lmfao

I miss the feelings of being religious (in a way)?

Started by lmfao,

14 posts in this topic

Posted (edited)

Around the time I was 13 [I'm 18 now]  I had on and off periods of being religious. I come from a Muslim family. From a young age I was always asking "why?" when it comes to philosophical or religious questions. So when I was 13 I naturally started questioning Islam but what ended up happening was that I convinced myself extremely strongly that Islam is the truth. I had a logical argument in my mind which led to the conclusion that Islam is 100% the truth (through "proving" that the Quran is from God). When I was extremely religious, I had this deep feeling of serenity and ease with everything and everyone in my experience. My logic was this: reality is governed by an all powerful all loving god, so everything that happens is will be perfect. Reality is perfect. If God is all loving there is no need to be fearful of anything from him. 

I just find reflecting on this interesting, since it has showed me that even with false beliefs I still had a form of high level happiness. The state of consciousness I had back then feels long gone now. 

I know that this is probably just coincidence, but this event stuck with me when it happened. I remember I was about to eat a sandwich was right in front of me, and there was an English Quran in front of me. I thought "God if you have any words for me show them" when I opened a random page from the book, and the first line was a sentence where God is telling someone (probably a prophet in some sort of religious myth/story) to enjoy eating and drinking as a blessing. I'm mentioning this memory I have because it reminds of a time when I was experiencing a weird, good feeling. Another funny thing is that I had this belief that I could feel the state of my soul in my chest and I literally had the feeling that my chest/heart area was clogged and heavy whenever I did something I considered a sin. I would focus my mind whilst reciting arabic and thinking of god, and I would physically try to breath out the negativity from my chest, and the feelings of heaviness would disappear from my experience. 

I just felt the need to reflect upon these experiences because I can't make much sense of them. A state of mind where I was absorbed in religion and felt extremely good whilst doing it. The feelings I had were so surreal and foreign to my current experience that I don't know what to think about it. Even if I reach non-dual states from meditation I never get the same feelings. I find it so puzzling to think back to the times I was religious, because when I was religious I was living in a completely other reality of beliefs and emotions that I can't believe that I was ever like that. The quality of my higher consciousness experiences when religious were of a completely different flavour to the experiences I get from meditation. 

Edited by lmfao

Hark ye yet again — the little lower layer. All visible objects, man, are but as pasteboard masks. But in each event — in the living act, the undoubted deed — there, some unknown but still reasoning thing puts forth the mouldings of its features from behind the unreasoning mask. If man will strike, strike through the mask! How can the prisoner reach outside except by thrusting through the wall? To me, the white whale is that wall, shoved near to me. Sometimes I think there's naught beyond. But 'tis enough.

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@Bluebird The pessimistic side of me just wants to say "a better brain chemistry". I can still feel good and have a higher awareness through meditation, it's just that I feel like there's a distinct flavour of consciousness I'm missing out on. But I don't know what it would take to explore those old feelings. I was a more compassionate person when I was younger, but due to isolation and loneliness I've become colder. 

Hark ye yet again — the little lower layer. All visible objects, man, are but as pasteboard masks. But in each event — in the living act, the undoubted deed — there, some unknown but still reasoning thing puts forth the mouldings of its features from behind the unreasoning mask. If man will strike, strike through the mask! How can the prisoner reach outside except by thrusting through the wall? To me, the white whale is that wall, shoved near to me. Sometimes I think there's naught beyond. But 'tis enough.

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Posted

@lmfao Letting go of delusions that gave my self security and comfort has been one of the challenges for my self.

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@Bluebird

10 minutes ago, Bluebird said:

@lmfao What would it take to embody those good feelings in your life more often from your new perspective?

Psychedelics?

@Serotoninluv

Just now, Serotoninluv said:

@lmfao Letting go of delusions that gave my self security and comfort has been one of the challenges for my self.

