Janice, I too have been trying (without much success!) to get back in the habit of bowing (prostrations). Once I start, it's a very fruitful practice...but I'm terribly lazy about starting.
Maybe we can be bowing buddies when we start the next 100-day round! (And yeah, starting slowly is the key: if I try to do 108 bows when I'm out of shape, I can barely walk the next day!!!!)
btw, have we talked about when we want to start the next 100 days, assuming we take the usual break for "overtime"?
But then I came to Buddhism through 20 years of Goddess Worship/Witchcraft/Paganism!
I do wonder at those who came from Biblical Worship/Deism though.
It is almost impossible for me to imagine believing in "a God"... perhaps I did once, but so long ago I've completely forgotten.
I'm perhaps a Nature Worshipper, in that I see "us" arising from this earth, and that our "God" if we have one is the creative, fecund Earth itself.
Without a "God" separate from creation, or even immanent in it, I cannot call on any "force" to back up my actions ever (see this as a BIG PROBLEM among 'bible thumpers' and bible-based/bible-justified wars).
Instead, if Nature is my Creator, then I am a PARTICIPANT, and of no more importance than the amoeba in the pooling water.
What I most like about Buddhism, and especially Tibetan Buddhism, is its respect for women and that women traditionally have achieved "enlightenment" (a term I am most distrustful of, however, and DO NOT put any credence in), but also the freedom of emptiness.
Beth, as a practicing Christian, I don't think I'm specifically asking you, who practice Compassionate Christianity. My children went to a Chinese Presbyterian private school whose principle practiced Compassionate Christianity and who I loved, but took them out when I discovered that many of the teachers were foisting a bad/sin/devil/hell mythology of terror on children who misbehaved!
The blessings I receive under the Linden tree are enough. I don't see that as coming from outside creation at all, nor as deistic.
It doesn't matter to me when the next cycle starts; I observe the natural rhythms and cycles of the planet and universe just like other biological creatures! Sure, I'm a practicing Christian, though heavily influenced by Buddhism, and I don't attend solstice celebrations, generally - but I'm well aware and amused by the fact that many of the rituals of all our religions, including Christianity, come right out of pagan traditions which persisted because they made natural sense to people. It's interesting. I appreciate your sensitivity to this, Brenda, and what you've shared here about your own background.
I'm obviously keen to start my first 100 ... it's been hugely helpful in the chaos of the last week :)
Sat for while just now and managed within those fifteen minutes or so to find just a few moments of peace and quiet; healing and needed.
I won't go into any detail but I had a fairly distressing run in with a group of drunken boys last night when I was walking home. They didn't carry out their threats but they were specific enough to still be with me today.
I have been trying to shrug it off, no harm done and all that, but it's not really working. Stuff bubbling over despite deep breaths. I am trying to place it to one side for tomorrow, so that I can be there for my friend without distraction. I'll definitely take a few minutes out to be quiet and breathe at the appointed time, it's amazingly comforting already to know that this will be part of my day,
Oh, Stray!!! (((hugs))) No-one needs to be frightened by a group of drunken boys! You're safe, honey.
Beth, your sensitivity is deeply appreciated. I was raised Christian, or was I - my scientist Dad, a POW for 4 yrs, was completely agnostic, and my Mother never went to church, though I did attend a Catholic girls school for 3 years that was run by nuns (I was Anglican). I've had my phases, a year in my mid-20s spent nearly daily taking the Communion in a Catholic chapel I was barred from as a child; up at 5am as a graduate student, reading the Bible from cover to cover (Oxford edition, you know, the notes); a big foray into the Christian mystics, up to Teilhard de Chardin (his writing so perfect, no need to go further). But then Jung, the feminine aspect of God, Wisdom/Sophia, the Shekhina, the feminine principle, and it was a tiny hop over to 2nd wave feminism's Goddess lore and then immersion into the fantastic world of private Wiccan ritual. Whether I was ever a deist I don't know. My earliest recollections are of nature, deep in the African bush, which spoke to me and infused me with a beauty that has been unparalleled by any deistic texts.
I lived about 5 min from a Snow Lion, and passed it nearly every day, and there was always a small but lovely collection of books in there... I think it was Miranda Shaw's book, Passionate Enlightenment, that caused me to start seriously exploring Tibetan Buddhism, but, interestingly, only in reading and private practice, any temples or meditation centres I've gone to seem too patristic for me. The same with the yoga teacher training I did, which is based in Sikhism, again, I found it too patristic. Ultimately meaning, I think, not that traditional religion needs to change to accomodate women like me, but that women like me prefer to practice in quiet, at our own alters, or under the moon in the woods or by the ocean...
How about you - do you feel like sharing a little of your spiritual journey...
5 Comments:
g'morning, all!
