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I Have Faith In What I See

posted 30th December 2010    Written by: Marian    CATEGORY: All Posts, Life Lesson, Marian, Quarterlife Crisis, Season 3, Spirituality, What I've Learned

One of the issues with being a blogger is that your minister might read that sex post your wrote. Or your mom might see that picture of last Spring’s night in Cancun. You know, the usual difficulties of a life led online.

In this case, what I’d really like to talk to you about is actually inappropriate given the medium in which I write. My struggles with religion and my inability to have faith in anything other than what’s in front of me are deep-rooted and have been part of my quarterlife crisis even before I reached my quarter life.

So instead of causing a rift with folks I don’t want to rift with, let me boil down the basics for you: As I get older I see more and more bad things happening in the world because of religion. War and prejudice. More negativity than support. More judgment than forgiveness. It’s both this and the way I’m wired – for me, faith just isn’t enough.

I have faith believe the sun will come up in the morning. Because I’ve seen it every day for over 23 years.

I have faith believe I will wake up and Sam will be there. Because he always is.

I have faith believe my friends will always support me. Because they’ve never let me down.

I have faith believe my parents will always love me. Because they put up with my crap and are nothing but supportive.

What do you have faith in no matter what? What do you believe because there is always proof?

[photo credit: David Gallagher]

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Religion, a Travel Perspective

posted 28th November 2010    Written by: Lindsey    CATEGORY: Lindsey, Season 3, Spirituality, Travel

I lived in Turkey for a semester in college, where, although technically a secular nation, the population and recent history are primarily Muslim. The city of Istanbul is filled with beautiful mosques, intricate Islamic art, and an echoing call to prayer warbled out of every mosque’s speaker system five times a day. I’d frequently traipse across the city, filled to the brim with everyone from businessmen, to hunched over old women hawking packs of tissues, to giggling children, to the ever-present Turkish man, identifying my American-ness from miles away, to slyly mutter “cok guzel…” (very beautiful…) as I walked past. To shed my shoes and step onto the soft carpet of the empty mosque in between prayer was overwhelmingly peaceful.

It was my first exposure to Islam, still coming as an outsider, from a primarily Christian nation, and a Christian upbringing. I felt no threat to my personal belief system as I watched barefooted men on their knees on the ornately patterned carpets, offering up their prayers. I felt only peace, glad that there was this place for these men to be still and quiet and reflective, in the midst of a bustling city.

I questioned religion, and my own experience. How could I claim that the services I attended were more righteous than these services? How could I argue that one way of expressing love to God was better than another? It started to seem that religion was more exclusive than inclusive. That there were battles of HOW to love God, when in the end, all this religion stuff was a different way of celebrating a higher power full of love.

The memories I have of the Methodist church I grew up in, were of serving my community. The motto was “all are welcome.” There was an an open door kitchen every week to feed anyone in our community. We had an annual fundraiser for world hunger. In high school, while all my fellow National Honor Society members were scrambling for community service work, I had mine completed halfway through the year via my own personal children’s education project in the church basement. It was an awesome, inspired community to be part of.

I never felt exclusion as a part of this religion. But as I was exposed to more and more opinions of religion, as I went to away to college, and traveled more, I found a general consensus that religion was accepting one story as fact, and refusing all the rest.

This weekend I was watching Donnie Darko (again!), and on the subject of God, he hypnotically rambles, “It’s like I could spend my whole life debating it over and over again, weighing the pros and cons and in the end I still wouldn’t have any proof so I just… I just don’t debate it anymore.”

There’s no right answer to the religion question. So I’m not going to argue.

I think religion is a beautiful way to connect to a higher power, and with others who seek this connection. But any extremism, exclusion, or control by a man-made system… count me out.

As I’ve grown up, I have stepped away from identifying with a specific belief system. I have deep respect for Islam and Christianity, as they are the religions I know most about. I have been practicing meditation and self-knowledge through a variety of Eastern religions and yogic philosophies. I am always moved when I am a part of a spiritual service, of any type. It’s exhilarating to feel the electricity in the air of a group of people celebrating life and God.

In the end, I just think it’s all about love and kindness. Operating by a moral code that encourages positivity in the human spirit.

My mission is “to share life and love in a beautiful world” and I guess we can say that’s my spiritual guideline as well.

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Love Is My Religion

posted 26th November 2010    Written by: Alisha    CATEGORY: Alisha, All Posts, Life Lesson, Quarterlife Crisis, Season 3, Spirituality, What I've Learned

I don’t know how to have this conversation without offending someone.  (Aren’t religion and politics like, the top two things you shouldn’t talk about if you want to keep your friends?) If this were my personal blog, it would be a different story.  But it’s not.  And though I take pride in telling my truth, my whole truth, and nothing but my truth, I’m afraid that this post will fall short.  And so this is what I have to give.

 

 

 

Love is my religion.  Compassion is my religion.  Connection, Openness, Tolerance, Graciousness are my religion.

