explore my spirituality without resorting to organized religion

... between being spiritual and being religious. I have heard it compared this way:

Religion is for people who are afraid to go to hell.
Spirituality is for people who have already been there and made it back!

after almost 2 years (3.5 years technically since I started reading around the subject), I can officially consider this “Done.” I feel really good about where I am right now. I feel peace. :o)

What Would Buddha Do?

I like this one a little better.

The book that started me on this journey over a year ago:
The Art of Happiness by HH Dalai Lama.

The book I’m enjoying now that offers Buddhist wisdom without insisting one become an “official” Buddhist (definitions may vary ;o) ):
Just Add Buddha by Franz Metcalf. He has written a few other books with the same idea, including one for teens. What a great idea!

I have found great peace since this journey started.

My little family and I attended a niece’s First Communion today. I wondered briely how it might feel being back in Church. Though I’ve been pulling away for years now, it’s been a while since I’ve sat through an entire Mass.

Turned out to feel quite comfortable (way more so than when I considered myself a practicing Catholic). I quietly explained to my children what was going on at different times and why, and we pretty much just sat back and watched. My husband and I went up for Communion with my niece only because each child seemed to have a big group of people, and I wanted my niece to have more than just her parents standing around her (though after receiving the Host, I slipped and said “Thank you” instead of “Amen”...that was funny :oD ). We added some money to the basket, and for the first time, I actually felt at peace with the whole thing. By not feeling I needed to be a part of it (and getting frustrated because so much didn’t sit right with me), I could stand back and appreciate that which was good in this gathering, leaving the rest behind.

I still no longer consider myself a Christian, and my children won’t be put through the Catholic training. But it was nice to attend this Mass without feeling anything negative. It was just kind of a “Let it be” moment.

Can one be an Agnostic Buddhist without pissing of both Agnostics and Buddhists? :oD ‘Cause that’s the direction I’m going in.

I’ve been reading all kinds of things in this particular category for a few years now. Recently, I decided to learn the basics of the Buddhist philosophy, and this led me to the book “The End of Faith” by Sam Harris. While my mind may seem all over the place on this subject (I was raised Catholic, I love the Buddhist approach to life, and I’m reading a book that cuts into all the BS that man-made religion has to offer…yikes!), I have found I’m enjoying a feeling a freedom for the first time. For so long, I felt guilty for questioning what was fed to me by the Church. Now I have the opportunity to happily cast aside blind faith and fear-based ritual, confident that common sense and spirituality can co-exist. And they can co-exist peacefully. What a relief! :o)

I think the bigger picture often gets missed when mucked up by all the details. And we all know the details vary from culture to culture, which makes the whole thing even hazier. Ugh. I just want peace.

I loved when the Dalai Lama said, “My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.” So basic yet so powerful! That’s where I want to be.

It’s like the old Groucho Marx quote about not wanting to join a club that would want me as a member.
I’ve never been a fan of church or religion. I was raised a Lutheran and went to parochial schools until I graduated high school but as my mother said, religion “never stuck” to me.
However, as I age/mature, I want to think more about the bigger picture. Guess I just have to find it within myself because I feel my spirituality is so private, and not meant to be shared with anyone but the Bigger Being.