Why do you believe in YOUR religion

Quahom1 said:
Which brings us right back to religion and man...

we seek what we need to be the "man" we are, in this universal existence. And once we find it, we "religiously" fight to keep it...make sense now?
Click to expand...

Yes, this is what a man does. However to be a Man requires something else.
 
Nick_A said:
Yes, this is what a man does. However to be a Man requires something else.
Click to expand...

Not really lol... There is nothing else needed... Unless you buy into the advertising worlds and movie industry and so on... Where men have to be these figures chisled from stone or iron or something And have the "right look" and "right attitude" lol... Where a man can wrestle to the ground two crocidiles one in each arm choking them to death with his bulging biceps! Or then you have the "oldie" traditions where the man HAS to be the one that is the provider... Does all the work and the woman looks after the kdis and does girly things like cooking and cleaning and so on... "Real" men do that too.... THIS IS SPART AH!!!! OOO AH!!! I normally say to people yeah fine that's your opinion and tend to blank it and not disagree but this subject I can't help but say I disagree cause when you are born a boy... A male... You grow and you then in your adult years -no matter- what are then a man.
 
Nick_A said:
I could think I was a pretty good chess player and if I lived in a community with bad chess players and I win my games, it would be logical to conclude I was a good player.
Click to expand...
Chess then is a game played for a win-lose. A more challenging game is played for a win-win. I submit that would be regardless of how good the players were.
 
Alex P said:
Not really lol... There is nothing else needed... Unless you buy into the advertising worlds and movie industry and so on... Where men have to be these figures chisled from stone or iron or something And have the "right look" and "right attitude" lol... Where a man can wrestle to the ground two crocidiles one in each arm choking them to death with his bulging biceps! Or then you have the "oldie" traditions where the man HAS to be the one that is the provider... Does all the work and the woman looks after the kdis and does girly things like cooking and cleaning and so on... "Real" men do that too.... THIS IS SPART AH!!!! OOO AH!!! I normally say to people yeah fine that's your opinion and tend to blank it and not disagree but this subject I can't help but say I disagree cause when you are born a boy... A male... You grow and you then in your adult years -no matter- what are then a man.
Click to expand...

So a Man for you is a reactive physical body responding to societal standards and pressure.

I agree these are varieties of men; but what is a MAN?
 
Nick_A said:
So a Man for you is a reactive physical body responding to societal standards and pressure.

I agree these are varieties of men; but what is a MAN?
Click to expand...

I like to keep things simple... Cause in essence... They are, a man is an adult male human nothing more nothing less lol... :)

But, lets ask you that question, Nick, what is a man? What do you have to have to be a man?
 
Alex P said:
I like to keep things simple... Cause in essence... They are, a man is an adult male human nothing more nothing less lol... :)
Click to expand...

Yes, and a pianist is a piano player that imagines himself a pianist.

Men can imagine themselves as a MAN and piano players can imagine themselves as pianists. Imagination is a mixed blessing.
 
cyberpi said:
Chess then is a game played for a win-lose. A more challenging game is played for a win-win. I submit that would be regardless of how good the players were.
Click to expand...
Don't play chess then, because a stale mate or a default is a lose lose. With the enemy still viable, for the next game...but then, you knew that.
 
Nick_A said:
Yes, this is what a man does. However to be a Man requires something else.
Click to expand...
Really? What exactly does it take to be a Man? I am very curious about this train of thought.

Let me rephrase the question: What can YOU possibly teach ME, to be a man?
 
Quahom1 said:
Really? What exactly does it take to be a Man? I am very curious about this train of thought.

Let me rephrase the question: What can YOU possibly teach ME, to be a man?
Click to expand...

I can't teach you. I have enough trouble with it myself.

The difference between a pianist and a piano player and a pianist is that the Pianist is master of his instrument while the piano player is very limited in his abilities.

A MAN is master of himself while men are reactive creatures. A man must be able "to be" master of himself before becoming a MAN. But we don't know what this means since we are so caught up with being men.

The first thing to experience is that we are not masters of ourselves and rather creatures of conditioned reaction so if we are honest, we admit that we are idiots in comparison to our conscious potential. Before becoming a MAN you must first experience and verify that you are an idiot.
 
Nick_A said:
Yes, and a pianist is a piano player that imagines himself a pianist.

Men can imagine themselves as a MAN and piano players can imagine themselves as pianists. Imagination is a mixed blessing.
Click to expand...
What a man imagines is the potential of what he can become. Thoughts beget actions beget results...

