SPIRITUALITY WITHOUT RELIGION BY SHAFFI LYNNE

"I am actually one of the few people I know who grew up without religion. My parents didn’t ‘not’ believe in God, nor did they believe. Neither one of them had good experiences at church growing up, so we just never went. The topic of God rarely came up, but if it did my dad would say, “Just look at nature, the sunset, the trees and animals, that is God” and my mom would say, “My dad used to say if we were supposed to know, we’d know.”"

"Another common thread I see is about their stories about God. Whether it’s a “He” or a “She,” whether there is a prophet or not, the stories are pretty much the same as well. But the subtle underlying message of “we’re right and everyone else is wrong” keeps me from joining to this day.  I still believe what my grandfather used to say, “If we were supposed to know, we’d KNOW.” There is no way we can absolutely know with all of these different opinions on who this God entity is in my opinion."

Read More @ http://www.fightingmonkeypress.com/spirituality-without-religion-by-sahffi-lynne/

FREE MOVIE - RELIGULOUS

Religulous is a 2008 American comedy/documentary film written by and starring comedian Bill Maher and directed by Larry Charles.

According to Maher, the title of the film is a portmanteau derived from the words "religion" and "ridiculous"; the documentary examines and doubts organized religion and religious belief.

Bill Maher interviews some of religion's oddest adherents. Muslims, Jews and Christians of many kinds pass before his jaundiced eye. Maher goes to a Creationist Museum in Kentucky, which shows that dinosaurs and people lived at the same time 5000 years ago. He talks to truckers at a Truckers' Chapel. (Sign outside: "Jesus love you.") He goes to a theme park called Holy Land in Florida. He speaks to a rabbi in league with Holocaust deniers. He talks to a Muslim musician who preaches hatred of Jews. Maher finds the unlikeliest of believers and, in a certain Vatican priest, he even finds an unlikely skeptic.

Trailer:

Watch the full movie ( 1 hour 41 minutes ) @ http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3791007322683758535#

I just finished it and had a couple of really good laughs - comedian hosting this was a good idea.
Now I think this movie raises a guestion of if you have a religion, is it okay to have hate as well?
Or can you be religious, have Faith, and be compassionate to all living things - even if they don't share your religious views or sexual orientation?

Freedom of religion is a Big Thing - Freedom in all things is very important, but we should know always what we are doing and view our Faith from compassion for one another.

Hate doesn't have to exist.

Love, Light and Joy!

Niina contemplating world faiths

TO LABEL OR NOT TO LABEL

Why is it important not to label yourself?

Why does it matter that today you are a Christian? Why does it matter that in a year you will be Buddhist?
If you state now that you are a Starseed and in a year regret the statement noticing you truly aren't one - can you save yourself some trouble, worry and embarrasment?

Let's say you you are shouting to high heaven that you are a Fairy - spiritually speaking, then comes a moment when you realize that you had mislead yourself and you really aren't a Fairy. Now where in your Fairy days you felt like brushing off the "Hey, Fairy!" comments, they now linger negatively when you think how people falsely view you. You have to go around saying 'no no not Fairy' and justify why you no longer are a Fairy, feeling bit ashamed and embarrased that you once identified with that.
This can be ablied to being Christian, Hindu or Wiccan.

True spirituality is labeless.

You are no one thing but organicly evolving entity and consciouness. You belive, you wonder, think and converge. You don't need to be anything.

Now this said I still identify with Lightworkers, which is funny because it seems we always do need to 'identify' to better get across who we are, even if we believe in Spirituality above religion.

Truly we still are catepillars in our cocoons.

Love, Light and Joy!

Niina

WHAT IS INTEGRAL? AND WHY DO I HAVE TO KNOW?

Ken Wilber's map of the Four Quadrons.

Last Beyond Awakening teleseminar touched on Integral world view.

I had heard of it before in passing but hadn't registered it, probably cause the word to a non-native-english speaker was bit too foreign.
I have to credit Ken Wilber for speaking about it in a way that I connected with immeadiately.

It locates four states of consciousness on one axis (the horizontal): Gross (Nature), Subtle (Deity), Causal (Formless), and Nondual; and, usually seven stages/levels of worldview on an orthogonal axis (vertical): Archaic, Magic, Mythic, Rational, Pluralistic, Integral, and Superintegral. Thus it becomes an elegant interpretive device with 28 points of intersection, each representing the results of a particular transitory state of consciousness being interpreted from within one of the more enduring stages/levels of consciousness. They can distinguish and make sense of previous conflations among spiritual experiences, both for individuals reflecting on their own inner life and for researchers. Integral Spirituality (2006) and The Integral Vision (2007) present greater details such as a more graphic representation of the Wilber-Combes grid and several phenomenological illustrations. From  http://www.integralworld.net/gross1.html

Few things that stuck to my mind from the podcast the other day were how these 7 stages were explained.
Before religion everything was Magic, Religion created the Myth evolution where everything in your chosen book is real, really happened, really existed, Rational appeared with science, Pluralistic divided everything in two and having finally past Pluralistic we are at Integral where Everyone is right to certain degree, no one is flat out all the way wrong (like in myth), we all know part of the whole truth. And after Integral mind set (you don't have to join any church or internet site for this - you either regocnise the values or you do not) gains enough ground (Ken Wilber states 10% of humanity) we evolve again... to SuperIntegral.

