Before you read any further, I request you to please read this post. This will serve as your guide in interpreting the thoughts I present in all forthcoming posts as well as help eliminate any misconceptions or misunderstandings arising out of the content of the posts.
I do not wish to or aim to offend or defend any established religions or religious practices. I do however wish to warn you that I am not very happy with the plethora of religious "Gurus", "Swamis", "Preachers", "Muftis", "Imams" etc who proclaim themselves to be nothing short of a divine incarnation if not God itself. I do not follow or even listen to any of these characters other than for purely entertainment purposes.
The Terms "Spirituality" and "Religion" have for centuries been used interchangeably or at least in conjunction with each other. There has been an attempt by established religions to propagate the myth that one cannot achieve/attain "Spiritual enlightenment" if that person does not follow prescribed religious practices or rituals. This I personally find to be totally untrue. Yes it is important to read the scriptures (of any religion), but to simply gain an understanding of the "message". I would use this as my guidebook for my own Spiritual quest, but not build my spiritual personality based on the religious texts. For instance, you would use a tourist guide map to understand your current surroundings and to help you identify where you are in a given part of the city, however you would not constantly refer to and depend upon it if you were to build a house in the same city, for that you would use an architectural blueprint which delves into the finer details of the individual house which you are attempting to build.
Every religion splits a person's life into stations or stages, such as childhood, puberty, householder(marriage), parenthood etc. There are also prescribed actions and duties for each of these stages. If one were to use religious scripture as a guide map then it would tell us where we are in our individual life (stage/station), how it relates to our past and future, how it relates to the world at large and finally how it relates to God, this is the purpose of scripture. If one wanted to shift the focus from an outward looking view to an inward looking view then one would indulge in what is commonly known as "Soul Searching" via meditation, contemplation, etc.
Common thought is that the soul is constantly in conflict with the physical being and they are both trying to break free of each other, there is also a strong belief system that once you progress from religious rituals into spiritual practices, you turn inwards and shut the world out, go to the mountains and meditate or cloister yourself in a monastery and pray or some such behavior. I personally believe that the soul and the body are one singular unit, one cannot exist without the other, hence the journey towards spiritual well being should include both and not at the cost of the other. A spiritual journey cannot be undertaken by a "soul-less body" or a "disembodied soul", they need to coexist and complete the journey together.
Think of this in terms of the electrical energy stored within a battery, the battery has no purpose without the energy stored within and the energy within that particular battery cannot exist on its own outside it. The electrical energy can surely be transferred from the battery to say a light bulb but the battery without energy or the energy itself without a battery to live in would be useless individually.
I have attempted to explore topics such as reincarnation, liberation of the soul, spiritual guidance, the concept of God, concept of Mind and also other related concepts such as success, happiness, selflessness, selfishness etc.
I don't claim to be an expert on any of the topics I have presented here. I have simply embarked upon a journey to find a common ground and creating a healthy working relationship between my own Spiritual curiosity, Rational thought and Common sense.....uniting body and soul!
If anything here offends you in any way, then I would sincerely request you to take a moment and instead of feeling offended, try to turn the offending idea into a question for yourself which would tickle your thought process. Anything which offends us also has phenomenal potential to present us with a completely different perspective, all it takes is a bit of thought with a calm mind. Don't let your anger or predefined notions block you from enjoying the posts here.
Disengage from your prejudices and take a small step on this journey. Think of yourself as being on an all expenses paid trip to a fantastic locale, would you choose to get offended by every little thing that doesn't work in your favor on this trip or would you ignore the little annoyances and try to enjoy the trip? maybe when you get back home you would think back on those same little annoyances and find a new way to deal with them on the next trip! maybe you would not even see them as irritants in the future!
My serious, sincere and honest to god intention is to provide my thoughts and ideas in a format which will possibly invigorate your own intellectual curiosity and help you in understanding spirituality from a potentially new or different perspective.
