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No.5458
“7 percent of all Americans, a bigger group than atheists, and way bigger than Jews, Muslims or Episcopalians”Examining the Growth of the ‘Spiritual but Not Religious’ — Mark Oppenheimer, The New York Times
In the 2012 survey by the Pew Religion and Public Life Project, nearly a fifth of those polled said that they were not religiously affiliated — and nearly 37 percent of that group said they were “spiritual” but not “religious.” It was 7 percent of all Americans, a bigger group than atheists, and way bigger than Jews, Muslims or Episcopalians.
Unsurprisingly, the S.B.N.R.s, as this growing group is often called, are attracting a lot of attention.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/19/us/examining-the-growth-of-the-spiritual-but-not-religious.html No.5471
It's a shame that a good majority of this group are following Jewish/Masonic new age feminist/humanistic bullshit.
No.5520
What does the word religion even meant exactly? I think the religious composition of America would be much more clear if we could just clearly define the words we use. Some people seem to believe religion is in reference to ones metaphysical beliefs, such as about God, however quite a number of religions don't mention him at all, and some religions even claim god doesn't exist. So obviously belief in God can't constitute a religion.
Then on the other hand it could mean a set of customs and culture that hold communities together, but this would make quite a number of things "religions", such as political parties, schools, jobs and so on.
So what the hell does religion mean?
No.5528
>>5520I would describe it as a structured and/or organised set of beliefs pertaining to the metaphysical nature of the universe or aspects thereof, including all spiritual practices.
No.5537
>>5520Religion is walking the same path as the religion's founder. A christian for example would have to live like Christ did. A mohammedan would have to live like Mohammed. Hitlerists must follow Hitler's lead.
No.5542
>>5537>Hitlerists must follow Hitler's lead.I hope you don't mean we have to commit suicide. Although I do want to commit suicide when all my work is done. Save the white race, destroy my enemies, raising 14 minimum children, and then off myself.
No.5543
Buddhism & Christianity in Light of Their Parent Faiths
Much can be learned, by metaphysical intellection, from the comparison of Buddhism and Christianity. In a way, that is the axis of Schuon’s Treasures of Buddhism (formerly In the Tracks of Buddhism) as well as Osborne’s Buddhism and Christianity in the Light of Hinduism. It is at least as instructive to see how they arose from their parents.
As Schuon points out, both Christianity and Buddhism arose not through “reformation” (a charge often made by modern scholars far from the essence of tradition), but through “invasion”; the mission of both the Buddha and the Christ was — as logoic emanations into the phenomenal — to jailbreak the inward methodological functions of primordial traditions held captive in their own pharisaical formalism, and make them available, through proper initiatic processes, to people outside of their original contexts. Contrary to popular belief (backed up, in many cases, by poor academic scholarship), it is entirely possible to fully join — through varying processes — both Hinduism and Judaism. In fact, it always has been possible, or else the Greek devotees could not have joined Jewish worshipers, and Alexander’s men could not have become Hindus. Nevertheless, at the times of their earthly ministries, both Jesus and Siddhartha ran head-long into the rock-hard crystallizations of legalistic formalisms strangling the life out of influential segments of their parent faiths — faiths which, even today, are largely associated with particular national, cultural, and/or racial membership. In order to universalize those methods of liberation, it was necessary to remove them from seeming dependence upon their birth-races.
Both Christianity and Buddhism are initiatory in nature. That is, one is not a Christian or a Buddhist until the proper steps are taken and commitments made, and the inward essences of each tradition remain unavailable — in principle and in practice, whatever Protestants may say — until the aspirant has demonstrated appropriate commitment and internalized certain graces comparable to yogic śaktis. By comparison, there are many degrees of participation in both Judaism and Hinduism in which one remains definitely Jewish or Hindu, and not a mere “nominalist”. It is sufficient, in both cases, to be born in; one cannot be born a Christian or a Buddhist, no matter how many generations of believers led to one’s birth. In Hinduism, it is even sufficient, according to Swami Vivekananda, simply to call oneself a Hindu and inwardly accept the essential doctrines of karma, dharma, and reincarnation. Further initiations are available to qualifying adherents of both faiths, but are not necessarily required to participate in the “life of faith”. True, a lot of study and community involvement is a requirement to join Judaism, however no more than exoteric involvement is demanded in either case.
