Why isn't religion spiritual?

[Wind]

First of all, we are not here to learn. We are here to experience, which is a different thing.

According to many sources it would be both. We are here to learn and to experience.

I think the golden rule is the basic tenet of all religions. We are all basically One, that's why I find oneness and nondualism so interesting.

What you do to another being, you essentially do that to yourself. Only our personalities, egos gives us our individuality and sense of separateness, but on a more profound level we are all connected, we just don't feel or see that on this level fully. On this level we might intellectually understand the concept of oneness, but it's another thing to fully live that by transcending the boundaries of the personal little me, while giving more room for the soul or the higher self to shine through your own being as a human. As a whole humanity is still very far away from that kind of a transcendental or elevated state of consciousness as we obviously can see how much disharmony there is on the planet. I think it's mainly for the reason that the spiritual development is not very advanced around here and perhaps there has been some misguidance too. This planet with it's peoples is a very mixed bag when it comes to different kind of consciousnesses or souls incarnated as humans, if you will. Most of course are probably quite human in their origin and primitive in that sense or younger souls.

[Emil El Zapato]

I remember hearing "hate the sin but love the sinner" before being old enough to decide for myself whether religion was or wasn't for me. Of course that was Christianity not Judaism, and evangelical at that, but even so, religion in general sure like to scan the horizon for no no's committed by the unforgiven.



That's it 100%. My eyes practically roll back in my head when listening to the occasional hell fire and brimstone Sunday morning preacher, when they inevitably start throwing roses at the feet of Yahweh, the supposed great creator god of anger and vengeance. For all I know this may be an actual being, but he sure as hell ain't no being who created the universe and all life within it. More like on the magician scale, operating within what's already there, and taking advantage of lesser beings.



Speaking of hate the sin but loving the sinner, this is more the way Yahweh would look at "the others", with total disdain and contempt. Yeshua would of course advise the exact opposite.

I'm thinking I'm having a deja vu vu moment, how does that factor into religion and spirituality. Talking about doubletalk I don't let others' interpretations about any God/god mess with my head... Faith is all I need. We all should know by nature and character the difference between good and not so good. Fire and brimstone? Ok, if you lived 3,000 years ago when Lions were snacking on Jesus' followers but it just doesn't apply. One tries to 'guide' those that they are emotionally and morally invested in, beyond that ... I hate liars, cheats (thieves are ok), and degenerates that think they have the right to pass judgment on anyone else AND ACT TO DO SO! I have never passed judgment, I only express my disgust and hope the degenerates find their way to a better philosophy even though it is highly unlikely that they will. Subspecies you know, will have their way.

[Aragorn]

Fire and brimstone? Ok, if you lived 3,000 years ago when Lions were snacking on Jesus' followers but it just doesn't apply.

Are you sure you're not off by about 1'000 years?

[Emil El Zapato]

Give or take a thousand, but it had been going on for a good while before Jesus showed up.

[Fred Steeves]

I have never passed judgment, I only express my disgust and hope the degenerates find their way to a better philosophy even though it is highly unlikely that they will. Subspecies you know, will have their way.

A quote from Master Yeshua comes to mind:

"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do". (Luke 23:34)

[Aragorn]

Fire and brimstone? Ok, if you lived 3,000 years ago when Lions were snacking on Jesus' followers but it just doesn't apply.

Are you sure you're not off by about 1'000 years?

Give or take a thousand, but it had been going on for a good while before Jesus showed up.

So you're saying that the Romans were casting Yeshua's followers before the lions 1'000 years before Yeshua showed up? And was that before or after Adolf Hitler defeated Napoleon?

Now there's some interesting historical revisionism I hadn't seen before. Maybe Aianawa can learn something new here.

[Emil El Zapato]

lol, I haven't lost it yet Master Aragorn, I'm saying violence was a cultural norm for many thousands of years. Humans reflected 'God' in their image despite there not being any correlation between the two. Jesus an enlightened and divine spirit showed us a better way. Jesus' heart came to some and others still did not get it and still do not get it. And some will never get it. Many will never get it.

[Dreamtimer]

You have a point, Chuckie.

We were just in Scotland. One place we visited was called the Devil's well. It's a deep valley surrounded by hills. The Johnstons, know as the devils, would steal cattle and take it to this valley. They were brutal and you didn't follow them into the Devil's well because you're throat would be slit.

In those days, if you didn't steal, if you didn't kill, you were suspect. There was something wrong with you. People wouldn't trust you.

It was different times and a harsh life.

When I hear people bitch and moan today about their poor feelings I wonder how much of history they even know.

[Dreamtimer]

Wind, I know I've said this before, but I'll say it again. What you posted is just like something I saw as a little girl in Arizona in the Sunday paper. It was a list of symbols with a version of the Golden Rule found in every religion. It was a kind of revelation to me. I told my parents in great excitement and they informed me that it was a good idea but that most people wouldn't believe it or even like it because they feel like they're special in their religion.

I still hold to that inspiration because the Golden Rule is the bottom line. Other folks will catch up eventually.

[Wind]

Religions shouldn't be divisive, they should connect us to the divine. Anything else is just nonsense.


Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQz2bcsn8-Y


Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnTC4NNIACk

Richard Rohr, as a Catholic priest and Franciscan Friar, will offer a concise history of how Western Christianity once had, soon lost, tried to retrieve, and now is roundly rediscovering its own traditional understanding of unitive consciousness (which was our word for non-dual thinking). The Christian contemplative mind was usually a subtext, and yet it was always clearly there too, and much closer to the surface, but only for those exposed to the mystical base that was revealed in the Gospel of John, the Desert Fathers and Mothers, the Celtic and monastic traditions, and what was generally referred to as the apophatic or wisdom stream of Christianity. These were our many saints and mystics. This possibility was brought to the fore by Thomas Merton in the middle of the last century, and is now flowing in many positive directions. It is now our task to rediscover the pre-Enlightenment Christianity that reveled in "the cloud of unknowing", what some called "learned ignorance", and the very notion of Mystery itself. Only when we got into competition with rationalism and secularism, did we adopt this rather recent mania for certitude and a very limited kind of scientific knowing. Almost the entire history of Protestantism emerged in this period, and thus the contemplative mind is an utterly new revelation for them, and frankly for all of us, as we again learn to be comfortable living on the edge of both the knowable and the unknown.

[Emil El Zapato]

Religions shouldn't be divisive, they should connect us to the divine. Anything else is just nonsense.

I almost clapped with the crowd ...

[Wind]

Religions shouldn't be divisive, they should connect us to the divine. Anything else is just nonsense.

I almost clapped with the crowd ...

You liked the video?

[Emil El Zapato]

You liked the video?

yeah, it was great...the Catholic priest. I agree with him very strongly. A man after my own heart. Open, honest, seems like a truly good human being.

[Wind]

yeah, it was great...the Catholic priest. I agree with him very strongly. A man after my own heart. Open, honest, seems like a truly good human being.

I will soon loan his book about the universal Christ, he has written a few.

[Emil El Zapato]

I will soon loan his book about the universal Christ, he has written a few.

Interesting ... is likely a good read ... I have been too busy to read lately, I need to make time. I feel myself getting dumber as I tipe.