What Is Your Religion?

[Onyx]

I'm largely grounded in LaVey's Satanism, but am not limited to it as I also find value in certain other LHP concepts. The late Michael Aquino once described Satanism as more of a disposition than a religion, although it qualifies well enough I suppose.

I no longer call myself a Satanist though, not only to avoid confusion but because it's simply unnecessary. I have my own take on things anyway.

 

[metis]

No religion but I do enjoy the wisdom of Buddha's teachings as well as Native American spirituality and their views on nature.

Let me recommend this book for you: "Red Man's Religion: Beliefs and Practices of the Indians North of Mexico" by. Ruth M. Underhill. She's an anthropologist, and even though the title seems hoaky, the book is excellent.

 

[SalixIncendium]

I'm a Hindu. Advaita Vedanta school of philosophy.

Unless you ask Belief-o-Matic. Then I'm a Mahayana Buddhist.

 

[Martin]

Hindu/Pagan/Wave watcher.

 

[Truthseeker]

What is a Stoic?

I will answer this since it seems he has not. From Wikipedia:

Stoicism is a school of Hellenistic philosophy founded by Zeno of Citium in Athens in the early 3rd century BC. It is a philosophy of personal eudemonic virtue ethics informed by its system of logic and its views on the natural world, asserting that the practice of virtue is both necessary and sufficient to achieve eudaimonia – flourishing, by means of living an ethical life. The Stoics identified the path to eudaimonia with a life spent practicing the cardinal virtues and living in accordance with nature.

The Stoics are especially known for teaching that "virtue is the only good" for human beings, and those external things—such as health, wealth, and pleasure—are not good or bad in themselves (adiaphora), but have value as "material for virtue to act upon". Alongside Aristotelian ethics, the Stoic tradition forms one of the major founding approaches to virtue ethics.[1] The Stoics also held that certain destructive emotions resulted from errors of judgment, and they believed people should aim to maintain a will (called prohairesis) that is "in accordance with nature". Because of this, the Stoics thought the best indication of an individual's philosophy was not what a person said but how a person behaved.[2] To live a good life, one had to understand the rules of the natural order since they thought everything was rooted in nature.

Many Stoics—such as Seneca and Epictetus—emphasised that because "virtue is sufficient for happiness", a sage would be emotionally resilient to misfortune. This belief is similar to the meaning of the phrase "stoic calm", though the phrase does not include the traditional Stoic views that only a sage can be considered truly free and that all moral corruptions are equally vicious.[3]

Stoicism flourished throughout the Roman and Greek world until the 3rd century AD, and among its adherents was Emperor Marcus Aurelius. It experienced a decline after Christianity became the state religion in the 4th century AD. Since then it has seen revivals, notably in the Renaissance (Neostoicism) and in the contemporary era (modern Stoicism).

Stoicism - Wikipedia

He may have some differences from this general description. As a student of history, I had heard of this.

In common usage being stoic means today one apparently or professedly indifferent to pleasure or pain.

 

[wandering peacefully]

Let me recommend this book for you: "Red Man's Religion: Beliefs and Practices of the Indians North of Mexico" by. Ruth M. Underhill. She's an anthropologist, and even though the title seems hoaky, the book is excellent.

Hey thanks for the recommendation. I too spent my college days on anthropology with a focus on archaeology of North American Indigenous tribes. Extraordinary lives they led from just the little we can extract from legends and earlier archeological evidence. Plus the obvious facts of what was here when Europeans and others "discovered" this continent. Can you imagine these people living here for at least 15,000 years and the care they took of their natural surroundings compared to the last 200 years of decimation? I get corrected on using this term from some because it is supposed to refer to mathematics, but how else can one describe the abundance of natural habitats for so many creatures and humans being destroyed in such a short amount of time? Just in my cold, northern section of the continent, the abundance these people left for us after living here for the past 12,000 years might as well be described as destroyed at this point.

Anyways, it is an interesting study in the difference between the caring of natural life and nature vs the destructive views of this land belongs to me and God gave it to me and it's mine to do with as I please.