The initiations of Buddhism and Christianity do differ considerably, but contain similar metaphysical elements. The Christian is baptized first by water, then by fire and Spirit, and only then is brought into the Body of Christ. During this process, she is (ideally) expected to study the Gospel closely, trying to find faith in it and putting it into action in her life. The process is definitely progressive, with one “stage” of initiation occurring only after the previous one has been completed. The full flowering of this process is in awakening the virtues of Faith, Hope, and Love, with Love containing and, as it were, animating the other two. The Buddhist, on the other hand, “takes refuge” simultaneously in Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, corresponding approximately to saving faith in Jesus the Christ, in God’s Word (more the metaphysical Logos than biblical Scripture), and the mystical Body of Christ. As the Buddhist takes the triple-refuge all at once (though the inner blooming of the refuges may be quite gradual), the Christian must move from one to the next in the stated order. We can say that for the Christian, the first awakens Faith, the second Hope, and the third Love, going from the specific to the general; the corresponding virtues of Buddhism, if I may speak informally, we might call Intelligence, Knowledge, and Compassion.
No.5544
>>5543Judaism most certainly possesses something of the baptismal mystery within it, as does Hinduism, both requiring some degree of ritual purity (depending upon one’s responsibilities). Judaism’s earliest known initiatory esoterism, corresponding to the baptism by the Spirit, was the “prophetic school” of Mount Carmel (which, incidentally, possesses close mystical ties to the Catholic Carmelite Order of genuine esoteric reformers). And, of course, all Jews are considered to be of “one body” in the sense of representing a single, world-influencing compact in service to God. The latter prophets of Judaism, representing the Mount Carmel school and its successors, as seen in the Hebrew Bible, represent the outpouring of Love to those both within and without the Jewish community. This was precisely the kernel which Jesus represented, first to Jews themselves — especially those of His inner circle of disciples, as seen in the esoteric shape of the Sermon on the Mount (presented only to His immediate inner circle, and not, as commonly misread, to the vast crowds from which they retreated for the Sermon) and, after His resurrection and appearance to Saul-cum-Paul and others, to the whole Roman world.
The esoterisms of ancient Hinduism are — as they still are today, given the all-around diversity of Hinduism — much more diverse than those of early Judaism. (Kabbalah is a relatively recent development, though still fully “orthodox” and traditional.) Still, the most well-known of Hindu esoterisms of the days leading up to the life of the Buddha were yogic in nature and, thus, at least mostly “gnostic”, compared to Judaism’s “bhaktic” or “loving-devotional” bent. (Again, this is pre-Kabbalah, as Kabbalah is decidedly gnostic in nature.) As these yogic schools of Hindu esoterism are known to be the ones which the Buddha encountered during his wanderings, it is this sort of approach which serves as the launching-point of Buddhism. Even Christian Gnosticism depends upon a pre-existing base of Faith, Hope, and Love — as the Jewish esoteric base. Primitive Buddhism — leading into Theravada Buddhism and, eventually, most forms of the Mahayana — has intellective meditation developing into unitive contemplation as its pattern. For the Christian, unitive contemplation sprouts from love, while for the Buddhist, universal compassion unfolds from unitive contemplation for, as Ramana Maharshi quipped, how can one mistreat who he knows to be himself?
It should go without saying that these general observations do not dismiss notable exceptions. That all four “poles” of sādhana — “spiritual discipline”, the four poles being karma or charyā (selfless action), bhakti or kriyā (ego-transcending devotion), dhyāna or yoga (“cessation of movements in the consciousness”), and jnāna (gnosis, or pure intellection) — must arise within any complete tradition. As such, Christianity certainly has evidence of a purely contemplative tradition in the form of the rediscovered Gospel of Thomas, and the likes of Meister Eckhart. Buddhism carried the seed of devotional love from the first, which eventually took root and flowered as the various forms of “Amidhism” or so-called “Pure Land” Buddhism. Just as nama-japa is performed by Hindu bhaktas, the Saving Name of Jesus is invoked by hesychasts and their heirs, and some schools of Sufis practice remembrance (dhikr) of the Name of the Prophet, so do Amidhists practice nembutsu or buddhanusmṛti (“rememberance of the Buddha”) in which the name of Amitābha-Buddha (the Buddha of Compassion) is chanted — either alone, or as part of a traditional mantric formula. And, just like the bhaktas and Christian devotees, the purpose of this chanting is achievement of a Paradise from which Nirvāna may be reached much more easily; in other words, it is a vehicle of extra-cosmic Mercy, a horizontal, inclusive, heavenly circle of communion extending outward from the shaft of a vertical ray of Grace; it is a similar “heavenly geometry” to that of the “side effect” or angelic outpouring of the Eucharistic Mass, in which Heaven’s Grace is extended outward from the sacrificial altar of the Church to those open to the influence up to several miles around, though occurring in subtler fields of activity than the material and lower astral.
