Posts Tagged ‘Religion’

“Rules Are Made To Be Broken”

Tuesday, June 29th, 2010

You heard that before, right? So this post is more on the ‘morality’ of things. I am going to go out on a limb here and state that everyone has broken rules at one point or another. So what makes it OK to break the rules? Are all the rules meant to be broken? If not, what determines whether it is OK to break a rule or not? I am just curious. I am not expecting any confessions here; instead I’d like to find out where different people stand on the concept of ‘rules’.

When it comes to the rules themselves, do we even need them? What I mean is, do we need rules to tell us how to behave, or do we have some sort of intrinsic understanding of what is OK and not OK to do? I’ve heard an argument, that I personally don’t agree with, that people need religion to tell them what is right and what is wrong, implying that if we did not have the ‘ten commandments’, we would not know that it is not OK to kill another. So if we do know that it is not right to do certain things, why have written rules for them? And if we do not, then maybe it’s not all that bad?

As you can see, there are a lot more questions in this post than answers. Again, I’m curious as to what the different opinions are, so the questions are there to get your mental juices flowing.

Until next time,

V

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Posted in Psychology | 2 Comments »

Is Making A Lot Of Money A Sin?

Monday, December 21st, 2009

As I mentioned last Thursday, this week is dedicated to the topic of money. I wanted to start off by addressing a concept that many people have engraved in their minds about how it is sinful to have money, especially A LOT of money! Usually 5 minutes do not pass before the person I am talking to brings up ‘the money is the root of all evil’ line from the Bible. I do not use the Bible as a reference book for my life, but I do know enough to suggest that the person go and re-read their Bible. The actual line is that ‘the love of money is the root of all evil’, while ‘the money is the root of all evil’ crap is something someone made up, in my opinion, to suppress ambition and to keep people in line. Do you notice the difference between the two?

Money is simply a tool that facilitates the exchange of value between people. It is not mean to make you happy, though it can make you comfortable. So in the words of Bob Proctor, if money does not make a difference in whether you are happy or not, might as well have it, so that if you are miserable, at least you can be miserable in comfort.:o)

So, if money is the exchange of VALUE, it must mean that you have to offer VALUE in order to receive money. So the more money you have, the more value you must have provided! And this makes me want to ask you the following question, “Is being poor as sin?”, since it means you have not provided a lot of value! Now if the things I have said before did not ruffle your feathers, that one must have pushed you over the top!

Now you may say that you are volunteering and obviously providing value, but are not getting money in return. While that is a valid point on the surface, it is flawed because value does not have to come from the very same source. Maybe you are getting a lot of perks and other benefits, which can also be considered as VALUE. Or maybe your volunteering experience puts you in a position to get a job with a much better pay than you may have had otherwise, so that money comes from a different area. You may also bring up an example of a drug dealer who makes a lot of money but destroys lives of his or her customers. Again, you are forgetting a simple fact that the drug dealer is providing VALUE to drug users. Yes, drugs are bad for us, but so are many things, the only difference being their legal status and the speed with which they destroy us.

I hope that this will help you look at money a little differently. Your thoughts?

Until next time,

V

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Posted in Success | 2 Comments »

Trinity Of Being

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009

Ernest Holmes in The Science Of Mind presented a really interesting concept about how all existence in life showcases the ‘Trinity Of Being’. In other words. there are three aspects to everything: the thing itself, how it works, and what it does. At the most abstract level of the Universe, the ‘thing itself’ is the Universe, Spirit, or the Infinite Intelligence (which are all different terms to describe the same thing, albeit maybe speaking more to the different attributes of the same thing). The ‘how it works’ are the Laws of the Universe, like the Law of Attraction. And the ‘what it does’ are the results of the Law, which with the Law of Attraction are the manifestations that we attract into our lives.

If you want to look at something more concrete, let’s look at gravity. Gravity is the thing, it works by having a force between any two objects according to a specific formula, and the result of gravity is that we stay put on the ground, apple falls off a tree, satellites orbit the Earth, the Earth orbits the Sun, etc, etc. Consider electricity: electricity is the thing, it works according to specific rules, and the result is light, heat, electric power, and whatever else we use it for that is within the laws. Consider a seed: the seed is the thing, the soil is the medium in which it grows, also according to specific laws of incubation, growth, and harvest, and the result is the plant itself.

It is quite interesting that everything has these three aspects to it – no wonder the number three is so important in religion and that there is the Holy Trinity in Christianity, and probably other religions as well (though don’t quote me on that).

I wonder, can you find an exception to the Trinity of Being? I’d love to hear it!

Until next time,

V

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Posted in Neo-Spirituality | 2 Comments »

Religious Science

Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009

The people at the Centre For Spiritual Living that I started to attend, say that they are about the philosophy of Religious Science. From the very beginning, I have thought that it was an interesting choice of words, and maybe that is what enticed me to find out more.