But this video will help to understand it as well:
http://integrallife.com/files/articulate/what%20is%20integral/player.html
And now that you have heard of the Integral Map:
http://integrallife.com/files/articulate/what%20is%20the%20integral%20map/player.html

WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF LIFE?

A woman walks towards me and stops, she knits her fingers together as if she doesn't quite know what to do with them. She takes a stadying breath, exhales slowly and looks me straight to my core.
"What is the purpose of life?"
The way she says it reveals she is at a turning point in her life, she has been through many heartbreaking situations, hers and others, she is asking this with a distinct tone of despair in her voice.
"The purpose of life is to figure out who you are. Ask yourself, Who Am I?"
She is quiet and looks at the earth around our feet, obviously thinking.
"I'm a woman, I'm 32, I come from a long line of farmers and rednecks, but I've changed my..."
"Hold. That is not who you are. Thinking this is who you are has made your life unnessecarily hard and painful. When I say to ask that questing I mean, truly ask it, emerge yourself in the world, find who we all are by asking, reading, studying, learning what is the truth."
"I... I don't even know how to begin?!"
"Begin how most people begin. Pick a religion."
"I'm already a christian, how..."
"There is no need for you to buy France just because you want to visit Paris."
She remains quiet, thinking for a while.
"You mean to say that I should look beyond the dogma to the heart and soul of what is christianity?"
"And after that, if you do it right it will feel natural to look at other religions, but again don't over extend yourself to follow every word of every man who has taken interest in the religion."
"And after that?"
"After that you will know for yourself what to do. I am a signpost, not the journey or the destination, that is all you. And when you are at your destination don't be afraid to be a signpost. To be a sign is to be equal to others, not higher not lower, to be a sign is to fullfill each other for the highest good of all."

There is no one right religion

There Is No One Right Religion

When religion goes over board:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-aettZsewo

There is a line between beliefs and mental disorders.
It's hard to realize it yourself when your mind is in dis-order.
It doesn't help to be born into a family that already has the before mentioned dis-order.

Religion For Me

Religion For Me (1st of September 2004)

You get something good(like getting an apartment), and then you get something bad(like bad news of an old relative). I know that is life, but don't they need at least a day or two between them news, not 30 minutes...

This close male relative of mine(who just got diagnosed with a braintumor) and I haven't had the easiest start, he almost disowned me when I didn't join the church at 7th grade. The first confession is what we call it. I already then knew I wasn't going to end up as a Lutheran. Luckily he soon realised what a sweetheart I was, and couldn't be mad at me. Though his former wife never forgave me. Hasn't even today.

It's funny how you can hate a person by a simple detail like 'what religion you are'. I don't and couldn't hate a person because she or he is Lutheran or Hindu or Christian, that just seems too odd for me. Maybe they think I don't believe. I do of course.

There is no one right religion for me, religion is a support building for your life, I don't care what colour it is, as long as it supports me. I have done a lot of thinking and reading concerning religion, and the more I read and the more I think, it starts to, step-by-step, make sense why people take religion so seriously.

I mean religion means safety at the end, and what would be more fearsome than losing safety that something gives you.

For example; You sit at home and you hear a raging thunderstorm, you think its good I'm inside between these four walls and not standing without a house on this field where a lightning is free to strike me. Or; You walk a street after midnight with you father or friend on your side, and you feel safe cos' you're not alone of the dark streets, where anyone might lurk behind the next corner.

That is what religion does too, it's a safety net, an outside yourself safety net. Who in this world would want a safety net that gives and falters? I didn't want one that gives at one point or at many points before this time, but when I came to know action-consequence, I changed my mind. I think its great having a safety net, but it cannot me too tight, or I'll lose something. I'll lose some lesson I have picked for myself. There isn't greater harm I could do for myself than deny what I want.

So maybe it's a good thing that you can observe religions, and stick with "the colour" that suits you and your needs best at the moment. For example, not many like wearing all red to a funeral or all black to a wedding. Changing colours is actually healthy for us. (And when I say change, I do not mean change daily, change yearly, change every 100 years. Sometimes you need, and want, to stick with your religion for good few lives, and there is nothing wrong with that, as long as you know deep inside "I want this" with a smile.)

I think the best advice I have been given concerning the ever changing life is this: "The only thing that will never change is Change itself. And even that is Change." Some things in life are predictable and some are not, it was our choice, and I myself wouldn't have it any other way.