A toe in the water

[vsaluki]

I've been interested in religion and spirituality for most of my life. I gave up Christianity when I was 15 and subsequently spent several years arguing with my friends about it's merits. Later in life I discovered that there were a few lessons of value in the Bible, but I saw no exposition or practice of these in the church.

 

Wanting to know what was "out there", I read the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita. I suppose that these are the heart of what we could call the pantheistic religions. So it was a valuable experience.

 

My first view of Islam came from reading Rumi. Later, wanting to understand the actions of the insurgents in Chechnya I decided to read the Quran and some of the Ahadith. I wanted to know if the jihadis were acting in accordance with their core religion or if they were choosing to suit their agendas.

 

My introduction to Buddhism came through the Tibetan Book of the Dead. My introduction to Zen came through Roshi Philip Kapleau. But it didn't have a great appeal for me.

 

Tao was a bit of a revelation for me. On reading the Tao Te Ching, I found that the book was less of a religion and more of a philosophy of life with spiritual undertones. And it was a philosophy whose views already aligned very closely with my own. Furthermore, the character of Chuang Tzu struck me as an excellent embodiment of the philosophy and as an individual that I could personally relate to.

 

I'm also a fan of Alan Watts, and I have read most of his work. That doesn't mean that I agree with him on all points, but he is never short of subjects that make you think.

 

I've more or less concluded that the major religions have a common spiritual core that is pantheistic in nature but that is often misunderstood by the majority of people practicing that religion. Islam is perhaps an exception to this since it has no spiritual core as it was originated. The Sufi's attempted to give it one after the fact, but this effort has largely failed and a spiritual Islam is essentially restricted to the Sufi branch.

 

My feelings about Tao is that it's ideas are radical. Not only for the time from which it came, but also for today. Lao Tsu was a reluctant teacher and his lessons are wide open to interpretation. But, I think if one wishes to construct a consistent picture of all of his lessons, as well as those of Chuang Tzu, then a tight set of ideas will emerge as their guiding priciples.

[Marblehead]

Hi Vsaluki,

 

Welcome!

 

May you enjoy your time here.

 

That was quite an introduction!

 

Happy Trails!

[Zenshiite]

It's pretty plain to me that this person seems to have joined this forum with an axe to grind specifically against Islam. He's been on the attack from introduction to some of his first posts... with cut 'n paste jobs from Islamophobic websites no less.