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Re: similar is not the same It depends on one's purpose. If the purpose is to have a personally meaningful experience, then how one would proceed would depend on one's own learning style, spiritual background, personality, and so forth. If the purpose is to have something that is...

GK- I can't tell you, exactly. But that is very similar to how I think about it, and I call myself a panentheist. There is some potentiality, some existence (as you call it) that has always been and that drives the becoming, the actuality, all that exists in the multiverse. I call that God.

Re: similar is not the same I've heard many Quakers say they feel they have more in common with Buddhism (especially Zen) than most denominations of Christianity. If one looks at the history and contemporary reality of Christianity, it is impossible to ignore that the differences between...

I'd entirely agree with that. Something that is so curious to me as an anthropologist is how common it is for people to completely underestimate the power and capabilities of human beings. Thus, many think rapid culture change, technological innovation, the pyramids and megalithic sites, etc...

Interesting and true, Dauer. I think it is always easiest to have categories with defined folks in them; the world constantly challenges these prototypes that we hold. I've heard atheists, agnostics, Pagans, Taoists, Hindus, Native American/animist, New Age, New Thought, and a handful of...

Much as I greatly respect and esteem the Dalai Lama and what Sheng-yen, Litt.D. had to say about mutual respect for religions without necessity of changing them... I do not think it is anyone's proper position or authority to declare there are enough religions. I fail to see why anyone would...

The difficulty comes in that in terms of mythology, one can hardly distinguish between people contemplating some being with much greater intelligence and power than they and what a "god" is. I've seen the word "God" used in dozens of different ways to denote a wide variety of...

Re: similar is not the same I would not say that I would expect similar results for any two practitioners, whether or not they share the same religion. However, in any practice, whether mantra recitations, appealing to divine personalities, or commiting oneself to a spiritual path, I would...

I'm more or less of your opinion, shawn. What gets me is many atheists are as fervent and passionate about spreading "their way/word" as religions are... and I fail to see why. One told me "truth," once, but really- if life is pointless and the capacity to understand truth is wholly...

I'd have to say on the subject of meat-eating, I don't think the problem is eating meat so much as it is the cruel way that meat animals are treated in factory farming- and dairy and eggs are even worse in terms of factory-farmed conditions. My own dilemma about meat-eating is that I cannot...

That's a good point about want vs. need, FS. I suppose I can see how if God really desires something, it's anthropomorphizing God. However, I took it the question to be something personal- what does God want from me? And what I feel that means is what I feel called to do, what I feel...

lulz Me= Empress 88% and then a three-way tie between Strength, High Priestess and the Sun (all 75%). Oddly, though I'm pretty nurturing and all that, I have never seen myself as a mother figure. Even if I had kids, that just isn't my sense of identity. I'm not uber-protective either. I...

What God seems to want from me: willingness. Your mileage may vary. Kim

A few questions, Thomas... So there is no material, substantial unity between me and my cells, atoms, and so forth? Why is this a problem? Who is the "existing being" we're clinging to and why should we be attached to it? How do we know what every other existing being in the universe...

Well, at the very least it can be a way to shake things up a bit and cause one to reflect on one's mindset and intention more carefully. The discomfort and challenge of borrowing, adapting, or creating new ritual can be a way to probe oneself.

Again, this issue of co-essentiality is mostly an issue if we insist on a creator/creation distinction to begin with. If we look at things as process itself- not as something that does something and not as something that evolves into something- but as being and evolution itself... these issues...

I disagree. It depends on how one sets up the parameters of evidence and value of the discussion as a whole. Indeed. Well, I suppose you could say that if a scholar can read the original in the original language and has a firm grasp of the religion, the culture, and the history, they would...

Thank you for the encouragement. In the vein of Lewis Carroll, I try to hold at least six impossible ideas in my mind by breakfast. :) The experiences I have of the Divine make Her entirely ineffable and incomprehensible. The best I can do is approximate through paradox and try to...

I got it, S. This is my view as well, and partly why I change my own rituals every so often- this provides impetus to reflect on the meaning and challenges me to have this meaning deep within me, rather than somewhere out there in an institution, a particular form, or an object.

Doctrinally, yes. In practice, depends. I have known a lot of Christians to whom God was a very personal diety, and others that did not seem to engage with God at all outside of the form of religious practice. I'm interested in discussing ideas, and I think personal observation and...