I, mine, my offspring, my tribe only. It is a different way of looking at existence for sure. And the evidence of the consequences are certainly clear.

 

[metis]

Hey thanks for the recommendation. I too spent my college days on anthropology with a focus on archaeology of North American Indigenous tribes. Extraordinary lives they led from just the little we can extract from legends and earlier archeological evidence. Plus the obvious facts of what was here when Europeans and others "discovered" this continent. Can you imagine these people living here for at least 15,000 years and the care they took of their natural surroundings compared to the last 200 years of decimation? I get corrected on using this term from some because it is supposed to refer to mathematics, but how else can one describe the abundance of natural habitats for so many creatures and humans being destroyed in such a short amount of time? Just in my cold, northern section of the continent, the abundance these people left for us after living here for the past 12,000 years might as well be described as destroyed at this point.

Anyways, it is an interesting study in the difference between the caring of natural life and nature vs the destructive views of this land belongs to me and God gave it to me and it's mine to do with as I please.

I, mine, my offspring, my tribe only. It is a different way of looking at existence for sure. And the evidence of the consequences are certainly clear.

The above makes us kindred spirits as I taught anthro for 30 years, and my areas of focus was on the Huron, Polar Inuit, and modern Japanese culture.

Three of my four grandparents were Me'tis [Pawnee, Canadian Cree, and unknown but out of Quebec], and my orientation has always been naturalistic.

Nice to read your post!

 

[wandering peacefully]

The above makes us kindred spirits as I taught anthro for 30 years, and my areas of focus was on the Huron, Polar Inuit, and modern Japanese culture.

Three of my four grandparents were Me'tis [Pawnee, Canadian Cree, and unknown but out of Quebec], and my orientation has always been naturalistic.

Nice to read your post!

Cool! Yes, nice to read your posts also. My genetics show zero <1% Asian ancestry. 99+ Northern European. But just the study of these tribes way of life and views was enough to change my life dramatically in my care and love of nature. It's the only truly enjoyable experience I have now besides my grandchildren of course, who are constantly listening to nana's lessons on the natural world! They all love it and understand it quite well also. One goal I have is to eventually write a grade school age short book on the tribes and their stone tools, use and trade in our little corner up here.

 

[metis]

Cool! Yes, nice to read your posts also. My genetics show zero <1% Asian ancestry. 99+ Northern European. But just the study of these tribes way of life and views was enough to change my life dramatically in my care and love of nature. It's the only truly enjoyable experience I have now besides my grandchildren of course, who are constantly listening to nana's lessons on the natural world! They all love it and understand it quite well also. One goal I have is to eventually write a grade school age short book on the tribes and their stone tools, use and trade in our little corner up here.

And like you, most of an ancestry is northern European, especially of Viking origin. Matter of fact, I used to use Hagger the Horrible as my avatar for years.

 

[SlaveofShinri]

I practice the Anuvrat Philosophy of Svetembar Terapanth Jainism.

 

[JustGeorge]

I practice the Anuvrat Philosophy of Svetembar Terapanth Jainism.

I would love to hear more about this!

 

[SlaveofShinri]

I would love to hear more about this!

Essentially I found Ahimsa to be incredibly compelling when I went through a religious philosophies class in high school and so was drawn to the Dharma.

I was initially agnostic to many philosophies and so was Buddhist for quite some time but during the pandemic I went through a religious and philosophical journey that left me with an appreciation of greater spiritual realities that align with Buddhist and Jain metaphysics.

Eventually I was convinced of the existence of a Dynamic Truth, the One, the God(s), etc. which I wasn’t entirely convinced was Nirvana, the Unconditioned No Thingness and found the creativity of the soul in my journey which lead me back to Jainism, of which I find the Svetembar Terapanth Anuvrat Path most compelling though I have made it more of my own thing as an Environmental Yoga.

 

[Left Coast]

My poll closes in the next week or so, if you haven't voted yet this is your chance to make yourself known!