Near-death study: Brains explode with activity as heart stops

[leftyladyfrommo]

141. I don't disagree.

You don't need religion to be moral in this world. What I was saying was that at one time - way back when- religion did play a huge role in establishing morality in a culture.

Zen is not a religion. It's a meditation technique. I'm not sure just what it leads to. I have been practicing for about 40 years. You can use it along with religious mysticism and that is kind of what I do. It is very helpful.

I kind of lean more toward Tibetan Buddhism but I was raised Christian and that has had a big impact on what I believe and practice. But religion on the mystical leval is a lot different than religion on the street level. There really aren't any rules per se but you have to abide by certain moral rules. And you find the same rules outlined in Buddhism as you do in Christianity or Judism. You can't practice mysticism and act like an asshole. You just can't.

I don't put labels on it or fence myself in with opinions. I just sit.

Have you read Omar Khayam? His works are wonderful and he didn't believe in any kind of a patriarchal god. " Pray, who is the potter and who is the pot?" "Don't look to that inverted bowl we call the sky. It rolls impotently on as you and I." I grew up on that stuff and it had a really power impact on what I came to believe later.