The School of Spirituality - Sign up now!

reply to post by mrwupy


Spirituality does come from within, I completely agree. But having some sort of mentor or advisor isn't something harmful to your spirituality.

Not to mention, if people were together and sharing their experiences, in person, it would help progress our spirituality much faster then we can do on our own - although it is very possible to find enlightenment on your own, who says it has to be a journey alone? The journey for the most part is completely yours, it's sacred to you, as my journey has been for me. But, if it wasn't for others who wrote about their experiences and such, I may have never had mine the way I did, or may have never found it. Some people are just spirituality lost, and guidance towards spirituality is not wrong in any way.

Forcing views upon someone, or forcing beliefs upon someone, now that is completely wrong. That is not what I'm suggesting though. I'm just thinking one big melting pot of spirituality from all walks across the globe. People showing others what they've learned and such.

For example, not everyone can have OoBE. But, with the help of certain methods (which can be taught) people may learn to be able to go out of body and into their astral/spiritual body.

I have made a spirituality thread which you can find easily enough which talks about this very subject, as well as many other things.

Hell, the Buddha had 1,250 people following him and listening to his words after only having found Full Awareness 3 months earlier.. they followed him EVERYWHERE, all the while ordaining new bhikkhu's.. The numbers grew to thousands in just a few short months.. and the amount of lay disciples was uncountable.
A spiritual journey to Full Awareness definitely comes from within.. but you need someone to teach you how to follow your breathing, teach you the steps of meditation, help you manage the new life you will be a part of.. Full Awareness does not come from 20 minutes of meditation during your lunch break.. it takes months and YEARS of meditation to truly reach what you are looking for.
But it's not like you don't learn anything on the way.. you are constantly realizing new things, nature will seem brand new, you will look at people, plants, insects, in an entirely new way.. You are one with the earth and the earth is one with you. That is all.

DanK

ROFLMAO. I read most of what you posted on the front page lol. I have to say that this idea of yours sounds very familiar. I think its been done already. The place is called the earth. We have all come together to learn from one another and just be kewl and friendly and just chill and discuss religion with each other. Wow.. and what have we done with it. LOL no, human beings are not capable of such a thing. We are opinionated to the end and some of us are so opinionated we want to die or hell even kill to prove our way is THE way. This wont change in any forum. You make a big ol school of mixed faiths and you better have plenty of tear gas on hand and rubber bullets. The fighting would be legendary. If such a thing was possible it would be so now. Nope, humans cannot get along with each other. We all fight and its our nature to do so. We kill because its our nature to do so. If we grow to a certain point that we are no longer this way then awesome but that is so many millenia away that its crazy.

We are crazy mixed up biochemical machines, convinced of our superiority in the universe and our own superiority amongst our brothers. If there truly is someone out there who truly is not self serving even alittle bit and can honestly see everything from every angle then you have someone who believes in nothing cause he beleives in everything. That tolerant individual would be one among a very small minority of humans.

The idea is grand to be sure and maybe one day we will all just love each other without any regard ot each others beliefs. Tolerance will rule the day. I think for the most part people on this earth do live with each other in peace and tolerance but its the few out there that make the biggest problems for the rest of us. Maybe if the extremists go away then we can have utopia.

Ok after having read more of the posts i think you all sound very much like the droppouts of the 60's who joined or started communes. For the most part they didnt work out either. You would be asking alot from the people you had join up and thats that they leave their opinons at the door. It didnt work then and people had the same idea of a place you can just groove and learn and be happy and love each other and share ideas and etc etc etc blah blah. You cannot take the human element out of the equation. Regardless of what we are capable of as human beings its what we are capabale of NOW and well look around at the world if you want to know that. It isnt our leaders screwing everything up. The leaders of the world are well humans too. Just like you and me. They have been and always will be. You could be one of them tomorrow or your children. We all take responsibility for this screwed up world we live in.

Good luck starting your utopian religious society.

