Do you have a spiritual practice?

I am Catholic and go to church every Sunday and on holy days. I also perform the lesser banishing ritual of the pentogram (Golden Dawn) and pray every night.

Certainly. Usually Scotch and Ice, but occasionally Vodka

I don’t believe in spirits, but I do things to make myself at peace, like turning off all electronic crap and reading a book or something.

I walk in the woods.Alot.I meditate too.

Prayer, music, yoga (when I actually practice it)

I try to have some “down” time. I make personal care products and I use them in a bath with candles and relaxing music.

Spend time in nature. Meditate. Burn incense and candles. Listen to music. Share stillness and silence with others.

No, I dont experience peace… At least, not anymore.

Yes I do… I meditate and practice an energy healing connection with people I care about. To be able to “feel” this connection of energy with others is a gift like no other I have ever received.

I connect with the energy of nature as well with weekly walks in the woods or drifting down the river in my boat in the summer. That is my religion.

I visit the ocean. Share my problems with it. Become one and let it wash my problems away. Then I get laid. THAT really helps.

Something like that.
A while ago I composed a playlist and made a folder of pictures to explore what other people might call “spiritual” feelings. I’d rather describe it as “sentimental” myself, but I don’t value it any less for it.
I find it difficult to describe the content itself, but it gives me feelings of affection for this world and the people in it, appreciation of how beautiful it is just to exist, gratitude to be able to experience a life. It’s a peaceful and happy state of mind.

And it pains me how time and time again it’s hijacked by the religions as if it’s inherently theirs.
I’m a sentimental atheist rationalist.

Who are you and what have you done with @Fyrius ?

Not really. When I feel the need for peace I go to nature to see the awe inspriring beauty of our planet. Water, forest, mountains…just being outside in the warm sun. I don’t have a ritual, I just take it when I need it.

Sacred music helps a lot for example.

@Trillian
I’m going to assume you’re not doing it on purpose, but that’s exactly the sort of response that disappoints me. Not everyone who values rational thought and skepticism is an emotionless person. In fact, knowing other rationalists, I think you’d be hard-pressed to find a single one who is.

I think in an ideal world, everyone would know the ways of rationality, and meanwhile feel a strong emotional solidarity towards each other. The dynamics between reason and emotion are what makes us human.

@Fyrius Doing what on purpose? I was just trying in my own feeble way to be funny. Sorry, offense was not an intended outcome.

Long, fast walks are the best way I nurture my psyche and soul.

I’m agnostic but I believe there is a great spirit that lives in all of nature. My g/f is a total animal loving freak and if an animal gets hit on our road, I have to go bury it. Each time, I take a minute to say a prayer for the animal’s spirit. And I just love being in a nice natural setting. Cities don’t appeal to me at all.

@Trillian
I understand you weren’t serious. That’s why I assumed you weren’t deliberately expressing the misguided mind-set I was just complaining about.
Apology accepted.

I meditate before bed every night. I walk in the woods. My children bring me peace most. There is no person I have ever met who I connect with better. Maybe I never grew up. I read a lot and attend a few religious gatherings tho I belong to no religion. I think that every moment I am in touch with God, the Goddess, or whoever / whatever is out there. To me God’s ( for lack of a better term) spirit is in everything. So it would be pretty hard to be separate from it. Tho some times I’ll go out to see the stars and moon somewhere out of town were there are no lights, and I feel somehow more content and at peace.

@Trillian a rationalist as opposed to an irationalist? not sure i accept that dichotomy.

I must be irationalist.

@Just_some_guy I am an irrationalist. Rationality is useful, but BOOOORING!. It is the irrational parts of life that are exciting.

Yes.

@mammal
A rationalist defined as someone who commits himself to the idea that rational thought is indispensable to figuring out what is true and what is not, and who puts serious effort into being as rational as humanly possible. (Does it really need anything to be opposed to?)

As far as I know, the word “irrationalist” is used, but mostly as an insult. Not that there aren’t any people out there who really deserve the epithet.

Let’s get back on topic now.

As a belated illustration of what I was talking about up there, I’m going to post this advertisement as a perfect example of something that evokes the sort of world-loving, existence-appreciating, grateful and euphoric feeling that I would call “sentimental” and others “spiritual”, and also of religions hijacking that sentiment.

It’s no secret that I hate Scientology’s guts, for being even more vile than the old religions, but I won’t deny that this is a beautiful clip. Perhaps part of the reason is that it doesn’t really advertise Scientology, it advertises life, and then clumsily tries to attach Scientology to that as an afterthought. It’s easy to ignore that last part, and it does an amazing job at the rest.

I read a passage from the Bible each morning and each Sunday I attend my church. I pray nearly all day.

No, but then neither do I have a law practice nor a medical practice.

My most effective practice is a kind of community dance. It’s improvisational, to live music, and the experience takes maybe two dozen individuals and creates a space where they are all dancing with an intense awareness and almost mystical connection to everyone else. It can create some extraordinarily beautiful choreography when looked at from the outside (musician’s perspective), and being inside it… well, it’s almost impossible to describe since we are no longer in our minds (no memory, no language).

Second most effective is playing music for this dance (or in other settings designed to be spiritual experiences). Sometimes making music with a bunch of like-minded musicians does the trick, too. Those are my practices.

@stump I agree with you there. The lesser banishing ritual of the pentogram caught my attention also.

I don’t really have a religion because I believe that there is a lot that feels right about many, and a lot that doesn’t. Some people who know me say I am spiritual. Some say I am obsessive. I think I am just asking questions they are scared to ask.

@Just_some_guy I am what I have heard called a ‘cafeteria Catholic’. In other words I pick and choose what I like about the Catholic church, but don’t feel obligated to adopt every view espoused by the Pope. When I was 15 I started reading books on the cabala and magick in the Golden Dawn tradition. That stuff really filled in a lot of blanks in my spiritual life.

@PacificToast i pray all day and all night beat that

@Fyrius sadly, you, like a lot of people, including people i like very much, have contracted bigotry, it is quite common amongst people who are overly exposed to Religious Bigotry. i get it from time to time.

@mammal
If you’ve seen symptoms of bigotry in the things I’ve said, please point them out, and I’ll do what I can to purge myself of it.

If it’s my assertion that some people deserve to be called irrationalists… I think that one is actually true. There are people who trust their guts feelings against all reason.

Here’s another one. French poetry.