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Or, as a priest friend of mine says, "same mountain, different paths". Then again, she has also considered that we may be walking up different mountains. I tend to go with her first thought.
My lady is a spiritual person. trobesmom pretty much describes it, I would say. It's more involved than that for her though but I don't feel awake enough to go into more detail. Coffee is not working this morning. besides I'm being distracted by a starling sitting contentedly in the palm of my hand and a pigeon sitting on my shoulder pruning itself.
Or, as a priest friend of mine says, "same mountain, different paths". Then again, she has also considered that we may be walking up different mountains. I tend to go with her first thought.
No, she said - same mountain. That does it.
Truth is like a mighty rever, braided into many straights, then United into single stream again.
Stranded on river banks, people argue, whose truth is better.
1 - Fishing. Drifting in my boat on a lake, or pond, or meandering alongside a stream in the woods puts me in nature's lap. I am home there, accompanied only the sounds of lapping waves or chuckling rapids or leaves rustling in the breeze. My gossamer thin line connects me to the Great Unknown, whether something tugs on the end, or not.
2 - Sitting on my deck, or the end of the dock at night. The lake is still and quiet but for the occasional mournful cry of a loon and the sky sparkles with thousands of places I hope to visit one day.
3 - Burning incense and puffing herb every evening helps establish a contemplative, mellow mood that may not exactly be spiritual but it's close enough for me.
4 - Building a fire and sitting beside it at night with a libation and a friend who doesn't require conversation.
5 - Coaxing smiles from babies and children.
You are my kind of 'dude.' I love #1 and gain such a feeling of connectedness from similar experiences - all of these, actually. I don't puff herb, but i do burn incense. Rituals....
Yes!!! "Truth is one; paths are many."
This is attributed to Ghandi, but I thought a swami said it...(Swami Satchidananda)
P.S. and yes, before I am accused of 'not sharing,' I'll be back a bit later when I have a little more time to articulate my spiritual philosophy....or try to anyway.
Or, Jiddhu Krishnamurti, "Truth is a pathless land," which I took to mean that we each find our own truth, our own way.
I'll try to stay brief:B
I went to catholic school from grades 1-5. Not that my parents were religious but more that I think the school was convenient because it was in our immediate neighborhood. I received my first communion and confirmation. The family randomly attended services but in my early teens I stopped going – for many reasons that brevity precludes me from enumerating.
Throughout my life, connections to nature, as others have said, were experiences that sort of filled me with an awe that I felt were spiritual in nature, and I'd get glimpses that I was connected to all of this 'life,' that I was a cog in this ethereal wheel, and even though it ends for all of us, living was (and still is) somehow sacred.
So, decades later…..working in a big city in a high pressure job, I started to feel that there was something missing for me. “Meaning” I started to explore different spiritual traditions because I believed, and still do, that many of our modern dysfunctions or individual psychological ‘issues’ stem from a spiritual disconnection (I didn’t say religion). Buddhism was very interesting to me and through that I discovered yoga. Many of classical yoga tenets are similar to religious teachings and I just felt it was very grounding and comforting to me at that time. Took a few classes, was hooked. Learned to teach yoga (I was still regularly employed, always was) from some old-school, hippy but super smart yogis and dabbled in that for a few years. I did find it difficult to live a completely yogic life (rethinking that now and that’s why I am here) but I kept teaching and trying. People either really thought it was too hippy/dippy/trippy, or ‘real’ yogis thought you weren’t yogic enough. What changed it for me though, was – honestly – when George W. Bush was president. By then, the yoga community had become somewhat ‘activist’ and the violent talk and visualization of burning “W” in effigy was ok, when the first precept of yoga is ahimsa. Non-violence. I couldn’t square that stance of violent thought towards others w/ what I had come to believe yoga stood for…..so I left the yoga community’ish. I still taught for a few more years but when it became clear that people didn’t care about yogic principles and just wanted exercise, I phased out of teaching.
Which brings me to today. I’m trying to reconnect to my practice (and I don’t necessarily mean practicing physical yoga everyday but maintaining a yogic mindset). I hope to increase my physical and meditation/mindfulness practice. I find calm and comfort and peace in it. I can slow down enough to remove myself from the negative energy of the day to day world. Anger, insults, political/racial upheaval, name calling, rancor, the whole shebang. Life is still sacred, but I have forgotten that in the time I have been disconnected from the things that mean something to me. I am rekindling my connection to something greater than myself.
You are my kind of 'dude.' I love #1 and gain such a feeling of connectedness from similar experiences - all of these, actually. I don't puff herb, but i do burn incense. Rituals....
I often take my kayak to a reservoir and back in to an outcropping of rocks so I can stay 'still.'
Close my eyes and listen to it ALL. Water lapping, bird calls and song, even the traffic way way in the background, feeling a warm breeze ...life happening around me.
Or, Jiddhu Krishnamurti, "Truth is a pathless land," which I took to mean that we each find our own truth, our own way.
I'll try to stay brief:B
I went to catholic school from grades 1-5. Not that my parents were religious but more that I think the school was convenient because it was in our immediate neighborhood. I received my first communion and confirmation. The family randomly attended services but in my early teens I stopped going – for many reasons that brevity precludes me from enumerating.
Throughout my life, connections to nature, as others have said, were experiences that sort of filled me with an awe that I felt were spiritual in nature, and I'd get glimpses that I was connected to all of this 'life,' that I was a cog in this ethereal wheel, and even though it ends for all of us, living was (and still is) somehow sacred.
So, decades later…..working in a big city in a high pressure job, I started to feel that there was something missing for me. “Meaning” I started to explore different spiritual traditions because I believed, and still do, that many of our modern dysfunctions or individual psychological ‘issues’ stem from a spiritual disconnection (I didn’t say religion). Buddhism was very interesting to me and through that I discovered yoga. Many of classical yoga tenets are similar to religious teachings and I just felt it was very grounding and comforting to me at that time. Took a few classes, was hooked. Learned to teach yoga (I was still regularly employed, always was) from some old-school, hippy but super smart yogis and dabbled in that for a few years. I did find it difficult to live a completely yogic life (rethinking that now and that’s why I am here) but I kept teaching and trying. People either really thought it was too hippy/dippy/trippy, or ‘real’ yogis thought you weren’t yogic enough. What changed it for me though, was – honestly – when George W. Bush was president. By then, the yoga community had become somewhat ‘activist’ and the violent talk and visualization of burning “W” in effigy was ok, when the first precept of yoga is ahimsa. Non-violence. I couldn’t square that stance of violent thought towards others w/ what I had come to believe yoga stood for…..so I left the yoga community’ish. I still taught for a few more years but when it became clear that people didn’t care about yogic principles and just wanted exercise, I phased out of teaching.
Which brings me to today. I’m trying to reconnect to my practice (and I don’t necessarily mean practicing physical yoga everyday but maintaining a yogic mindset). I hope to increase my physical and meditation/mindfulness practice. I find calm and comfort and peace in it. I can slow down enough to remove myself from the negative energy of the day to day world. Anger, insults, political/racial upheaval, name calling, rancor, the whole shebang. Life is still sacred, but I have forgotten that in the time I have been disconnected from the things that mean something to me. I am rekindling my connection to something greater than myself.
What does it mean, and what do you mean, when you say life is sacred? What is life - that which keeps something alive? Or something else? And why is it sacred or holy? Does that mean one believes in god? If believes in no god would life be sacred for them, since it denotes (or is it connotes?) an idea of god, holy?
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I love #1 and gain such a feeling of connectedness from similar experiences - all of these, actually. I don't puff herb, but i do burn incense. Rituals....
