India Culture

[purerogue]

Can someone explain to me why people who call them self so spiritual, non biased, all about fairness and so on has just as silly traditions that they follow  as any other religion,culture, but at the same time tries to label them self as non religious, non biased.

I know country is huge and there are more then one religious structure, but it all does come from teachings of well know spiritual practices. 

Edited April 9, 2019 by purerogue

[How to be wise]

1 hour ago, purerogue said:

Can someone explain to me why people who call them self so spiritual, non biased, all about fairness and so on has just as silly traditions that they follow  as any other religion,culture, but at the same time tries to label them self as non religious, non biased.

I know country is huge and there are more then one religious structure, but it all does come from teachings of well know spiritual practices. 

Everyone has a culture, that’s just how the mind works. Question is, how attached are they to the culture. Will they get angry if the culture is attacked?

[purerogue]

2 minutes ago, How to be wise said:

Everyone has a culture, that’s just how the mind works. Question is, how attached are they to the culture. Will they get angry if the culture is attacked?

I find them very defensive about their culture, but so is everyone I guess who is attached to culture, or nationality, my question was more about  non-bias and understanding, when there is allot going one that you could not call unbiased, or even remotely close to someone who is spiritually inclined.

 

[How to be wise]

9 minutes ago, purerogue said:

I find them very defensive about their culture, but so is everyone I guess who is attached to culture, or nationality, my question was more about  non-bias and understanding, when there is allot going one that you could not call unbiased, or even remotely close to someone who is spiritually inclined.

 

Like what?

[purerogue]

Like caste system, believed  that crossing the seas  would make them impure,baby tossing, marriage with animals because "CURSED",banishing girls for menstruating and other restrictions, that is to name just few.

[Shadowraix]

1 hour ago, purerogue said:

Can someone explain to me why people who call them self so spiritual, non biased, all about fairness and so on has just as silly traditions that they follow  as any other religion,culture, but at the same time tries to label them self as non religious, non biased.

I know country is huge and there are more then one religious structure, but it all does come from teachings of well know spiritual practices. 

Religion is basically a organized bastardized form of spirituality. Those who claim to be spiritual but not religious try to disconnect themselves from these massive organized teachings and communities. Religion just tells you what to believe on a silver platter to favor a teacher, and shames those outside of it, while spirituality is more about inquiring on the self and your well being. To explore and experiment. And to favor no specific teacher nor demonize other teachings.

Of course this doesn't mean you can't get attached to your practices or get dogmatic about it. The mind naturally wants to do this. Spirituality would mean to become aware of this mechanism and resolve it. But this is an easy trap for many to get stuck in. Some never get out of it.

Remember that spirituality has many facets. If you were to place it in linear progression a lvl 1 spiritual person would hardly qualify to a level 50. I would imagine their dogma justifies itself under the guise of being spiritual.

[purerogue]

11 minutes ago, Shadowraix said:

Religion is basically a organized bastardized form of spirituality. Those who claim to be spiritual but not religious try to disconnect themselves from these massive organized teachings and communities. Religion just tells you what to believe on a silver platter to favor a teacher, and shames those outside of it, while spirituality is more about inquiring on the self and your well being. To explore and experiment. And to favor no specific teacher nor demonize other teachings.

Of course this doesn't mean you can't get attached to your practices or get dogmatic about it. The mind naturally wants to do this. Spirituality would mean to become aware of this mechanism and resolve it. But this is an easy trap for many to get stuck in. Some never get out of it.

Remember that spirituality has many facets. If you were to place it in linear progression a lvl 1 spiritual person would hardly qualify to a level 50. I would imagine their dogma justifies itself under the guise of being spiritual.

I get your point and it is ofc true, but I would have expected more from people who follow teachers who should have better understanding and are guiding others, where did they get thous cultural things in first place. 

[Shadowraix]

1 minute ago, purerogue said:

I get your point and it is ofc true, but I would have expected more from people who follow teachers who should have better understanding and are guiding others, where did they get thous cultural things in first place. 

