I think this belongs in the Seekers DIR because of late I've been feeling a kinship with those who are doubting their beliefs, or looking for something.
I joke about my backlog of reading and the books I've been collecting, as well as readings on the 'net, mostly Wiki which I know is not the best source. Though if you follow the citations and references, sometimes it's extremely accurate. If the sources are accurate, of course.
Anyway, I've decided that a lot of the books I've collected and thought I wanted to delve into, namely philosophies and schools of Vedanta, meditation techniques, yoga, sadhana, are going to get packed away. I'm not really sure I want to read a full biography of Swami Vivekananda or Paramahansa Yogananda, or treatises on yoga and the Yoga Sutras of Patajnali. Maybe after a time when and IF I don't miss them, I'll donated them to the library. I am even considering scaling down my shrine, carefully bubble-wrapping some (most?) of my idols. It was, I think, my OCPD that caused me to be like a kid in a candy store grabbing books and worship items. I've spent a lot of money, which I probably should not have, given my personal financial situation.
At the risk of offending people, which is certainly not my intent, I even find some of the religious stories, writings and prescriptions to be utter nonsense. I'm not even sure anymore (at least at this point in time) who or what God is and how he is represented! But I do believe the quotes in my signature; admittedly I am an unabashed universalist, monist and panentheist; perhaps even my deist tendencies are surfacing again. Though I'm not opposed to polytheism subsuming to monism and monotheism. That's henotheism.
I've always been more than a bit of a skeptic, so this quotation, especially the last line, makes an enormous amount of sense to me...
Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it.
Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many.
Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books.
Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders.
Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations.
But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it. The Buddha
I think I need to coast in neutral again, as I have done in the past, and sort things out. This is where I think my particular method of meditation will be of great help. It has in the past.
These are just some musings that I've wrestled with for a while now and decided to come clean, as it were. There, I said it.
I joke about my backlog of reading and the books I've been collecting, as well as readings on the 'net, mostly Wiki which I know is not the best source. Though if you follow the citations and references, sometimes it's extremely accurate. If the sources are accurate, of course.
Anyway, I've decided that a lot of the books I've collected and thought I wanted to delve into, namely philosophies and schools of Vedanta, meditation techniques, yoga, sadhana, are going to get packed away. I'm not really sure I want to read a full biography of Swami Vivekananda or Paramahansa Yogananda, or treatises on yoga and the Yoga Sutras of Patajnali. Maybe after a time when and IF I don't miss them, I'll donated them to the library. I am even considering scaling down my shrine, carefully bubble-wrapping some (most?) of my idols. It was, I think, my OCPD that caused me to be like a kid in a candy store grabbing books and worship items. I've spent a lot of money, which I probably should not have, given my personal financial situation.
At the risk of offending people, which is certainly not my intent, I even find some of the religious stories, writings and prescriptions to be utter nonsense. I'm not even sure anymore (at least at this point in time) who or what God is and how he is represented! But I do believe the quotes in my signature; admittedly I am an unabashed universalist, monist and panentheist; perhaps even my deist tendencies are surfacing again. Though I'm not opposed to polytheism subsuming to monism and monotheism. That's henotheism.
I've always been more than a bit of a skeptic, so this quotation, especially the last line, makes an enormous amount of sense to me...
Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it.
Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many.
Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books.
Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders.
Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations.
But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it. The Buddha
I think I need to coast in neutral again, as I have done in the past, and sort things out. This is where I think my particular method of meditation will be of great help. It has in the past.
These are just some musings that I've wrestled with for a while now and decided to come clean, as it were. There, I said it.
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