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Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?
481–490 of 966 posts
Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?
#482Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why even bother "trying to live a good life" if "a good life" is just a human construct and there is no judgement on that in the afterlife? By your assumptions, every atheist should just, like, die or at best, live a meaningless life.
Most anthiests seem to be nihilists, so they're already (claiming to be) doing that. I just always find it strange the way that "100% athiests" seem to ignore the logical conundrum of "I don't need a God or theology to live a good life" when our constructed definition of "good" comes from religion.
Says who? Most atheists I've met are humanists.
Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?
#483> I had been taught I could simply confess whatever and it would be forgiven
I personally agree that this is nonsense but there are kernels of good ideas in religious ideologies even if they are warped beyond recognition and usefulness.
For example, the concept of confessing sins is practical actually. Not for the purpose of "being forgiven", but one has to acknowledge and admit that one did something bad before it is possible to try to change that behavior for good. Without admitting or seeing an act was bad, there is no hope in fixing it.
So yeah, if we could undo all the "warping" of concepts, regardless of where they came from, "religion" wouldn't be so bad but it seems beyond fixing at this point. It's wrapped up in emotions like guilt and fear, and that makes it hard to separate the manipulators from those who are truly trying to help.
Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?
#484Earlier quoted context omitted.
You might like this poem (from what I can find it is attributed to Bill Britton): When you are forgotten, or neglected, or purposely set at naught, and you don’t sting and hurt with the insult or the oversight, but your heart is happy, being counted worthy to suffer for Christ. THAT IS DYING TO SELF When your good is evil spoken of, when your wishes are crossed, your advice disregarded, your opinions ridiculed, and y…
It's so odd to me that since the dawn of time, humans find this innate need to live in slave morality. Living a life of moral slavery based on stories and tales previous humans made with their own minds. It's a definition of insanity, from my own perspective. To contribute to the discussion: I practice nothing, no religion, no meditations. Nothing. I find peace enough knowing that I'm not morally enslaved and that I…
It's so odd to me that since the dawn of time, humans
find this innate need to live in slave morality
Or does it simply look that way to us, as we look back through history -- which was of course largely written by those who benefitted from this sort of slave morality?
Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?
#485Earlier quoted context omitted.
> "Bad" feelings have lost their edge. When I sat with the feeling I discovered there is nothing "bad" about it. [...] With this I have become lighter, freer, happier and more at peace with the experience just as it is, right here, right now. I'd like to give a heads up that this can and may come crashing down[1]. The 'Dark Night of the Soul' is a very real phenomena, and it can happen out of nowhere -- just a normal…
Yeah, it's important to point out the difficulties that can arise. Though I'd say that the framework could also cause problems if your experience falls outside of it. I had an experience along these lines when I was 22 and meditating daily, which ended up turning into anxiety and somewhat frequent panic attacks. I ended up giving up my daily practice for about 10 years because of it. My frame of reference was the ver…
Great advice! I think I may have been a little too flippant in saying 'use whatever framework' because perspective is incredibly important. I'd say it's a continual process and engagement; if your philosophy or religion or sect doesn't answer it, and you don't feel good about it, it's okay to expand your horizons.
I think what I wanted to emphasise is having nothing at all can leave you in a bad position. Hitting these dreary spiritual states without any philosophic or religious framework that can provide perspective is like being lost out in the sea without even a life preserver, much less a boat.
Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?
#486100% atheism. Was raised some kind of protestant I forget which one, and derived tremendous spiritual and psychological relief when I realized all of that was absolute nonsense at the age of 9. I knew I was gay at the time and wouldn't come out until I was 18 or so, but my life just got a lot easier when I removed religion completely. I also recall discovering increased moral agency -- as a Christian I had been taugh…
"100% atheism" isn't a spiritual practice. It's just the absence of belief in the existence of gods. A rock is 100% atheist, yet in all likelihood doesn't have spiritual practice. You can have a spiritual practice under the umbrella of atheism, as long as it doesn't involve any kind of belief in gods. Whatever that practice is, that practice isn't identified with the atheism itself.
This is an important point. Being atheist doesn't say anything about your beliefs in ethics or the nature of the universe. It's just the absence of some set of other beliefs.
Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?
#487Earlier quoted context omitted.
This sounds crazy to me, mostly regarding the amount of time all this must take.
How much time do you spend on social media (including youtube and HN)? How much time do you spend watching tv? How much time do you spend watching sports? I have shifted my attention to what is most important, doing these spiritual practice things first, and letting those other activities slot in around the time. Our lives are basically determined by what we put our attention on, so why not give the prime real estate…
Not that much. I especially hate youtube and will read over watch a video any time of the day, I do not have instagram, I do not own cable tv, I do not watch sports.
But to give more insight into what motivates me in life, I have been blessed with the love of nature and animals especially, own pets, taking care of which is a daily time and money sink, but also without fail gets me outside each day of the year and in a good mood and shape, and allows me some peaceful moments where I do not think about anything else than the present moment and some kind of nature "communion" of sorts, around pets and nature.
And I sincerely think it is a blessing, as I think I have a rather simple and happy life, and haven't been distraught durably for years. I feel for all the stressed people out there that do not have such an easy way to relax.
Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?
#488This text may be interesting to some: Letter to a Brazilian Mason, by Marcelo Ramos Motta.
https://www.parareligion.ch/dplanet/motta/moma2.htm
Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?
#489Earlier quoted context omitted.
> fortune cookies may actually be personal messages from the universe. Try this next time you get one: Take a few seconds and hold the fortune cookie in your hand. Deeply consider for a moment the comedic possibility that this fortune cookie contains a message from a higher power. Suspend your disbelief, just like you do when engrossed in a work of fiction. Now, the key: ask a question . Questions in the form of "Tel…
> My hit rate for meaningful messages skyrocketed since applying the above approach. As a skeptic and non-believer of all things spiritual, whenever I have one of those "meaningful messages" moments (we get them too), my reaction is to debunk that feeling by thinking about how others might have interpreted the same event, or how the fortune cookie supply chain actually works. It's funny that some people lean into tha…
You can go a little crazy assigning meaning to everything, but at the same time it's a lot of fun.
Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?
#490Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why even bother "trying to live a good life" if "a good life" is just a human construct and there is no judgement on that in the afterlife? By your assumptions, every atheist should just, like, die or at best, live a meaningless life.
Most anthiests seem to be nihilists, so they're already (claiming to be) doing that. I just always find it strange the way that "100% athiests" seem to ignore the logical conundrum of "I don't need a God or theology to live a good life" when our constructed definition of "good" comes from religion.
There are centuries (millennia?) of philosophical thought on ethics and morality that is disconnected from religion.