What lead you to your faith / Religion ?

GlorytoGod said:
its hard to explain but I will try,

if I wanted something that made logical sense then I would read a technical manual.

however I dont believe that God makes logical sense, God is beyond that and beyond my understanding.

therefore I don't believe that we can understand God with our logical minds, knowledge of God only happens in our spirits.

if all my spiritual beliefs made perfect logical sense, then I would think, somethings wrong :rolleyes:
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If your beliefs are so blatantly illogical, I'm afraid I cannot possibly take them seriously.
 
GlorytoGod said:
its hard to explain but I will try,

if I wanted something that made logical sense then I would read a technical manual.

however I dont believe that God makes logical sense, God is beyond that and beyond my understanding.

therefore I don't believe that we can understand God with our logical minds, knowledge of God only happens in our spirits.

if all my spiritual beliefs made perfect logical sense, then I would think, somethings wrong :rolleyes:
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Very Zen-like.
 
GlorytoGod said:
how did you come to your spiritual path ?
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He was always there from as long as I can remember... looking back I realized He was there the whole time and I wasnt paying attention. Everytime I drift away He draws me back to Him and sometimes painfully in the way the Shepard does the wandering sheep. I didnt start growing in Christ till I was in my 20's though.. when I quit being rebellious and lived for Him.
 
GlorytoGod said:
how did you come to your spiritual path ?
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This one is easy. I had been searching for something (sorry for the vagueness) all of my teen years. When I was 17, I came across a New Testament and decided to read it. I grew up with a mother who was agnostic/atheist in my childhood. I picked up the New Testament, read the entire thing in one day and I decided I liked the teachings. I have followed Jesus ever since. I believe that God led me to that NT. Jesus(Yeshua) was different than the various preachers I had heard over the years (On television).
 
GlorytoGod said:
how did you come to your spiritual path ?
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Let's see, after many years as an agnostic just following my bliss, I came to realize how empty and meaningless life seemed to be, and the cracks showed in my life with some risky behaviors.

A search that started in philosophy eventually lead me to theology and religion, and no one was more surprised than myself when I became a Baha'i after investigating that religion for less than a year. Before that awakening, I had started a morning meditation practice that maybe, just maybe, gave the Holy Spirit a fingerhold on my life. Of course, She had been there all along. :)

The Baha'i Faith is lovely in many ways, but I became disillusioned with some of the intellectual and social aspects of the religion. The strong authoritarianism of the religion was just not sustainable for me I guess. Plus, when I hit a stressful time in my life instead of finding solace and strength, I felt very alone and judged by God. I turned then back to Christianity and while I immediately felt like I had come home, it took me a while to re-learn and re-embrace it. In the meanwhile, however, I experienced some amazing consolations from God, through the liturgy and through my prayer life.

So, the Holy Spirit has been with me all along, but I ignored Her for many years. I think She works in many religions, I think She works with whatever we give Her, but I am glad She brought me back Home.
 
to most it would seem that i was just at the right place at the right time. but not to me. certain things happen at certain times. some instances were tragic so to humble me. some instances were to cheer me up. but nonetheless hard to ignore that He was there. i am the idiotic sheep and He is the Shephard. and i am still being lead. where? beats me. i'm just going with the flow. if i ever get there, i'll be sure to let ya'll know.
 
GlorytoGod said:
how did you come to your spiritual path ?
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My original religious upbringing was in the Baptist Church part of the American Baptist Convention sort of a more liberal church.. We had the Baptist hymns but were closely assocaited with a nearby University. I also had some dealings with the Episcopal Church singing in the choir and being a lay reader.

Anyway as a teenager I began searching other religions for myself to see if they were valid and so explored Hinduism (Vedanta Society), Buddhism (Theravadin) and eventually settled awhile with the Silent Meeting Friends Hicksite Quakers as they were Pacifist and the cold war was going on. Also they had a strong civil rights orientation which I became involved in... When the Vietnam War began I became radicalised and particpated in some marches and political groups to oppose the war..

In spiritual terms I began appreciating all the great spiritual traditions I had been exposed to but being in one seemed to mean you had to divorce yourself from the others.

Around 1965 I found some Baha'i books in the library.. As I recall they were Baha'i World Faith and Baha'u'llah and the New Era.. I was stuck by the words of Baha'u'llah because they sounded like the Holy Writings of the Bible and the Qur'an. What struck me was that here was a Faith that acknowledged the previous dispensations and disparaged none of them..AND had a strong witness for social justice as well.. as it stresses the need for a world government, equality of men and women, oneness of humanity and social justice in general not just a theoretical or philosophic view but with application.

I told myself if I ever met a Baha'i I would have to declare my belief in Baha'u'llah and this happened a few months later.

- Art
 
ChristineES said:
This one is easy. I had been searching for something (sorry for the vagueness) all of my teen years. When I was 17, I came across a New Testament and decided to read it. I grew up with a mother who was agnostic/atheist in my childhood. I picked up the New Testament, read the entire thing in one day and I decided I liked the teachings. I have followed Jesus ever since. I believe that God led me to that NT. Jesus(Yeshua) was different than the various preachers I had heard over the years (On television).
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nice one, I started reading the new testament late last year and it has changed my life for the better :)
 
I was baptized cathloic but after the 4th grade I had many questions. I believe in what the scriptures teach I don't believe in any man made doctrines like religions christianity, jewish,Islam or hinduism I beleive in the Word of God The Living God.
 
GlorytoGod said:
how did you come to your spiritual path ?
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My parents were Roman Catholic Christians. My mother was very devout, she would say the Rosary every evening, and go to church every Sunday and feast day. My father was a liberal Christian, he was also a Freemason. I felt, even as a child, that God was for everyone.

I was curious about God, so I read the Bible, the Qur'an, and many other spiritual books. But it would be the Srimad Bhagavad Gita and the Vedic Upanishads that would put me on the spiritual path. I saw in those books something more than just Hindu sacred books, I saw a path that could lead me to God Universal. That path eventually led me to study the mystics of different religions, and to eventually become a contemplative mystic.

This path has eventually led me to understand that every religion is an instrument that leads to God or Spiritual Enlightenment. As my spiritual path has matured, I have also understood that no religion has a monopoly over spiritual truths or the spiritual path. I have come to respect every religion as something unique in the spiritual history of mankind.

Hermano Luis
Moriviví Hermitage
 
Namaste all,

well... i cannot really say if there was one thing which led to my acceptance of the Dharma or not.. there seems to be a confluence of factors involved and picking any one of the seems arbitrary in the extreme.

suffice it to say that no other religious praxis nor philosophical system which i've studied has resonated within me other than the Dharma.

metta,

~v
 
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