Bluelighters what are your religious beliefs (or disbeliefs)

[turkalurk]

to be honest, I think everyone knows that.
still, you have free will within the restraints of your living conditions.

free within restraints? that doesn't sound oxymoronic to you?
Can I ask you just what do you think the will is free from? Its kind of a nonsensical idea. The only absolutely free thing is Being. Being as a whole is the only thing that exists absolutely free. Any part of this whole depends upon the whole. Only the whole can depend upon only itself. Free will is an idea that pacifies the ego by reinforcing its delusions of control over its destiny. We want to have supreme power over our lives and what they become, but all in all, you are what you are because the inherent properties of the world made you that way with your help of course as you are a part of the world as well.

 

[murphythecat]

in every moment, you have MANY differnt ways to act and think . we constantly choose how we will think and act. how we think have a direct impact on how we will react and a direct impact on our actions.

we can have supreme power. not over our material body, but over our mind and that possibility makes us free.

you are what you are because the inherent properties of the world made you that way with your help of course as you are a part of the world as well.
our mind and body are constantly changing. I am not what I am, I am constantly changing, in movement, and in every moment, I make choices that have a direct effect on both my mind and my environment.

the reality of the mind is not the same reality that our body lives in. body and mind, while very connected, are not the same.
I cannot really change the physical reality, I am limited within the physical realms, but I can change how I think or how I feel or where I decide to put my attention on.

so, since we decide most of the time what we will do next and we can change in any moment how our mind reacts or think, I consider that yes, within the restraints of the physical body, my mind is partially free. its true though that my body is not very free.


now, if you think you have no control over your life and that you are destined to act the way you act and you cannot change that, i cannot agree at all.

free within restraints? that doesn't sound oxymoronic to you?
Can I ask you just what do you think the will is free from? Its kind of a nonsensical idea. The only absolutely free thing is Being. Being as a whole is the only that exists absolutely free. Any part of this whole depends upon the whole. Only the whole can depend upon only itself. Free will is an idea that pacifies the ego by reinforcing its delusions of control over its destiny. We want to have supreme power over our lives and what they become, but all in all, you are what you are because the inherent properties of the world made you that way with your help of course as you are a part of the world as well.

 

[turkalurk]

u r very far from being enlightened. deluded by ego like the rest of us. u r what u r regardless of how much u change. I did not say that you are what you were, did I? if you aren't what u are, then what are you? I find your thinking illogical.

 

[murphythecat]

lol, im most definitely NOT enlightened

as for your questions, the buddha has explained it all in detail.


u r what u r regardless of how much u change.
you are wrong

u r very far from being enlightened. deluded by ego like the rest of us. u r what u r regardless of how much u change. I did not say that you are what you were, did I? if you aren't what u are, then what are you? I find your thinking illogical.

 

[turkalurk]

lol, im most definitely NOT enlightened

as for your questions, the buddha has explained it all in detail.


u r what u r regardless of how much u change.
you are wrong

Ok, then, you are not what you are. You are something else. Something that can't seem to understand simple logic. It can't get simpler than "you are what you are." oh well, it is what it is.

 

[murphythecat]

the question of ''what we are'' is very much explained in buddhism. no need for my input.

Ok, then, you are not what you are. You are something else. Something that can't seem to understand simple logic. It can't get simpler than "you are what you are." oh well, it is what it is.

u r what u r regardless of how much u change.

this is not at all what I think. we get reborn in each moment. we change at every moment. you are not and never will be the same person as 10 years ago. you have changed mentally and physically. the ''self'' is a ever changing experience that get reborn in the present moment.
we have many wrong view about what we take as ''self''

heres a quote from the Suttas
"This is how he attends inappropriately: 'Was I in the past? Was I not in the past? What was I in the past? How was I in the past? Having been what, what was I in the past? Shall I be in the future? Shall I not be in the future? What shall I be in the future? How shall I be in the future? Having been what, what shall I be in the future?' Or else he is inwardly perplexed about the immediate present: 'Am I? Am I not? What am I? How am I? Where has this being come from? Where is it bound?'

And what are the ideas fit for attention that he does attend to? "He attends appropriately, This is stress... This is the origination of stress... This is the cessation of stress... This is the way leading to the cessation of stress. As he attends appropriately in this way, three fetters are abandoned in him: identity-view, doubt, and grasping at precepts & practices. These are called the fermentations to be abandoned by seeing.

 

[treezy z]

I am an Apolistic Christian
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apostolic_Faith_Church

 

[Nixiam]

I am an Occultistic Satanist. Rock on.

Humanist, Daoist, Semi Agnostic, among other things.

Can we start a new religion guys? I'll subscribe! Swilo will be choir coordinator, BD will be the basement alchemist, Foreigner will be the preacher, Xorkoth can be our enlightened one, CT will be the church rebel who tries to denounce the faith in the middle of our sessions, Gnostic Bishop can wage war on us.

MDAO as our doctor.

