Can you be spiritual without being religious?

The answer to the OP title is yes, you can be spiritual without being religious.

First off let's identify what is religion and what is spiritual.

All religions are cults. I have provided the dictionary definition below for those who object but technically that statement is correct.

http://www.dictionary.com/browse/cult

Yes, all of the NEGATIVE connotations of the term "cult" apply to religions too and that is why they suck when it comes to actually helping anyone achieve a state of spirituality. The eastern religions are better at it achieving the goal of spirituality largely because they have not been as abused as Christianity has as a means to exercise power over the minds of others.

Now let's take a look at the term spiritual.

http://www.dictionary.com/browse/spiritual

The first two definitions are largely defined by religion and, as such, are MISLEADING. Religions have nefariously co-opted spirituality as a means to control others.

Scientific studies were conducted to see if it was possible to determine a "spiritual" state and to that end they enlisted the help of those who said that they could achieve it at will. What those studies identified was that it was essentially a meditative mental state. It is worth noting that these same meditative states of mind have been detected in other non-human mammals. I will provide a coupe of links below that further elaborate on these studies for those who are interested in reading them.

I am a spiritual atheist which means that I can achieve a meditative state of mind at will. What I have also been able to determine is that there is no connection to any other entity such as a deity. What one is perceiving is entirely within oneself while in this state. How in tune you are with yourself, as in "know thyself", is all that matters in this meditative "spiritual" state. The more comfortable you are with yourself the better the experience becomes. You cannot lie to yourself to achieve this state which is why IMO, religion is an impediment since it requires self delusion. The benefits of this meditative state of mind are well worth the effort of achieving it. No religious beliefs are necessary and are not going to be of much aid in my personal experience. What does work is being honest with yourself about yourself and that means accepting yourself as who you are.

It is because I can achieve this "spiritual" mental state that I have a keen appreciation of this world and our universe. The infinite complexity from the nano to the macro is awesome and contemplating it is rewarding.

The OP mentioned an obligation to share these insights with others in a religion. I feel no such duty since I belong to no religion and none would accept me since I would not accept their dogma. It was only because the question was asked and reading the thread that I perceived any rationale to share my own "spirituality". I have no expectations of any other "life" which is why I appreciate every minute of the life I have now. I give back to this world as much as I am able both in terms of people and the planet itself because I would like others to have the same opportunity to experience what I have done. I have no expectation that I will be remembered beyond 3 generations hence but I hope that the love that I have experienced and shared will be passed on along the generations to come. If that happens then it is love that is immortal and all that matters.

Thus spake Derideo.



https://www.theatlantic.com/health/...o-brains-during-spiritual-experiences/361882/

https://thoughtcatalog.com/brianna-...eing-in-tune-with-yourself-changes-your-life/

 

That sir...Borders on the Beautiful.

 

So you just wish to make your thoughts appear special by giving them a hip name that eludes to the supernatural?
Smart and cool

 

What is terrifying, thanks to the boredom that would ensue, is not being able to end the boredom.

Spiritual, yes, religious, not so much, as most preach homophobia and misogyny.

Regards
DL

 

This scholar speak of Islam as well as Christianity which would be 600 CE. but Christianity seems to have begun earlier since Rabbi Hillel railed against it inn the days of Jesus.

http://bigthink.com/videos/what-is-god-2-2

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/03132009/watch.html

Rabbi Hillel, the older contemporary of Jesus, said that when asked to sum up the whole of Jewish teaching, while he stood on one leg, said, "The Golden Rule. That which is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor. That is the Torah. And everything else is only commentary. Now, go and study it."

Please listen as to what is said about literal reading.

"Origen, the great second or third century Greek commentator on the Bible said that it is absolutely impossible to take these texts literally. You simply cannot do so. And he said, "God has put these sort of conundrums and paradoxes in so that we are forced to seek a deeper meaning."

Matt 7;12 So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.

Regards
DL

 

I just follow the dictionary definitions.

Regards
DL

 

I don't think it was his idea to depict God that way.

 

A mystic is beyond "religion".

 

So who is Christ to you then?