[edit on 1-4-2010 by fizzy1]

Originally posted by Dank513
A spiritual journey to Full Awareness definitely comes from within.. but you need someone to teach you how to follow your breathing, teach you the steps of meditation, help you manage the new life you will be a part of.. Full Awareness does not come from 20 minutes of meditation during your lunch break.. it takes months and YEARS of meditation to truly reach what you are looking for.
But it's not like you don't learn anything on the way.. you are constantly realizing new things, nature will seem brand new, you will look at people, plants, insects, in an entirely new way.. You are one with the earth and the earth is one with you. That is all.

DanK

Ahh so true. Once I was spiritually awoken I was putting things together in my head it seemed like a million miles a second it was incredible. That 'grace' period dies down though and you need to stick it out to keep learning - but it is entirely worth it because of course this is your life & soul after all!

And yes, you will not learn everything in a day, a week, month, year. It may take a lifetime, or several. The point is to always shoot for the stars, if you only make it half way, so be it, but the fact is you kept going and never gave up. This analogy applies to spirituality completely, always keep up with your awareness and it will always keep up with you. You just need to find it!

And the part about how you said you will see things different... you hit that spot on! Once I was spiritually awoken I did see everything different. Now when I see a bug, for example, I don't kill it (although I never was fond of killing any living creature before my spiritual awakening either), I'll pick it up with something and set it free into the wild once again. When I look outside at nature, even through a window, during a storm or after it has rained, all I see is beauty and it is a wondrous site. I never looked at things in such a way unless I was on some sort of psychedelic - but now I can see these things naturally which is awesome.

A lot of other things come with spirituality as well, it almost is like you grow new senses, or more so you realize you have more senses then you ever knew you had and you start to develop them. For me I have a more heightened awareness for danger it seems; I've felt something horrible approaching before the last few big earthquakes right up until they happened and the feeling got stronger as it got closer to the actual earthquake. In fact, I was talking to a friend online via AIM about how I was feeling like something bad was going to happen and that the feeling was growing stronger by the day - well actually during that chat the earthquake in Chile happened. How weird is that? You may chalk these things up as coincidence but once you actually experience things like this, and they happen very rapidly you will realize it's more than your imagination, it's your inner/higher self telling you things, making you recognize things and put together the puzzles of life in seemingly short bursts. But once you start putting together the pieces a picture emerges and it is wondrous as well.

I hope all people experience the things I have, and much much more! Life is beautiful and it's even more beautiful when you are out of body and able to see places you never knew existed nor could explain in words even if you wanted too

reply to post by fizzy1


Does cynicism run in the family, or did you develop it watching "Fox News" too much with the TV too close to your eyeballs?

Not everyone wants to rape and pillage others believe it or not. There are a lot of others out there who agree with what I said in the OP, and if you read the thread, which I know you didn't because you said, and I quote:

Originally posted by fizzy1
ROFLMAO. I read most of what you posted on the front page lol.

you'd have seen many others agreed with my OP... you didn't even read the whole OP so why are you even responding to my thread? Your first sentence in your response makes you sound like some 15 year old who thinks the world is out to get them - Well truth be told the world IS out to get you but there are ways to prevent it. But being pessimistic about others ideas which are positive and promoting love to all by all is not going to help you in any way. Get out of my thread unless you have something meaningful to say.

[edit on 1/4/2010 by highlyoriginal]

Originally posted by fizzy1
Good luck starting your utopian religious society.

Yeah because I stated in the OP that that was exactly NOT what I meant by any of this post.

All I wish for is a place where people can enjoy themselves and not have to worry about biased people like yourself. Where people can learn from one another in harmony, and grow spirituality on their own with little to no help from others (and when I say that I mean them not being pushed into believing something or another).

You really need to stay out of this thread. You're just going to troll away at it and derail it so...

Kind Regards,
Highlyoriginal

Goodbye!

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ agree

second line.

DanK

reply to post by highlyoriginal


Careful Ma'am. I think your soul is showing What a good idea. ATS needs something like this to leaven the doom, gloom and partisan politics. Count me in.

I have always had a vision of something like this happening. In that vision i see houses built in hills(like hobbits), and people dancing around may poles. Weird I know, but its my happy place.

