|
Post by KG on Jan 5, 2006 13:40:19 GMT -5
In the past we have all been on forums where different religions, and beliefs were mocked. Here on this site I want everyone to feel free to express their beliefs, and to respect the beliefs of others. I know that religion is prone to disagreement, on an exoteric basis, but this forum is for the spiritually minded, not the outwardly religious. There is no great disagreement between truly spiritual people of all faiths. Disagreements are for those who are caught up in the outward rituals, and prohibitions of the surface of religion, but true spirituality begins in the heart, and manifests through love, compassion, understanding, and tolerance.
In that spirit we will not mock anyone’s faith. You have heard it said on other forums, that it is worse to insult the person, than the belief. I don’t feel that way. To a spiritual person his faith is much greater, and of more importance than his sense of self, or even his own physical life. Therefore we will be kind to all board members regarding their beliefs. We will encourage the inner faith over outward dogma, but we are deeply committed to the freedom of religious expression. Whatever faith you believe, or if you see all faiths as an emanation of the same divine source, we are here to understand not to critique.
Being dogmatically opposed to another faith is another matter. I think the best point is that one’s person’s beliefs do not change another person’s beliefs in any way. I can believe what I believe, and you can believe what you believe, and we do not have to agree. There is no need to be hostile, or try to convince others of your beliefs. You may explain your beliefs, and that you know them to be true, but just because another person expresses a different set of beliefs, doesn’t mean that one of you is wrong. Most religious differences are a matter of vocabulary, and specific understandings of minor details, which get blown up in importance, because people like to debate. All spirituality meets at the heart of the matter which is that Love is better than Hate, and Compassion is the key to truly holy living.
God isn’t something I want to avoid speaking of on this site, and no one has to bite their tongue or mince words in order to appease the militant atheist anymore. Atheists are also entitled to their opinion, but they have no right to suppress the beliefs of others. I do not want anyone to feel repressed in this area, because we should all be mature enough to at least acknowledge someone else’s opinion without feeling threatened.
It is my personal opinion that spiritual progression is impossible without spiritual belief of some kind. These beliefs grow and evolve over time. Our views may change as time progresses, as a normal outgrowth of our spiritual practice. I think that we need an accepting environment to learn and grow. Therefore I hope that everyone will be kind, to one another. We welcome Christians, Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus, Wicca, and all other belief systems equally. I only ask that you play nicely together as you explore your faith, and learn about the beliefs of others.
|
|
|
Post by stonerwolf on Jan 5, 2006 23:58:55 GMT -5
*cheers and applauds* that was great *wipes tear from my eye* we need to get more love, compassion, understanding, and tolerance in the world! my only intolerance is of intolerance, my only hate is of hate, i hope more people can match this way of thinking. oh wait, i still hate GWB... grrr >=( lol ok, so i dont REALLY hate the guy, he's just a moron.
|
|
|
Post by KG on Jan 6, 2006 1:32:17 GMT -5
Oh Stoner, I am so glad you are here. I hoped you would come and see the forum. Thanks for the round of aplause.
I just think people need to get along, and be tolerant of others. I don't want to walk through the mine field/mind field of someone who is proud of being opinionated. Too many explosions, and too much compromise in order to avoid the blow ups.
The fact is I cannot seperate my spiritual beliefs from my spiritual abilities. I have never seen my abilities as Psi, not that there is anything wrong with that. It just isn't what I have, and trying not to talk about it, made things difficult.
Anyway I am happy to see you here. I don't have much use for GWB either. He has caused a lot of suffering, and he doesn't give back nearly as much as he is taking from the world.
I hope that you will share your beliefs about Chos, and the things that mean most to you. I think from what I have read, you are very wise, and I would like to hear what you have to say, without having to defend it, at every turn.
Anyway feel free to post what you think.
|
|
|
Post by stonerwolf on Jan 7, 2006 2:28:05 GMT -5
hehe thanks for the compliments! a real warm welcome indeed expect to see my mind scattered about the forum soon enough
|
|
|
Post by lordazurath on Oct 22, 2007 1:35:41 GMT -5
mm people should realize that religon is only a form of a belife of what happens to the body after death, or something of that sort. its no different than what type of animal you would like to have as a pet.
|
|
|
Post by ~Sephity~ on Oct 22, 2007 6:13:28 GMT -5
That's exactly why we allow anyone to be on the board. We try not to religiously discriminate. I think that's also better for the forum, because then we get many different religious point of views, and point of views in general, on a certain matter of discussion.
|
|
|
Post by KG on Oct 22, 2007 15:31:17 GMT -5
Thanks for your post LordAzurath,
Faith varies from person to person in importance. Many people have died defending their right to believe and practice their faith, while others don't choose to even think about what they believe.