Unlike the beasts of the earth, Man can accomplish anything he sets his mind to, even if it goes diametrically opposed to nature. ISS comes immediately to mind, as does Armstrong walking in moon dust...lol
 
Nick_A said:
I can't teach you. I have enough trouble with it myself.

The difference between a pianist and a piano player and a pianist is that the Pianist is master of his instrument while the piano player is very limited in his abilities.

A MAN is master of himself while men are reactive creatures. A man must be able "to be" master of himself before becoming a MAN. But we don't know what this means since we are so caught up with being men.

The first thing to experience is that we are not masters of ourselves and rather creatures of conditioned reaction so if we are honest, we admit that we are idiots in comparison to our conscious potential. Before becoming a MAN you must first experience and verify that you are an idiot.
Click to expand...
A Piano player is to me, a "pianist" in the making. Just give him/her a bit of time.
We are ultimately masters of ourselves, once we realize we are at the head of our own ship.

We can try and steer, or we can ask for help, but it is still our ship...we control.
 
Nick_A said:
I can't teach you. I have enough trouble with it myself.
Click to expand...
In short, you can't walk in my shoes, nor I in yours, because the experience would kill us both.

You can't tell me how to be a man, because you don't know how to be a man, from my perspective, nor do I know how to be a man from yours.

That is the base fact.

Religion, however, gives us both some sort of equal footing to work with, hence build a neighbor, and then a neighborhood, and then a street, and then a village...and through it all we keep meeting on a regular basis, to affirm our beliefs, and to test our mettle on each other to make certain we are ALL complying in a basic standard that the "society" can function on.

Morally, legally, civilly.
 
Namaste Sherry,

thank you for the post.

sherry said:
So, my question to you is this..

What moves you so deeply inside about your chosen relgion?
Click to expand...

i'm a being that believes in being responsible. i'd go so far as to characterize my view as advocating radical personal responsibility. insofar as i can realize it this is precisely the point of view which the Buddha Dharma takes and emphasizes and one of the reasons why is resonates so harmoniously with me.

i'm also a very compassionate person to my personal detriment on occasion, Buddha Dharma advocates the extending of compassionate concern towards all sentient beings, insects, animals and space aliens (if they exist) and teaches how to expand ones compassion to encompass the mass of sentient beings which i find suits my personality.

i suspect, like most beings, it is a sense of inner conviction arising from the affirming experiences which i've had.

metta,

~v
 
Quahom1 said:
In short, you can't walk in my shoes, nor I in yours, because the experience would kill us both.

You can't tell me how to be a man, because you don't know how to be a man, from my perspective, nor do I know how to be a man from yours.

That is the base fact.

Religion, however, gives us both some sort of equal footing to work with, hence build a neighbor, and then a neighborhood, and then a street, and then a village...and through it all we keep meeting on a regular basis, to affirm our beliefs, and to test our mettle on each other to make certain we are ALL complying in a basic standard that the "society" can function on.

Morally, legally, civilly.
Click to expand...

This is good for a healthy barnyard but is that all human "being" is capable of? Plato's cave analogy asserts that we are asleep to reality and fixated on shadows. If this is true, what is the value of our imagination regardless of what form it takes in comparison to human conscious potential rather than societal potential?

"A man found an eagle's egg and put it in a nest of a barnyard hen. The eaglet hatched with the brood of chicks and grew up with them. All his life the eagle did what the barnyard chicks did, thinking he was a barnyard chicken. He scratched the earth for worms and insects. He clucked and cackled. And he would thrash his wings and fly a few feet into the air.

Years passed and the eagle grew very old. One day he saw a magnificent bird above him in the cloudless sky. It glided in graceful majesty among the powerful wind currents, with scarcely a beat on his strong golden wings. The old eagle looked up in awe. "Who's that?" he asked. "That's the eagle, the king of the birds," said his neighbor. "He belongs to the sky. We belong to the earth - we're chickens." So the eagle lived and died a chicken, for that's what he thought he was."

Anthony de Mello
(1931-1987) Jesuit Priest
 
Quahom1 said:
Don't play chess then, because a stale mate or a default is a lose lose. With the enemy still viable, for the next game...but then, you knew that.
Click to expand...
I view chess as a game that could be played for a win-win regardless of outcome. Should I presume that you knew that?
 
China Cat Sunflower said:
Yes. Freedom from religion is deliciously honest. More broadly, freedom from the compulsion to defend forms and systems as if they were Truth is priceless, and ever so dangerous.

Chris
Click to expand...


Indeed:) and free from the shackles of the traditions of men. Free to go as deep as one chooses into God without the limitations of finite minds creating dead ends & saying you are not allowed. Free to worship God instead of a religion.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top