Kava Connections

[EQ]

I think there needs to be another option above.
Kava and Yerba Mate plant teacher style lucid dreams have been making me more spiritual and empathetic, so now I do wonder if there may be an energy in the universe that ties everything together but I don't believe in a human created entity on any level. And these thoughts make me feel even happier and luckier to be aware and in the moment of now as I am half way through my travel to my last breath while being "here".
That's kind of long though

I agree Joe. The plants can teach greatly. Often the subtle ones are overlooked. I thought you would appreciate this quote about Tea:

"With it's aroma and clear foam
Tea resembles the nectar of the immortals.

The first cup swept the cobwebs from my thoughts
The entire world appeared in a gleaming light.

The second freed the spirit like purifying rain,
the third made me one with the immortals."
Chiao-Jen

I have learned more about the world from drinking Mate & Kava than 12 years of public education.

 

[24601]

I was raised in the United Church of Canada, my dad is a minister, but I've had huge issues with Christianity because of how extreme some Christians' view on LGBT issues are. My sister is a born-again Christian and she actually told me I was going to hell once, which was a nice little conversation.

As for personal spirituality, I do believe there is something bigger out there, but most of the time I tend to leave it alone. I've gone through phases where I get interested in meditation and trying to connect with it, and I do believe that the things in my life that have or have not worked out probably have some sort of meaning, that things happen for a reason - but I don't have any sort of organized practice. I respect other peoples' beliefs, but I personally find hope and empowerment in a speech Adam Savage gave at a skepticism/atheism conference that ended with:
"And finally, I have concluded through careful empirical analysis and much thought that somebody is looking out for me, keeping track of what I think about things, forgiving me when I do less than I ought, giving me strength to shoot for more than I think I am capable of. I believe they know everything that I do and think, and they still love me. And I’ve concluded, after careful consideration, that this person keeping score is me."

A big part of learning to love myself came from the moment I realized that the person keeping score was myself and only myself. I had seen other people find solace in organized religion and felt like my life was lacking because I could never make that connection, but this speech gave me what I needed there - I love me, therefore I don't need to petition some old white dude in the sky and wish that he would love me too.

 

[EQ]

I was raised in the United Church of Canada, my dad is a minister, but I've had huge issues with Christianity because of how extreme some Christians' view on LGBT issues are. My sister is a born-again Christian and she actually told me I was going to hell once, which was a nice little conversation.

As for personal spirituality, I do believe there is something bigger out there, but most of the time I tend to leave it alone. I've gone through phases where I get interested in meditation and trying to connect with it, and I do believe that the things in my life that have or have not worked out probably have some sort of meaning, that things happen for a reason - but I don't have any sort of organized practice. I respect other peoples' beliefs, but I personally find hope and empowerment in a speech Adam Savage gave at a skepticism/atheism conference that ended with:
"And finally, I have concluded through careful empirical analysis and much thought that somebody is looking out for me, keeping track of what I think about things, forgiving me when I do less than I ought, giving me strength to shoot for more than I think I am capable of. I believe they know everything that I do and think, and they still love me. And I’ve concluded, after careful consideration, that this person keeping score is me."

A big part of learning to love myself came from the moment I realized that the person keeping score was myself and only myself. I had seen other people find solace in organized religion and felt like my life was lacking because I could never make that connection, but this speech gave me what I needed there - I love me, therefore I don't need to petition some old white dude in the sky and wish that he would love me too.

The big difference from religions and spiritual schools is the spiritual schools give guide lines and stress your own path to liberation.
Now religions are the same thing the difference is the Church. The Church does not represent the Bible or Jesus's Teachings. In fact the Church just fear whores.
Some Hindu teachings are very open about accepting LGBT, and I'm not trying to sell you to Hinduism my point is the teachings of religion need to be respected as guidelines.
The Bible does not say to hate on Homosexuals I believe. I mean it says to love thy self as thy love thy neighbor, and when John asked Jesus the most important commandment this was Jesus's reply. The Church acts very unholy, and stress worship of Jesus. Telling gay people they are going to hell is not what the Bible represents, and is in fact bullshit!
I won't interpret the Bible in my views, but it is extremely hard to understand.

The most important thing is to trust yourself, and not sell your belief. Gnosis, and life experience is what counts. How you feel, and what you think is all that matters to you.

 

[Tfin]

@24601 Yes! WE are our biggest judges.....no one else. Learning to love ourselves and accept responsibilities for what happens in our lives (perceived good and bad) instead of blaming it on others is key to our progression.

