realwriting Posted December 14, 2008 Report Share Posted December 14, 2008 Hello, First off, this is my first post since joining the forum, so an introductory hello to everyone! Now for my purpose - I am attempting to write a book about religion; focusing on the culture, experiences, and beliefs surrounding all various kinds of religion. I want to write about what people believe, their lifestyles, and what turned them on to religion in the first place. I am currently collecting submissions from people explaining any or all of these things. I have managed to gather a great deal of submissions from Christians, Catholics, Mormons, Muslims, Jews, Jehovah's Witnesses, and Buddhists, and now I am looking to make contact with more than a few members of the Hindu community. I am hoping that I can work with some of you from this site in order to add some Hindu testimonies to my book so that I can appropriately represent your faith. Please let me know if you have any questions and if you are interested in working with me. Kind regards, Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bija Posted December 19, 2008 Report Share Posted December 19, 2008 Hello, First off, this is my first post since joining the forum, so an introductory hello to everyone! Now for my purpose - I am attempting to write a book about religion; focusing on the culture, experiences, and beliefs surrounding all various kinds of religion. I want to write about what people believe, their lifestyles, and what turned them on to religion in the first place. I am currently collecting submissions from people explaining any or all of these things. I have managed to gather a great deal of submissions from Christians, Catholics, Mormons, Muslims, Jews, Jehovah's Witnesses, and Buddhists, and now I am looking to make contact with more than a few members of the Hindu community. I am hoping that I can work with some of you from this site in order to add some Hindu testimonies to my book so that I can appropriately represent your faith. Please let me know if you have any questions and if you are interested in working with me. Kind regards, Mark lets open the thread Mark... Please ask some questions? I was raised Catholic, so had a universal perspective (or better said, an inclination) toward diversity of faith since childhood. My family (even to this day) was catholic sectarian, seeing their sect as the one true faith. I am different, because I was schooled during the 70's and onwards, after Vatican II council. So the influence in the new songs (liturgy etc) at church during the 70's was very moving to my childlike heart. In later years (adolescence) I felt inclination toward the east. And left home as a young man to seek buddhism. Even to this day I greatly admire the lives of people such as Thomas Merton and Bede Griffiths. I came in contact with Gaudiya Vaisnavism and left the buddhist dreams behind. I would consider my thinking these days to be more aligned with the vaisnava perspective - personalism. As a young man I was not aware of the all-pervading presence, but was intuitevly seeking that consciousness. So accepting a faith grounded deeply in imminent personalism was very spontaneous for me. As you would understand, the realizations of personalistic vaisnavism are ongoing for me (within the heart). Aside from that intuitive knowing that lead me to my deeper self, there was external factors that lead me to hindu culture. The main external factor was a great need to try and find harmony in a discordant world. This was obviously prominent in my thinking due to my catholicism. I had brief conctact during my 20's with christian protestantism, but found it very sectarian and divided...placing the born again experience and Jesus as the only door to life. So, at some point I chose to follow my heart...hence Hinduism. I do not consider myself a hindu as such. The Hare Krsna movment was introduced to the west as a cultural movement - therefore you see in it many westerners taking outer forms and expressions. This outer expression eventually became impossible for me (due to my environment in Australia rural), so, I do not consider my aspiration to be hindu culture as such, now. I have taken the essence of two things - a tradition and its essence and the essence of my being. This essence of being is what I call my spirituality, and that is not hindu, christian or buddhist. This way of living has opened me up to a deeper universalism of being...where all things have become sacred. The trees, the rivers, the animals...even the darker aspects of this world and the inner psyche...have perspective now. That is my faith in a nutshell. If you want more replies to this thread, you may want to transfer it (including my post please) to the spiritual discussions section. I dont think many people read this mareket place forum so much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
realwriting Posted January 25, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 25, 2009 Thanks Skippy! I'd like to discuss this more with you, either through messaging here or over email. My email is realwriting@hotmail.com. Thanks, Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
realwriting Posted January 25, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 25, 2009 Forgot to add my apology for being so late in responding to your post. I have been busy writing and haven't been on the site in a few weeks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
realwriting Posted January 25, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 25, 2009 OK, last post. I thought your avator was great, hence my calling you Skippy. Hope you didn't mind! Now I'll finally look into moving this thread over. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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