I have started meditating more in more in the past few months as a form of stress management. Then I decided to take it a step further and take an in-depth course in mindfulness.
Some thoughts I have:
- Religion is dead but spirituality is alive. Spirituality is something that must be LIVED. Something gets lost in religion for religion's sake. Behaviors or prohibitions which were rational or practical in a particular time get carved in stone then become non-sense in a thousand years. Also, ideas are mistranslated, interpreted out of context, or warped by some cynical person's other agenda. Example: I think Jesus like Buddha was a great teacher. However, there always has to be a living teacher. This idea that simply "accepting" Jesus is absurd. No, you must accept Jesus teachings and follow his advice to love, forgive, be fair and practice equality, etc. That's why there are also many Buddhas. There has to be a living Buddha, a teacher, embodying and transmitting the teaching. I think Jesus probably taught mindfulness. I think prayer is another word for meditation. I am considering the possibility that lots of words have been mistranslated to the detriment of mankind (and non-human animals). If Jesus actively taught disciples, like the Buddha, to be mindful then just telling people "don't be anxious, worry for nothing, forgive your enemies" wouldn't seem so cruel and impossible. If Jesus was actively teaching mindfulness, love, forgiveness, trust, peace become easier. They weren't empty, condescending commands. Originally.
- Evangelism is nothing more than valuing education. If you knew something would save the Earth, animals, other people, wouldn't want to teach other people about it and to do it too? Being evangelical is simply to teach. Just like if you're a vegan and you care about animals and the environment or people's health, you'd teach them about veganism. Mindfulness...same. You would realize that if everyone could reach higher states of love, of peace, of intelligence, through mindfulness of course you would teach them. This goes back to spirituality being alive and religion being dead.
- I don't think religion is without merit, though. I think religion was originally sort of like scientific facts. It was like "hey if you don't steal, kill, commit adultery, or eat pork, everyone is going to get along a lot better or be healthier (because adultery once spread disease without any antibiotics or advanced medicine, and created unwanted children, and we all know that eating pigs is a pretty bad idea if for no other reason than your health) and this is pretty verifiable through practice."
I'll just keep adding thoughts here randomly.
Some thoughts I have:
- Religion is dead but spirituality is alive. Spirituality is something that must be LIVED. Something gets lost in religion for religion's sake. Behaviors or prohibitions which were rational or practical in a particular time get carved in stone then become non-sense in a thousand years. Also, ideas are mistranslated, interpreted out of context, or warped by some cynical person's other agenda. Example: I think Jesus like Buddha was a great teacher. However, there always has to be a living teacher. This idea that simply "accepting" Jesus is absurd. No, you must accept Jesus teachings and follow his advice to love, forgive, be fair and practice equality, etc. That's why there are also many Buddhas. There has to be a living Buddha, a teacher, embodying and transmitting the teaching. I think Jesus probably taught mindfulness. I think prayer is another word for meditation. I am considering the possibility that lots of words have been mistranslated to the detriment of mankind (and non-human animals). If Jesus actively taught disciples, like the Buddha, to be mindful then just telling people "don't be anxious, worry for nothing, forgive your enemies" wouldn't seem so cruel and impossible. If Jesus was actively teaching mindfulness, love, forgiveness, trust, peace become easier. They weren't empty, condescending commands. Originally.
- Evangelism is nothing more than valuing education. If you knew something would save the Earth, animals, other people, wouldn't want to teach other people about it and to do it too? Being evangelical is simply to teach. Just like if you're a vegan and you care about animals and the environment or people's health, you'd teach them about veganism. Mindfulness...same. You would realize that if everyone could reach higher states of love, of peace, of intelligence, through mindfulness of course you would teach them. This goes back to spirituality being alive and religion being dead.
- I don't think religion is without merit, though. I think religion was originally sort of like scientific facts. It was like "hey if you don't steal, kill, commit adultery, or eat pork, everyone is going to get along a lot better or be healthier (because adultery once spread disease without any antibiotics or advanced medicine, and created unwanted children, and we all know that eating pigs is a pretty bad idea if for no other reason than your health) and this is pretty verifiable through practice."
I'll just keep adding thoughts here randomly.