No.5545
>>5544A distinction between Christianity and Buddhism which is often made — as could, in the same spirit, also be made between Judaism and Hinduism — is that the salvation to which they aspire (or the Absolute which they preach) differs considerably. This is to forget, however, the apophatic essence of Christian theology. It is unfortunately true, due largely to the influence of both sentimentalists and rationalists, that Christians have not given this esoteric center much credit in several centuries and, at least in many forms of Protestantism, sometimes even brand this most orthodox of doctrines as “heresy”, but the degeneracy of intellection in no way degrades Truth. It is true that popular understandings of “heaven” are more like the Paradise of Amidhism than the Nirvāna of contemplative Buddhism (and, of course, Amidhism’s ultimate aim), but God the Father and Nirvāna could just as easily be synonyms. One need look no further than Dionysius the Areopagite to see how Christian mystical theology meets the same formlessness found in Buddhism and the height of Advaita Vedanta and non-dual Saivism (as well as Kabbalah).
Another question ought to be addressed, here: that of exoterism and esoterism. Christianity and Buddhism are, strictly speaking, esoteric religions. By contrast, Judaism is an exoteric tree which produces esoteric fruits; Hinduism is quite a bit different, in that it is a flowering exoteric bush with deep esoteric roots. In Judaism, one begins religious life with exoterism, and could very well pass through life in this mode exclusively, while every Hindu has immediate access to some degree of esoteric teaching and practice. Buddhism, given the cultural environment in which it spent most of its lifetime, has largely been able to retain its obviously esoteric character. Even so, it has built upon itself an exoteric edifice for the benefit of the great mass of followers. Christianity, however, has become almost entirely obscured by its exoterism. It is as if the village outside a fortress wall, extending horizontally around to the edge of the wilderness, entered a growth boom in which it could only grow upward to hide the castle from view. Despite appearances, the castle still stands, and is quite more than a mere tourist destination, but the loud and ugly city outside must be traversed without getting lost in the crowd, and then the wall crossed with the help of a guide possessing appropriate experiential authority. In brief, Christianity most certainly still exists in its original, esoteric “DNA”, but its exoteric outer shell has become a mutated limb with a malignant growth. The grace of the outward Sacraments is still efficacious within those institutions with authentic spiritual succession.
An entire book could be written on these relationships and, indeed, several have been. The preceding have been little more than some metaphysical notes compared to what could be said in this connection. The details stack up as we realize more and more that Christianity and Buddhism present important universalized systems of vital religious doctrines and practices, represented in a form assimilable by peoples well outside of their birth-cultures. The decadent Germanic, Greco-Roman and Celtic religions were not the vehicles of grace the men and women of Europe required, and the traditional doctrines of the far East were very much “this-worldly” and so, while mostly fairly healthy, incomplete. Of course, much could be made of this analysis, and I am necessarily leaving out exceptions and details for the sake of brevity. That, however, is not my present purpose. The present purpose, in sum, is this: salvation comes to the world in the shape and time most necessary. Christianity and Buddhism are still today what they were at their inception: extensions of Heaven’s Grace in a messianic form custom-suited to the Iron Age in which we still live. Those who seek Life in this world have already had a rope — appropriate to their precise needs — thrown to them from shore and need only open their eyes and take hold.
http://inpeaceprofound.com/2013/01/18/buddhism-christianity-parent-faiths/ No.5602
DAILY REMINDER THAT JESUS LOVES YOU>>>/christian/ No.5618
>>5602>HEY GUISE, JOIN OUR ANCIENT DAY SJW CRUSADE SO THAT WE CAN FARM YOUR LOOSH AND DEVOUR YOUR SOULS. No.5622
>>5602Oh fuck over 1k posts on that board.
