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Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?

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Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?

#181

Post by lebuffon »

ZachSaucier wrote: post #84

There's not much point in spiritual practices if you don't believe in some truth behind them. Instead of focusing on practices, focus on finding truth (I believe it can be found about God). Truth will lead to practices.

In many religious traditions it is in the practices that you experience the divine. In many religious traditions it is what you do, not what you believe that matters. These concepts are very foreign if you come from a reform era Christian tradition where Paul's ideas have precedence.

I put the wide range of religion understanding in my "God has a sense of humour" folder. (I infer from that, that we should too) :)

Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?

#182

Post by [deleted] »

bambax wrote: post #100

I was raised religious (catholic), and kind of believed in it. And then when I was 18-20 I spent a lot of time and effort to rid myself of religion, and have been living happy and free ever since. I still enjoy the occasional mass (once or twice a year), mainly because I like to sing. I have not taught my kids any kind of religion or spirituality, and they don't seem to miss it. I wanted to spare them the effort of g…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?

#183

Post by hackingthelema »

Subsentient wrote: post #156

I'm a secular Satanist. I believe Christianity and Abrahamic religions are inherently unethical. I have very strong utilitarian principles that run even deeper, which is ultimately what pushed me to Satanism. I'm a member of the Satanic temple, but in some ways it's more of a political organization than religious. I'm open to the possible existence of the paranormal, but I do not trust it at all and would question th…

> I'm open to the possible existence of the paranormal, but I do not trust it at all and would question the intentions of such entities.

I think you're already making a mistake in thinking about it as 'entities' and 'paranormal'. Liber O vel Manus et Sagittae sub figura VI has a great bit about this:

> 2. In this book it is spoken of the Sephiroth and the Paths; of Spirits and Conjurations; of Gods, Spheres, Planes, and many other things which may or may not exist. It is immaterial whether these exist or not. By doing certain things certain results will follow; students are most earnestly warned against attributing objective reality or philosophic validity to any of them.

Which combined with the Mathers/Crowley Goetia gives more insight into a different perspective:

> The spirits of the Goetia are portions of the human brain.

Would you question the intentions of parts of your own brain? :) Maybe! But this gives a pretty different perspective on them than external 'entities' influencing you. In the end, all that matters is that note from Liber O -- by doing certain things, certain results will occur. Whether it is external entities or parts of your own brain is kinda irrelevant to causing results.

Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?

#184

Post by p0d »

pyjarrett wrote: post #67
toper-centage wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you ever struggle with the parts of the bible that feel outdated in the modern context? I never read the bible by myself, but I went to Sunday school for 9 years and I remember struggling as a child to conciliate what I was being taught at school and at chruch, and specially ignoring the hipocrisy of the people lecturing the bible stuff not practicing any of that. I don't remember specific examples, as this was 15…

> Do you ever struggle with the parts of the bible that feel outdated in the modern context? I never read the bible by myself I used to, but it becomes more practical and timeless the more I read my Bible. I read a version with cross-references in the center-line so reading slower and checking these makes it make a lot more sense. The way I'd recommend reading is Mark, Luke, John, Matthew, Acts and Romans (all in the…

> Do you ever struggle with the parts of the bible that feel outdated in the modern context?

Just to add to the excellent comment above. More days than not I am amazed at the relevance of the ancient scriptures. My daughter was caught out last week telling a fib. It made me smile that the next day my bible reading was a 3000 year old proverb about the importance of not telling lies.

Others days, yes, I find it hard reading from a very different age. I sometimes have to delve into my study bible's commentary to get some historical context.

Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?

#185

Post by browningstreet »

Every day, I meditate.. usually for 10 minutes, sometimes 20. I've stopped using a timer, so it depends on me. Once a week I'll do a longer guided meditation from Insight Timer.

I read a lesson from the ACIM Workbook, and then usually a selection from a few "daily" Buddhist texts I've collected and liked.

I also run and workout pretty much every day. Feels like part of the plan, moreso if I'm doing them alone.

Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?

#187

Post by GreenWatermelon »

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.

As a religious person (By western standards) I can't stand any sort of Religious authority. I believe they are what made religions Today incredible superficial. Critical thinking is prohibited in favor of blind belief, and the clergy only recite what they memorized.

To me, my Holy Book is the only religious authority, and it's my job to understand it and think about it, however such injection of the mind into religion is downright heretical where I come from.

This leads to conflicts with those around me as my interpretations of the book is incredibly liberal, compared to the fossilized understandings of the clergy.

Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?

#188

Post by unemphysbro »

Growing up our family were followers of Shirdi Sai Baba. Nowadays, I follow the basic tenants without a particular attachment to any saint. I meditate daily with personal mantras, prayers, and basic affirmations to be a good and moral person.

It's pretty simple but helps me stay grounded and reminds me of what's important in life.

Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?

#189

Post by NateEag »

nottorp wrote: post #64
blablabla123 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That, also considering things like Gödel Incompleteness, Halting problem, P vs NP being so difficult, Emergence, divergences and intrinsically probabilistic theories in Physics: that already feels sufficiently counterintuitive and supernatural to me. At least there is a vast area of things not yet understood

> At least there is a vast area of things not yet understood They key is to accept that there are phenomena we don't know enough about yet. There's no supernatural, just stuff that needs a couple more hundred years of research :)

If you don't understand it, how do you know it's natural?

Not saying it has to be supernatural, just that if you think it's not yet understood, being sure it's not supernatural seems like unfounded confidence.

Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?

#190

Post by throwbynight38 »

dbrueck wrote: post #166

Day starts with prayer and studying scripture by myself for awhile, then briefly as a family before everyone goes their way. Part of the personal prayer time includes seeking direction on who I might help that day. Throughout the day I try to take little breaks for a brief prayer, longer if I'm stuck on a programming bug whose solution eludes me and for which I need extra inspiration. Also I try to go on a daily walk…

Thanks for sharing.
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