Yeah, I hear ya. Its absurd how far the mind will go to keep believing in its bullshit. Unfortunately radical honesty and open mindedness in self reflection is how you are only going to solve it and that is a MAJOR hurdle some people don't overcome in their lifetime. But delusion has its place in reality. Try not to let it get to you too much. 

[rNOW]

@purerogue I live in India. And have lived in different parts of the country. I am not sure whom you are talking about, but I would like to make a distinction between spirituality and culture. Spirituality concerns itself  with the spirit of things, while culture is regarding food, clothing, festivals, language, etc. Spirituality remains intact throughout, but culture has many influences throughout history. When it comes to rituals, I find that a lot of people are only concerned with the 'practice' of things and not with the knowledge of that practice. And a lot of things which they do not understand, they assign it to 'God' or 'Religion'.

Sometimes knowledge is lost in translation. When these practices began, there was no 'paper' or 'printing' so it was through a form of stories and metaphors that they were passed down because remembering just plain data is difficult for a lot of people. So deep truths were wrapped in stories of gods/goddesses/demons/etc. and that is how the rituals were passed down from generation to generation. Unfortunately now most people are only concerned with the story and not the truth behind it. If you dig deeper, there is a spiritual aspect to a lot of 'religious' practices. 

Current example: A ritual of fasting in the month of Chaitra. People abstain from salt, garlic, hot spices, etc. Why is that? To appease some goddess? I doubt it. It is scorching hot during this month. Salt, garlic, etc all these food ingredients increase/retain body heat. And unfortunately there were no air-conditioners when this practice was introduced. If you want to test it, try just going without salt for the next week and notice how you feel. 

I believe some of the practices are now obsolete given the industrialization and climate change. So it only seems 'religious' and not practical.  

[Harikrishnan]

3 hours ago, rNOW said:

@purerogue I live in India. And have lived in different parts of the country. I am not sure whom you are talking about, but I would like to make a distinction between spirituality and culture. Spirituality concerns itself  with the spirit of things, while culture is regarding food, clothing, festivals, language, etc. Spirituality remains intact throughout, but culture has many influences throughout history. When it comes to rituals, I find that a lot of people are only concerned with the 'practice' of things and not with the knowledge of that practice. And a lot of things which they do not understand, they assign it to 'God' or 'Religion'.

Sometimes knowledge is lost in translation. When these practices began, there was no 'paper' or 'printing' so it was through a form of stories and metaphors that they were passed down because remembering just plain data is difficult for a lot of people. So deep truths were wrapped in stories of gods/goddesses/demons/etc. and that is how the rituals were passed down from generation to generation. Unfortunately now most people are only concerned with the story and not the truth behind it. If you dig deeper, there is a spiritual aspect to a lot of 'religious' practices. 

Current example: A ritual of fasting in the month of Chaitra. People abstain from salt, garlic, hot spices, etc. Why is that? To appease some goddess? I doubt it. It is scorching hot during this month. Salt, garlic, etc all these food ingredients increase/retain body heat. And unfortunately there were no air-conditioners when this practice was introduced. If you want to test it, try just going without salt for the next week and notice how you feel. 

I believe some of the practices are now obsolete given the industrialization and climate change. So it only seems 'religious' and not practical.  

Where in india?

[Harikrishnan]

India is a mixed bag, there are still tribal mentality people like beige and purple. Who do vodo and other stuffs. And there are red and blue who also do same stuff. There are orange, green and yellow also.  And there are turquoise+++ people also. But 75% are blue and they are identified with culture and do cultural things religiously. Some of those things they do are either from low stages like getting girl married to dog just to end horoscope issues of her and some rituals are from high stages like fasting, mantra chanting etc

[Harikrishnan]

6 hours ago, purerogue said:

Like caste system, believed  that crossing the seas  would make them impure,baby tossing, marriage with animals because "CURSED",banishing girls for menstruating and other restrictions, that is to name just few.

Do you think a spiritualy high people from India does that? spiritually high people you know from india must be deluded and dosent know anything. Problem with India is everyone here is spiritual and even small kids on bombay street can recite advaitha vedantha slokas ?

Edited April 9, 2019 by Harikrishnan