Do you 'Live' your beliefs?

[sparklekaz]

Are your religious or spiritual beliefs something you've inherited through family tradition. Or are they principles and codes of conduct you've fully embraced for your own sake, something you truly believe in and aspire too. Do you live according to these beliefs or are they just something to just talk about? If you are someone who tries to 'live' their beliefs, how does it influence your life and relationships? How does it colour your perspective on life in general?

[holistichealer]

Hi, Kaz.

I didn't inherit mine. As far as I can tell, I came in with them.

I was born into a Southern Baptist family, went to church for the first several years of my life until finally, I said, "I don't want to go.", at about 8 or 9 years old. (This isn't to say that I never attended again. But when I did go, it was for some special occasion.)

I remember back when my Grandmother read me the entire Bible (as well as the Iliad and Odyssey) as a child, that I didn't feel truth for me in much of it and I felt that "angels" and "Lord God" were actually extraterrestrials. And years later, I got into a "heated discussion" with one of my very fundamentalist cousins about the fallacy that the Bible was "error- free"., etc.

For the most part, by beliefs come from direct experiences that I have had in which I have seen and experienced things that most people seem to have difficulty accepting as "real", such as past- life recall, seeing ghosts, seeing miraculous healings, experiencing uncanny "coincidences", getting messages for myself and others, and on and on.

None of the above neatly fits into anything I was brought up with, though my Grandmother was an unusually- open- minded lady who considered my musings very interesting.

As far as do I walk the walk... Yes and No. I have a day job in which my customers at large are simply not into spirituality and discussions of such are a distraction, though I do have a few who actually know me and have similar, if not, compatible, beliefs. In my industry, I am well- known, which includes 2 continents and a presence on the Internet. And in that realm, I rarely delve into "non- business". To do so would be bad for business. I know from experience.

Outside of business, it's a different situation altogether. All of my friends know what I do and what I am into. In fact, most of them have been formed over the years through metaphysical / spiritual interests and activities.

[donq]

Hi kaz,

To answer your questions, yes and no. Yes, because, like many friends here, we’ve inherited our beliefs through our families/traditions in one way or another. No, because we’ve embraced our beliefs after there were some significant things happened in our lives and we took our spiritual beliefs more seriously, not just something to talk about.
As for me, after I used to die once, my spiritual belief has become my code of conduct I’ve lived with. It has affected so many aspects of my life, both good and bad ones. What I try to say is I feel more and more distant from all people around me. Let me give you en example.
There’s coup d'état here, in my country now. I, like all people here, cannot do anything in this situation except trying to look at the bright side only, being a blinded optimist. Yes, this doesn’t help to change the situation outward but at least it helps to calm me down inward.
To live my (spiritual) belief is not easy task. It becomes more and more complicated. Let me tell you a story:
It is Saturday afternoon, holiday time for all boys, except Tom Sawyer, who has been sentenced to whitewash thirty yards of board fence nine feet high. Life to him seems hollow, and existence but a burden. It is not only the work that he finds intolerable, but especially the thought of all the boys who will he coming along and making fun of him for having to work. At this dark and hopeless moment, writes Mark Twain, an inspiration bursts upon him! Nothing less than a great, magnificent inspiration. Soon enough a boy comes in sight, the very boy, of all boys, whose ridicule he had been dreading most:
"Hello, old chap, you got to work, hey?"
"Why, it's you, Ben! I warn't noticing."
"Say—I’m going a-swimming, I am. Don't you wish you could? But of course you'd druther work—wouldn't you? Course you would!" Tom contemplated the boy a bit, and said
"What do you call work?"
"Why, ain't that work?"
Tom resumed his whitewashing, and answered carelessly:
"Well, maybe it is, and maybe it ain't. All I know, is, it suits Tom Sawyer."
"Oh come, now, you don't mean to let on that you like it?"
The brush continued to move.
"Like it? Well, I don't see why I oughtn't to like it. Does a boy get a chance to whitewash a fence every day?"
That put the thing in a new light. Ben stopped nibbling his apple. Tom swept his brush daintily back and forth—stepped back to note the effect—added a touch here and there—criticized the effect again—Ben watching every move and getting more and more interested, more and more absorbed.
Presently he said:
"Say, Tom, let me whitewash a little."
By the middle of the afternoon, the fence has three coats of whitewash and Tom is literally rolling in wealth: one boy after another has parted with his riches for the privilege of painting a part of the fence. Tom has succeeded in reframing drudgery as a pleasure for which one has to pay, and his friends, to a man, have followed this change of his definition of reality.
- from Mark Twain's “Tom Sawyer's Adventures.”

The psychological strategy above is called “reframing.” I will not go into its details here. I only wonder if it’s against spiritual way or not? Yes, Tom was trying to put his bad situation into the better one. But why all his friends had to be the victims? He played with them, used and took advantage of them.
I have seen this a lot in the real life situation. I know there’s no right and wrong for doing this. Everyone has to survive. Still, somehow I always feel that I cannot do something like that. It’s really against my spiritual belief. And the situation will be worse if I showed them I know their strategies. As R.D. Liang wrote:

They are playing a game.
They are playing at not playing a game.
If I show them I see they are, I shall break the rules and they will punish me.
I must play their game, of not seeing I see the game.

Back to your questions, my answer is I’ve been living my belief for a long time. Though I become more and more outsider from people but I got more and more quiet/calm life, too. Though I don’t’ succeed much in my (worldly) life and relationship but somehow I never regret when I look back. :-)

[gruntal]

That reminds me I now even have a video of me on my Facebook page. But I suspect many would find said video a bit scary. My profile is rather rank with cynicism. I seldom go there anyway. I might should consider cleaning up my act.

More then anything I made a silent vow to not act a certain way if and when the world ever treated me half ways decently. It did and I did. And then some. That was not a family tradition; it was just something I figured I owed the Cosmos for being nice to me. Almost like a quandry: keep it up and you know what will happen.

But what if your wish came true? I only wished for the best ....but expected the worst.

I am not building a temple so I'm not liable if I reject the last cornor stone. Well in a way I am and I did. I'll not make the same mistake twice if I can help it. That is how I try to live my life.

[baangus]

Yes I live my beilefs. I believe in culitivating a joyful attitude and outlook, and a thankful appreciation for life. I remember that commitment every morning upon waking, that's what gets me out of bed and stepping into the day.

That's kind of cheating though in that other than a couple of beliefs about reincarnation, that's the extent of my belief system. Easy to live your beliefs when you only have two or three!

[sparklekaz]

Baangus said.. "Yes I live my beilefs. I believe in culitivating a joyful attitude and outlook, and a thankful appreciation for life. I remember that commitment every morning upon waking." What more do you need..everything else flows from that.

[baangus]

Jun 14, 2014 14:01:00 GMT sparklekaz said:

Baangus said.. "Yes I live my beilefs. I believe in culitivating a joyful attitude and outlook, and a thankful appreciation for life. I remember that commitment every morning upon waking." What more do you need..everything else flows from that.

It does Kaz. Funny how when I uncomplicated my spiritual outlook and beliefs a decade or more ago, everything in my life finally fell into place. And my outlook has much to do with that transformation, and certainly more than whatever it is my spiritual beliefs happen to be.