I always loved that famous piece by Bill Hicks (a man before his time):

 

[Kojo Douglas]

When I was in high school, I got really into Buddhism, the beat poets, and psychedelics. My friends and I would go on camping trips and try everything possible - shrooms, mescaline, pure peyote, and LSD. It was always crazy to think about the absurdity of existence on these "trips" and we would often have incredible discussions where things kind of seemed to make sense. Now, I'm not recommending this to anyone. At 35, I could not handle such an experience again. But at the time, uninformed and full of wonder, we seemed to get out towards the boundaries of what can and can't be understood.

 

[chandra]

I had a sort of spiritual breathrough when I began to see God as love. Pure selfless unconditional love. If you look at the life of Jesus he exemplifies this. The problem with mainstream christianity is they miss the basic point of the religion they proclaim. They only know how to love people who are just like them. I'm much more concerned with becoming a more loving person than following any specific tenant.

 

[cerulean]

I was brought up on the Episcopal branch of Christianity but hated it my entire childhood. Nothing fit and it felt like just a place people went to for the donuts afterwards. The questions I had about the stories I was being told were either not answered or answered with hesitation. While some of this unwillingness to believe what I was being told came from a strong rebellious streak, I was sitting during the pledge when I was in elementary school and sometimes being put in the corner for it (in a public school) because I didn't like "Under God". Luckily my hippy parents let me be who I wanted to be and after a time we all stopped going to church. My dad was probably struggling with belief. He died when I was 17 and just started to get to know him at that level. My mom still believes in God but she has her own was about her that she keeps to herself.

I'm an atheist normally on the scale of 8-9 out of 10. Your last option there I still wouldn't check off because I feel it's kind of an ignorant statement. There are plenty of things scientifically proven that you cannot see or touch. Many of these things one can ponder and feel a spiritual sense of contentedness with the universe. We are all star stuff after all.

I also have a major respect for native cultures and especially with the first nations that occupied the Americas. Even though I sit in the comforts of my Long Island home, I know that I am benefiting from the genocide of which horrors likely took place back in time right where I am typing this. I have many books on the subject of Native Americans past and present. I adore John Trudell and the gravitas of loss that made him the icon he is because of what the US government continues to do to native nations in this day and age. I adore him as much as I do Carl Sagan who's enlightenment I grew up with.

I admit there may be something in the way we can feel and experience and maybe even communicate at another level. What that level is or why I don't know. I can't completely discount the weirdness people have experienced in a dream state which carries over into actual life experiences later on. I've experienced it myself.

I lived a year in New Mexico, sober. One night, maybe in a dream, I felt the need of some kind of creature to get inside the house, feelings of fear and hunger. Later on the next day I found out the landlord had to get a racoon out of a bin where it got stuck. The bin was under a window of the house. So who knows. I still think about it. It happened to me 10 years ago.

I ponder the wonders of the universe, life, evolution and feel this contentedness. I drink Kava almost daily and it helps me ponder at a deeper level. It's a plant of this planet, born out of a supernova, just as we are.

 

[chandra]

Maybe I should have phrased the last option as I don't believe there's anything out there but the physical world, but that doesn't really sound right either. Energy is a manifestation of the physical world (I think) and I see spirituality as a kind of energy. I'm sitting outside right now and I can feel an energy from the plants and trees around me, and to me that is something spiritual.

 

[cerulean]

@chandra Maybe something more along the lines of "I'm skeptical of religious claims and superstitious beliefs".

My recent thoughts are that the mind is a terrible thing and I think that when we're in the realm of mind altering drugs, our relationship with our brain and body chemistry overall is altered. I don't think we as humans have any capability of say "using the force" or anything like that but we do have some connections with energies that pass through us that we're not aware of. The drugs may put us more in tune of things we would not normally experience. Some drugs put us in to a state where we might experience how the brain deals with memories. Our ability to understand these experiences is not yet in our grasp.

 

[Zac Imiola (Herbalist)]

The Now is the connecting factor. Is there anything outside of Now? Go into this deeply for yourself. Could there ever be?

 

[Zac Imiola (Herbalist)]

Religion, science, spirituality, blah blah blah blah.... These all deal with How and Why?
Freedom comes from the That.

How do we exist? Mind stuff
why do we exist? Mind stuff
That we exist. Mind stops, consciousness of being conscious comes forth and replaces identification with form.

You ( the "person" reading this) are.
That is a fact. Right?
For a glass to hold water it needs space.
Whats "holding" your experience right Now?

The mind may come in and comment, that is fine, its part of what is. Whats holding the space for the thoughts to comment on what you are reading right now?

Your mind cannot grasp what i am saying here, because the mind is part of experience, not that which experiences.

This moment is made up of 3 ingredients so to speak. Sense perceptions, emotions, and thoughts.
Verify this for a moment.
Okay now what else is there?

A fish says to the other fish, can you notice the water?
WHAT IS WATER? the fish replies....

This is no different than when a human says to another human can you notice Being?
Whats being? What do i DO with it?

 

[Kojo Douglas]