Spirituality

[meggha]

Not sure if this is/has-recently-been a topic, but this is another issue, like dreams, that takes up most of my thought.
Here's my starter for the topic: I feel it's necessary to explore and embrace some form of spirituality in order to be more human and more understanding of oneself and the rest of existence.  what do y'all think?

As for me, I've realized in my last year as an undergraduate student that I'm intensely spiritual, of the Buddhist kind, and that this has been the most important step in my self-discovery/self-love/creativity....etcetcetc. I have also found that it is not only about a problem of myself but just as much a problem of the rest of the world. It is all one, all interconnected, I am not separate from anything else.....
Buddhist ramblings, sorry... I just went my whole life thinking I didn't need any definition to my spirituality, until recently accepting it. And it's only made life more beautiful and interesting.

[tomEisenbraun]

We're going to get ourselves in trouble here, Meggha, but it's well worth it.

As I was growing up, my stepdad was going through the process of becoming an ordained Episcopal priest (now Anglican after the Episcopal church all but exploded over the ordination of Bishop Gene Robinson). I really looked up to my parents for their faith and my stepdad was so adamant about the Answer being in God. But I think he had already been through so much and done so much refining of his view to get to that point where he understood it that way that he lost the ability to communicate it to me. So I spent middle school through the first half of college understanding that I was a miserable sinner and that there was no hope for me and that the world was only 10,000 years old, etc...

Then I finally moved out of Christian school.

Took a course on Black Holes and another basic astronomy course and realized that, yes, indeed, the universe is 14.5 billion light years across, which means it's been around for almost 15 billion years. Evolution has had time to occur, and, though we're still putting pieces together on it, the concept is beautiful. As is the incredible science behind how our entire universe was formed. The science behind it is compelling, and at the same time awe-inspiring.

I had been starting to feel for a while like the church didn't have all the answers, and this all but confirmed a lot of it. I realized that a literal reading of the Bible doesn't hold too strongly, and trying to interpret Revelations is an utter mindfuck. Not to mention all of the horrible guilt that gets heaped on inside the walls of church.

I haven't been to church regularly in two years, and have been so freed by it. Started to understand how to see the good in all people, and that no one out there needs to be converted to anything. People need love for sure, but you don't show them love by cramming dogma and theology down their throats. People are people. Know and love them as such, and the world glows a little brighter. It doesn't matter what religion they subscribe to. What I've started to figure out is that everyone needs an answer to what we're doing here to some extent at some point. My stepdad found himself so wrapped up in theology and the need to become a priest because his brain only thrives on intense order and organization. So his journey through Christian theology makes his world make sense. And that's a beautiful thing for him. But it also makes it reeeeally hard to discuss spirituality with him, because he knows I know everything he's taught me, and now I'm "turning against it." I like to think I've just opened up my doors to an entire world of beautiful people.

So I don't know how to define myself. Definitely spiritual, but unsubscribed to anything besides love. There's a wide world of wisdom out there, and it wouldn't have endured so many centuries if it was all wrong. So I'm very curious about it, looking forward to getting the hell out of school so that I can really start focusing on my learning and make time to start reading the books that I've been wanting to dig into for a while now.

And with that, I sleep.

[ALady]

I think everyone is a Buddhist in college.

[mjkoehler]

I think everyone is a Buddhist in college.

I was drunk in college. Does that count?

[capt. scotty]

I think everyone is a Buddhist smoked buddha in college.

fixed

[ritchiem4812]

I think everyone is a Buddhist smoked buddha in college.

fixed

Looks like I missed out on something big by not going to college. I'd better start making up for it now. :)

[meggha]

trouble, tom? there's no trouble, none at all.
thanks for all your words, they're very thoughtful. i too am trying to dig myself out of a dualistic (mainly christian) outlook on life that has dominated my existence. finding buddhism has helped a lot with this, but it's all about spirituality. that's all that's important when it comes to a religion is the personal spirituality in each being, and also in realizing that our actions greatly affect our surroundings and vice versa.
i have always been very spiritual, but after actually accepting this part of me, i've needed a little more definition than just love. but that's not to say that having faith in humanity through love is a bad thing. it's just a personal preference- i need more definition, organization to these intense feelings.