doc benway Posted June 6, 2011 Stimulated by another thread, I thought it might be interesting to see the breakdown of our spiritual practices. How many have always been committed to one path vs multiple. If this is a BTDT poll... sorry. I didn't see anything when I searched. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
RiverSnake Posted June 6, 2011 (edited) I began with The Way of Energy. -Now i do Gift of the Tao and am going to be learning Stillness Movement: Both of which is within the same system. Edited June 6, 2011 by OldGreen Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Aaron Posted June 6, 2011 (edited) Just my own experience, I grew up in a Southern Baptist household and was a Christian until I turned twenty-one or so. At that point I had a spiritual experience that shook my belief in Christianity and I started to look at other religions. I first started to look at Buddhism, but at the time it seemed scary to me (don't ask me why now). I ended up really finding a connection in Taoism. My first experience with it was just the Tao Teh Ching and Chuang Tzu, it wasn't until a year or two into it that I started to read some of the formal books on the topic, such as Watts and the Tao of Pooh. In the last year I started to look into Vedanta and Buddhism again. Vedanta is a beautiful religion, with a great deal of insight into the mystery of man and the universe (imo). Buddhism is also a very beautiful religion. I find a great deal of wisdom within Zen and I've been studying that for about a year now. Great stuff out there. I'm a firm believer that man should always keep their minds open to new ideas. I've found wisdom in the most unlikely places. Aaron Edited June 6, 2011 by Twinner 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Dainin Posted June 7, 2011 The wording of the items in the poll doesn't seem to allow for the possibility of someone sticking with one practice from the beginning, but adding in additional ones without giving up the original one...or periodically cycling practices in and out of one's rotation. I chose item 3, but it's not really an accurate description in my opinion. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
GreytoWhite Posted June 7, 2011 I grew up in a fundamentalist Baptist church. The Holy Spirit was strong there but there was no development aside from adherence to the Bible and studying apologetics. I converted to the Baha'i Faith when I was 20. That was when I started Sufi meditation. I still practice the meditation without the trappings of the Baha'i Faith. I started learning Chen taiji and qigong a little over a year ago and it has been a great accelerator to my Sufi practice. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
RiverSnake Posted June 7, 2011 (edited) I only posted my spiritual practices before so i perhaps may have misread the point of the thread. -In terms of the religions i have been involved in my parents were Roman Catholic and as a result i was technically also of the same faith. I snored and slept my way through sunday mass and nothing about Christianity ever really caught my attention. -I was never a very religious person to begin with and tended more to a Right Brain perspective of life: extremely logical. -At the present i enjoy both Buddhist and Taoist philosophy but i would not call myself either a Buddhist or Taoist. I am a human being first and naturally my own expression of spirituality. Edited June 7, 2011 by OldGreen Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
doc benway Posted June 7, 2011 The wording of the items in the poll doesn't seem to allow for the possibility of someone sticking with one practice from the beginning, but adding in additional ones without giving up the original one...or periodically cycling practices in and out of one's rotation. I chose item 3, but it's not really an accurate description in my opinion. My intent for the thread was primarily to see how many of us have stuck with one practice throughout our lives. I was initially going to have two options only - one practice, more than one. I settled on three thinking that there may be a subset of folks who were "raised" a certain way and then adopted another practice and stuck with that. As for me, I've been influenced by a variety of teachers, both in the flesh and on paper. I've sort of synthesized it into an amalgam that seems to work for me currently, more or less, and like some others I'm not an -ist and don't subscribe to an -ism. I try to keep an open mind (but could definitely improve that skill!) Thanks to all who contributed so far. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Aaron Posted June 7, 2011 I grew up in a fundamentalist Baptist church. The Holy Spirit was strong there but there was no development aside from adherence to the Bible and studying apologetics. I converted to the Baha'i Faith when I was 20. That was when I started Sufi meditation. I still practice the meditation without the trappings of the Baha'i Faith. I started learning Chen taiji and qigong a little over a year ago and it has been a great accelerator to my Sufi practice. Hi Mith, I'd like to hear more about your experiences in the Baha'i Faith if you'd care to share, especially how it led you to Sufism. Baha'i is something I don't know much about, so anything you have to share would be appreciated. Aaron Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Stigweard Posted June 7, 2011 Stimulated by another thread, I thought it might be interesting to see the breakdown of our spiritual practices. How many have always been committed to one path vs multiple. If this is a BTDT poll... sorry. I didn't see anything when I searched. Hiya Steve, An interesting poll, I wasn't able to answer because I haven't "switched" paths as such but have instead synthesized my study and practice of Daoism with Warrior Shamanism. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ChiDragon Posted June 7, 2011 Taoist philosophy with Wu Wei is the way to go for me. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