Janice, I too have been trying (without much success!) to get back in the habit of bowing (prostrations). Once I start, it's a very fruitful practice...but I'm terribly lazy about starting.
Maybe we can be bowing buddies when we start the next 100-day round! (And yeah, starting slowly is the key: if I try to do 108 bows when I'm out of shape, I can barely walk the next day!!!!)
btw, have we talked about when we want to start the next 100 days, assuming we take the usual break for "overtime"?
New Moon's fine with me.
But then I came to Buddhism through 20 years of Goddess Worship/Witchcraft/Paganism!
I do wonder at those who came from Biblical Worship/Deism though.
It is almost impossible for me to imagine believing in "a God"... perhaps I did once, but so long ago I've completely forgotten.
I'm perhaps a Nature Worshipper, in that I see "us" arising from this earth, and that our "God" if we have one is the creative, fecund Earth itself.
Without a "God" separate from creation, or even immanent in it, I cannot call on any "force" to back up my actions ever (see this as a BIG PROBLEM among 'bible thumpers' and bible-based/bible-justified wars).
Instead, if Nature is my Creator, then I am a PARTICIPANT, and of no more importance than the amoeba in the pooling water.
What I most like about Buddhism, and especially Tibetan Buddhism, is its respect for women and that women traditionally have achieved "enlightenment" (a term I am most distrustful of, however, and DO NOT put any credence in), but also the freedom of emptiness.
Beth, as a practicing Christian, I don't think I'm specifically asking you, who practice Compassionate Christianity. My children went to a Chinese Presbyterian private school whose principle practiced Compassionate Christianity and who I loved, but took them out when I discovered that many of the teachers were foisting a bad/sin/devil/hell mythology of terror on children who misbehaved!
The blessings I receive under the Linden tree are enough. I don't see that as coming from outside creation at all, nor as deistic.
It doesn't matter to me when the next cycle starts; I observe the natural rhythms and cycles of the planet and universe just like other biological creatures! Sure, I'm a practicing Christian, though heavily influenced by Buddhism, and I don't attend solstice celebrations, generally - but I'm well aware and amused by the fact that many of the rituals of all our religions, including Christianity, come right out of pagan traditions which persisted because they made natural sense to people. It's interesting. I appreciate your sensitivity to this, Brenda, and what you've shared here about your own background.
Hello all,
I'm obviously keen to start my first 100 ... it's been hugely helpful in the chaos of the last week :)
Sat for while just now and managed within those fifteen minutes or so to find just a few moments of peace and quiet; healing and needed.
I won't go into any detail but I had a fairly distressing run in with a group of drunken boys last night when I was walking home. They didn't carry out their threats but they were specific enough to still be with me today.
I have been trying to shrug it off, no harm done and all that, but it's not really working. Stuff bubbling over despite deep breaths. I am trying to place it to one side for tomorrow, so that I can be there for my friend without distraction. I'll definitely take a few minutes out to be quiet and breathe at the appointed time, it's amazingly comforting already to know that this will be part of my day,
take care all, hugs
xx
Oh, Stray!!! (((hugs))) No-one needs to be frightened by a group of drunken boys! You're safe, honey.
Beth, your sensitivity is deeply appreciated. I was raised Christian, or was I - my scientist Dad, a POW for 4 yrs, was completely agnostic, and my Mother never went to church, though I did attend a Catholic girls school for 3 years that was run by nuns (I was Anglican). I've had my phases, a year in my mid-20s spent nearly daily taking the Communion in a Catholic chapel I was barred from as a child; up at 5am as a graduate student, reading the Bible from cover to cover (Oxford edition, you know, the notes); a big foray into the Christian mystics, up to Teilhard de Chardin (his writing so perfect, no need to go further). But then Jung, the feminine aspect of God, Wisdom/Sophia, the Shekhina, the feminine principle, and it was a tiny hop over to 2nd wave feminism's Goddess lore and then immersion into the fantastic world of private Wiccan ritual. Whether I was ever a deist I don't know. My earliest recollections are of nature, deep in the African bush, which spoke to me and infused me with a beauty that has been unparalleled by any deistic texts.
I lived about 5 min from a Snow Lion, and passed it nearly every day, and there was always a small but lovely collection of books in there... I think it was Miranda Shaw's book, Passionate Enlightenment, that caused me to start seriously exploring Tibetan Buddhism, but, interestingly, only in reading and private practice, any temples or meditation centres I've gone to seem too patristic for me. The same with the yoga teacher training I did, which is based in Sikhism, again, I found it too patristic. Ultimately meaning, I think, not that traditional religion needs to change to accomodate women like me, but that women like me prefer to practice in quiet, at our own alters, or under the moon in the woods or by the ocean...
How about you - do you feel like sharing a little of your spiritual journey...
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