type of path's on the site

[SpiritME]

Hi

 

I am new here i would like to know what this site is about and were should i start? 

 

What type of path's are here on this site?

 

 

 

[RiverSnake]

Hi

 

I am new here i would like to know what this site is about and were should i start? 

 

What type of path's are here on this site?

Where should you start.....where do you want to go? 

 

The type of practitioners on the site are extremely varied. I don't really identify with any particular religion but in terms of techniques i use for my growth:

 

1. Taoist

2. Buddhist

 

.....and an amalgam of several others. 

Edited March 23, 2016 by OldChi

[Marblehead]

Hi SpiritME,

 

One should start at the beginning.

 

As OldChi asked, where do you want to go?  Define that and that will point you to the place of the beginning.

 

If I recall correctly you are looking for a journey into spirituality.  This, of course, can be done through or outside of a religion.

 

Do you want the dogma, rituals and ceremonies of a religion?  Many to choose from.

 

Personally, I found what I was searching for with only Daoist Philosophy.  It includes spirituality but pretty much ignores all of the religious attachments.

 

We have sub-forums for Daoist Discussions as well as one for Buddhist Discussions.  Those are pretty much the paths that get most discussions and you will get lots of advice, some contradictory to others.

 

Enjoy.

[SpiritME]

There are many paths. My own path was rather impulsive and unconscious. I started in middle school with an understanding that I wanted to be somewhere different and better than where I was. Over the years, I looked into philosophy, religion, more in-depth science and a lot more mathematics. After a while, different patterns in behaviors settled in. I spent a lot more time in technical fields in philosophy and mathematics because they seemed like they had the structural capabilities required in order to break through potentially flawed ways of looking at things.

 

To an extant, that is true. I have been able to use mathematics and formal systems in a rather brute-force style to work through different things that were problematic---both mentally and in real life.

 

However, the more time I spend at work with thoughts and ways of thinking about things, the more I find that the process of thought introduces error into thought. Instead proceeding in a well-established manner that coherently and consistently references a rule-set and proceeds from there, there is a tendency for the nuances to become distorted and for things to deviate a bit from the principles that they were drafted from.

 

At least, that is what my posting here has taught me. Pretty much everything I write is stream-of-consciousness. One of the things that I think binds different "Paths" and traditions together is not so much a goal or set of realizations but the fact that actually transforming the qualities of the situation that you are in right now requires an actionable (even if it is in some sense action-less) core.

 

Reconciling systems comparatively, with the idea of advaita, or with the idea of a shared goal doesn't really matter. The commonality of paths lies in the immediacy of their lived implications.

 

So, for me, this seems to be the "path". I spend a lot of time posting about things unrelated to it, though. Day-in and day-out there are intense shifts and it is the relatively stable things that I can toy around with in the realm of thought that appear here. On rare occasion, I'll post a personal experience if 1) I think I need help or some type of criticism or 2) it feels like it was an intense and genuine situation that others might benefit from hearing about.

 

And, with regards to the second point, I've noticed that when I get back to daily events, I am less able to relate to the heights of experiences that I have had in the past---so it's a matter of having a personal snap-shot of the state of mind and the quality of energy. (Although I only really have 2 or 3 posts of this nature).

 

Thank you for your reply

 

I think i know what your saying and you have gave me some idea were to start here. I have allot of reading to do and to go from there. I am not choosing a path just yet and going to see were it takes me from here on the site.

 

I will try to stay in the moment and what i think you are saying is the quality of the moment is what is important and that is something i hope to improve on.