Religiousness

What

Do sad people have in common?

It seems

They have all built a shrine 

To the past.

And often go there

And do a strange wail and

Worship

What is the beginning of 

Happiness?

It is to stop being so religious

Like

That.

Hafiz

Fundementalism

"The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself."

Friedrich Nietzche

Lamps Unto Yourselvers

“Therefore, be ye lamps unto yourselves, be a refuge to yourselves.  Hold fast to Truth as a lamp; hold fast to the truth as a refuge.  Look not for a refuge in anyone beside yourselves.  And those, who shall be a lamp unto themselves, shall betake themselves to no external refuge, but holding fast to the truth as their refuge, they shall reach the topmost height.”   Buddha

"Like the women of Liberia, we broke the barriers of religion, race, ethnicity, status and we stepped out and redeemed out time.  We broke all the barriers that patriarchy has set in front of us and we said "War is nonsense.  Peace is what we want.  We will take it if you don't give it to us."  We can never, ever redeem our time if we continue to wait for the men to give it to us.  Is it in your home?  Is it in your community?  It is time for us to break the barriers that separate us.  It's time for us to bind together.  Hold on to that thing that binds us, even though patriarchy wants us to ignore it. If you don't know what I'm talking about when you go to take a bath, find another woman to stand  by you.  The thing that unites us is our Womanhood.  It moves beyond child, it moves beyond tribe, it moves beyond culture, it moves beyond everything.  As women, we need to hold together.  As women, we need to redeem our time.  As women we need to take it back.  As in the 60's and 70's.  As women, we need to be more radical.  There is nothing wrong with stepping out there and saying we are claiming our space.  Why are there still issues of discrimination?  You need to take it!  The men will not give it because it is shifting the status quo.  You need to take it. "  Lehmay  Gbowee

Irony

"The worst offenders of the virtue of irony, this talent for multiple emotional and intellectual points of view are moralists.  They think they know what is right and wrong, tell others how to live, and see themselves as models of virtuous living.  Next in line are literalists, who anxiously take their every thought or belief as pure fact.   They are incapable of appreciating the paradoxes in belief and need to feel that they possess truth.. "  Thomas Moore

Opinion

If they don't have any room for your opinions step outside of the circle and the world is ready to hear you. ~ Dodinsky

How Many?

How many people who believe they never dream are sleepwalking in their marriage, in their job, in their church, blindly adhering to ideas they never question, with no heart in what they are doing?"  Marion Woodman

Religion vs. Spirituality

"Religions have words to describe themselves, but spirituality has none that do it justice.   It is an experience of deep belonging in which all traces of fear, judgment, guilt separation and doubt disappear just as the darkness is dispelled by the sunrise.   Religion has forms, precepts, rituals, rules and stories that sometimes deliver us to a place of unspeakable sweetness, wholeness and belonging, but it is only the vehicle to get us there.   We have to jump off at the destination, while the train continues to make it's rounds.   If we mistake the train for the destination, we are liable to keep riding around in circles.   For while we don't necessarily need religion to be spiritual, religion can block spiritual experience if we find ourselves hanging on to the train, hijacking the train or trying to blow up the tracks."   Joan Borysenko

Fundamentalism

"Fundamentalism does not converse or explore.   It presents truth.   It is essentially non-cognitive.   This false certainty can only endure through the belief that everyone else is wrong.  It desires power in order to implement its vision and force the others to do as prescribed.   There is neither acceptance nor generosity in its differences with the world.   It presumes to know the truth that everyone should follow.   Blind loyalty replaces critical belonging.   The creative and mystical individuals within an institution become caricatured as the enemy; they become marginalized or driven out.   The price is handing over the individual mind.  The counter-questions are neither invited or allowed.   The cult manages to hold you prisoner while making you feel and believe you are free.   You can even feel pity and worry for those outside the cult, the lost ones who have not yet seen your light.   They are attractive because they seem to present a way of belonging that offers consolation, certainty and purpose, even though they do not actually deliver any of these possibilities in any real sense."  John O' Donahue

Fundamentalism

"Fundamentalism is based on faulty and fear-filled perception.  Fundamentalism pretends to have found an absolute point to the inner mind of the mystery.   Such certainty cannot sustain itself in real conversation that is critical and questioning."   John O' Donahue