 

Ok. You said "Indeed, which ended when Christianity then Islam stupidly started reading their myths literally" and I took that to be a reference to Christianity, which would mean the NT. I know that the ancient Jews took the Torah (OT) to be an actual report of history. But the early Christians took the words of Jesus as instruction to seek the hidden, spiritual meaning of the NT. Origen reflected that view. But later, "Christians stupidly started reading their myths literally" again, as you said. THAT is what I was referring to when I asked when that happened. Maybe you don't know when that happened. It was as the Pope's instructions on it spread when seeking spiritual insight was "discouraged" by him. And that was during the 1600s and early 1700s.

 

"Christ" is the Self in all, and realized as a consequence of surrender and thereby "overcoming the world" in us.

 

I do not see it that way and neither did the way the Jews showed Jesus who said that the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath. I extrapolate from that that Jesus would also say that religions and Gods were made for man and not man for them. Rabbi Hillel would likely voice that as well from what he said in that quote.

http://www.raceandhistory.com/historicalviews/doubtingexodus.htm

Further, in Karaite Jewry, the more important oral tradition, man is put above God which is what we Gnostic Christians do, after all, we created all the Gods.

I agree and it continues even today. Listen to this a hole.



Regards
DL

 

I would say more, --- recognizing the world for what it is. Evolving perfection and the best of all possible worlds, because it is the only possible world given entropy.

Regards
DL

 

Less corruption is always good. But one wonders how this could be determined? For it would depend upon how much corruption was discovered, and how much is never known about. Seems like a very difficult thing, given its nature, to determine that it is "much less". For instance with the S and L crisis, 1800 people were indicted and 800 convicted, within the financial sector. Since that time we have not seen such numbers involving corruption. And yet holder allowed banksters to go free for money laundering drug cartel money. So , it can look to be down but that is because we stopped looking for it and prosecuting it.

 

Are you suggesting that Jesus murdered God the Father?

If so, I am thoroughly confused.

If not, then I have no idea just what you might have meant...

Already answered.

Let me put it this way:

Each magnet has both a North Pole and a South Pole.

If you place the North Pole of one magnet near the South Pole of another magnet, the two will attract each other.

If you place either two North Poles together, or the two South Poles together, the two will repel each other.

 

So to be reborn in Christ is to be reborn in oneself?

 

It is to die to "self" as I suggested, to discover the Presence within, and then to discover that Presence is your true Identity and Self and not the body and its mind. It is the realization as a direct, immediate experience in consciousness, "I, Christ". Read Meister Eckhart's writings and those of other Christian mystics.

 

I guess that all we can do is trust that the demographers know what they are doing and as peer revues do happen, I think we can trust that they are not missing to much, while I agree with you that they are likely missing some.

Regards
DL

 

No. That would have been morally acceptable to me. The Father not stepping up to his own demand for a bribe/sacrifice is not.

Here is what we said and I do not see an answer.

=======
pjohns said: ↑
And you claim that Christianity is to blame for its "homophobias" (just why the plural, I have no idea) and "misogyny."

My reply.
I do indeed. Do you deny that Christianity preaches for both?
==========

People are not magnets and magnets cannot love and that is why gays attract each other. Yours is a false analogy.

Regards
DL

 

But that would put one into the position of always accepting what one is told, and what one is told to think. I cannot do that. I was taught differently in the 50s. I guess I had some really good teachers. Or it is just a part of my genetics to never just accept, but always question, and then seek out what the truth is.

No matter how good someone is, there is an obstacle to obtaining the numbers that would allow one to say we are less corrupt as a species today than ever before. And I mentioned the obstacle. If you used objective data, you would have to look at how many cases were brought each year, involving corruption, and compare that to the past, when adjusted for population growth. And if the numbers were going down over time, because when you looked farther, the enforcement of anti corruption waned over the years, for various reasons then this becomes important and intrinsic context when looking at the numbers. Right?

I only bring this up because of the fact that we no longer seek out corruption and prosecute it as we did at least under reagan. And if you do not seek it out, of course the numbers will be down. Given the natural relationship involved.

And so stats must be questioned. Another example of stats is that our jobless rate is looking to be so low. 4 percent or so. And yet the actual rate is closer to 21.5 percent, if you are actually seeking real numbers instead of the official numbers that are skewed to look different from reality.

