Thursday, November 8, 2007

Religionism

obviously not a word but after this post you will see how it relates.

in being only 78 pages into the book "the life of Pi" it already has my mind stricken with many questions and intriguing thoughts, the book is about a little Indian boy who takes on three religions, growing up as a Muslim taking on Christianity secondly and Hinduism thirdly, we are told in quite good detail in this book the spiritual experiences of this young boy which has led up to him being 15 years old and occupying three religions, he confidently quotes Gandhi (i wish i could at that age) 'all religions are true' in my knowledge Gandhi was a very knowledgeable man and one of the known few to reach 'enlightenment' spiritually so it is in our interest to not disregard this statement, Pi(full name being Piscine) then goes on to say to his father in reference to Hinduism and Christianity. "They both claim Abraham as theirs, Muslims say the God of the Hebrews and Christians is the same as the God of Muslims. They recognise David, Moses and Jesus as prophets" with this said i looked from my bench chair and observed the birds feeding on my freshly cut lawn and thought "as i commonly think and like to research on the fact that all living things are part of the same world and the same universe, can we also be a part of the same religion?, is Christianity, Muslim, Hinduism and Judaism all a derivation of some ultimate truth, just as Catholicism,anglicism and every denomination is in effect part of the same truth which is Christianity.
certainly without doubt the more i study these things the more i can connect and the more refreshing my mind feels as it comes to new enlightenment's, i have no doubt in the existence of God but what of religion? you will hear many Christians say 'I'm not in a religion I'm in a relationship" and personally that's the way i see it too, but we have as a society classified it as a religion, so what is the definition of religion? (here's where i tab browse wictionary!)
The original Latin term is religio which means a moral obligation or worship. Today in English we define it as
'Any system or institution which one engages with in order to foster a sense of meaning or relevance in relation to something greater than oneself.'
so here we are referring to it as a system or institution, both in effect the same thing and both imply that there are certain operations and styles to it, like for example rehabilitation; on top of this it is saying that the sole purpose of it is too find 'meaning or relevance' and furthermore it mentions a higher power something 'greater than oneself'
taking this into note i do indefinitely class myself as a christian but the point I'm raising here is whether god intended or not for different religions which in the whole hold faith through him but in turn they clash in some of their beliefs, obviously as genesis mentions to us god intended for a peaceful world with him ultimately acknowledged as the greater good and the alpha omega.
it is here where i might like to point out that religion is a man made wonder, however it holds the same attribute as gravity; it was always there, modern man simply gave it a name and put in context.
i myself believe in some sort of energy chakras and that our 'greater consciousness' has some divine connection with the planet and with God alone, in reading the above you may think i am questioning the beliefs of Christianity. This is not the case, quite stubbornly i have complete faith in the fact that Jesus walked the earth, was crucified, rose again and is ultimately our true saviour (along with the contributing 'must have' beliefs for Christianity) i am merely raising that point that religion is a man made object and ironically is subjective to ones opinion on the matter, therefore i think it is quite possibly completely call religion in itself a religion, a modern paradox yes however along the very lines that i find myself on at the moment it seems to make perfect sense, it may be appropriate to add here that every spiritual experience i have had has indeed been very intimate with my inner self and majoratively intimate with God. you may now be thinking about the minority that weren't with god so let me try to word this.
i have had many moments (mostly while indulging in nature) that have been ecstatically (see the definition of Ecstasy in wiktionary) enlightening and thought provoking, during which i was purely thinking of the wonder of nature in itself and how much we are missing out in everyday life because we are so hectic and self obsessed with our work, mans ability to spend so long studying, working and generally doing indoor activities will be the abomination of his sensitivity to natures wonders.

therefore i pledge to you, spend minimal time working and studying for every second you are indoors you miss out on the wonders of gods world that he intended for us to enjoy not neglect.
challenge yourself to open new doors every month or so, research on something you have no slightest clue on, whether it be on religion, the history of a country or even the life of someone you thought to be great (be it philosophers or even sports persons, who cares?)
be it the most struggling year of my life it has without a doubt been the most insightful and learning year of my life thus far.

*no doubt i will be looking into Hinduism and what not about the basis of their beliefs*

God be with you all

*may as well leave you with a long sentence from the book that got me thinking*

'Words of divine consciousness: moral exaltation;lasting feelings of elevation, elation, joy; a quickening of the moral sense, which strikes one as more important than an intellectual understanding of things; an alignment of the universe along moral lines, not intellectual ones; a realisation that the founding principle of existence is what we call love, which works itself out sometimes not clearly, not cleanly, not immediately, nonetheless ineluctably. An intellect confounded yet a trusting sense of presence and of ultimate purpose'

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

omp
zzzzzzzzzzzzzz
u an sam should exchange blog names
um
nice sharing but me an english tcher still not sure what it is u r advertising
like um yes i agree i think
but with hwat i am agreeing im not too sure :):)
i do however appreciate the fact that you blog you share and u invite comment but uts a bit too zzzzzzzzzzz for me to slippery 4me 2 get 2grips w
so sorry

um what other essential beliefs r there apart from Jesus, cos so much flows from dat one belief
like he said he wa God and that the Holy Spirit would remind us. kick us, teach us, guide us, help us rewake up :):)
um tks, sorry i couldnt comment more dryly
u 2intellectaul 4me on dis one eh
use ole blog name heheheheh

OMP

_Crispus_ said...

lol, its nice to know i can outwit my father, thats all you needed to say, i admit i was a bit.. messy on my main point here, its one of those that are just oh so hard to word, you know the ones.
might revisit this poster when im older and more skilled in ligistics and have a broader vocabulary.

hehe