de_paradise Posted June 7, 2011 We are all doing multiple practises whether conscious or unconcious. Its like a trick question that wants to trap you in some half-baked assumptions as a frame of enquiry. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
suninmyeyes Posted June 7, 2011 I have been doing the same practise continously and tried to add some other stuff sometiems.Although I do the same practise I dont follow any tradition ,but draw inspiration from many sources. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
goldisheavy Posted June 7, 2011 (edited) I was raised as a hard physicalist without any religion. I had spiritual experiences since childhood and I believed I lived before I was born, etc... but all this I was taught to ignore and forget (somewhat successfully, since the programming lasted in a secure fashion until I was 20, when I started to have doubts). I've never been much of a follower. I've always been on one path: my own. I've never switched from it in the past and never will. I've studied the following: Shirdi Sai Baba (this was surprisingly good) Avadhuta Gita (brilliant) Bhagavad Gita Patanjali Yoga Sutra Some general Vedanta Some Advaita such as Ramana Maharshi All of Castaneda's books Richard Bach's books Tao Te Ching (second best) Chuang Tzu (the best) Lieh Tzu (third) Hua Hu Ching Wen Tzu Seven Taoist Masters I've read so many Buddhist writings that it's not even worth mentioning them one by one: Theravada, Mahayana, Zen, Vajrayana, a dash of Tendai, some Mahamudra, a bunch of Dzogchen tantras, etc. Chaos Magic (Spare) Lucid dreaming (very little reading, mostly personal practice) Some Sufi writings, especially Rumi. Some New Age books. A few Native American books A few about the Australian aborigines. Some writings from the Russian Opheni tradition (you probably won't find it online unless you know Russian), which is supposedly rooted in Greek mysticism. Lots of books published by Rabbi Laitman about Kabbalah, including his Zohar translations (most in Russian, but he publishes some English books too). And lots more that I forgot already, but the impact of which I carry within myself. None of what I read is my path. My path is uniquely my own. I reject wholesale following of any tradition, no matter how good or sexy it is. This even includes Dzogchen or Buddhism, which are among my favorites. I am not an ist and I don't want any ism. I also strongly and forcefully reject any religion that calls its followers to slaughter people from another religion. Edited June 7, 2011 by goldisheavy 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
joeblast Posted June 7, 2011 As for me, I've been influenced by a variety of teachers, both in the flesh and on paper. I've sort of synthesized it into an amalgam that seems to work for me currently, more or less, and like some others I'm not an -ist and don't subscribe to an -ism. yup! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
manitou Posted June 7, 2011 I'm an absolute potpourri of everything - brought up Christian, then tripped into the metaphysical. I love what someone above said about Christianity involving no inner cultivation. The last church service I ever attended I heard a very distinct voice in my head say "This Is Dead". I never went back, because I realized that it was. Or at least the Christian church I was attending at the time. A famous old fellow named Manley Hall used to speak in Hollywood CA once a week, on Sundays. Actually, it was more like he'd sit up on a chair on an empty stage and channel for an hour. He sort of freed me from the tight Christian conditioning I'd had as a kid. There's just no right path or wrong path. The Dao is within us, and as such it takes us where it wants us to go. I need one thing at one time, you need another thing at another time. We round ourselves out by picking our communal brains. But there does come a point in time where one has to find the garment that is the correct fit for him. It comes from no one else's book. Just yours. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Otis Posted June 7, 2011 (edited) My dad was a minister (before he was a psych prof) and his dad, as well, so I originally thought that would be my calling. However, I've never actually been religious, and I shrugged off the idea of Christ worship in my pre-teens. I was a psych major, and someone turned me on to the Tao Te Ching in college, and both made big impacts on me then, but then I spent the rest of my 20s without much interest in spirituality or pragmatic philosophy. When I was 32, my life-long lower back issues came to a head, and left me in painful spasm for months. That's what really turned me around. A friend taught a Mind-Body Centering / Continuum class, which was designed to get us to really pay attention to sensation, and to surrender old patterns. Those principles have caught fire in me, leading me to authentic dance, deep stretch, improv play, and full physical exploration. I was not seeking any kind of spirituality or higher truth or anything. But as I started learning to explore my body, a good deal of epiphanies started to emerge about the nature of my mind. When I looked at Taoism again, and later at Zen, I saw many parallels, and believed they were talking about the same things, as I was experiencing. Most of the reading I've done since then has been at the recommendation of others in discussion groups. I don't take much of it literally, but I like the way that a constellation of perspectives (like those of you Bums) helps to triangulate and give context to my own experiences. Edited June 7, 2011 by Otis 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