 

I have faith that as long as I try my best to be loving to all in this life, then I will either:

1.  Become something other than a dung beetle in my next life

2.  Read peacefully in heaven

3. Die knowing I was a good person

I believe that the world is my church.  That the mountains are my altar, the ground is my pew and the raindrops are my angels.  And each of you sing in the choir.

(photo credit)

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5 Things I Believe About Spirit, Soul, and Faith

posted 9th November 2010    Written by: Doniree    CATEGORY: Doniree, Inspiration, Season 3, Spirituality, What I've Learned

Southern Baptist childhood.  One year in a Jesuit Catholic university.  Friends of all faiths.  A year in a hippie-like, yoga-fied, meditating near-mountain town.  Spirituality.  I’ve had a lot of religion in my life, largely Western influences, Christianity, prayer, repentance, and judgment.

In the last year or two I have identified much more with a broader worldview, more similar to Eastern religions, but not identifying as Buddhist, Taoist, or Hindu.  I’m learning, exploring.  Exposing myself to new world views since as a youngin’, I was simply taught that everything else was wrong, but never really understood what “everything else” meant.

I also know that it’s tough for me to discuss religion and spirituality sometimes, as I don’t want to imply that my practice is the right practice or that one idea trumps another.  I don’t know that – I don’t have the authority to say that.  But I know what works for me, I know what resonates.  I know what keeps me grounded, what keeps me connected to my world.  I’ve boiled some of what I do know down to a series of simple, straight-forward beliefs.  These are a few of those:

  1. I believe in love and kindness.
  2. I believe that religion doesn’t make you spiritual and spirituality doesn’t make you religious.
  3. I believe in a higher power and in Divinity, and I believe that that Divinity is present in all beings.
  4. I believe that yoga, meditation, clarity, self/Self-awareness, and intention are crucial in my own spiritual practice.
  5. I believe that I don’t know everything.

I don’t believe in religions that teach love and kindness but don’t exude it.  I don’t like labels, but would rather see evidence of faith and love that comes from within.  I believe that ideas and acts like prayer and putting it out in the Universe are synonymous and reflect our different perceptions of what God means and who God is, and that neither of those things take away from the presence of Divinity.  I believe that I connect with my spirit and soul through yoga, Svādhyāya (self-study), relationships with others, and my relationship with the earth and my world.

I believe that this is where I’m at after decades of an upbringing in church, a few years of a dedicated yoga practice, and an attempt to reconcile the two, think critically about the two, and discern what I can and can’t accept.  I believe that yoga isn’t sacrilegious and that pastors who have been saying that yoga is the devil’s work are total whack jobs.  I believe that there is plenty more to learn and that as someone who is a seeker, that I will continue to learn and that the more I learn the more I will realize how much more there is to discover.

I believe that I love this journey.

What do you believe and how did you get there?

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What Do You Believe?

posted 27th April 2010    Written by: Nicole Antoinette    CATEGORY: Nicole Antoinette, Quarterlife Crisis, Season 2, Spirituality

Should religion be a taboo topic? I don’t know, but it is.

Probably because our spiritual beliefs are so intertwined with how we understand ourselves and our world that the line between different and intolerant is wispy and translucent. This line, the line between “I don’t believe what you believe but I accept you” and “I don’t believe what you believe and therefore you’re wrong” is so fine that it often gets swept away in the heat of feeling that what we believe is not just one choice, but the choice.

And I don’t agree with that, with the taboo-ness of it all. Just like I don’t think there’s only one way to love someone, one way to succeed, one way to learn, one way to give back, one way to leave your mark on the world, I don’t think there’s a single way to connect and express your spirituality.

You know what I do believe?

I believe you’re either a good person or you’re not. And if you are, if you treat yourself with respect and you treat other people with respect and you’re kind and compassionate and understanding, if you’re honest and you’re open and you live your life on purpose, then it doesn’t matter. You can go to church (or not), to temple (or not), you can meditate (or not), feel close to God (or not), and we can all still exist together and crash into each other in big and meaningful ways.

I believe that every single person can learn something from every single other person.

I believe in the interconnectedness of it all and think that every cause has an effect and every action a reaction. I believe that you get what you put out there and I believe that there’s an enormous and vibrantly dynamic universal energy and that throughout our lives, doors won’t open for us until we’re ready to walk through them.

I believe in creating your own reality, in taking responsibility for your happiness and not being passive in the flowing current of your life. I believe that there’s a difference between fair and equal, and that things don’t need to be equal to be fair. I believe in the power of creating your own set of beliefs and then living them, really living them, each and every day. I believe we’re not just capable, but powerful, far more electrically powerful than we ever give ourselves credit for.

I believe in giving yourself the credit you deserve.

I believe it’s up to us to lay the groundwork for who we want to be, to camp out in our souls and build and rebuild until the foundation we’ve created fully supports us. I believe in introspective reflection, in celebrating when we’re right and openly admitting when we’re wrong because we, each of us, are wrong all the time.

And I believe that’s how it’s supposed to be, that being wrong and tripping up and falling into the hole is how we learn, how we’re able to test the strength of that foundation we’ve built and fill in the cracks along the way.

photo credit: kevin dooley

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