So questioning reveals that many times the devil really is in the details. I am quite discouraged by the fact that far too many americans never question much of anything when it comes to the world in which they live and the info provided to them by MSM, Intel and other gov't sources. They are being told what to think, and for some reason seldom question much of anything. And if you do, the tin foil hat card is played promptly. Or the Putin Stooge card, and other cards as well. We apparently should not question. Well, you can do that in science, but elsewhere? Nope.

 

Well, if you believe orthodox christian theology, yes, for "He gave His only begotten son". And He had to have known before he gave Him, that he would be murdered for teaching words directly from God, using the person called Jesus. A Way for the divine to communicate directly with man, using another biological human body.

So God was complicit in that murder. But given that we are spirit and only inhabit a body that always dies, no one really died. JC just went back to his original, living, state. So looks like god was agreeable to another physical organism to die, just as they die each minute of the day. Clearly given the spiritual reality of man, the body ain't sh*t! it was created to expend. So what is the big deal then? ha ha ha.

Jesus was murdered because what he was teaching was not agreeable to what the judaism of his day was teaching. As JC said, in regards to the priests, "you will not enter in, and are also keeping others out". Paraphrased. This is an important statement, that JC uttered. And it goes back to the good news, the gospel. That good news was that the kingdom is at hand, that is, within reach of humanity...accessible. In the living NOW. It is not up in the sky, or some other physical place that we can see with our eyes. It is within man himself, but it must be sought and found, or it may as well not exist at all. Almost like it is asleep in the sleep of ignorance. But the sleeper can awaken!

But this was anathema to judaism, and their understanding of God, and man's place. And it was heresy, worthy of death. For no one must ever question what you are told by the priests to believe. Priests cannot be wrong. And yet, they supposedly were.

So perhaps God gave his only son to die, the body which he inhabited, for God knew that contradicting judaism would result in those stiff necked jews in having JC murdered. If they could not do it themselves, the romans would do it. But the message that god wanted to tell man was so important as to be worth the death of another physical organism, that he himself inhabited.

Of course that gospel, that good news, was ignored so that the first church did not use it as their foundation. They had a religion about jesus instead of the religion of jesus, based upon what god personally told man, by using another human body. So anything that looked like genuine christianity died at that point. And we got a fake christianity. A religion that would torture and murder for the next 2000 years, all in the name of god of course. They never tried to emulate christ at all. Instead, they seemed to be thinking, "believe in my savior's blood or I will drown you in your own".

 

They produce the numbers only. Belief in them they cannot control or hinder us from verifying their work. If peer revues and past historical accuracy is in doubt, then be a peer and prove them wrong and their lies, or inaccuracies will come to light.

Sure. I have seen some statisticians come up with some stats that were way off but those guys were quick to show what they had done in terms of what was included or added to the statistical base to show why the deviation looked so severe. It is quite hard to fudge statistical numbers.

I cannot judge that without the stats. Most of those stats are world stats. Your logic is sound of course but I do not know if our various police and security forces are particularly effected by who is in power. They are there to protect the public and not cater to a particular party.

Many citizens of many lands are in that boat, but I agree that the U.S. is one of the worst offenders.

I am not well formally educated but there seems to be more red necks, education wise, in the U.S. than elsewhere.

That might have to do more with your use of jails which leads the world, statistically, than all other first world nations. Jail does not educate much.

I read your last post.
My kingdom for such eloquence.

I just sound mean when I say about the same in my own roughshod way.

Regards
DL

 

You could be right about the stats. I just dunno. I might find the time to dig deeper which is what my own mind would require in order to come down on your side.

It just seems to be one of those things that is almost impossible to determine, with many variables involved. It is also said, using stats that we are less violent today than ever before in our history. And yet in my own area and all across the south, violence is so much greater in my own area than say the 1950s. We didn't even have road rage back then. Or at least if we did, it was so much rarer from just observing ones reality as today.

Personally I hope the violence stats are correct and reflect reality. And it is easier to accept than the stats that say corruption is down historically.

 

I think that most of the evil stats we track follow poverty and poor education.

We seem to be getting a handle on poverty which reduces the number of uneducated/criminally inclined.

https://www.economist.com/leaders/2013/06/01/towards-the-end-of-poverty

If you are a better statistician than I, the firm/university that produced the following has a great interactive statistical engines that you can use. I show the long term poverty stats but hey have tons of other information.



Regards
DL

 

So who was Jesus Christ?