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Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?

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Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?

#131

Post by Woberto »

adroitboss wrote: post #123

I'm a Non-denominational Christian. During my best of times I would wake up and read the bible first thing in the morning before doing any major activities. I would normally say two prayers in the morning. The first prayer would be asking for the wisdom and understanding to grasp what I'm reading and internalize the lessons. Thanking God that I have seen another day. Which depending on my spots in life has been harde…

Some of these are habits I do even as a Christian-turned-atheist. I've read that gratitude is good for you, and I always want to be a better person, and prayer has been a good way of thinking about these things habitually, even if I'm not praying towards anyone/anything in particular.

Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?

#132

Post by sudosteph »

I'm a somewhat newly converted protestant, no specific label except born-again. I pray in the morning and before bed, and try to read the Bible for 15-30 minutes a day. I normally pray silently on my knees, but I learned the Lord's Prayer in koine greek and like to say that out loud. I also attend a Sunday service. I'm friendly with some local evangelists and will sometimes hang out with them if I see them, just to fellowship with them and hand out new testaments. When I have time I try to read books by Christian thinkers, but only have a few read so far, mostly by CS Lewis and Tozer. John Wesley's sermons (available for free online) are also really spiritually valuable to me.

Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?

#133

Post by genezeta »

pimlottc wrote: post #91
genezeta wrote: post #72

Not religious and not really spiritual at all to be honest. The closest thing to "spiritual" that I do is walking slowly. Years ago one day I noticed I had the habit of walking very quickly everywhere I went and that this was pointless. I walk much more slowly now, looking around, watching things, people, anything. I make a point of always leaving earlier than I need so that I never have to hurry. Kind of like the re…

“Everywhere slow”?

XD

I'm still going nowhere, but at least I enjoy the views on the way.

Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?

#134

Post by tomrod »

nottorp wrote: post #115
tomrod wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a strong assertion that we need a God. Rituals, yes, they bind communities. But they need not be tied to morality.

> But they need not be tied to morality. Is morality a monopoly of religion?

I reread my comment but I'm not sure how you leaped there. I said morality need not be tied to ritual.

Religions and morality are often disjoint, simply due to Euthyphro's dilemma and how that plays out in practice. Divine command theory externalizes responsibility for behavior and thus promotes and excuses immoral action (meaning many religion's resolution to the dilemma puts them into a commitment to behaving immorally).

Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?

#135

Post by fergonco »

skinney6 wrote: post #119

Not long ago in my new apartment after breaking up with a long time girlfriend I had an amazing experience while meditating. The odd thing was I never really meditated back then. Something just told me to do it. I was led on an internal journey that showed me some things about my self. One, don't turn away from uncomfortable thoughts and feelings. Two, don't judge yourself. Three, the ego or this idea of myself is an…

Had something like that reading Herman Hesse as teenager. I learnt that I don't need to be or feel "good", necessarily. What you describe fits a lot what I experienced then. I don't give much importance to that but I think that plays a big role on what I have become. I point at the truth (as good as I can) and people think I am judgemental but I am absolutely not because I don't care about good or bad, generally.

Then I heard Jordan Peterson, I think, pointing out that all emotions are useful. They are there because they have an evolutive advantage. For example the feeling of winning makes you play more, and losing makes you step back at some point and observe what happened (you cannot take it out of your head easily).

For those that want the same experience without meditating :)

Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?

#136

Post by fergonco »

candiddevmike wrote: post #54

I recently started reading about druidism after spending the majority of my life an atheist. I found myself missing the spirituality side: rituals and a connection for meditation/introspection, which druidism provides (all revolving around nature, earth, moon, and sun). Additionally, druidism has a lot of neat math/science roots that I find pleasing, such as the eight holidays and the wheel of the year. Druidism has…

I also miss the spirituality side. I miss rituals for milestones with my kids a lot. Can you provide some references?

Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?

#138

Post by NateEag »

AYBABTME wrote: post #83

In the morning, I think while drinking coffee. Then I really think in the shower. As a result I take long showers. Sometimes during the day, I'll sit back and think. While going to bed, I'll think some more. Usually I think about problems to solve, reflect on my life so far, course adjustments, things to self improve. One day I'll pick up a religion, but it seems like they all would require a lot of mental gymnastics…

You might want to look at some of the more modern / postmodern branches of Christianity.

Some people who practice it sincerely don't think of the Bible as a literally true document that has no mistakes or inaccuracies, nor a rulebook that must be followed in every particular, but rather a series of subjective recountings of different people's encounters with God over the course of many centuries, strongly colored by their cultural context and identity.

I think most such practitioners still believe there's a historical core somewhere in the Gospels, particularly around Jesus' death and resurrection.

That's the impression I get from a near distance. I haven't super-closely at those versions myself (though it's on my todo list).

One site presenting something like this perspective is here:

https://www.is-there-a-god.info/

Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?

#140

Post by kortex »

I'm kind of a pagan/panpsychist/discordian/chaos magician. I try to sidestep all that "is the supernatural 'real'?" baggage by treating it all as an abstraction layer - do my practices get what I want? Maybe it's Yahweh, the Force, universal consciousness, flying spaghetti monster, or just good ol' confirmation bias, I don't particularly care most of the time. Sometimes I straight up pretend I'm in a video game or the Matrix. It's fun. I try to lean into "Nothing is true; everything is permitted" when it comes to unfalsifiable stuff.

This is pretty much the only way I've been able to balance the super rational science heavy side of my mind with a deeper need to feel a spiritual connection.

I don't currently have a day to day practice, though I used to meditate daily. I really should get back into that though.

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