Introduction, Book Assistance

Hello,

First off, this is my first post since joining the forum, so an introductory hello to everyone!

Now for my purpose - I am attempting to write a book about religion; focusing on the culture, experiences, and beliefs surrounding all various kinds of religion. I want to write about what people believe, their lifestyles, and what turned them on to religion in the first place. I am currently collecting submissions from people explaining any or all of these things.

I have managed to gather a great deal of submissions from Christians, Catholics, Mormons, Muslims, Jews, Jehovah's Witnesses, and Buddhists, and now I am looking to make contact with more than a few members of the Hindu community. I am hoping that I can work with some of you from this site in order to add some Hindu testimonies to my book so that I can appropriately represent your faith. Please let me know if you have any questions and if you are interested in working with me.

Kind regards,
Mark

 

Actually only some Hinduism is based on Advaita Vedanta - others are dualists, or qualified non-dualists.
'Hinduism' goes back a lot further than Shankara.

Anyway to the OP - same applies to me - I don't think of myself as belonging to any one religion. or as particularly 'religious'.
But I'm very interested in Yoga, and the work of Sri Aurobindo.

 

Shankara didn't found advaita vedanta, at best he only gave it the name and did a tremendous amount to promote and expand it.
Anyway, as I progress on the spiritual journey I find that all the schools of thought are equally valid expressions of the same truth, just expressed from different standpoints in order to suit people of different mental and emotional temperaments and also different periods in history. Actually I feel that way about all religion in general.

 

Either way one can't say 'all hinduism is based on Advaita'. But yes - the underlying ideas which received development later on as the various schools of Vedanta are all present in germinal form in the Vedas and Upanishads.

Otherwise, I'd tend to agree in general with what you say - with the proviso that some religions actually keep people imprisoned in a mind set which actually prevents any spiritual progress.

I think actually that the concept of 'religion' needs to be replaced with 'spirituality'. Perhaps then we could avoid a lot of the conflict generated by the exclusivist claims of many religions.

 

What you refer to as spirituality is what I call religion. I refuse to validate the narrow and distorted versions of the teachings of great masters by calling them religion.

 

I def. wouldn't say that Advaita Vedanta is the only way of Hinduism...b/c there are so many...like Yoga Vashista, the various Bhakti movements, ect. Its kind of hard because the Vedanta path seems to have become the standardized incarnation of Hinduism in the US... probably partially due to Hindus just kind of trying to fit in and become acceptable to American (particularly Protestant) conceptions of what religion is and ought to be (why they never really liked Catholics, I suppose)...

...as to the "religion" versus "spirituality" thing... I kind of find it annoying that there needs to be made such a distinction...that if you say you follow a "religion" you follow a dogmatic set of rules and closemindedness...and if you say you are "spiritual" people put you in the new age box. Its quite frustrating, I think anyway. Can't we all just get along?

As far as I'm concerned...all of it , within traditions, and between them... are all reflections of the same thing... however... the differences are beautiful and unique and most people can't deal with somewhere between the different and the same... many people like extremes. Calmness in the middle just seems like a better option...

 

Agree with most of that

Myself though, I don't mind if people label me a 'new-ager' - although a lot of the new age stuff is inclined to be a bit fluffy, at least it reflects my own view that in this age, we can indeed find a way to live together despite varient belief systems, and move on from the 'old-age' of division, conflict and bitterness. Also, I think in some ways the new age thing encourages people to look into different things and feel free to experiment.
I think overall to me the 'new-age' means that humanity is ready now to grow up spiritually.

What you say about protestantism and catholicism is interesting. You might think that catholicism with it's devotional and contemplative traditions would seem to be closer to hinduism, that is, if you take away the exclusivity of catholic belief.
If one day the new Marian dogmas get pronounced, as I feel sure they will eventually, it will be even more like hinduism.

In the UK I think the situation id different than in the US - here I think Bhakti, esp as presented by Srila Prabhupada has pehetrated more deeply than any other Indian teaching, with the possible exception of TM.

 

How is advaita acceptable to protestants? If anything, I find catholics are closer to that understanding.

 

It's hard to say just exactly what 'protestants' do believe, because in actuality it is quite fragmented. It seems to range from literalist fundamentalism, to a kind of woolly humanist approach in some 'high anglicans'.

Some catholic mytics, such as Eckhart, John of the Cross, are very close to a kind of advaita.

 

Yes, Catholicism has succeeded in retaining a smidgeon of the mystical and there is room for higher experience within it. Jesus Christ would have a hard time in some protestant churches I've been in.

 

Because pre-Vatican 2... Catholicism was more ritual based and Protestantism was more "thinking"/"feeling" based... in fact they felt (and many still do) that the Church did not allow them to be more accessible to the Truth and also to Scripture... when Americans (who are mostly Protestant historically) came in contact w/ Hinduism for the first time, it was textual and through Vedanta... they liked its philosophical nature and were blissfully unaware of how ritual plays a part in Hinduism (and the same was encountered w/ Buddhism...and still is...except for Tibetan Buddhism)... thoughts and ideas. Swami Vivekanandaji did well in America in this respect... Historically Protestants could accept the philosophical paths of the Eastern religions...but they just couldn't deal with anything that reminded them of what they broke away from: Catholicism. (PS- I am not anti-Protestant...I'm just pointing out some of the Protestant bias...obviously not all Protestants are like this, duh. lol. Forgive any generalization for the sake of making a point)

 

Interesting perspective, Nic. I was thinking in terms of present-day protestants who tend to be extremely dogmatic and closed to new ideas. Can you tell Im generalising too? Catholics arent much better, just less in your face.

 

yes you are all generalizing and all of you are wrong, so there...


nah, just kidding man , I don't know what hinduism is, what is it?



Anyway back to topic,

To the first poster, why are you writing a book on world religions? are you planning to make money off of it? adequately represented... bah humbug, if you are writing a book, why would you come to an online forum like this? dont you have somewhere authentic like a university faculty professor who has done plenty of research into these areas? The fact that you have come here thinking that whatever we say is authentic is enough to show that your attempt is either 1) feeble- not valid attempt to represent a religion properly.
2) A hoax.

I smell something funny here...

 

Hmmm...yes. it's a strange way to go about researching a book.
Seems to me there are too many would be writers out there who set out to write about that of which they know nothing. In the area of spirituality, this is particularly pernicious, as the hundreds of comletely useless volumes already in print can testify. Because they are written mainly from an ego standpoint by people with only superficial knowledge.
It doesn't seem to occur to some people that they would be better off aquiring expertise and knowledge, perhaps over a long period of time before setting pen to paper. Perhaps that's a function of our topsy-turvy culture.

Anyway - to get any kind of overview of the tangled and complex area known as 'hunduism' would take quite some time and effort. 30 years down the road from when I began to look into all this, I can't say I'd feel qualified to write a book about it, or adequately represent it to others.

 

yea...its super multi-faceted indeed...

 

All one in the end.

 

One as a diamond is one - with multiple facets.....

 

Yes, but all shining with the same light. And that diversity in unity is what makes life beautiful.

 

Ooo yay pretty analogy! Thanks guys! hehe

(PS- Happy Christmas)