Why don't you christcancerniggers die out already?
What a wretched slave religion.
Y'all lazy bastards that just want to affirm to yourself "Jesus died for my sins so it's ok and now I don't have to do anything" rather than undergoing the very hard and demanding work of developing your consciousness and rising to higher planes.
No.5624
No.5627
>>5624Fuck Atheism and Christianity.
No.5679
>>5627
>Man goes through the selfless task of dying for your sins, entirely cleaning your soul making immortality possible>lol fuk u broHow edgy.
No.5680
>>5622>yfw>>>/christian/ mysticism
transcends and is superior to even the highest forms of magic…
No.5693
>>5679I will always love jesus even if i don't love his church, he's basically the embodiment of purity and kindness it's hard not to love him.
Pope Frances a shit though.
No.5733
>>5679…but that's a fucking lie to ensure your self-destruction by making you apathetic to everything. "It's alright, I'm already saved by Jesus, I don't have to work towards my own salvation and can ignore universal law".
>>5680It's not. Come at me Christfaggot, you will lose in any magick war against me.
No.5754
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>>5733>…but that's a fucking lie to ensure your self-destruction by making you apathetic to everythingThat's just your opinion, friend.
>It's alright, I'm already saved by Jesus, I don't have to work towards my own salvationOur Salvation was given to us long ago by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, all we have to do is reach out and take it. This may sound simple, but it is not easy. Salvation can only be reached by faith in our Lord, as well as living ones life is accordance with God's Law.
I hope that before the end you too can find solace in the one true God and in his Son. I will pray for you tonight and the others here like you.
No.5790
>>5754…but it's literally not "just my opinion". You are going to fucking reincarnate again and lose all your progress, be born back again into this material shithole, all because you're too much of lazy vice-ridden mundane to embrace true self-development and would rather continue to sin and be a bad person and use the excuse of MUH JESUS SAVED ME ALREADY NOW I CAN DO WHATEVER I WANT.
The law as laid out in the Bible won't help you and faith in the lord won't either because I assure you that you don't have enough faith in him.
No.5801
>>5733>>>/christian/
>Eheie. Kether.–Almighty God, whose dwelling is in the highest Heavens:>Haioth.–The great King of Heaven, and of all the powers therein:>Methratton.–And of all the holy hosts of Angels and Archangels:>Reschith.–Hear the prayers of Thy servant who putteth his trust in Thee:>Hagalgalim.–Let thy Holy Angels be commanded to assist me at this time and at all times.>Iehovah.–God Almighty, God Omnipotent, hear my prayer:>Hadonat.–Command Thy Holy Angels above the fixed stars:>Ophanim.–To be assisting and aiding Thy servant:>Iophiel.–That I may command all spirits of air, water, fire, earth, and hell:>Masloth.–So that it may tend unto Thy glory and unto the good of man.>Iehovah.–God Almighty, God Omnipotent, hear my prayer:>Elohim.–God with us, God be always present with us.>Binah.–Strengthen us and support us, both now and for ever:>Aralim.–In these our undertakings, which we perform but as instruments in Thy hands:>Zabbathi.–In the hands of Thee, the great God of Sabäoth.>Hesel.–Thou great God, governor and creator of the planets, and of the Host of Heaven:>Hasmalim.–Command them by Thine almighty power:>Zelez.–To be now present and assisting to us Thy poor servants, both now and for ever.>Elohim Geber.–Most Almighty and eternal and ever living Lord God:>Seraphim.–Command Thy seraphim:>Camael, Madim.–To attend on us now at this time, to assist us, and to defend us from all perils and dangers.>Eloha.–O Almighty God! be present with us both now and for ever:>Tetragrammaton.–And let thine Almighty power and presence ever guard and protect us now and for ever:>Raphael.–Let thy holy angel Raphael wait upon us at this present and for ever:>Schemes (or Shemesh).–To assist us in these our undertakings.>Iehovah.–God Almighty, God Omnipotent, hear my prayer:>Sabäoth.–Thou great God of Sabäoth:>Netzah (or Netzach).–All-seeing God:>Elohim.–God be present with us, and let thy presence be now and always present with us:>Haniel.–Let thy holy angel Haniel come and minister unto us at this present.>Sabäoth.–O thou great God of Sabäoth, be present with us at this time and for ever:>Hodben.–Let Thine Almighty power defend us and protect us, both now and for ever:>Michael.–Let Michael, who is, under Thee, general of thy heavenly host:>Cochab.–Come and expel all evil and danger from us both now and for ever.>Sadai.–Thou great God of all wisdom and knowledge:>Jesal.–Instruct Thy poor and most humble servant:>Cherubim.–By Thy holy cherubim:>Gabriel.–By Thy Holy Angel Gabriel, who is the Author and Messenger of good tidings:>Levanah.–Direct and support us at this present and for ever.