If you think about it, Religious Science is an oxymoron. For centuries the two have been committed enemies, and it is only recently that select people from both sides began to recognize the fact that they may simply be looking at different sides of the same coin.

Religion is about faith and not needing to have any concrete proof, because all the proof you need is in your heart. Frankly, it’s hard for me to buy that, even though I understand and appreciate the power of faith. I don’t have a problem with faith, but I do have a problem with blind faith where the only argument is that ‘I believe’.

Science, on the other hand, is all about proving something. It is about coming up with hypotheses and then making up countless experiments to prove them. And when there is contradictory evidence to the given hypothesis, it needs to be adjusted so that it hold in every case. There is very little room for ‘faith’ and for ‘I believe’ in science, besides maybe having the faith that you will find a solution.

That is why I found the term ‘Religious Science’ so peculiar. What it means to me is a scientific approach to religion – I feel that there is more to this world than meets the eye (this is an example of my faith), so let’s take a closer look at it, investigate it with a scientific approach, and see how we can understand it better in order to live healthier, happier, more prosperous, and more joyful lives.

Until next time,

V

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Posted in Neo-Spirituality | No Comments »

What Is A Prayer?

Friday, October 16th, 2009

There will be quite a few posts on the material covered in The Science Of Mind book by Earnest Holmes since there are some really interesting concepts that I would like to bring up in this blog and see what you think.

I should tell you that Ernest Holmes was not a religious individual, so when he uses the word God, it is interchangeable with the ‘Spirit’, ‘Light’, ‘Love’, ‘Universe’, ‘Energy’, ‘Source Energy’, ‘Universal Intelligence’, or any other word that you may use to describe this Source of everything.

Here is an excerpt straight from the book (pg. 28):

“Since some people have been healed through prayer, while others have not, the answer is NOT that God has responded to some but not to others, but that some have responded to God more than others. Their prayer (they thought) has responded by corresponding. The answer to prayer is in the prayer. But what is a prayer? A prayer is a movement of thought, within the mind of the one praying, along a definite line of meditation; that is, for a specific purpose.”

This builds on two previous posts, the one on how most people do not know how to correctly ask for what they want (they do not know how to pray properly), and the other on how the Universe does not play favourites. If you internalize the idea that the Universe does not like your neighbour any more than you, you will understand that you are the sole reason for why you do not have the results that you are looking for. By the same token, you are also the sole reason for already manifesting the desired results in your life.

We already talked about how the Universe does not understand words; that it understands feelings. And since feelings are often the results of our thoughts, it is vital to think correctly. This is one of the fundamental concepts, an idea that is expressed in many books, like Think And Grow Rich. So, since a prayer is simply a movement of thought, if you pray for avoidance of a certain outcome or situation, you increase your chances of manifesting it. Likewise, if you offer your thoughts to what you want, you will manifest that.

In this Science of Mind class we will learn how to do Affirmative Prayers or Mind Treatments. My understanding is that we will learn how to pray (read ‘think’) properly. I will make sure to share once we get there.

Until Monday,

V

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Posted in Neo-Spirituality, Success, Universe | No Comments »

Similarities Between Religion And Neo-Spirituality

Thursday, October 8th, 2009

Yesterday I mentioned that I find that there are many similarities between traditional religion and the neo-spirituality movement that I find much more appealing. I want to mention some of the similarities that I found. The similarities are not in the story itself, like who talked to whom and in what order, but rather in the message and the answer to my ’so what?’.

A little disclaimer though. I do not know very much about religious history. I am not familiar with all the rules. I have been to church only a handful of times, and even then, it was a pretty modern church with a modern message. So I am making this comparison based on my experience, not some ‘absolute truth’.

The first similarity is in the ‘higher power’. Religion calls it God. Neo-spirituality calls it Energy or Universe or Spirit or some other name. In either case, it is something that is responsible for the creation of the world, is eternal, cannot be created or destroyed, and permeates theinter-spaces of the universe. The big difference, though, is that religion tends to stay away from the idea that each and every one of us is a co-creator, whileneo-spirituality truly promotes the idea that we are the co-creators of the universe.

Another similarity is gratitude. I have seen many religiously inclined people say grace before a meal. Neo-spirituality teaches that gratitude is one of the most empowering emotions one can experience and that being grateful is a very important part of our co-creating process.

The other similarity is prayer. Religion teaches us the importance of prayer, though it hardly teaches us how to pray properly. Neo-spirituality teaches us the powerful process of visualization. Both are done with the purpose of helping you get what you want.

These are the three big similarities that I have noticed about some pretty big, fundamental concepts. The story in the Bible, to me, is a metaphor to help us with the understanding of the message, rather than an accurate description of events (hopefully I won’t be torched by religious fanatics for this). But like I said, my knowledge of religion is pretty limited, so feel free to correct me through the comments.

Fundamentally, I think, the purpose of religion and neo-spirituality is to become a better, more prosperous person.

Until next time,

V

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Posted in Energy, Neo-Spirituality, Universe | No Comments »