Do you favour simple or complicated in your religious journey?

[metis]

Do you favour the simple or the complicated in your religious journey?

Simple.

Why?

Because at my age, that's all my mind can handle.

Also, if there is/are a God/Gods, since there's no real solid evidence that we can point to that there is either, this tends to lead me in one or the other directions: one is that there are no deities, and the other is that the divine is within us but we have to tap into it (possibly like a a "God gene" that some have proposed as being hypothetically possible). Either prospect puts belief on a far less dogmatic level.

 

[Breathe]

Yeah, I still have too many deities in my shrine. I think I'll pare it down (again ). BUT! my regular puja is limited to a few mantras and shlokas on three 4x6" cards. Sometimes I'll recite the Pushpam Mantra, the Lingashtakam or Sri Krishna Ashtothram, but only rarely. So, I'm definitely improving in simplifying.

I've managed to simplify to nothing. Whee. I've become inactive in terms of practise recently; I need to start up again but I can't bring myself to at the moment. It'd do me a lot of good, but whenever I start from scratch I always end up want to do it Islamic prayer style, for some reason.

I'm so eclectic. :cover:

 

[oldbadger]

Do you favour the simple or the complicated in your religious journey?
Why?

Simple.
Truth has always seemed (to me) to be simplex.
Lies and rubbish always seemed (to me) to be complex.

 

[Jainarayan]

I've managed to simplify to nothing. Whee. I've become inactive in terms of practise recently; I need to start up again but I can't bring myself to at the moment. It'd do me a lot of good, but whenever I start from scratch I always end up want to do it Islamic prayer style, for some reason.

I'm so eclectic. :cover:

Well, I'm simplifying down to Vishnu in his forms (Krishna, Rama, Narasimha); Lakshmi; Hanuman; Saraswati; Ganesha; Shiva. That seems like a lot, but they're deities that have special meaning for me. My "attendance" at my shrine has been spotty at best, but I play bhajans and mantras from my iPod while I'm driving. They get stuck in my head, so I'm kind of mentally chanting or singing them, and I have some pictures on my desk at work. I have a few bodhisattvas, buddhas, and Chinese deities around the house, mostly as decorative pieces.

 

[Straw Dog]

Simple desires, complex reality. Pretending that reality is simple or complicating desires both lead to confusion or lack of clarity.

 

[Breathe]

Well, I'm simplifying down to Vishnu in his forms (Krishna, Rama, Narasimha); Lakshmi; Hanuman; Saraswati; Ganesha; Shiva. That seems like a lot, but they're deities that have special meaning for me. My "attendance" at my shrine has been spotty at best, but I play bhajans and mantras from my iPod while I'm driving. They get stuck in my head, so I'm kind of mentally chanting or singing them, and I have some pictures on my desk at work. I have a few bodhisattvas, buddhas, and Chinese deities around the house, mostly as decorative pieces.

That sounds pretty awesome.

We've shrunk down our number of statues about. Most are in boxes, now. I even moved Ganesha away from the living room and put him in the kitchen. The fireplace was starting to look a bit... cluttered.

I wore my mala for the first time in a long time recently. I felt silent chanting made me feel better. I need to pick up on pranayama and japa more frequently, but I suck at getting started.

 

[fantome profane]

"Everything Should Be Made as Simple as Possible, But Not Simpler"

Albert Einstein

 

[Jainarayan]

That sounds pretty awesome.

We've shrunk down our number of statues about. Most are in boxes, now. I even moved Ganesha away from the living room and put him in the kitchen. The fireplace was starting to look a bit... cluttered.

I wore my mala for the first time in a long time recently. I felt silent chanting made me feel better. I need to pick up on pranayama and japa more frequently, but I suck at getting started.

I just wrapped some of the extra murthis and boxed them. I've held to my word of keeping Krishna; Rama Parivar; Lakshmi-Narasimha; Lakshmi; Hanuman; Saraswati; Ganesha; Shiva; I kept Durga.... I just couldn't put her away. I was even able to make the tabletop smaller (it's adjustable and hidden by the altar cloth). I have several japa malas, tulsi and rudraksha, but I rarely use them. I just mentally chant the mantra(s) anytime, anywhere. Chant and be happy.