>The Lesser Key of Solomon No.5817
>>5790>JESUS SAVED ME ALREADY NOW I CAN DO WHATEVER I WANT.That is not what christianity is about at all, you fucking spiritual retard.
No.5818
>>5817That's what it is for the vast majority of every christfag ever.
No.5900
>>5818I recommend you try reading the Bible sometime.
No.5938
>>5900Are you trying to turn me into an atheist? The best way to make atheists of people is to get them to actually read the Bible. No, I will not read your shitty Bible, there are far superior spiritual texts to it in existence. The Bible is rubbish.
No.5944
>>5938Most of the trash in the Bible is from the Old Testament. I've glanced through most of it and not only was it entirely ethnocentric and ironically sinful, but also factually wrong on many accounts (for one thing, Babylon didn't fall like the Jews thought it would).
The New Testament is more or less tolerable, but again, there are errors there. I personally don't like how it condones slavery, but others wouldn't care about that.
If you want a Jewish text that is at least interesting to read, I recommend the Zohar, even if it is only the abridged version.
No.6480
>>5938>In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.>This one was in the beginning with God.>All things came into being through him, and without him came into being not one thing that has come into being.>In him was life, and this life was the light of men.>A man was sent from God, by the name of John.>He was not the light.>His purpose was to bear witness to the light.>The true light, which enlightens all men, was coming into the world.>He made the world, but the world did not know him>He came to his own people, but they rejected him.>But to those who believed in his name, he gave power to become the sons of God.>They were not born of the flesh, but of the power of God.>And he came and tabernacled on earth, and we have seen his glory>the glory as of the only Son of a Father, full of grace and truth.>For no one has seen the Father but the Son, and he reveals him.
>be 2014>atheist>why No.6500
>>5944I gain nothing of value from these texts. They are 2mystique4me vague gibberish that deserves to be forgotten. The amount of effort people have to put in just to decipher what the fuck they meant by it all alone making is dismissable. It's all vague as shit and tl;dr for the actual information value. I'd prefer to stick to the occult books in the mega that actually teach ways to get better in life and connect with source.
>>6480I am NOT an atheist but if the only religious stuff I knew about was the Bible I would be because that horseshit is too much to swallow. In fact I was in extreme existential despair since a very young age because the only shit around me was Christian religious bullshit and the Fedora stuff which disgusts me too. For years and years on end I was lost and then I found occultism and that started to change everything. It finally gave me an actual path to illumination, a way to better myself, and become powerful and overcome my limitations. I still have a lot of damage from my shitty childhood to heal but now I have faith that I will get over it one way or another. Occultism is reasonable, powerful, beautiful, gives actual spiritual experiences; mainstream religion is just dead bullshit and the vast majority of Christfags don't even know the theology, don't pay attention, and use it as a kind of tribal label more than anything. Christfags make up a huge portion of the populace yet they are stupid, lazy, lusteful, obese, and filled with vices of all sorts. They disgust me and their book too. There whole religion needs to move on beyond Jesus and beyond the Bible and update itself and continue evolving, maybe pay more attention to the saints over the ages. …or just put it all to rest, it's a really lousy religion.
No.6510
>>5754i hope you realize that art is mocking Christianity. You can clearly see the idea displayed behind it with the white boy leaning over christs shoulder and the white jesus smirking at the black kid on his knees.
