tweakabelle
Posts: 7522
Joined: 10/16/2007 From: Sydney Australia Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Kirata That's why I noted the shortcomings of our definition of "religion". It is not actually necessary to believe in God to follow a theistic practice. For the practice it is sufficient to conduct yourself as if God existed, as if a loving Father (generic: Mother/Father) existed, who was good, who cared about you, and about all life and the universe. Now if you don't believe in God, you might ask what good can it do to "imagine" one. But what we imagine takes on a psychological reality, and for better or worse we are doing it all the time. So choose your poison. By the discipline of theistic practice a transpersonal self becomes instantiated which is outside the ego and capable of seeing that to which your ego is blind, not only your shortcomings but undiscovered capacities as well. Think of just one simple observance, that of saying grace at meals. Why should you thank God for your food? It's there because you worked your ass off to put it there, not because of some "God". But while that is factual, it most certainly doesn't encompass the truth. That food is there because there are jobs where you live and you are lucky enough to have one; it's there because people hundreds or thousands of miles away raise livestock and farm the land; it's there because other people work to bring it to where you can buy it; it's there because we are lucky enough to have a climate that allows those activities; it's there because our planet's magnetic field protects life on Earth from being irradiated to death by our star... and on and on. It is manifestly not there simply because of you. Theism is a practice, and one which is no more dependent upon "belief" than meditation or yoga. It is a practice that, like meditation and yoga, is intended to change you, to change your relationship to life, to your fellows, and to the world. K. It seems to me that the entirety of your suggestions are located within the here and now, while having the potential to go anywhere. In which case can I suggest that the use of the terms theism and religion is not as helpful or productive as it ought to be. Theism and religion carry certain connotations in everyday language, some of them quite negative for some people. They incite stereotyped reactions and fixed positions. Using these terms locates the discussion in a place that is already overcrowded and contested. Even in this thread, communication and understanding was improved, I felt, once we had all agreed that theistic beliefs were not central or necessary to our themes. Looking back, that seems to me to be about the point when real progress and communication started happening. De Leuze and Guattari propose thinking about humans as an open-ended set of potentials in "Anti-Oedipus". I can't help feeling that this conversation and project would be advanced by borrowing that or a similar notion or terminology. My feeling is that this departure point of humans as open-ended sets of potentials, realisable in a multitude of directions and practices, is broad enough for our purposes conceptually and flexible enough to accommodate the range of various 'realising' practices (if I can call them that) without prejudicing anything or alienating anyone. There could be many other eloquent terms or ways of conveying the ideas/practices being discussed here. I am pretty optimistic that adopting a new open-ended terminology reasonably free of historical baggage would clarify and advance the discussion. Edited to add extra truth and herbs
< Message edited by tweakabelle -- 1/26/2011 5:26:45 AM >
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