Are you religious?

[here]

Maybe you're a deist, a theist, agnostic, vaguely spiritual, or so on...?

Personally I am an atheist - how about you?

Has practising mindfulness made you question any of your previously held convictions about spirituality and religion?

[FeeHutch]

My mindfulness practice has led to me reading more about Buddhism but I'd say I'm spiritually undecided. I was brought up in a very strict Christian house but behaviour experienced didn't exactly fit the 'turn the other cheek' or be peaceful type ideas and I rejected this in my early teens.
Nearly dying has made me consider the nature of life, death, meaning etc more.

[barbs55]

I've always been very militantly atheist from an atheist family but with very religious grandparents in background. I have always been told that the spiritual element is missing in my life!

What mindfulness has done is make me just much more aware of the beauty of the physical world and its occupants through more focus and awareness, so that I feel more at one with the world, and the practice of loving-kindness in mediation has helped with that too. It did make me briefly look at Buddhism, and I have been to 'lunchtime' meditations at my local Buddhist Centre (which has a fantastic cafe!) but I still find the 'religious' element annoying rather than helpful. Happy to admit that the Buddha,like Jesus, had some great things to say that still speak to us.

I was also seriously ill in a life-threatening ICU way, and quite proud that at no time in the experience or the recovery was I suddenly attracted to religion. But it did give me a sense of the preciousness of people which mindfulness has also enhanced.

[barbs55]

I wrote this piece in the Guardian about how serious illness leaves you with an awareness of the importance of every day and every moment, and every human being. I'm thinking that is my equivalent of a religious belief?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/ ... us-illness

[FeeHutch]

Wow, I loved that piece and shared it on my facebook page because it resonated with me.

[Steve]

I am not 'religious' (having quietly rebelled against a Christian upbringing - my father was a pastor) but I think I am becoming more 'spiritual' and meditation and yoga re-enforce that. One of the attractions of mindfulness is that it is not surrounded or embedded in a load of religious baggage. I am a scientist by training but increasingly realise that science and 'spirituality' merge into one.

My 'spiritual' nature is an increasing awareness that there is an awful lot that we don't or cannot understand about life, the universe (and everything), maybe lots of other 'dimensions' that we are not conscious of. As I have mentioned before, it is possible that time is just a 'dimension' and reality (whatever that means) is timeless. There is much said about everything being 'connected' (and meditation experiences can add to this) and there are remarkable parallels between this and science (the most recent being the Higgs boson stuff).

Cutting through all this is the experience of peace, harmony and clarity that meditation (sometimes) brings.

Steve

[rara]

Haha...funny so many rebel the Christian background. As did I...I can't be doing with being told something is a certain way when it's terribly unbelievable and sketchy. No offence to anyone here who may be Christian...I totally adore the deeper essence of it and it's overall positive message...but it seems too have lost it's purpose over the decades.

I'm a Taoist. Formerly of the philosophical kind but naturally it has led me to spirituality. Through meditation, certain things have become a lot clearer in my eyes...I try and steer away from dogmas though...they will only close the mind back up and leave us back in the same situation.

In recent months I've also taken a lot of Buddhist teachings on board. Some of the Zen stuff really close to Taoist philosophy and the story of Buddha Siddharta himself is amazing. The temple near me welcomes me in to chat and meditate regardless...

[Annette]

I too am an atheist. I was brought up as a catholic, but decided in my 20s there was probably no god. I've been interested in aspects of buddhism for a while (its psychological insights, for example, including mindfulness), but there are aspects of it that get quite religious that put me off.

I'm wary of describing myself as spiritual. I simply think that meditation and mindfulness are part of how to be human. I like the fact that this forum is focused mostly on mindfulness as a secular thing, as that's what I'm most comfortable with.

[JonW]

Hello Annette. Welcome to the forum.
"I simply think that meditation and mindfulness are part of how to be human."
Yes, that's it. Beautifully put.
Despite assumptions to the contrary (see this week's Guardian piece on JKZ/HNS) Jon Kabat-Zinn does not consider himself a Buddhist and he is careful not to label mindfulness in any spiritual way. I think he prefers to leave it open-ended. Therefore, all are welcome to embark on the mindful adventure.

[BioSattva]

I am not religious. I do not believe in a single superstition or mysterious psychic power. That said, I still find the traces of a pseudo-Christian 'programming' at times, even though my parents were not religious and the Christian prayers I had been saying in Junior school were 95% in a language I couldn't understand! It's very powerful stuff.

I think life is complicated enough without additional layers of Luck, Ghosts, God(s), Souls, energies, telepathic aliens or whatever - just navigating the basic psychosocial environments within one's community is difficult enough before such impositions!

It may be interesting to note that the earliest Buddhism accepted the various religious beliefs - Gods and so forth, of other people, as Buddhist practice was touted as a kind of yogic method for liberating oneself from suffering, and that is all.

There is a story that a man approached the Buddha and asked him what the secret of the universe was, and the Buddha replied that that is not the man's true problem. Taken aback, the man enquired as to what his true problem was. The Buddha said he suffered the lack of knowledge regarding the universe, and that if he focused on dealing with the suffering associated with his ignorance, then his initial question may be resolved, or may be of no concern after that.

It seems many people turn to the 'blind faith' of religion as an antidote to the suffering of not knowing their true purpose. Instead of seeking to transcend suffering, they force themselves to accept an unproven and unprovable truth, which, in my opinion, undermines their dignity as an intelligent organism, and they suffer even more as a result.