Such is life 

Hark ye yet again — the little lower layer. All visible objects, man, are but as pasteboard masks. But in each event — in the living act, the undoubted deed — there, some unknown but still reasoning thing puts forth the mouldings of its features from behind the unreasoning mask. If man will strike, strike through the mask! How can the prisoner reach outside except by thrusting through the wall? To me, the white whale is that wall, shoved near to me. Sometimes I think there's naught beyond. But 'tis enough.

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3 minutes ago, lmfao said:

 

@Serotoninluv

Such is life 

Indeed. And many people avoid it. I've found there are times I must put Truth above security and comfort to continue on.

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IMO religion is what's missing in this community, making people's lives a lot more difficult during this process.

"True religion is the original umbilical cord that binds our individual selves back to our larger, universal source."

"Religare means to bind up, and the traditional task of religion has been to bind up the pieces that have broken away from the ecstatic Oneness."

Journal of Jesus Christ - https://journalofjesuschrist.com

 

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2 minutes ago, Vladimir said:

IMO religion is what's missing in this community, making people's lives a lot more difficult during this process.

"True religion is the original umbilical cord that binds our individual selves back to our larger, universal source."

"Religare means to bind up, and the traditional task of religion has been to bind up the pieces that have broken away from the ecstatic Oneness."

I may disagree with your first sentence (although this disagreement may be minor and could perhaps just be the result of my interpretation of what you are implying by using the word "religion" being different from what your intended meaning is) but I like those quotes. 

Hark ye yet again — the little lower layer. All visible objects, man, are but as pasteboard masks. But in each event — in the living act, the undoubted deed — there, some unknown but still reasoning thing puts forth the mouldings of its features from behind the unreasoning mask. If man will strike, strike through the mask! How can the prisoner reach outside except by thrusting through the wall? To me, the white whale is that wall, shoved near to me. Sometimes I think there's naught beyond. But 'tis enough.

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@lmfao Be careful about your reason for using Psychedelics. But LSD / MDMA can absolutely be used to open you up to the feelings of universal love and care that are ALWAYS there.

Who's to say you have to be religious to get those messages?

Don't be religious. Be spiritual. My spirituality and psychedelic experiences have let me see that EVERYTHING is a divine message crafted by you for yourself, it's exactly what you need to hear.

You can frame it however you like. You don't have to cut yourself off from that experience of God/Union/Lovingness, just the ideological aspects of religion. 

Make friends with hippies and spiritual people, go dance and laugh and lose yourself in the state of flow.

"The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are." - Carl Jung

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@lmfao It’s like you really felt the Eid Al-Fitr, but your idea of Allah changed, and the Jibra'il was lost in the shuffle? Maybe? The spirit never left though, it never changed. It never left you....maybe, mentally,  ‘you’ left it? Boxed it out in growing up? Now you’ve got this serious world, without being able to “give it to God”, or take comfort in trusting, knowing? 

MEDITATIONS TOOLS  ActualityOfBeing.com  GUIDANCE SESSIONS

NONDUALITY LOA  My Youtube Channel  THE TRUE NATURE

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@Bluebird Good advice.

@Nahm Pretty much my dude.

Hark ye yet again — the little lower layer. All visible objects, man, are but as pasteboard masks. But in each event — in the living act, the undoubted deed — there, some unknown but still reasoning thing puts forth the mouldings of its features from behind the unreasoning mask. If man will strike, strike through the mask! How can the prisoner reach outside except by thrusting through the wall? To me, the white whale is that wall, shoved near to me. Sometimes I think there's naught beyond. But 'tis enough.

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@Nahm God is always taking different forms I guess ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Hark ye yet again — the little lower layer. All visible objects, man, are but as pasteboard masks. But in each event — in the living act, the undoubted deed — there, some unknown but still reasoning thing puts forth the mouldings of its features from behind the unreasoning mask. If man will strike, strike through the mask! How can the prisoner reach outside except by thrusting through the wall? To me, the white whale is that wall, shoved near to me. Sometimes I think there's naught beyond. But 'tis enough.

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Go To Topic Listing Spirituality, Consciousness, Awakening, Mysticism, Meditation, God