Seth on Spirituality and Religion

[jbseth]

Hi All,

I came across the following Seth quote (4 paragraphs) the other day and found it to be quite fascinating. There are several points that Seth makes here that I find enlightening.

For example, I've never really thought about man's psychology, in terms of "religious feelings" being one of man's strongest attributes.  Nor have I ever really considered that we each may be born with what Seth calls a "natural religious" and what I would call a "natural spiritual" knowledge. 

What he has to say about organized religions here in the third paragraph does make sense to me. Which I think explains the reason behind some of the failings of religion(s).

I think that what Seth had to say starting in the first paragraph with "Life is a gift..." and going on to the end of this paragraph is really quite beautiful. I can see it in my mind's eye as words written on a beautiful poster with trees and ocean and stars in the background. It kind of reminds me of the "Desiderata".


NOME, Ch 2, Session 814:

Dictation: One of man's strongest attributes is religious feeling. It is the part of psychology most often overlooked. There is a natural religious knowledge with which you are born. Ruburt's book The Afterdeath Journal of an American Philosopher: The World View of William James explains that feeling very well. It is a biological spirituality translated into verbal terms. It says: "Life is a gift (and not a curse). I am a unique, worthy creature in the natural world, which everywhere surrounds me, gives me sustenance, and reminds me of the greater source from which I myself and the world both emerge. My body is delightfully suited to its environment, and comes to me, again, from that unknown source which shows itself through all of the events of the physical world."

That feeling gives the organism the optimism, the joy, and the ever-abundant energy to grow. It encourages curiosity and creativity, and places the individual in a spiritual world and a natural one at once.

Organized religions are always attempts to redefine that kind of feeling in cultural terms. They seldom succeed because they become too narrow in their concepts, too dogmatic, and the cultural structures finally overweigh the finer substance within them.

The more tolerant a religion is, the closer it comes to expressing those inner truths. The individual, however, has a private biological and spiritual integrity that is a part of man's heritage, and is indeed any creature's right. Man cannot mistrust his own nature and at the same time trust the nature of God, for God is his word for the source of his being — and if his being is tainted, then so must be his God.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desiderata



-jbseth

[Sena]

Organized religions are always attempts to redefine that kind of feeling in cultural terms. They seldom succeed because they become too narrow in their concepts, too dogmatic, and the cultural structures finally overweigh the finer substance within them.

jbseth, thanks for this topic. The "diagnosis" of organized religion is very neatly done by Seth. I do enjoy some of the Christian hymns:

[jbseth]

Hi Sena,

Yeah, I understand. 

At another topic I created yesterday, called "The Search, Manufactured Beliefs" a psychologists talks about the "Awe" experience. He mentions that a study shows that there are 4 sources that can create the experience of "awe" in human beings. These 4 sources are: 1) other humans, as in a hero that we admire, or in the birth of a new baby, for example, 2) nature, 3) a spiritual experience and 4) art and music.

Even though, I don't share the same religious beliefs about Jesus being our "savior" or the "messiah", I find that I'm still powerfully moved by choirs and their music, and beautiful churches, and beautiful "stained glass" artwork. Especially at Christmas time.

I keep a copy of the following video, on my laptop, and every Christmas season, I typically watch it  several times as I find, that both the music, and the expression on some of the peoples faces, tends to match mine when I watch this video. Its a video of a choir singing "Hallelujah" in a mall in Canada.

For me, this is just one of many examples of what this psychologist means, when he says that humans can be moved to having an experience of "awe" that is created by music.





-jbseth