual powwow of the Pokagan Band of the Potawatami in my locality is spiritually purifying for me in a way that nothing else is. The example of dicipline and study and scholarship, the love of knowledge and the Word, exhibited by the great Jewish Masters of the Torah and Talmud humble and inspire me.

I think at this point all I can do is let the poet and songwriter Robert Hunter explain it forme:

BOX OF RAIN

Look out of any window
any morning, any evening, any day
Maybe the sun is shining
birds are winging or
rain is falling from a heavy sky -
What do you want me to do,
to do for you to see you through?
This is all a dream we dreamed
one afternoon long ago

Walk out of any doorway
feel your way, feel your way
like the day before
Maybe you'll find direction
around some corner
where it's been waiting to meet you -
What do you want me to do,
to watch for you while you're sleeping?
Well please don't be surprised
when you find me dreaming too

Look into any eyes
you find by you, you can see
clear through to another day
I know it's been seen before
through other eyes on other days
while going home -
What do you want me to do,
to do for you to see you through?
It's all a dream we dreamed
one afternoon long ago

Walk into splintered sunlight
Inch your way through dead dreams
to another land
Maybe you're tired and broken
Your tongue is twisted
with words half spoken
and thoughts unclear
What do you want me to do
to do for you to see you through
A box of rain will ease the pain
and love will see you through

Just a box of rain -
wind and water -
Believe it if you need it,
if you don't just pass it on
Sun and shower -
Wind and rain -
in and out the window
like a moth before a flame

It's just a box of rain
I don't know who put it there
Believe it if you need it
or leave it if you dare
But it's just a box of rain
or a ribbon for your hair
Such a long long time to be gone
and a short time to be there

[Ratatosk]

Hmmm...,

Originally Posted by Vajradhara

religions are not salad bars where you can take what you want and leave the rest... on the contrary, they are like plate lunches... you get everything that comes with it, green beans and all.

This is sort of the textbook description of the 'problem' that I have. I seem to have developed a deep and heartfelt aversion towards dogma and kerygma and doctrine and whatnot. Whenever I encounter rituals, ordinances, edicts, directives, indoctrinations, regulations, prescripts, rules, decrees, commandments or laws, I tend to drop the subject. If I feel the spirituality of being close to the eternal, that's enough for me. As they say, "your hell, you burn". This (perhaps peculiar) mindset is a tad troublesome, though. I find myself just as 'at home' with the buddhists as with the muslims as with the wiccan. If I were to renounce judaism in it's entirety, I would simply be lying to myself. The same with Santana Dharma, and christianity, and whatnot. The end result of this is that I pick-and-choose, indeed, but I can not see how such a dilletant view could make for a less shallow understanding of my spiritual journey.
Anyone of the same dire fate here?

[Ciel]

One taste of true divinity enhances the taste buds of understanding in all directives. Soul and Spirit desire vitamins of different variants and on our table of a multicultural world it is possible to eat from the menu of many, leaving aside the dishes not requisite.
How to describe One Taste....................
It is completeness in being of self in higher unity and transcendance
.......Like the best cheesecake......exquisite.

[bananabrain]

Originally Posted by ratatosk

I find myself just as 'at home' with the buddhists as with the muslims as with the wiccan. If I were to renounce judaism in its entirety, I would simply be lying to myself.

ratatosk, sounds like you have some stuff going on that we could talk about. want to come over to the judaism forum and discuss it?

b'shalom

bananabrain

[Kaspar]

I would have to agree with Ratatosk

The end result of this is that I pick-and-choose, indeed, but I can not see how such a dilletant view could make for a less shallow understanding of my spiritual journey.
Anyone of the same dire fate here?

In my opinion everytime someone studies a religion they interpret it in a different way, so it is enevitable that 2 thousand years down line there will be lots and lots of different sectors of christinanity. In the same way as there are lots and lots of pasta sauces. From Vajradhara's point of view

religions are not salad bars where you can take what you want and leave the rest... on the contrary, they are like plate lunches... you get everything that comes with it, green beans and all.

I would say that although it is good to eat the whole plate lunch you will have to decide whether you take the lunch with green beans or the one with sweetcorn and brocoli. In Islamic terms do you follow mainstream peaceful Islam or deviate to extreme fundamentalist Al-Quaida Islam. They are both Islam but have completely different implications.
peace

[Sacredstar]

Dear All

Mix and match spirituality seems to be the order of the day for many. Religion does have a ring of control emanating from it and control is against the natural laws of the universe.

We are here to experience, but yet how can one enjoy diverse experiences if one is restricted in anyway?

There are many paths to GOD and the source of all creation, does it really matter how a person gets there, as long as they honour the universal truths and all sentient beings.

I feel blessed to live in a time in history when I am allowed to BE, and have the choice. This allows me to take the panoramic view and embrace all of the sacredness but yet not get stuck on a buoy.

All that I have learnt has assisted me with my own personal journey and I would not choose it any other way.

I mention the buoy, the buoy of fixed belief's whether they are religious or otherwise. The universe, the planet and I, are all constantly evolving, change is the only constant and it is un-natural for us not to change, just like the seasons of the nature. When we do not change we can become ill, the latest breakthroughs in cellular biology now show us, that belief can be very damaging to our cells. Dr Bruce Lipton calls it the 'Biology of Belief' so once again it is most important to stay in spiritual fluidity.

I feel that most religions have been given for a particular time span, to a particular people with regimes that are specific for them. For instance when discussing multiple marriage partners with a Muslim friend, she informed me that at the time there had been so many wars in the middle east, women were outnumbering the men, women were on the streets and could not survive. So the permission was given, to be able to take more then one wife, but yet there was an addendum, that all must be treated equally, in love, financially, sexually etc. Like many other aspects this has been abused.

So yes I feel it is very healthy for people to mix and match in a sincere communion with GOD and their own soul, especially when it is done gracefully one step at a time, otherwise I agree people can get very confused.

Of course there are some people who say that they do not believe in GOD but yet they are spiritual. I feel this will change in the years ahead as all begin to realise that everything in creation is GOD. Religion hasn't done GOD any favours, there are a lot of people who have a serious issue with the word GOD due to what religion has co-created.

So what of the future for humanity?

Will the existing religions become part of history and philosophy? I feel that they will and what will replace it?

Direct communion with GOD - The Experience

Going back to an earlier post in this thread, is this not what the Native Americans did? Live totally at-one-ment with direct communion with GOD in nature. I look forward to the day when we return to nature and our natural state of being once more.

The most important thing for me, is that people are happy and that they find the happiness within and achieve peace of mind. Then everything else with GOD/Creator/Great Spirit (no matter what term they use) falls beautifully into place in divine order.

GOD doesn't care what we call him/her as long as we get the job done! Big smiles.

Love beyond measure

Sacredstar