The Religious

[Sacred_Heart]

How long do you spend in prayer every day? By prayer I mean any of the following; prayer, reflection or meditation.

Do you have a place to worship at your home? Do you have an altar? Do you have idols? Burn incense? Perform rituals? Study texts?

Describe your typical day in worship.

 

[Riverwolf]

Unfortunately, not much. Most of my devotion is reading Holy Texts, thinking about/meditating on God and Gods, and japa (repetition of Holy Names and mantras.)

I do have a shrine and a murthi(devotional image) of Lord Ganesha(Lord of Knowledge and Obstacles), and the ability to perform aarti (worship with light), but I don't often do.

So, yeah, I'm not exactly a model of my faith.

 

[dyanaprajna2011]

Mine generally begins with a moment of silence, to prepare my mind. Then, I might light some incense. After which, I'll do some chanting (sometimes religious texts only, sometimes texts and mantras), followed by meditation. Afterward, the study of religious texts. Throughout the day, I'll chant texts and mantras to myself, or keep my mind on a koan, in order to remain mindful. In the evenings, generally only meditation, although sometimes I'll chant some mantras as well, followed by more study of texts.

 

[ChristineES]

My prayer is more of a personal kind. I am always "talking" to God, not out loud, but in my head. I don't burn incense, and I don't have an altar. I have some religious kind of art but I don't bow down and pray to it. I wear a small silver cross around my neck, but I don't worship that, either.

 

[Gjallarhorn]

How long do you spend in prayer every day? By prayer I mean any of the following; prayer, reflection or meditation.

Do you have a place to worship at your home? Do you have an altar? Do you have idols? Burn incense? Perform rituals? Study texts?

Describe your typical day in worship.

Very rarely do I feel the need to pray in the most literal sense. I meditate and reflect about once a day, usually in that annoying time between going to bed and falling asleep (terrible habit, by the way).

No strict place of worship, a sort of pseudo-altar, a few idols, never held much of an interest in incense, a ritual about once a week, and studying texts almost daily.

 

[Thief]

How long do you spend in prayer every day? By prayer I mean any of the following; prayer, reflection or meditation.

Do you have a place to worship at your home? Do you have an altar? Do you have idols? Burn incense? Perform rituals? Study texts?

Describe your typical day in worship.

It begins the night before...I turn my thoughts to God.
I hope to dream of heaven....and do.

I awake in the morning, and do things like anyone else.
Except that I drink every drink...and breathe every breath.
Reflection and meditation are simultaneous to life.

Prayer is something I do to draw the Spirit to the situation at hand.
(I don't bother the Boss unless I have to.)
Repetitious prayer is forbidden.
Prayer in the sight of others...forbidden.

I have compared scriptures and their sources.
At some point, quoting should subside.....speak for yourself.

Rituals are foolish.
There are no works of the hand that will justify you before the angels.

 

[Tarheeler]

I do different things throughout the day....

I say Shema several times a day, as well as as many blessing as I can manage.

I try to spend at least an hour a day studying either Torah or something else having to do with Judaism and religion.

 

[Terrywoodenpic]

I do not have set times for prayer or reflection. Almost anything can set me off on a reverie.
Though my last thoughts at night are usually concerned with God and the prayer.

 

[nnmartin]

My main prayer action is in reading religious texts and books and a brief period of reflection in the morning.

I have a magic crystal that I use in the evenings,
mainly just holding it whilst watching tv or having a coffee.

For extra philosophical purposes I have 4 other objects - a crucifix, another small crystal, and Buddha and Shiva figurines.

 

[Breathe]

I try to meditate daily -- but I often miss it. My meditation is usually 10 or 20 minutes.
My most frequent form of meditation is either repetition of the name of God, or of gods, and pondering the nature of the Divine. Prayer, I don't do very often. Sometimes. I don't know if I believe it has any actual external effect, but it does have an internal one. That's good enough for me.


I have two altars in my home, one upstairs and one downstairs. The one downstairs is dedicated to the genius loci and to the Supreme Absolute: Īśvara, Wahegurū, Shangdi, Heaven, whatever one wishes to call It. My upstairs one is for personal reflection, with Buddhist prayer cards, pictures of Hindu deities, etc.


Idols, yes. I have an image of Lord Gaṇeśa in my living room, and some images of Siddhartha Gautama (the Buddha), as well as Guan Yin (the Chinese, feminine version of the male Avalokiteśvara), and some pictures images, one of the Hindu goddess Kālī, and one of Kṛṣṇa in his Universal Form.