And the other P&SBLERS will be the goers of the religion.

 

[belligerent drunk]

Funnily, I think this is not the first time we (it could have even been you, Nixiam) joked about starting our own religion with the same people.

OT: according to definitions, my belief is that of an agnostic. However, my sociopolitical stance on organized religion is that of an anti-theist.

 

[polymath]

I was raised Evangelical Lutheran, but my parents weren't very religious. One of my uncles and his children are Baptists and are kind of religious fanatics. My uncle decided to convert to that religion after his best friend killed himself when they were young.

I've always been very interested in the different kinds of belief systems that people all over the world have. When I was 15 and I had to take the "confirmation of belief" like all Lutheran teens, the priest noticed that I remembered many stories from the Bible with unusual detail, and that I also knew a lot about buddhist and hindu religions. I told the priest that I wasn't exactly sure whether I can believe in something with superstition in it (the bread and wine turning to Jesus's body and blood, for instance), and that I found buddhism relatively convincing, because it doesn't claim that one's salvation would depend on the mercy of any divine being. The priest was open-minded enough to tell me "I can't judge where you should find your answers to life's difficult questions. The most important thing is that you think about those questions".

The only times when I have gone to church during the last 16 years have been those when my grandparents died. I still like zen buddhism and last autumn I even went to zazenkai, where people meditate for hours and in between the meditation sessions recite or sing Heart Sutra and other similar stuff. I'm not really fanatical about that either, though. The Zen teacher of our group is a former neuropsychology professor who turned buddhist, and she definitely doesn't believe in superstitious things like the evil spirits that Hindus claim to exist.

Maybe it is possible that some kind of mystical revelation can be attained with meditation, you can't know if you don't try. Whether such experiences have some neurological similarity to the effects of psychedelics or to temporal epileptic seizures, seems to be an open scientific question.

 

[Cosmic Trigger]

My beliefs are like the early gnostic christians. Life is a big mistake.

 

[herbavore]

OT: according to definitions, my belief is that of an agnostic. However, my sociopolitical stance on organized religion is that of an anti-theist.

That's a more concise picture of my own thinking than I would have come up with. Thanks.

 

[spacejunk]

^ likewise.

 

[Mysterie]

probably replied to this already but i think its changed a bit. i inherently feel uncomfortable labelling myself religious, but i find therevadin buddhism a good map for me and also supportive of long term retreat which i think is important for me to develop awareness and wisdom. maybe tibetan buddhism in later stages of the path, but i also see lineages and traditions as vessels which we need to step out of at the end.

 

[Bagseed]

I believe in conservation of energy

 

[Phil.McKeer]

Wow, nearly half of us, a clear plurality, are non-religious. That is so refreshing and inspiring!

Rock on, Bluelight!

 

[belligerent drunk]

^ I thought about that, and I've come to the conclusion that people who frequent Bluelight are mostly those who are more open-minded, and that pretty much automatically makes them more open to reasonable interpretations of reality (such as agnosticism). Because in our day and age understanding the reality of drug use requires some sort of open-mindedness that, in my opinion, translates to the same open-mindedness in other subjects.

 

[polymath]

The Zen buddhist sect that I'm in contact with, practices "natural buddhism", which means that there are no supernatural beliefs involved in their teaching.

http://www.insightmeditationcenter.org/books-articles/articles/natural-buddhism/

In this context, the term "supernatural belief" means things like claiming that aspects of your personal identity will be carried with you to your future incarnations after you die. However, even the "natural buddhism" acknowledges that there may exist things about human consciousness that can't be explained with current scientific theories.

 

[Nixiam]

I'd say I'm more on the open minded side, but I'm not closed off to the suggestion that I am actually close minded, nor am I closed off to the idea that my arrogance has made me secure my spot in open mindedness due to my preconception as close mindedness being bad, or unproductive.

So is my arrogance something to get rid? Even if it keeps me from being close minded, since I don't want to associate myself with close minded thought processes?

Is my arrogance that bad? Is my view always skewed?

Am I reallly that bad of a person that I would let my arrogance run rampant after convincing myself I had none just to save my face as being an open minded individual with crescents and jelly?

What's more important?! Help!

I'm open to the thought that I have underthouht this, even though I have convinced myself that this is a genius overthinking, so I really am close minded when it comes down to what I agree or disagree with about myself.

But I like the idea that I am open minded, or do I dislike the fact that I need to like to be openminded to be accepted well?

Holy shit I need help.

 

[belligerent drunk]

^ what are you so distressed about? I mean seriously, I don't understand what makes you so upset but you seem very troubled from this post. Are you very worried about being close-minded? I don't know you personally, but from what I've read from your posts here in P&S (and thanks for it), I can tell that you're definitely not close-minded. It is OK to sit on the fence, and not be sure about the answer. I'm like that a lot of the time, because if I can't reason well enough, then I can't make definite conclusions. But I think that is the definition of open-mindedness, and lack of arrogance?