Which is more important belief, knowledge or experience?

[dbakerman76]

lol, look how all the UUs voted.

'

At least there is some sort of consensus among our varied lot.

 

[Random]

Interpretation happens when the observer and the observed are separate. Direct experience, without the filters of interpretation, happens when for those brief moments we realize/know/remember that we are God. That our awareness of 'self' is an illusion. (Doppleganger says it much better.) This is the unifying message of the mystics, across cultures and across millenia, across gender and age.

This is a most enlightened post, one I wholeheartedly agree with. I am curious, though, is "Shaktinah" the former miss "Lilithu"? Same avatar and all, just wondering...

 

[Laila]

In your own religious practice which is more important?

Belief

Knowledge

Experience

With Knowledge comes logical reasoning and understanding, faith should never be completely blind. Each individual should come to their own decision based on logic, it is imperative to seek knowledge to understand the revelations.
Experience is important in order to live your faith.

The Prophet Muhammed said "seek knowledge (science), even if it takes you to China".

 

[Laila]

I can't believe I forgot to mention belief. Belief keeps you on the straight path, connected.

Faith in God is an opening up, a deep trust - a free act of love.

 

[ProfLogic]

In your own religious practice which is more important?

Belief

Knowledge

Experience

Experience will gain knowledge which eventually becomes a belief...

 

[dbakerman76]

Experience will gain knowledge which eventually becomes a belief...

An excellent point....there is most definitely a connection between the three.

As for the duckies they bring me joy.

 

[autonomous1one1]

In your own religious practice which is more important?
Belief
Knowledge
Experience

Greetings. Interesting thread dbakerman, thanks. This question seemed straightforward until it was remembered that belief in my experience found from a path of knowledge was the basis for my religious practice. Anyway, my vote ended up going along with the UUs on experience but couldn't go along on the duckies. Goslings are cuter (and bigger). (My apologies for the large pic, haven't figured how to shrink them yet.)

 

[lilithu]

Now, look you Kalamas, do not be led by reports, or tradition, or hearsay. Be not led by the authority of religious texts, nor by mere logic or inference, nor by considering appearances, nor by the delight in speculative opinions, nor by seeming possibilities, nor by the idea; "this is our teacher'. But, O Kalamas, when you know for youselves that certain things are unwholesome (akusala), and wrong, and bad, then give them up ... And when you know for yourselves that certain things are wholesome (kusala) and good, then accept them and abide by them.
- The Buddha

The great distinction between teachers sacred or literary, between poets like Herbert, and poets like Pope, between philosophers like Spinoza, Kant, and Coleridge, and philosophers like Locke, Paley, Mackintosh, and Stewart, between men of the world, who are reckoned accomplished talkers, and here and there a fervent mystic, prophesying, half insane under the infinitude of his thought, is, that one class speak from within, or from experience, as parties and possessors of the fact; and the other class, from without, as spectators merely, or perhaps as acquainted with the fact on the evidence of third persons. It is of no use to preach to me from without. I can do that too easily myself. Jesus speaks always from within, and in a degree that transcends all others.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson


EXPERIENCE. EXPERIENCE. EXPERIENCE.

Found another quote. This time from a Hindu source.

[SIZE=-1] Second-hand knowledge of the self gathered from books or gurus can never emancipate a man until its truth is rightly investigated and applied; only direct realisation will do that. Realise yourself, turning the mind inward. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]- Tripura Rahasya, 18: 89[/SIZE]

Hmm... maybe this is what the Buddha meant by "Be lamps unto yourselves" because I maintain that he did NOT mean to be solitary in one's practice.

Anyway,
EXPERIENCE. EXPERIENCE. EXPERIENCE.

 

[uumckk16]

Found another quote. This time from a Hindu source.

[SIZE=-1] Second-hand knowledge of the self gathered from books or gurus can never emancipate a man until its truth is rightly investigated and applied; only direct realisation will do that. Realise yourself, turning the mind inward. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]- Tripura Rahasya, 18: 89[/SIZE]

Hmm... maybe this is what the Buddha meant by "Be lamps unto yourselves" because I maintain that he did NOT mean to be solitary in one's practice.

Anyway,
EXPERIENCE. EXPERIENCE. EXPERIENCE.

Lili-I mean Shaktinah I just wanted to say I agree with everything you've said on this thread. It won't let me frubal you

 

[lilithu]

This is a most enlightened post, one I wholeheartedly agree with. I am curious, though, is "Shaktinah" the former miss "Lilithu"? Same avatar and all, just wondering...

Yessir. The name change is explained here. I will probably change the avatar and title after a while too, since "High Priestess of Cheese" does not seem fitting for the new moniker.

 

[Ody]

I have tended to answer truthfully as of late

 

[akshar]

Knowledge because it is the fountainhead of everything.