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AlteredAgain
Visual Alchemist



Registered: 04/27/06
Posts: 11,181
Loc: Solar Circuit
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Oh My Religiousness!
#7683725 - 11/26/07 10:07 PM (16 years, 2 months ago) |
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Laughter opens the heart.
Keep this in mind the next time you walk into a church during a mass on the day of the Sun. You will sense no laughter. Instead, there will be this smell of seriousness in the air, of strict conduct, and downheartedness.
This is because religion is stiff. It confines itself in ritual. It is a fundamentalist order. It clings to the old and does not open up to new paradigms.
But to be religious is something completely different.
A person who is truly religious is actually religionless. Here there is no sermon because there is no definition automatically handed to him. He will have to create his own dictionary about death, love, and meditation. He will need to draw the map himself.
One is simply enjoying oneself, enjoying this immense universe, dancing with the trees, playing on the beach with the waves, collecting seashells for no other purpose than just for the sheer joy of it.
To me, this is religiousness - enjoying the air, enjoying the sea, enjoying the sand, enjoying the sun - because there is no other God than existence itself.
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Middleman

Registered: 07/11/99
Posts: 8,399
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If someone asks "Are you religious?"
They usually mean, "Do you slavishly and mechanically follow blind dogma and weekly rote?"
To be "Spiritual" is a less tainted word and to me means the ability to be consciously present and fully aware without analytical thought.
To be peacefully passionate, confidently optimistic, gently joyful, and above all genuinely Grateful more often than not...
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Silversoul
Rhizome


Registered: 01/01/05
Posts: 23,576
Loc: The Barricades
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Re: Oh My Religiousness! [Re: Middleman]
#7685042 - 11/27/07 08:55 AM (16 years, 2 months ago) |
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Ya, for a while I identified myself as religious, but after meeting so many other "religious" individuals, I decided I didn't want to be associated with that kind of attitude. "Spiritual" seems like a nicer fit, even if it does mean borrowing from religious ideas.
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MarkostheGnostic
Elder


Registered: 12/09/99
Posts: 14,279
Loc: South Florida
Last seen: 3 years, 2 days
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Call yourself a Pantheist if you wish (Pan=All, Theo=God). There are different versions of pantheistic religion. The identification of phenomenal existence with the word God places one squarely within the context of Pantheism, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantheism although I personally have some disagreement with Wiki's identification with Hindu Advaita (Non-dualism) and Buddhism with Pantheism. Firstly, 'theism' doesn't enter into their conceptions, and secondly, they are cosmic and transcendental systems which recognize a 'Oneness' which transcends the fabric of space-time (i.e., nature).
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Basilides
Servent ofWisdom



Registered: 02/10/06
Posts: 7,059
Loc: Crown and Heart
Last seen: 12 years, 8 months
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Re: Oh My Religiousness! [Re: Middleman]
#7686469 - 11/27/07 03:27 PM (16 years, 2 months ago) |
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Quote:
Middleman said: If someone asks "Are you religious?"
They usually mean, "Do you slavishly and mechanically follow blind dogma and weekly rote?"
To be "Spiritual" is a less tainted word and to me means the ability to be consciously present and fully aware without analytical thought.
To be peacefully passionate, confidently optimistic, gently joyful, and above all genuinely Grateful more often than not...
I tend to agree. I normally state that I am merely spiritual when asked if I'm "religious", as it usually carries fundamentalist baggage. Or, I just answer with another question.
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    "Have you found the beginning, then, that you are looking for the end? You see, the end will be where the beginning is. Congratulations to the one who stands at the beginning: that one will know the end and will not taste death."
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AlteredAgain
Visual Alchemist



Registered: 04/27/06
Posts: 11,181
Loc: Solar Circuit
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Re: Oh My Religiousness! [Re: Basilides]
#7687174 - 11/27/07 05:35 PM (16 years, 2 months ago) |
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yeah i also agree. the word is cluttered, overused, devoid of common understanding.
but it can feel nice to take it back at times and give it original meaning again.
i certainly wouldn't use it as a single word answer, but if put into a context i think it has the potential to help remove some blindfolds.
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Basilides
Servent ofWisdom



Registered: 02/10/06
Posts: 7,059
Loc: Crown and Heart
Last seen: 12 years, 8 months
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Got to love those dreaded words,
"S/he's very religious"
Which is immediately followed by: "Ohh.. I see."
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    "Have you found the beginning, then, that you are looking for the end? You see, the end will be where the beginning is. Congratulations to the one who stands at the beginning: that one will know the end and will not taste death."
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AlteredAgain
Visual Alchemist



Registered: 04/27/06
Posts: 11,181
Loc: Solar Circuit
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Re: Oh My Religiousness! [Re: Basilides]
#7687512 - 11/27/07 06:24 PM (16 years, 2 months ago) |
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i am rilijiss!
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