Mixed belief system - any views?

Originally Posted by New-Simon

I was thinking more of Mystic Christian Gnosticism + Paganism.

I feel that is possible - the orthodox Christianity I don't really care for too much as it's too rigid but some of the more metaphysical Christian beliefs are interesting.

Considering that Gnosticism was a blanket term to refer to various grassroots religions in the early Common Era, and included some Neoplatonic influenced ones, it's certainly possible.

Originally Posted by Greenslade

Or you could jump from one box into another :-) Personally, I'd rather forget the labels and the names and the systems and....... You are the product of six billions years of evolution. Act like it and use your Sovereignty

A martial arts student doesn't learn to master a fighting system by skipping about and reading some Kung Fu 4 U books.

Originally Posted by Animus27

A martial arts student doesn't learn to master a fighting system by skipping about and reading some Kung Fu 4 U books.

That depends on what the student wants out of the martial arts. Bruce Lee did pretty well out of his martial arts and he didn't study any particular system, in fact the film he was working on before he died was about pitting his 'non-system' against other systems. Say what you like about the guy but I'd certainly buy him a drink, wouldn't want him waiting in the alley outside for me:-) But then there's a bit of a difference between a fighting system and a belief system, and there's also what you want out of it. If you want to be the master of a particular system then that's your choice. Not for me though. I get inspiration from the Tao Te Ching and Desiderata, Neale MacDonald Walsh's Conversations with God has some good nuggets as has Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Gary Zukav's Seat of the Soul.

Originally Posted by Greenslade

That depends on what the student wants out of the martial arts. Bruce Lee did pretty well out of his martial arts and he didn't study any particular system, in fact the film he was working on before he died was about pitting his 'non-system' against other systems. Say what you like about the guy but I'd certainly buy him a drink, wouldn't want him waiting in the alley outside for me:-) But then there's a bit of a difference between a fighting system and a belief system, and there's also what you want out of it. If you want to be the master of a particular system then that's your choice. Not for me though. I get inspiration from the Tao Te Ching and Desiderata, Neale MacDonald Walsh's Conversations with God has some good nuggets as has Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Gary Zukav's Seat of the Soul.

I can agree with that, Greenslade.

FWIW, I think people tend to be very eager to ensure they don't fall into the traps fundamentalists have, i.e. literalism, anti-science, politically charged religious beliefs, etc. But I think that eagerness can be detrimental in some respects, because a religion is a system of interacting with the sacred. And for one to understand a system in it's deepest aspects cannot have too many fingers in too many pies at once. If one is practicing vipassana meditation and studying Neoplatonic Theurgy it can cause a conflicted focus, since their goals are anathema to one another. Although I think people should learn about other traditions and beliefs in order to expand their own mindfulness and understanding, but studying and contemplating isn't the same as adopting. Babble, babble

Bruce Lee was awesomesauce, by the way

Originally Posted by Animus27

I can agree with that, Greenslade.

FWIW, I think people tend to be very eager to ensure they don't fall into the traps fundamentalists have, i.e. literalism, anti-science, politically charged religious beliefs, etc. But I think that eagerness can be detrimental in some respects, because a religion is a system of interacting with the sacred. And for one to understand a system in it's deepest aspects cannot have too many fingers in too many pies at once. If one is practicing vipassana meditation and studying Neoplatonic Theurgy it can cause a conflicted focus, since their goals are anathema to one another. Although I think people should learn about other traditions and beliefs in order to expand their own mindfulness and understanding, but studying and contemplating isn't the same as adopting. Babble, babble

Bruce Lee was awesomesauce, by the way

The way I see it, Animus, is that if God is all he is cracked up to be then he's as much a part of one religion as he is the other. Each religion is a particular path to God and none of them are any better than the other, except perhaps in the mind of the follower. Religion is a good idea until people get their hands on it, then it can get very silly very quickly. Every religion was right for that culture at that time, but the times they are a-changing - in some ways anyway. Although there was a transferring of religious beliefs from one culture to the next through migration, I don't think it was quite as widespread as it is today and especially with the advent of forums such as these. If you take Christianity as an example, it came from the Sumerians and probably via Egyptian sun worship and Mithraism. It's been said the Jesus wasn't a Christian but a Nazorean Essenne, and if you take a closer look at what the Essenne teachings are and what Jesus taught, they're not too far apart. Now we have the Green Man in churches (a Pagan symbol) and celebrate Jesus' birthday on Thule for example. So even if you want to become the master of Christianity and stay with that to the exclusion of all else, how many other belief systems are you jumping in and out of? Perhaps Christianity is an example of why you should pick and choose from different systems.

"If you pour water into the cup, it become the cup" That had its effect on me too.