I offer incense at any or all of the pictures whenever I feel like it. I burn incense even without offering it to icons.

I have my own little rituals, but none from any of the paths I draw from. I do what feel right.

Study texts, yes. I do. A lot. Probably my favourite method of devotion.

 

[BruceDLimber]

Do you have a place to worship at your home? Do you have an altar? Do you have idols? Burn incense? Perform rituals? Study texts?

Only the last.

And the Baha'i scriptures say this:

"Should any one read but one Verse of the Verses with fragrance and spirituality, it shall avail more unto him than to read with slothfulness all the Books of God...."

Peace,

Bruce

 

[Sacred_Heart]

Unfortunately, not much. Most of my devotion is reading Holy Texts, thinking about/meditating on God and Gods, and japa (repetition of Holy Names and mantras.)

I do have a shrine and a murthi(devotional image) of Lord Ganesha(Lord of Knowledge and Obstacles), and the ability to perform aarti (worship with light), but I don't often do.

So, yeah, I'm not exactly a model of my faith.

You say that you are not exactly a model of your faith. Do you intend to improve? Is it something you plan on doing but don't have time for (for whatever reason)?

 

[Sacred_Heart]

Mine generally begins with a moment of silence, to prepare my mind. Then, I might light some incense. After which, I'll do some chanting (sometimes religious texts only, sometimes texts and mantras), followed by meditation. Afterward, the study of religious texts. Throughout the day, I'll chant texts and mantras to myself, or keep my mind on a koan, in order to remain mindful. In the evenings, generally only meditation, although sometimes I'll chant some mantras as well, followed by more study of texts.

so would you say that you are devoted to this faith (practice)? Can you give us an example of a koan that you have meditated on recently?

 

[Sacred_Heart]

My prayer is more of a personal kind. I am always "talking" to God, not out loud, but in my head. I don't burn incense, and I don't have an altar. I have some religious kind of art but I don't bow down and pray to it. I wear a small silver cross around my neck, but I don't worship that, either.

would you consider yourself religious?

 

[Sacred_Heart]

Very rarely do I feel the need to pray in the most literal sense. I meditate and reflect about once a day, usually in that annoying time between going to bed and falling asleep (terrible habit, by the way).

No strict place of worship, a sort of pseudo-altar, a few idols, never held much of an interest in incense, a ritual about once a week, and studying texts almost daily.

What kind of idols? And what kind of texts do you study?

 

[Sacred_Heart]

It begins the night before...I turn my thoughts to God.
I hope to dream of heaven....and do.

I awake in the morning, and do things like anyone else.
Except that I drink every drink...and breathe every breath.
Reflection and meditation are simultaneous to life.

Prayer is something I do to draw the Spirit to the situation at hand.
(I don't bother the Boss unless I have to.)
Repetitious prayer is forbidden.
Prayer in the sight of others...forbidden.

I have compared scriptures and their sources.
At some point, quoting should subside.....speak for yourself.

Rituals are foolish.
There are no works of the hand that will justify you before the angels.

So you reject religious practice? You're obviously a person of faith, so how do you bring structure to your faith? Is it all through the mind rather than the body?

 

[Sacred_Heart]

I do different things throughout the day....

I say Shema several times a day, as well as as many blessing as I can manage.

I try to spend at least an hour a day studying either Torah or something else having to do with Judaism and religion.

What is Shema? Can you give an example of?

 

[Sacred_Heart]

I do not have set times for prayer or reflection. Almost anything can set me off on a reverie.
Though my last thoughts at night are usually concerned with God and the prayer.

Can you share with us some of those last thoughts at night concerning God and prayer?

 

[JacobEzra.]

I have been very busy with school and usually get up at 4am to go to bed as soon as I get home as 5pm.

But I do have a special spot in my room with many holy cards, but no actual Icons. And I never can light incense. But I try to pray every morning and night and before I eat, etc. As well as pray the Rosary once a day. I do like to contemplate on heavenly things.

Though I am usually busy with the world to focus on the spiritual

 

[Sacred_Heart]

My main prayer action is in reading religious texts and books and a brief period of reflection in the morning.

I have a magic crystal that I use in the evenings,
mainly just holding it whilst watching tv or having a coffee.

For extra philosophical purposes I have 4 other objects - a crucifix, another small crystal, and Buddha and Shiva figurines.

Does the magic crystal work for you? What kind of feeling does it bring when you hold it?