Through my educational years, I did get to spend time studying other facets of the religious community and though it may not seem as such, each one of these following dogmas have had an influence one way or another upon my spiritual growth, so please read through and maybe you'll see something that sparks your interest as well. It would also be a good idea to say that this is how I perceived each of these religions, and how those perceptions affected my own spiritual growth.
| Christianity |
Christianity was my first and foremost religious experience in life. I was born into it. Baptised, and Confirmed Roman Catholic. Attending Catholic schools, the whole shabang. I respect what Christianity stands for, and from it have encorporated a lot of my everday morality from it.
"Lo! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed..."
I Corrinthians, 15:51
I have always felt a certain attraction to this passage, for it reminds me again and again, that no matter
what we do, or how we do it, we all change. We all contribute to each other, from one to the next to the next, ad infinitum.
It makes me severly self-conscious as to how I want to affect other people. We are all going to walk
away changed, but the how we're changed is up to so many factors. We can change toward the better or toward the
worse, and the focus of Christianity, what Jesus himself preached, was that we should try to affect other's to the
positve, while always looking for the positive change within ourselves. Meaning, though others may take offense at
what we do, we should not take offense at what they do. Though others may feel hatred towards us, we should not feel
hatred towards them. This element I believe, is there to remind us, that change comes without our permission, but
our freewill has given us an oar to steer with.
I have read the Bible many times, and quite agree with Jesus' pacifist nature, as is evident from my
description of "The Way of the Leaf". I also like the description of Jesus' political view points,
in reference to change and society.
"Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's."
Mathew 22:21
Simply enough, why worry about "Caesar"? Seriouly, governments, civilizations have come and go
so absolutely throughout History, why fret over the change in political aspects. Be true to your Self, as Jesus' would say
because your self is made in the image of God.
This aspect, tragically, touches upon my problems with the Christian viewpoint. The catholic nature
of the Catholic religion isn't quite upto what the word means. Catholic means universal, and I believe that
means Total Acceptance. Acceptance, in my mind is a far cry from Tolerance. Tolerance, is just allowing something
to occur, and doing nothing to change it. Acceptance, is seeing, that our virtues and flaws are a subjective interpretation
of ourselves. Though some virtues and flaws are inherently known to us all, there are many others, that we will all
come to disagree upon through our existance as a species. Acceptance, is loving a person for their virtues AND their
flaws, equalling. Knowing, and making it known that you don't like a facet of a person, and would not promote it in your Self,
but still loving them for it, because it helps make them who they are. Now, on an individual scale anyone can be Accepting and appreciative. However, as a
grand organization they tend to belittle other perspectives, or act a little, Prideful about their singular
perspective. I have read The Gospel of Thomas, and found it to be rather insightful, and
yet the organization has denounced it. There are many other forms of Christianity, besides Roman Catholic, and yet they
all seem to center around one thing. "God". Not that I have problems with the concept of a Supreme Being, but
more or less, my problem is this seperation from it. The Gospel of Thomas has a passage that goes something like
this:
"The kingdom of God is inside you, and all about you."
To me, that is poetry. The universe...the infinite is "God". Not our measily little quarrels over who is right or wrong. Not our buildings, or possessions. Not even our miniscule concept or definitions of what "God" is. Everything is the the Kingdom, or domain, or existance of the Supreme Being. Therefore, does not the infinite also contain the finite? The organizational viewpoint has removed our position from the Truth another level. As I see the Truth, we are already in Heaven. Heaven, is only a state of mind, a state of being. The Christian ideal, is a set of guidelines on how to act, and percieve this Heaven we call Life. And to realize, that whatever we want to call it, this "God" already dwells within us....all of us. People often question, those of dubious nature as I was and still am, with the conflict in that. If this is Heaven, as I put it, what happens when you die? Well, the answer to that, is I have no answer. I don't know what will happen when I die. Yet I believe, that if Jesus' said something like "Those who follow what I taught, then you will be in Paradise with me at the end," then Paradise, is here. We all will be reborn into paradise, over and over and over again. Knowing that, I say that hell is only the concept of that which prevents you from coming back. Only our own actions determine our Destination.
Back to Top| Buddhism |
Buddhism had the second greatest impact upon me from my early stages of development, because in many ways, Buddhism represents my theological interpretation of Christianity, save a few minor differences. Buddhism does indeed format itself around a perfect state of being, or to achieve, called Nirvana. However, they path to get there may take many lifetimes to learn. I quite agree with the Buddhist belief in reincarnation, to a degree, cause life is a circle. Always returning and cycling around, moving, growing, changing. I also, rather prefer pacifistic tendencies of the religion, of course, and it's simplistic description of cause and effect. Namely, linking Desire with Suffering. So what exactly is Buddhism? Well, I am being rather simplistic in my surveyance of all these religions, so if you like my summaries, look around for more detailed information. A long time ago there was this Prince who gave up his titles and everything to wander the world in search of enlightenment. His name was Siddartha Guatama, and later became the Buddha, or Enlightened One. His enlightenment was that of life being a cycle, of death, and rebirth. And as long as a spirit remained within that cycle, it would never be truly free of pain or suffereing. Thus, a spirit must learn, through reincarnation and karma, to detatch themselves from everything worldly, so as to achieve a state of perfect peace and happiness. At that point, they would be able to achieve Nirvana. Buddha also devised a plan, or method to achieving Nirvana, called The Noble Eight Fold Path.
