John
Belief is personal acceptance of truth.
Spirituality is an inner grasping of that which is beyond the mind to understand. It’s that which gives meaning to our soul.
Religion is an established system of worship of deity.
Why are we having this discussion? It’s not about intellectual understanding; spirituality is something beyond the intellect. It’s an inner grasping of what’s beyond the mind to understand, of that which gives purpose to our lives.
Tony
Why are we having these discussions? As the saying goes, what can be said about the Dao is not the real Dao. The words of Gods have been written up 1000 of times, and the scriptures say that we will never figure it out. There must be something driving us to go down that path. Tony’s group has an affirmation that the Buddha role is unattainable, yet we vow to attain it!
Christian
In Christianity we say that we can never reach God or Jesus, yet, in Hinduism many believe that they are God embodied. Anyone wants to comment on this disconnect?
Tony
Maybe we are a splinter of God. Jesus may have been closer to the Hindu perspective than the church perspective. As the saying goes, “Christianity, stop stealing my Jesus!”
Christian
When my awakening started, I received little nudges from the beyond in form of numbers, serendipity and license plates. Now it would be naïve to build a religious system around these occurrences, but from a spiritual perspective there is no denying that we are connected with these benevolent higher energies, in form of nature, animals, or signs are the ones I mentioned.
Charith
It’s our conditioning to create narratives. We all have the same mechanisms that drive us. Spirituality is creating our own definitions; religion is creating common definitions. Religion is just having another worldview. We are viewing the world through these commonly defined perspectives. Every religion has defined a path towards something to attain, shaped by the psychological nature of this region.
Michael
I was raised Roman Catholic and had problems with the beliefs. It’s not hard to see that some of the people who are following these beliefs are not good people. So, I explore spirituality on my own. I study near death experiences, follow the reports of reincarnations, and there is actual proof that these reports are true. Michael Newton is a hypnotherapist who was agnostic, but he had to venture into reincarnation theories to heal a client. His healing was real. I am currently on a 5-day silent retreat, and I follow Buddhism, though this faith too has countless branches and tradition. Stick to the basics, would be my approach.
John
My father was a minister. I was brought up Christian, but it was never forced on me. He looked after 5 churches, and everybody loved him. He had many discussions with his father and where they agreed was that behind every temporary experience and belief system there is goodness, love, kindness, compassion and the desire to be happy.
The answers can be found in selflessness rather than self focus. Selfishness is behind every form of evil. Get your self out of the Way is the common denominator of spirituality and religion.
Corinne
I was raised Jewish and even though we weren’t that religious, at the same time there was the understanding that the Jewish people were the chosen ones. She should never get her arms around that and came to the same conclusion as John: it’s about love, kindness and compassion. We are all human. We all bleed red blood and it’s all about love and kindness.
Syd
I also relate to John’s conclusion that it is all about love and compassion. I was raised in the Islamic tradition and was then drawn to the Sufi mysystics, Rumi, Shams Tabrizi, etc. it’s not easy though to let go off some of these religious conditioning. He dropped the Islamic faith more or less but continues to read the insights of the Sufi masters.
John
All the different religions point in the same direction. Just don’t get caught up in their signposts that some get stuck in. When we get stuck it is in our minds, in the words, in the ideas. The truth is deeper than that and it boils down to love. He is reminded of David Wellens, and his claim that we all need to love like Jesus did in an earlier roundtable meeting.
Tony
Listen to Michaels’s Ted talk and share the kindness every day.
John
Just imagine what would happen if everyone spread kindness every day.
Michael
Just say “hi!”; open the door to someone; the other day I put food into shopping cards and made the woman’s day. I read a story that someone wanted to commit suicide, but someone just said “hi” to them and they felt acknowledged and changed their mind.
Charith
I am from a Buddhist family, but I wanted to move beyond the individual religions when I studied comparative religions. I certainly don’t want to negate and individual religion; beliefs are important to people. When we lose our connection to faith and spirituality then we are at risk to commit suicide. We need the feeling to belong. Spirituality has some pragmatic value, but then, what is the epistemological purpose of these spiritual strivings? We want to help people but deep inside we strive for money. He wants to find what is truly behind his beliefs. As it turns out, atheists also have beliefs. Everyone does.
If you like to join the spiritual roundtable, just drop me a note and we add you.
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