A Revisit of My Religion

Last Friday, I wrote a post for Good Friday about my own religion and what I believe. It was a post that required a significant amount of self-reflection and a lot more honesty than most people are willing to give in such a public forum. It was also one of the most personally meaningful pieces I’ve written in a long time. I have shared the post with a lot of friends throughout the last week and it has sparked a lot of wonderful, thought-provoking conversations. I’ve had to think about some hard questions and make some further decisions about how I am.

I am a Christian and believe in that a man named Jesus walked on earth and did amazingly powerful, maybe even miraculous things. That said, the idea of putting a personified face on my worship feels wrong. As a good friend of my put it, it brings me a little too close to the idea of worshiping false idols; I know better than that. My God does not need a face for me to have strong convictions. I believe in God, I pray to God, and I have faith in His higher power.

I do not believe in the concepts of Heaven and Hell as places above or below the earth. They are not physical locations in my mind; they are instead a state of mind and a place people are stuck. This is where karma comes in for me. When a person does great things and reaches more enlightenment, they get a little closer towards personal piece of mind. I think this can take place over several life times so I guess I tend to believe in spiritual reincarnation. That idea makes sense to me and seems more logical in my brain than a physical location of heaven or hell. If you are making good progress in life, you move up in the world during another life time. If not, maybe you stay. If you are really struggling and making terrible choices, perhaps you get downgraded and bad things follow you into the next life. I believe in soul-travel, so to speak. The heaven or hell is all in the mind. Truthfully, I am still a little fuzzy on my specific ideas as far as reincarnation goes and I need to do a lot more studying.

I believe in chanting, in mantras, and in yoga. It centers my mind, my body, and my spirit and allows me to focus on the things that matter and forget everything else. I believe in meditation and in focusing on finding the higher power within you. I believe that, for me, these are important parts of who I am and they enable me to (try) be the person I would like to meet in the world.

My last point for today is to say that while I believe all these things, it does not mean that anyone else needs to agree or feel the same way. My religion and what I believe and not what I aim to push on anyone else. Religion is very different for every person and I think that the God I believe in knows, accepts, and even expects that.

And just for good measure, while everything in this video does not align exactly with my personal views, it was a very interesting watch…

http://youtu.be/1IAhDGYlpqY