It is a matter of personal choice, and the way we think of things too. People can be dogmatic about anything, including their pets. I've seen fights break out cause someone doesn't like cats and is loud mouthed about it to a cat lover. If someone insults someone else's dog... or dogma there could be a fight. That is why we need tolerance.
Religion/Spirituality/belief/faith which are all very different things in one way, are things people can take very seriously. It means a lot more than what happens in death, it is a way of life for people. It effects everything a person does. Everyone has some sort of system of Religion or spirituality, or belief or faith, or at least a system of values and conduct. I am amazed at how much these systems can vary from person to person. In a world where we become nearer and nearer to our neighbors and have communications from all over the world it is important to understand that one person's ethics don't always match another's, but that doesn't mean they don't have ethics. It just means they live by a different set of priorities, and self made restrictions than other people. That too is similar to religion, though it is very individual.
I think spirituallity is very important, at least to some of us, but religion is very subtly different than faith and spirituality. I think spirituality is a universal right, and the understanding of it crosses many cultural barriers.
Whether it is exactly our way of seeing things or not, we should listen to and respect the experiences of others. WE don't have to agree, but often another person will have a story that is important, whether they choose to relate it in our perfered vocabulary or not.
Religion leads to a vocabulary that is hard to decipher from one faith to another. Most misunderstandings of spiritual and religious significance are due to vocabulary differences, and the absense of tolerance and patience in trying to understand each other. One person might say Karma, while another refers to bibilical sewing and reaping.... there are probably lots of other terms, like what goes around comes around... it is all the same, though maybe the finer points might not be explained the same way from person to person.
Religions develop doctrines and then get dogmatic about them. We aren't a religion. We may study religions, to get at bigger truths, but no one here wants to be caught up in some dogmatic belief they can't see past. Not that we don't all make asumptions of some kind. Doctorine seems to be full of asumptions, and explainations. It is the nature of the human mind to try to explain things, and since we talk about things that aren't easily explained it is very hard to deal with someone being dogmatic during one of our deeper conversations. Spiritual things can't be explained only in one context. Everyone experiences things a little differently, and interpret them a lot differently in our minds. Some experience them from different points of view.
I think that spirituality is important, and so are all the other things we might disagree about, but we have to try to understand that most of the time it is just a matter of the way they explain it, which causes misunderstandings.
Phenomonon, and experiences aren't doubted here at all. If you say you saw a purple cow in your living room then you did. What does it mean? I have no idea... but I will respect your right to believe whatever you want about it, or sit down with you, and help you question the cow. I might even go astrally to see your cow. If I find that to me it doesn't look like a cow, I will respectuflly say for some reason your cow looks like an elephant to me. I wonder why I percieve it in that way? If you already have a system of understanding your purple cow visions, then I want to hear all about it. Maybe I might learn something... which may or may not have to do with purple cows for me. People see things differently, but we all percieve things that are important to all of us. We compare and try to develop our skills here, but we dont' argue that something is impossible because anything is possible. Respect is the key to understanding. Ignoring things because they dont' make sense to us, often leads to oversight.
Kim
|
|
|
Post by lordazurath on Oct 22, 2007 16:23:45 GMT -5
well, i had a poor choice of words when i said "what happens when you die" as in most religons just focus on that, such as islam, or christianity. they devout their lives to getting into heaven. and about the religon/spirituality and faith, yea they are all different, a relgion is when they combine the faith and spiritual forms into one. And faith is when you'd go beyond intelligence to belive something. Me, im not a relgious person ( christian suppousibly) but i am truely a spiritual person.
and im entirely open about other forms of religon, ive discussed several forms of religons with people, and im not one of those people who are like, BE THIS WAY CUS GOD SAYS SO.. lol.. so i look forward to ya'lls points of veiw.
