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Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?

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Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?

#121

Post by aromansoldier »

I am a Practicing Stoic,

Morning routing is to spend about an hour reading texts and scholarly commentary while drinking my coffee. Then I journal, my morning journal entries are discussions with my inner daemon about how to handle the days events. Preparing myself and remembering what is and isn't in my control. Throughout the day I have reminders set to step back and examine what I am doing at that moment. This is usually coupled with one or more mental exercises to keep perspective. In the evening before going to bed I sit back down with my journal and go over any major events from the day and examine them against my philosophical beliefs. Did I approach it correctly? What did I get wrong about it. When its all written down I close my journal and forgive myself for any missteps I might have made.

Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?

#122

Post by QuarterReptile »

Scea91 wrote: post #104
forinti wrote: post #78

I am not religious at all and I've thought of myself as tolerant of religion (they all have some very good teachings, after all). But lately organised religion has been bothering me a lot. It is just so obviously a form of controlling people: you have to believe this and that and also hand over some cash and vote for such and such. I can't get around the fact that this still goes on so blatantly in this day and age.

Recently I was attending several catholic weddings and I was taken aback by the level of religious fervor and literal interpretation of the bible there. I was expecting the preaching to be more focused on how to live a good life and be a valuable member of society, but instead it was more about how I will burn eternally for not believing.

can you explain further?

Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?

#123

Post by adroitboss »

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 harder or easier. The second prayer would be asking God to help me remember what I have read and for me to be able to use the lessons I have learned practically throughout my day. I would then pray thanking God about things I'm grateful for, asking for help in things I feel weak in, and praying for my prayer list towards the end. We have service on Sunday for 2 hours, bible talk once a month and a middle of the week service once a month.

Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?

#125

Post by g5095 »

Why do people have to comment here to say 'I have none' ? Why not just find a more interesting thread?

I'm a follower of Yahweh and his Son Yeshuah, I don't consider myself Catholic or Protestant and believe both of those faiths (while honoring God in their own way, are full of the traditions of man). I left Institutional Christianity some years ago and with other like-minded saints gather wherever we feel like it to worship, pray, eat a meal together and share communion. We try to share our lives with each other as much as the western world allows (planning laws make creating real communities hard in Australia).

My wife and I pray daily together, we read the scriptures and talk about what they mean. We ask the Spirit of Yahweh for guidance and we follow what He tells us to do. We actively try to help people in the community who are struggling, through food or white goods or whatever is needed. Every Wednesday night we open our house to anyone who would like to come and cook a meal together, some times this can be 1-2 people, sometimes 50+.

I guess I'd say yes if you asked if I were a Christian however the term is so confused nowadays that it's not very useful, I prefer to say 'I am a follower of The Way'.

Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?

#128

Post by BrandiATMuhkuh »

Yetiuiu wrote: post #76
baliex wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fellow outlier here, perhaps we should begin to meet regularly to discuss our shared beliefs and how to proliferate them? I wouldn’t expect us to be outliers here to be honest but it’s always interesting to see what other replies there are in this crowd. Nature is king. I don’t think it’s just because I’m more into it but there really does seem to be a growing trend of recognising the importance of being in nature

My wife and I celebrate winter solstice on the 24th (being solidari to the rest of the world) with a nice tree. We still search for planet ornaments. We also celebrated the launch of James Webb.

My wife, son and I do the same. Happy solstice!

When possible, I try to see myself as part of nature. For example, making it clear to me and others that I'm an animal. I think this help me respect my surroundings more, puts me on the ground of reality. In comparison to the idea of "humans are above everything".

Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?

#129

Post by PTOB »

midnightmonster wrote: post #95

As soon as I get up, put in airpods and listen to Roman Catholic Liturgy of the Hours: Morning Prayer and Office of Readings (Scripture-based prayers on a 4-week cycle, Scripture and spiritual reading on a 1-year cycle). That continues while I stretch/move/do a tiny workout, pause for shower, turn it back on while shaving and making coffee. Then, ideally, I spend 30-60 minutes in personal prayer, usually in the form…

I remember this. I lost it ... No, I put it away in a thousand small abandonments. Reading this woke me up to the sheer extent of what I've lost. I was once a kinder, happier man.

Thank you.

Don't lose this.

Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?

#130

Post by Dumblydorr »

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…

Yes! Your experience is closest to mine. I tried Sam Harris's meditation, Joseph Goldstein's insight meditation, and came across "The Headless Path". This led to multiple moments where my consciousness expanded to fill it's container, in this case my old apartment, or a bar where I was playing music, or a shore next to a lake. It's almost like I became a 3D VR panorama of what I could sense, my center fell away and I fully absorbed the hundreds of sensations as one giant sphere.

In this style, douglas Hardings Headless Path, you're attempting to realize that in some sense, "you" are not in your head. That's where we "feel" like we're centered, mostly because our eyes, ears, nose, and mouth are there. But even in reality, we can look for evidence of our head and find we don't have one. All we see is a dark void behind our nose. And behind that, we can feel what, our headache or sinuses, or the back of our head. But how are these "behind" our eyes? Aren't they just in a big cloud of sensation, too? And if we open our eyes, and let our gaze stretch and expand very widely, we might literally become absorbed into our surroundings, we'll feel like the world, not just a head.

Really amazing feelings. I encourage folks try insight, mindfulness, and headless path meditation.

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