Religious Beliefs @ MindSay

This morning began gloriously, it was raining after all.  I love early morning rains, unlike most others.  The only annoyance being my soaked feet, I have got to get me some boots!  Anyhoos, the morn was made even better as it was accompanied by (Jalauddin) Rumi the 13 century Sufi poet's lovely words.  I made the wise decision in buying one of those littol pocket books, with wonderful Mughal illustrations.  Anyone in to Sufianas here? 

 

This following piece (and of course the subway rockies) stirred my still half awake, drowsy cells:

 

Never Tell

 

Never tell when you leave,

Never tell of your wealth,

Never tell of your beliefs,

There are those waiting

to know of these things,

That they might take advantage of you.

 

Lately, or what seems to me as off late, I notice  people just dying to probe in to other people's affairs and or beliefs.  This would not have been such a ghastly thing if it wasn't done so with the evil intention of finding faults with those convictions. 

 

I am tired of discussions about religion and other personal beliefs.  Personally, I think religions were established to make better  humans of us all, by trying to follow a way of life which teaches us to to live harmoniously among each other, and practice tolerance in regards to one another among many other wonderful exemplars set before us.  Religion supposedly brings people together, but we can all see how that intent went awry.  History vouches for that as most of the major disputes in the world was due to religious strifes, which then led to violent dissentions.  Sometimes these embittered conflicts have lasted so long that we have forgotten exactly when it began and why. 

 

This makes me contemplate on human nature, and its inability to live harmoniously with other species, yes any species really for we do not leave any one out in our haughty discriminations.

 

This is the reason it will always be more important for me to become a better human being, than a pious soul.  I think sometimes, religious doctrines instills loyalty to its own theology so much, that we are by default sundered from others with different beliefs.

 

It makes us feel as if there is only a single method to percieve truth, an approach that is a dangerous concoctation.  Truth must be relative, because that is what is!  What you percieve as truth is not always truth for me, and vice versa.  That is the way it is.  It might be wrong to some and right to others, but it is as is. 

 

Well then, in conclusion, it seems like a very intelligent plan to stick to Rumi's wisdom.  Never tell, shhh.....

featherdawn has inspired me again. I read her letter describing her faith in God, and it brought me thinking about my own beliefs. I was born and raised a Lutheran. My family is, you might say, very religious, from the fathers side. Mothers side is not that much, they are more habit Christians (or was it coffee room Christian the term? ;) ) than true believers. My father's family however, most of them are true believers, who are considered inspirational to other people in faith. Converted a few, and when fathers mother died, 3 priests attended - every one the little place had.

 

I kept my faith in the Christian God and Jesus past my twenties, at which time my faith was strongly tested by a non-believer boyfriend and his friends. I struggled through it, out of stubbornes more than true faith, but after the relationship was ended, I ended up reading Free Thinkers website and decided to leave the church.

 

For some years I decided not to take in any influence on religious sort, not for or against or any other religion. I  had to find the truth in my heart, and only in my own heart. I came to the conclution, that I have lived before. This is not the only life we have had offered, it wasn't the first, it won't be the last. I got memoy flash backs from as early as 3000 years before Christ, in Rome, of a point of view I have never seen in any movie, book or other description of the time. The place was familiar though; the Colosseum (or a similar place). The flashback occured, when I was looking at a sleeping man next to me. He was familiar to me, we had known each other for years in this life, and lost each other, but there he was again. "What is the meaning of you?" I asked in my mind, and an image arose: I was behind bars, probably in a man's body, watching him die on a ground above me by a massive rock thrown on his chest as he was first cast to the ground. I looked at him at a new point of view: The born defect of his chest, rib cage that had been pushed inside, tattoos of an eagle, a panther and a lion that in the tattoo tore his flesh of his chest from within. "A gladiator! We were gladiators!" It dawned on me. And we loved each other then, not as we loved each other in this life, in another way. In both lives we care for each other. I haven't met him in 2 years now, but hardly a day goes by when I don't worry of his well being - the only human on this planet I worry about.

 

So we live more than once, but for what reason? I figured out some basics myself, like we're all in this together, no matter what is the faith we have or don't, we're all a part of someting bigger, physical expressions of "god dust" if you will! Everything that excisted, even the molecules we know of, consist of something even smaller, what I like to call God dust. It connects us all, our feelings and thoughts and experiences - what happens to you, happens to me. (“What you do to one of my least brothers you do to me.”)

 

After figuring out the basics, and having a great conversation about them with a truck driver, he gave me a book. It was time to read. It revealed more apparent facts; What ever is, isn't, and what isn't is. That world was like a weaved cloth; you could see the thread appear on this side, only to disappear and appearing on the other side. Everything was a great contradiction of excisting and not excisting, both at the same time - since there was no time.