|
|
|
Post by KG on Oct 22, 2007 16:50:46 GMT -5
Very cool explanation Azu! I like the way you explain that. I especially like what you said about faith over riding common sense. Sometimes that is a good thing, and sometimes that can be a bad thing. I've done both in my time. LOL
I am more spiritual than religious myself, but we all have a few hold over opinions from religions we grew up with. Mostly because we haven't really thought about them since we grew up. LOL Old folks like me have that problem more than young folks, cause in my day it was really drilled in. I've studied a lot of spiritual and religious texts, and drawn some pretty revolutionary ideas from them, but those old, not very well thought out ideas still hit me sometimes, and I try to get away from that, and look at the real situation for what it is.
I am very glad you understand what we are getting at. No one will jump down your throat here, no matter what you choose to believe. we are here to grow together, not to limit things. We live as a sort of astral/cyber family here. I am so happy to have you here in our little on-line family.
|
|
|
Post by lordazurath on Oct 22, 2007 20:19:17 GMT -5
thanks for the warm welcome. I've contemplated a lot on old religons, and how they affected people. especially the romans, greeks, and old tribal religons.
The way they had their religons wasn't by a way of life, but by mere acts of gods influencing people, and they seemed to be happier then.
So basicly what i have done, is taken bits of every religon that makes sense, and put them together.
But above all, i seek the truth about what is real, and do not put a faith over top of common sense.
although some say that wouldnt be a good idea, or they call me athiest, but. i do belive in a single god, and can prove scientificly how he/she/it exists.
|
|
|
Post by KG on Oct 22, 2007 21:03:56 GMT -5
Cool. I agree that we have to look at the whole of what people have believed over history, and find a common ground between them. I also agree that getting hung up on certain details doesn't work. I constantly have to re-work my ideas, and I realize that I can't quiet concieve of God in his entire being no matter how hard I try. I don't get knit picky about the minor details, of how things work... though of course I want to know. I realize that we are all incapable of fully comprehending God, but all of us have sight of some part or other.
I've spent a lot of time studying old religious texts as well. It is a hobby of mine. I have found a common thread through Kabbalism, Alchemy, Gnostic Christianity, Yoga, Budism, Krishna consciousness, and certain parts of the Bible. I believe there is one great central power which is God, but there are many celestial beings who draw their power from him. Angels, Aeons, and other spiritual beings including incarenate humans whom God deligates his powers and duties to, not so much to help him, but to help us to learn to help others. I believe that these kinds of people and entities are the ones who were the gods of the old religions. There are many 'faces of God,' including our own. Everything is part of God, and we are all one thing in a way, at least that is my understanding. I believe that the soul is immortal. I believe in heaven and reincarnation. To me heaven isn't an afterlife, it is an astral place that we are perpetually in if we choose to be. That is an over simplification, but basically that is what I belive in a nut shell.
Due to the nature of my soul, and the purpose I was created for, I am Christian... just by nature, but that doesn't make me better or more right than someone who has another religion. Jesus is cool, and a wonderful person. I love him dearly, but I also know there are other things going on that are also real and spiritual. For me it is all about Love, Mercy and caring about others, and serving a greater purpose. For someone else they might have a different purpose which also serves the greater good of us all.
I totally agree with you about trying to find what is real. It sounds like we have similar methods for that. Most of what I believe comes from what I have seen in the astral/spiritual world. I have found documents that back it up for the most part, but some of it, I have just seen and know it is there.
What I was thinking of as far as letting faith outweigh common sense, is that sometimes you have to take a chance in life situations, even if it seems a bit illogical. Some people call that a leap of faith. I've followed my intuition and taken chances a lot in life, and it seems to pay off for me sometimes. I believe that sometimes following a sort of divine direction, and doing things that are unexpected, unpredicted and illogical serves a purpose that the more sensible people can't seem to understand. It sort of changes the luck sometimes, especially if it is a benevolent act, that is unexpected, and may involve a risk.
|
|
|
Post by lordazurath on Oct 22, 2007 21:21:45 GMT -5
mm about the faith thing. for example, some people belive that noah built an ark. can that be possible, as only 2 people survived a massive flood. i think not, it had to be more than 2..
though, archeologists have found evidence of a massive flood at one time in the world
|
|