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solo
USA
167 Posts |
 Posted - Jun 25 2009 : 09:27:23 AM
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Many of us are taking different paths "up the mountain". Presently, I am evaluating different spiritual disciplines and am hoping to create a set of generic criteria for spiritual practice. For example, I believe that all spiritual practices should involve a code for ethical, moral or right conduct. I believe that spiritual practices should be based in love, compassion, selflessness, etc. It would be interesting to put together a list that most of from different backgrounds could agree upon. I will start the list and think it would be neat for others to add one point at a time and for us to discuss. If you disagree with a point, please do point out why, but do so respectfully.
1. Spiritual practices should loosely define ethics/morality/right conduct. |
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Shanti
USA
4854 Posts |
Posted - Jun 25 2009 : 10:29:37 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by solo
1. Spiritual practices should loosely define ethics/morality/right conduct.
This will make it a religion not a spiritual practice. 
Rights and wrongs are defined by the ego. Right conduct will come from within when there is silence prevalent in our life. A good spiritual system will give us techniques to access the silence, and to use this silence to allow right conduct come to us naturally. A good spiritual practice will not bind you to anything, but will encourage you to drop everything, any idea, rules that may bind you, an good spiritual practice will help you drop them, only to re-discover them for yourself.
If a system defines right eating, and defines foods that you can and cannot eat, you will be left wondering what it would be like to be able to taste the food that is condemned. But when your practices bring up silence and you enjoy eating healthier you are now beyond the minds story of what is right food and what is wrong, you just eat what is right for you at that moment without judging if the food you are eating is right or wrong.
If the system tells you, quit drinking or smoking or drugs before you can get anywhere, you will work hard at quitting and get into all your mind stories and sufferings trying to quit. Instead, if the system teaches you to access silence, and this silence then helps you quit your addictions, it now no longer is a struggle. The mind has no more say in you quitting, it happens naturally.
If the system says, you have to do service, good to others.. and you go out to help others without any silence, all you will do is impose your ego on them. When you practice and are silence and then let the silence flow out into the world, you are now the divine flow, not an ego trying to get things done his/her way.
Sorry Solo, don't want to derail your topic. But just want to help you not get caught up in anything. Be open to everything, even if it goes against your beliefs right now.. just open accept and let flow. That along with a way to access the silence, is the best thing any spiritual practice can teach you.
http://www.aypsite.org/149.html
quote:
Traditionally, the eight limbs have been taken in sequence. The rationale has been that people have to learn to behave themselves and prepare through strict codes of conduct before they can begin doing more direct spiritual practices. Once they know how to behave rightly, they can begin with the body (asanas), and, later, work their way in through the breath (pranayama), and, finally, be ready for concentration (dharana), meditation (dhyana), and pure bliss consciousness (samadhi). With a traditional approach like this it can be a long road to hoe, especially if a guru (in the flesh) holds his disciples to the highest standards of performance each step along the way. Even Patanjali had this sequence of practice in mind when he wrote the yoga sutras.
That part of it (going through the eight limbs in sequence over a long period of time) doesn't work very well. This has become widely recognized in the yoga community, and Patanjali must have known it too. Maybe in his time it wasn't so easy to be jump-starting people with advanced yoga practices like deep meditation and spinal breathing the way we can do it today.
Over the years different teachers have jumped directly into the eight limbs in different places. Some start with asanas and others with pranayama. Some focus first on devotion and then jump to meditation, or something else. Some jump straight into meditation, and then work their way back through the limbs. As you know, these lessons are of the latter approach. We start with deep meditation, and then head into pranayama, physical techniques, and so on, keeping a good awareness of the role of bhakti/desire all the way through.
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solo
USA
167 Posts |
Posted - Jun 25 2009 : 11:07:33 AM
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| Shanti...this type of open discussion is exactly why I started the thread. I learned something and now must rethink my original premise. Thank you. |
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emc
2072 Posts |
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cosmic
USA
821 Posts |
Posted - Jun 25 2009 : 7:08:22 PM
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Hey solo,
I think there is value in finding common ground between different traditions, but I lean towards what Shanti is saying. There's a fine line between finding points of mutual agreement and building it up into "something".
This, from The Mystic Heart by Wayne Teasdale, may be of interest to you:
quote:
The Guidelines for Interreligious Understanding:
1. The world religions bear witness to the experience of Ultimate Reality to which they give various names: Brahman, Allah, (the) Absolute, God, Great Spirit
2. Ultimate Reality cannot be limited by any name or concept.
3. Ultimate Reality is the ground of infinite potentiality and actualization.
4. Faith is opening, accepting, and responding to Ultimate Reality. Faith in this sense precedes every belief system.
5. The potential for human wholeness - or in other frames of reference, enlightenment, salvation, transformation, blessedness, nirvana - is present in every human person.
6. Ultimate Reality may be experienced not only through religious practices, but also through nature, art, human relationships, and service of others.
7. As long as the human condition is experienced as separate from Ultimate Reality, it is subject to ignorance, illusion, weakness and suffering.
8. Disciplined practice is essential to the spiritual life; yet spiritual attainment is not the result of one's own efforts, but the result of the experience of oneness (unity) with Ultimate Reality.
Although this may not be exactly what you're looking for....
Peace
cosmic |
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Common thread in all spiritual disciplines?