 

[Twilight Hue]

I like it simple, but it gets complicated at times.

 

[DawudTalut]

Do you favour the simple or the complicated in your religious journey?
Why?

Peace be on you. True way is simple.

[80:21] Then He makes the Way easy for him,

source:https://www.alislam.org/quran/search2/showChapter.php?ch=80&verse=20

 

[psychoslice]

It should be simple, the ego likes the complicated ways, well that's what I feel.

 

[Aupmanyav]

I have traversed the distance. It is absolutely simple.

 

[zenzero]

Friend sandandfoam,

Do you favour simple or complicated in your religious journey?

What is followed goes something like this:

"Don't seek the truth, just drop your opinions."

"No clinging, no seeking."

no clinging even to religion and seeking nothing!
Its simple.

“Sitting quietly, doing nothing, Spring comes, and the grass grows, by itself.”

How simple can it get?
Love & rgds

 

[Tumah]

I like to trace the complicated back to the simple.

 

[Gordian Knot]

There is no religious journey. As a separate event anyway. There is the life journey, which incorporates into it all others. That journey is neither simple nor complicated. It is how we choose to react to events along the life journey that make it simple or complicated.

I firmly believe this to be true; it is not always easy to stay the course though. When events along the way are hard, sometimes very hard, it is difficult to remember that it is our reaction to the events that shape us. Not the events themselves.

I struggle at not tripping myself up; still manage to fall flat on my face from time to time.

 

[Breathe]

I just wrapped some of the extra murthis and boxed them. I've held to my word of keeping Krishna; Rama Parivar; Lakshmi-Narasimha; Lakshmi; Hanuman; Saraswati; Ganesha; Shiva; I kept Durga.... I just couldn't put her away. I was even able to make the tabletop smaller (it's adjustable and hidden by the altar cloth). I have several japa malas, tulsi and rudraksha, but I rarely use them. I just mentally chant the mantra(s) anytime, anywhere. Chant and be happy.

I'm sort of similar, except I've only got a few, really; I have a soft spot for Kali and Durga, but I don't have any icons of them. It's just Buddha, Amitabha (boxed away), Ganesha (now in the kitchen), Jesus and Guan Yin (boxed away).

I've sort of gone through an aniconic phase, but I still like my mala. I think it's the feeling of the mala against my fingers.

 

[chinu]

Do you favour the simple or the complicated in your religious journey? Why?

Its very very complicated because very-simple things are always complicated for complicated peoples

Complicated is not the journey, complicated are the people which aren't simple

 

[Jainarayan]

I'm sort of similar, except I've only got a few, really; I have a soft spot for Kali and Durga, but I don't have any icons of them. It's just Buddha, Amitabha (boxed away), Ganesha (now in the kitchen), Jesus and Guan Yin (boxed away).

I've sort of gone through an aniconic phase, but I still like my mala. I think it's the feeling of the mala against my fingers.

I have far too many, which I've spent far too much for, which are all packed away. Now my shrine looks like a little Hindu shrine, and it will stay this way:

(the two framed items on the wall on the right are the Mahā Mantra and a Nārāyana yantra)

I did my first puja last night following some, but definitely not all of the steps from here, with a few additions and deletions ---> Two Minute Short Puja I did not do the Sri Krishna Ashtothram or sing the ārti, perhaps I will one day, or use a 27, or the full 108 bead mālā for japa at that point; I made akshata with rice and turmeric, and now keep it near the altar for use; I have flowers in water so I can offer a flower or two; I am about to make ghee (it comes out great, if I do say so m'self ) for the lamp and when I make a bit of panchamrita.

So in keeping with the topic, the whole thing is much simpler, I am not stressed about praying and saying slokas to every deity. The puja is to Sri Krishna, but I have slokas to Sri Shiva, and the Mahamrityunjaya mantra also (see my sig. ). And of course there is antharyagam puja, internal or mental puja, always thinking of God. Simple is as simple does.

 

[Tiapan]

All nature works on the KISS principle

 

[idea]

ideas are simple (like "love one another"), it's the applying and doing that can sometimes become complex.