There is no ground breaking, earth shattering new theories or spiritual research which I am providing here. I embarked on a journey and this is my journal of where the journey has taken me. You maybe able to relate to it or use parts of it for your own journey and I am gladly offering up these experiences and ideas to you if you find it helpful. I do not wish to claim this as the only way or the true way or the correct way, this is just the path I've been down and am still going down
May the Force be with you !!......No strike that......The force is ALWAYS with you and within you!! :)
I do not wish to or aim to offend or defend any established religions or religious practices. I do however wish to warn you that I am not very happy with the plethora of religious "Gurus", "Swamis", "Preachers", "Muftis", "Imams" etc who proclaim themselves to be nothing short of a divine incarnation if not God itself. I do not follow or even listen to any of these characters other than for purely entertainment purposes.
The Terms "Spirituality" and "Religion" have for centuries been used interchangeably or at least in conjunction with each other. There has been an attempt by established religions to propagate the myth that one cannot achieve/attain "Spiritual enlightenment" if that person does not follow prescribed religious practices or rituals. This I personally find to be totally untrue. Yes it is important to read the scriptures (of any religion), but to simply gain an understanding of the "message". I would use this as my guidebook for my own Spiritual quest, but not build my spiritual personality based on the religious texts. For instance, you would use a tourist guide map to understand your current surroundings and to help you identify where you are in a given part of the city, however you would not constantly refer to and depend upon it if you were to build a house in the same city, for that you would use an architectural blueprint which delves into the finer details of the individual house which you are attempting to build.
Every religion splits a person's life into stations or stages, such as childhood, puberty, householder(marriage), parenthood etc. There are also prescribed actions and duties for each of these stages. If one were to use religious scripture as a guide map then it would tell us where we are in our individual life (stage/station), how it relates to our past and future, how it relates to the world at large and finally how it relates to God, this is the purpose of scripture. If one wanted to shift the focus from an outward looking view to an inward looking view then one would indulge in what is commonly known as "Soul Searching" via meditation, contemplation, etc.
Common thought is that the soul is constantly in conflict with the physical being and they are both trying to break free of each other, there is also a strong belief system that once you progress from religious rituals into spiritual practices, you turn inwards and shut the world out, go to the mountains and meditate or cloister yourself in a monastery and pray or some such behavior. I personally believe that the soul and the body are one singular unit, one cannot exist without the other, hence the journey towards spiritual well being should include both and not at the cost of the other. A spiritual journey cannot be undertaken by a "soul-less body" or a "disembodied soul", they need to coexist and complete the journey together.
Think of this in terms of the electrical energy stored within a battery, the battery has no purpose without the energy stored within and the energy within that particular battery cannot exist on its own outside it. The electrical energy can surely be transferred from the battery to say a light bulb but the battery without energy or the energy itself without a battery to live in would be useless individually.
I have attempted to explore topics such as reincarnation, liberation of the soul, spiritual guidance, the concept of God, concept of Mind and also other related concepts such as success, happiness, selflessness, selfishness etc.
I don't claim to be an expert on any of the topics I have presented here. I have simply embarked upon a journey to find a common ground and creating a healthy working relationship between my own Spiritual curiosity, Rational thought and Common sense.....uniting body and soul!
If anything here offends you in any way, then I would sincerely request you to take a moment and instead of feeling offended, try to turn the offending idea into a question for yourself which would tickle your thought process. Anything which offends us also has phenomenal potential to present us with a completely different perspective, all it takes is a bit of thought with a calm mind. Don't let your anger or predefined notions block you from enjoying the posts here.
Disengage from your prejudices and take a small step on this journey. Think of yourself as being on an all expenses paid trip to a fantastic locale, would you choose to get offended by every little thing that doesn't work in your favor on this trip or would you ignore the little annoyances and try to enjoy the trip? maybe when you get back home you would think back on those same little annoyances and find a new way to deal with them on the next trip! maybe you would not even see them as irritants in the future!
My serious, sincere and honest to god intention is to provide my thoughts and ideas in a format which will possibly invigorate your own intellectual curiosity and help you in understanding spirituality from a potentially new or different perspective.
There is no ground breaking, earth shattering new theories or spiritual research which I am providing here. I embarked on a journey and this is my journal of where the journey has taken me. You maybe able to relate to it or use parts of it for your own journey and I am gladly offering up these experiences and ideas to you if you find it helpful. I do not wish to claim this as the only way or the true way or the correct way, this is just the path I've been down and am still going down
May the Force be with you !!......No strike that......The force is ALWAYS with you and within you!! :)
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