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 Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2009 12:39 pm
Where the previous topic, What should your Spirituality do for you? was more about the context, the setting and the purpose, this area is about what we strive for in a spiritual setting. Do we seek to create an idyllic Earth, do we seek to do good deeds, do we store up karma or knowledge to get ahead on the Wheel of Incarnation, do we simply want to follow a code so that we get into a better Afterlife.
How does our Ideal differ from other Religions?
Are you unsure of exactly what would be good but know what to avoid - sort of like "I don't know what I want but I know it isn't this."
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Posted: Tue Aug 04, 2009 6:55 pm
My Ideal has probably never been seen. I Imagine a religion without ranks and degrees, without 'High' anything, without guilt or punishment. I could wish for religion whose highest thought is an original idea, not the regurgitation of something ancient. Learning and Study have their place but.....
Is there nothing more?
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Posted: Mon Oct 19, 2009 5:30 pm
An interesting thought I wish to leave here, before it escapes me, is the idea that one can have a religion or set of beliefs about the divine and its relationship to humanity, nature and the cosmos and yet also have a 'Way' which guides your steps. I am inspired by a couple of stray threads.....one being that quote in someone's signature about Religion hijacking morality (Arthur C. Clarke?) and another being someone's explanation of being a follower of two traditions at once.
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Posted: Thu Nov 19, 2009 4:51 pm
Imagine there's no Heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today
~ that's from John Lennon's "Imagine", of course.....
Think about what this really says - I'm thinking of an ideal where there is just here and now, just Life. No extremes of Good and Evil, no Absolutes of Reward and Punishment, no abstracts of Faith but Joy in simple things.
Perhaps you would see something different. The song was controversial in its day and, perhaps, still is.
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Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2010 5:41 pm
Have I ever explained why I 'walk the walk'? I have gotten in unbelievable amounts of trouble for saying that.....You see, I believe in living my faith - it is as much a part of me as breathing, infusing my soul, my outlook, my decisions. It's not a front, not something from a book, not something I do once a week. In a way, yes, 'walking the walk' is a turning from the study and debate that seems to characterize so much of the modern pagan movement. Too many pagans just Talk the Talk (and of course, wear the clothes and buy books and go to festivals) and never stop to think about the underpinnings....
People are welcome to just talk....meanwhile I have a life to live and ideas to explore.
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Posted: Mon Jul 04, 2011 6:23 pm
Very much a part of my "Ideal" spiritual path is one free of status and all of its attendant infighting, maneuvering, dress-up and cliquishness. Ah, people in groups.....it's all about who knows who, who has the best whatever, who has influence. Do you think the pagan movement is any different? You could argue that it is human nature to establish a social order, some people being of higher status than others, but in the part of life concerned with the spirit and being close to the Gods, the Spirits, the Ancestors? That's one thing that the Christians tried that was actually admirable: the elevation of the poor into a special place in the eyes of God while acknowledging the difficulty in remaining righteous while having earthly wealth.
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Posted: Sat Aug 06, 2011 6:04 pm
I think I was getting close to the relationship between spirituality and the medium of earthly exchange in my last couple of posts. To state more clearly, what effect does or should money (or its lack) have on religion, your advancement on your path and your chances of enlightenment or attainment of "heaven?" When I put it that way I think the vast majority of us would disavow any relationship between wealth and spiritual progress. Some might even postulate an inverse relationship, akin to it being more difficult for a rich man to get into heaven than to pass through the eye of a needle. Pardon my Christian quotes - their teachings so pervade my culture that you cannot escape them. There are plenty of paths that clearly require money to advance, some that only accept those of wealth. I will go out on a limb a bit and postulate that organized religions almost always have group functions that revolve around a congregations' more well-to-do members.
Why should this be the case? I would almost believe that money always has a de-spiritualizing effect on religious expression, interjecting inappropriate elements from the habits of people in groups into areas where they have no place. I would argue that an ideal religion would have no way for money to influence it, be proof against the social maneuvering of its members, have knowledge whose acquisition is not dependent on finances. I can dream.
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