Random Musings

[erisesoteric]

Insight #4: Religion vs Spirituality

These are, in my mind, two different things. Religion is an organization that gathers people together for the purpose of communing with god, or the "other." It is a very useful tool for crafting and controlling societies, for teaching children, for providing support to those in need, and for helping people that might elsewise be forgotten. Spirituality is the individual's relationship with the great big out there. It is what we commune with when we pray. It is the reason we act when we try to be good people.

People who are trying to make the world a better place, for whatever reason, are, in my mind, acting in a spiritual manner, regardless of their beliefs. An atheist who does not believe in heaven or hell, and who still sees that being kind and thoughtful, and works to help the people around them is still acting in a spiritual manner... the spirit that they are attuned to is the human spirit (or, for those who have more environmental concerns; the world spirit.) Spirituality is nothing more than seeing yourself as part of a system, regardless of how you define the system.

Religion is an attempt to attune a group of people to a specific type of spirituality.

There are many problems with religion that aren't as much of a problem with spirituality, mostly because 1000 people can cause more problems than 1 person can.

When religion uses duality to attract followers, there is a problem. The phrase most commonly used is "you are either for me, or against me". That's a phrase that works for god, or god incarnate. It is not a phrase that should come out of the mouth of any human. We are flawed, our vision is flawed, we are not capable of seeing all things as one who is removed from them is. I am not "for" the pope, and yet, I am not againt him, either. He serves his place, even as I do. I am not "for" Billy Grahamn, or George Bush, or any other religious figure. They want this to mean that I am outside, that I am other, I am not. I am a part of the world that they live in, and as such, I am part of them. When we start to believe that anyone who doesn't believe as we do is evil, then we start to destroy ourselves.

When religion becomes too far separate from spirituality, there is a problem. When a religion exists in order to exist, and to get more people under its wing, it no longer serves the goal of spirituality. When a religion becomes centered around the leader of the religion, rather than around god, it has entirely left the path. Religious leaders are the fingers pointing to the moon. When the followers bow down to worship the pointing finger, rather than following the direction of the finger and seeing the moon, they have lost their focus.

When a religion demands that you give up your own spirtual path, and forces you to follow their own, irregardless of your feelings, there is a problem. It is all very well to guide children, and to teach them, and to force them to behave correctly, and to promise them rewards for being good, and punishment for being bad... however, there comes a time in a person's life when they MUST accept that they are an adult, that they must make their own choices, that they must accept that they are well and truly free to take any path they wish... as long as they are willing to suffer the consequences. God gave us free will, and man has been trying to give it back ever since. Religion must learn to let go of its followers, and act in a godly fashion.... and allow people to choose. If they choose wrongly, then they are tied to the world, and the world will act accordingly. There are consequences for everything. There are consequences for breathing, for crossing the street, for lying, for telling the truth, for being brave, and for being a coward. There are consequences for making a decision, and for refusing to make a decision. Every person must find their own path, and sometimes it is not the path that religion would guide them to, but it is their own choice. Religion can, and should guide. It should never force.

[erisesoteric]

Insight #5: The Tower of Babel, and Paths

"Now the whole earth had one language and few words. And as men migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. And they said to one another, 'Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.' And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. Then they said, 'Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.' And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the sons of men had built. And the LORD said, 'Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; and nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down, and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.' So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city.' Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth; and from there the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth." (Genesis 11:1-9)

<font size="2" face="Comic sans ms, Helvetica, sans-serif">I have been thinking about the tower of babel lately, and God's desire to scatter us. I have been seeing it in terms of a parable, a way of explaining. In changing us so that we no longer spoke one language, god also changed us so that we no longer followed one path.

In buddism, there is a saying, "if you meet the buddha on the road, kill him". This is to say, you will not find buddha outside of yourself, you will find him within yourself. The scattering at babel seems to enforce this point... god is saying that you will not approach god by gathering together, you will each one of you have to find god on your own.

And yet, we need each other. A business needs its customers, a customer needs a business. A leader needs followers, a follower needs leaders. We are not, each of us, cast into the world to make our own way alone, we are cast into a world full of many different people, and must use them, be used by them, love them, hate them, interact with them, to get along. Is it so very odd that our languages are so very different? Even if you put two people together who have grown up with the same language, and the same culture, and the same beliefs, they will at times have difficulties in communicating with each other.

We strive to come together, god strives to remind us that sometimes we need to be alone. God has created us in a way that forces us to be alone, and yet, we must also work together.

This does not only apply to language. This also applies to religion. This is why I said I've been thinking of the tower, not as a historical story, but as a parable about something else. I've been seeing it as a parable about religion. There are many ways to say god, there are as many ways to reach him. This is not to be fought, it is the way the world *is*. God is infinate, but we cannot comprehend infinity, and so we attempt to make him finite, and definable. This is not for us to do.

And if you see god in the woods, and another person says, no, god is not in the woods, god is in the sky, how does this other person know what you can see? This person can barely speak to you, how can he see from your eyes?

God has created us many, and different. God has created paths for us, many and different. It is our responsibility to find the path that god has lain out for us. And maybe that path is different for you than it is for me. That is well, that is what god has intended for you. Perhaps, god wants you to be a terrible warning, rather than a shining example. That is the way of things.

Insight #6: Reincarnation

I have always found reincarnation much more appealing than one life, then you die, and go to heaven or hell. Perhaps this is because I want more from my life than simply be good or else. I want to learn. There is only so much that I, being born of my parents, and being raised as I have been, can learn. I hope that, when I die, my soul, my essential self, will come back, able to follow another path, able to learn different things, able to see things that I, in this body cannot.

There is of course, the practical argument against reincarnation, the fact that there are more people alive now than there have ever been before. Where, people argue, are all these new souls coming from? I don't know. Perhaps some souls are spontaneously generated. Or, perhaps... well, have you noticed that there are less animals around these days? Perhaps, if you are a whale, and you are a very good (or very bad) whale you get reborn as a human. I can't answer that. Maybe, if I'm very good in this life, I'll get to spend another life resting, and live as a pampered housecat. That would be nice.

[JaceSan]

Which religions believe in animal reincarnation?

My limited understanding of reincarnation is that it takes place so people can learn and evolve. It seems that animals don't need this evolution because they act on their instincts and aren't bothered by moral dilemmas.

I hope we don't come back as animals. I'd probably come back as some predators main course.

[Derico]

I believe that reincarnation plays parts in hinduism & buddhism.

[erisesoteric]

Jace, from what I understand (again, limited understanding) of Hinduism and Buddhism, both hold that there is very little difference between man and animal. So there is not so much of a jump between being a man, and being a whale to them as it would be to a western mind.