 

Another friend came by with another book, that he found by "accident" on his way to me. He is who I call my brother in soul, I do not know who he has been, but he is a significant factor in my circle. And this book I swear by, it is as close to a Bible I have; Neale Donald Walch's Converstions with God. This book explained the absurdity of it all. Life is not about learning, it's not about achieving something, it's truly just the journey; the experience. Now this is where it becomes complicated. Follow me:

 

- In the beginning of time, which doesn't excist, (therefore there will always be) was a God, that has the knowledge of being everything there is, but no experience of being everything there is. To have experience of being everything there is, you must become smaller than everything first. Therefore the world was created. (And since there is no time, other than in our minds in order for us to be able to experience) the world is now being created, going on and ending at once. This I had to explain with time, as if I put it more simply, people will ask, that howcome God, who has everything, needed us for. He needs us, and he doesn't, since there is no time.

- Experience is what we are here for. What ever it is. God - us - couldn't know what it is to love unless he knew what it was to hate. What was tall if there was no short. What was to be happy, if there was no pain. He had to pull himself apart, make us forget where we came from and let us experience, as if we were only human. But we can't stop being a part of him, what ever we do, we can just forget more. All of us reflect the god within us, humanity is like a lamp shade, showing as much of the (Gods) light as there is holes poked in it.

 

I don't believe in Hell for my God doesn't have any use for one. Why would he punish Hitler for something he did for God, as absurd as it may sound to you, giving humanity a standard of dispicable, experience of utter hate and fear. And death - which is only a gate way to a new life.

 

Now, you ask, if God doesn't punish, why would we deside the virtue and goodness in life? I ask you; how many of you these days chooses the behavior in the fear of God? Most Gods forgive anyway, so that's not much of an inspiration either. And those who do evil in the name of God... Well, don't they have the right? As we have the right to stop them or punish them. For in this world, we're in charge. Our will is Gods will, for he put us here to experience everything humanly possible, but his will isn't always ours.

 

Once everything has been experienced, the pieced of God will unite - and who knows, maybe it starts all over again. But what a wonderful, mysterious world it is! For my God says: "If you can imagine it, it can be done, it can be. If you want it to." We all create what we experience, we have selected our life, some of us have volunteered for suffering and fear before we were born. To them we should offer no pitty but our gratefulness. But don't think less of those who don't suffer, for you don't know what they have done in their other lives. Respect those who are wise, for they have lived long and gathered experiences. Respect those who don't understand, since they appear in your life as they are now, but at the same time - since they are no time - appear somewhere else, some other time, being great and sparkling of wisdom eternal.

 

And remember, truth does excist. What we know of it varies. What is, is, without the need of us knowing it.

 

So my sister calls the other day and tells me that in church on sunday she is going to be baptized...again.  Apparently she got 'saved' a couple of weeks ago...again.  She tells me it's for real this time and if that's what she wants and if that's what she believes then that's great.  I'm really happy for her, seriously.  Then she asked me if I would attend the service.

What irritates the hell out of me is that I've 'come out of the closet' so to speak about my own religious views and told my family that I have no desire to go to church services or events.  I'm not Christian and I refuse to be a hypocrite and attend services of a faith I don't believe in.  I wont lie and say I do believe in Christianity.

So why do certain memebers of my family keep asking me if I want to go to Church?  I would not ask them to attend a Pagan ritual when I know full well they would not want to attend.  I would not ask them to compromise their beliefs, lie about their beliefs, or attend an event or service that would make them uncomfortable.

I don't know how to get through to them.  I don't wear my Paganism on my sleeve.  I don't shove it down other people's throats.  If someone asks me a question, I answer it and try to not make them feel uncomfortable while doing so.

I don't belong to a coven (I'm not Wiccan in any case), I don't belong to a Pagan group of any kind.  My faith and beliefs are to me a private and personal thing.

But now I'm thinking that maybe to make them stop asking me to attend services I should be more vocal.

Ugg...I don't know. 

I thought for a theology post I would allow anyone to ask me any question regarding the Islamic faith. So you can ask better questions, keep in mind I believe the Qur'an is the final and perfect Word of God Almighty. I believe all other Scriptures, including but not limited to the Bible and Torah, have been corrupted by humanity or in some cases might be complete fabrications of man. Specially on the Bible and Torah, I believe they still contain some of God's Words, but also the words of man. Even so, they are still useful Scriptures which have many good morals and righteous messages within. As far as the Hadith goes, I only accept it if it agrees entirely with the Qur'an. If the Qur'an neither agrees nor disagrees, then I still do not stake belief upon it. For all important beliefs are contained within the Qur'an.

So have at it. Any question. I will try my best to answer your question, and if I find myself unable I will try to locate a more knowledgable source on the internet.