To me, I quite enjoy reading anything Buddhist related. I have read several books by the Dalai
Lama, as well as other insightful books of sayings, and interpretations of the Buddhist philosophy. However, I did
feel that it tried to cut one off a little too much. The focus and aim are well intentioned, as with most religions,
but the physical reality does exist, and should be respected as much as the spiritual in my mind. Achieving Nirvana is
only achieving a state of mind. Much like my interpretation of the Christian concept of Heaven, I shed the same focus
upon Buddhism. Nirvana is here and now. I do not believe that this world is a reality of pure suffering. If that were
the case, "The garden of Eden" must be the same as "Hell". I know the history of the Christian and Judaistic views are
that we were cast out of Eden, but Eden was still on Earth. Instead, I believe the world is what we make of
it. If we all choose to believe it is a horrible place, then it will be. The opposite is true as well: If we all choose to
believe it is a paradise, then it will be. Of course, there is also my aversion to anything truly organized. I am not sure
why exactly, but I have always felt since I began my path that our community has always been each other, and our perspectives
have always been our own. No matter what "religion" we follow, we all have our own interpretation of it. Alas, I could not
truly follow the ways of Buddhism, but I very much so respect it, and enjoy philosophical discussions involving it's teachings.
I have found one interesting trait of Buddhism, and that is it's reference to Understanding Self. Teaching
that in order to move within the universe, it would be wise to first move within the universe of one's own being. Much like
the American Indian traditions, One's Name is very important to their being. Knowledge of Self is primary, for our Self is our
closest link to the Supreme. This is one of the primary facets of Buddhism that was incorporated into Fluffy-ism, for I feel
it is necessary to understand our being, so that we can understand other beings too. We need to learn from each other,
but in order to learn, we must learn how. That is what Knowledge of Self provides. Sure there is a lot of Psychological
jargon floating around here, but I propose to ignore Freud for a moment, and realize that our Self that we must
try to understand, is more than one lifetime could learn. Also our Self is more than just our thoughts, and brain
patterns. In the end, I feel that our community is our species, no matter what we believe, and in order to understand their
perspective, we must first truly understand our own. Opposition to a different opinion, is only fear that we don't trust
our own.
| Tao-ism |
I'll probably need a little slack on this one, for it has been a while since I've studied Tao-ism. I remember liking it when I first read about it, but something pushed me off of it, so I haven't gone back for some reason. I know that the Tao, or The Way, is symbolic of the universitality of all existence. And that we must become One with the Tao, in order to achieve perfection, or something of that sort. I apologize for not being fully prepared to write this section of the page. I want to get the page up, cause then I'll have to update it, (a good thing I hope), so I'll get my shit together and get on it soon enough.
Back to Top| Pagan |
Pagan-ism is any form of natural, or earth based religion. From Wiccan, to Druid-ism, to
the usage of Astrology and Tarot. Pagan is a rather universal term for many different paths that are taken.
The first definition is the definition of the Pagan-ism, where as there is also the more Westernized translation
of "A pagan is anyone who does not practice Christianity, Judaism, or Islam". Neither are right
nor wrong, it's just a word. However, I intend to discuss it in a more optimistic fashion, that it is any natural, or
earth based religion, for the practices and beliefs of the different forms of Pagan religions are rather sublime
in their own way.
Much like a scientist, in a chemlab, I went about the religious scene picking and plucking, mixing and analyzing.
Science gave us the Scientific Method, which is a way to 'disprove' hypotheses. We cannot really prove anything, just as a
matter of course, we felt if such a thing cannot yet be disproven we must accept it as truth for now.
This is what axioms are all about; supposed Truths. That was Religion to me, supposed Truths, and throughout my
studies, I found many correlations between religions, and philosophies, which to me, helped enhance their truth when
I felt my own being hinting at the same Truths.
Astrology is a Science, it is the Science of how the planets affect our being at our birth and throughout our daily
lives. Though many believe it to be what our society has turned it into, a charlatan or supersititious practice, it is
actually a very specific science. Blossoming from the core of what we used to be, for thousands of years, it was our first
real form of communication. We all could see the sky, and recognize patterns it it. Recognition of common patterns is
first step to language. Astrology in my mind, is just another way to interpret, or percieve the energies that flow around
us, within the cosmos, or universe, or infinite, as well as a way to interpret how those forces affected your
being at the moment of birth. As my descriptions of Buddhism stated, I am more oriented towards Understanding Self, which
Astrology provides another excellent medium for that purpose. By utilizing Multiple Perspectives upon spirituality, one can
in my mind, get a better feel for the Truth, that we all seek. Our Truths are our own, yet sometimes, reading the paths
others have taken to find theirs helps us find our own.
I also have a nice lean towards the concepts behind the Wiccan religion. As I've mentioned, I do have
an aversion to organization of any sort, however, I have many other issues not discussed in here with the major religions
of our species. The joy behind Wiccan is the focus on Nature. The Three time Three rule is striking resemblance of Buddhist
and Hindu karma. As well it also reminds us of the division yet unity of the masculine and feminine facets of our
world, through the usage of the God and Goddess.
| Shaman-ism |
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| American Indian Great Spirit |
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