No.7451
>>5622Dude your hate is leaking loosh everywhere. Stahp.
No.13018
bamp
No.13024
Christhate is hilarious and only takes you further away from the source of all love, aka the Absolute.
>>6500
>tfw wants to occult without effort>tfw wants occult to be visible>tfw you just lost the gameAlso, pay more attention to saints over Jesus? now I know you're trolling
It's not Christ's fault your shitty family pushed a spiritually dead branch of christianity on you. get over yourself, let go of your past and your attachment to all that hate, and srsly embrace the teachings of Christ and he will do the healing you so desire.
It blows my mind how all you kids can hate on a religion which was originally designed to save you from your sins and free you from suffering. srsly guys just let go of the shitty things the church has done, they're STS motherfuckers who you shouldn't be giving your loosh to. all you do by hating these people is lose
No.13026
>>5471This.
New Age is derived from Luciferianism; it's end goal is to use the New Age movement to have a one-world religion.
No.13033
ITT nobody here has read the Nag Hammadi library
>you call yourselves wizards
>as ignorant if not more than christianfags
No.13074
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>>13033Nag Hammadi is great. I re-read the Gospel of Thomas lately, and I was amazed how much I understood of it! Definitely one of my favorite scriptures, surely.
http://gnosis.org/naghamm/gosthom.htmlI was Buddhist at first, and "progressing" to Gnosticism seemed to be a natural step to me; however, that was some time ago, and now that I'm a wizard I don't restrict myself stricly to any system of belief.
But I recommend the study of religions wholeheartedly, they have enchanted my being… and the more you know, the more all makes sense.
No.13076
No.13079
>>13026You would know some literature on Luciferianism?
No.13159
>>6500Catholicism isn't the true Christian religion. It's the Orthodox religion, and it gets pretty mystical too. Read the damn Bible. The Christianfags you speak of are probably something that resembles a bunch of niggers singing in a church. It's a shame you don't understand Serbian (maybe you do lol) so i could give you a speech from a Orthodox monk. You'll see it's pretty greenpilled, resembles something you would see on fringe.
No.13354
>>5754I did find the true teaching of Christ; he referred me to Satan, his true father.
The biblical fool is but a sinful puppet erected by mankind.
True Christ is found within your soul, and Satan is within your spirit.
Together with you they form the holy trinity.
No.13355
It's quite funny how the self-proclaimed separation from religion turns into a religion itself. Like fringe or new age. Same thing. When will a person finally trust themselves instead of others?
No.13356
>>13355Are you mocking the only true religion of Fringeism, and our god Smileberg and His prophet Montalk? Are you spitting on our most Holy Kybalion? You are mocking your superiors, shill! You are either one of us or a fedora.
Rope in the name of Smiley! Hang the demiurge worshipper!
(Sorry for the horrible joke.)
No.13357
>>13356Yes, yes. All of that. Somewhat seriously, somewhat jokingly.
No.13358
marry, kill, fuck
No.13389
SHIMMY DEM JIMMIEZ
No.13440
>>13355I just say that I'm not part of
organized religion which is truth. My religion, /fringe/yism, is very disorganized and chaotic.
No.18440
>>13159If Christ is so great then why can't he remove kebab from the birthplaces (Bethlehem and Anatolia) of his religion?
Checkmate, Balkanfags!
No.19122
SBNR pride muthafuckas
>>5471Better that than
>>>/christian/ No.19159
>>5458I think a lot of the reason people are seeking alternatives(atheism, buddhism, new age, neospiritualism) to christianity is because of the christian church. The churches really hurt the religion as a whole. It offers little spiritual guidence beyond what you can find watching your television psychologist. The rituals in the church are watered down to being almost meaningless. There is little to no esoteric teachings, the symbology of the bible and images in the church are rarely discussed. A church service is just liturgy then a nursery rhyme and hand holding. Some people seek higher knowledge and look to other religions. Some in their seek for higher knowledge feel that the way the church explains the universe is wrong so they turn to atheism or scientism. Modern American christian churches are like babies first religion. Which is a shame because christianity is a very good religion, but it's going to waste in America..
No.19185
Oy Vey Switch Tactics
2 Deep 4 Religion