I imagine a schedule(all optional of course) going something like this:

sunrise - group yoga followed by meditation

morning forest stroll

Breakfast

Class on breathing techniques

Class on sustainable gardening

group meditation

lunch

class on inducing OOBE's

tai chi and chi gong

class on energy healing (reiki, chi gong, reflexology, acupuncture)

Hiking, biking, kayaking, running depending on what you like

dinner

spirituality talk lead by someone in the field

group meditation

restorative yoga
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Whose comin with me!

reply to post by bringthelight


That could be a very long day if it were 5x a week, lol. But I see what you're saying.

In my head I'm sort of picturing this idea now more like a "Spiritual Center" - do not call it a mecca! A place people can come to, enjoy for how ever long they wish, then leave, or whatever. The place would operate on grants and donations basically. If there was a way to 'give back' then there would be an opportunity to make money to keep the place going, but then again people would start saying things like 'You're just in it for the money!" etc...

Anyone have like....say....$20,000,000+/- they can spare? U2U me if you do, thanks!

Anyone have anything else to add to this thread? I'd hate to see it die, but this will be the last post I make if no one else adds anything, promise

reply to post by highlyoriginal


You just made my point for me. Thanks. You just showed how anyone with a difference of opinion can and will upset you to the point you throw them out. This is exactly what i was saying. I know exactly what human beings are capabale of and i know there are people who are filled with warm fuzzys and think like you do and will agree with you. The problem with that is, that just like santa clause and the easter bunny, all being nice concepts and fill you with warm fuzzy feelings, they dont exist and wont ever. Yeah its nice to think that people one day can come to such a state but if we can its so far off that its not within sight of your lifetime or mine.
If you put 10 people in a room and asked them all what they wanted on a pizza you would most likely get 10 different suggestions. Everyone starts out polite and sincere but eventually everyone reaches a point they stop being so polite and nice and find other peoples ideas offensive. How in the hell are you going to change the nature of humanity? Whenever and wherever has anything like this worked. Oh and yes it has been tried before in many cultures and societys throughout time. The problem is even when you get a group together who all feel the same way about something, eventually some will start to "see" things a tad bit differently and will start to break away from the norm. This will upset the status quo and start issues amongst the group. Eventually leading to a breaking away of some to start a new trend or movement or group of whatever.
Now imagine a room full of people with differing and opposing ideals. All trying to say what they feel about life, love, the universe etc etc. We have colleges of people who talk all day about their thoughts on the such things now and they dont agree or even get along at times. Institutes of higher learning all trying in a mature and adult way to learn from each other yet even in places like this you have groups who cluster together and say this about that group and that group says bad things about this group etc etc. Its mans nature to disagree and to disagree violently. THIS WAS MY POINT!
You can try to start something like this and it may work, yes it will work, ever so briefly until you get people who are exactly like what i am talking about and then what? You going to just love their opinion or impose rules on them? Of course your going to impose your rules according to your measure as you see fit. Why? Because your human. Others will eventually agree with the person being asked to leave and this will cause others to leave and so the cycle as i said will go on.
ITS THE NATURE OF MAN!! I know you dont like what i have to say and well i tried to say it in my own way. I disagree with your thread and its my right to. Thats what we come on ATS for. I do not get offended by what you have to say about me. Its your right,. However you telling me to get off yor thread is quite funny because it seems like you only want people who agree with you on here. HOW sad. Well i am apart of humanity and i have an opinion and its a negative one of humanity in general because of my experiences. If you dont like it then try being the shining star you think mankind is and show me i am wrong. otherwise i see in you the same i see in everyone else. Someone who is willing to get rough and rowdy when someone doesnt agree with their nonsensical fantasy and want to join up on the hippie love bus of spirituality.
Yep your perfect world is only perfect so long as everyone shares positive love love emotions and ideas, but let someone like me have a negative ideal to throw in the mix and its get out jackson cause you aint wanted here. Sounds like a members only club. Isnt that called christianity already? Suppose to be so full of tolerance and love except in the fine print its really only for other like minded members?
LOL get a clue. .Dont worry i wont post on your thread anymore. You arent mature enough to take criticism. I would suggest leaving ATS altogether though cause people on here do criticize other peoples opinions alot or so i have read.

Good luck again

A school of spirituality............It would be great. a place to learn and teach, a place were could be united as one. If such a place existed I know I would join.

If only Ah.

Peace

Is this for real?

On ATS?