-ISMs

[freesprouts]

I'm a Religion major and one of the classes I have to take is "Christianity." The other students are generally non-intellectual reactionaries (if you're interested, that's about all I talk in my journal nowadays). But we've recently been talking about Wicca since I'm the only non-Christian in the class and one question someone posed was actually

Comments

[vegdumpling]

i think i'd describe myself as polytheistic but others might say i'm actually monotheistic.

i believe that the gods are separate beings (so poly-) but i also believe that everything in existence is part of the divine.

essentially everything is energy right? but from my perception i'm a person, my cat's a cat, my computer's metal and plastic and whatever else a computer is made of, so we are all distinct and different but when you break us down to the most basic levels we are all made of the same stuff.

that's pretty much how i view the gods too.

[freesprouts]

I'm kind of playing with that idea too. I have a lot of Buddhism stirring in my hypothetical cauldron, and I'm trying to unify my own interpretative stance on duotheism with the Buddhist concept of anatman (no self). I think it's just a blockage somewhere in myself where I want to cling to existence, but I think you're on to something with everything in existence as part of the divine.

[vegdumpling]

i'm not familiar with anatman...

i'm a closet philosopher, i'm fascinated by the idea of a relationship with a deity if essentially i am the deity.

far example, what allows me to recognise things that are the same as me (energy, atomic particles, whatever you want to call it) as different? most people would probably think that self-awareness is what makes us closer to god, but what if it's what makes us further apart?

i'm for a theory where even though my own sense of self-awareness leads me to veiw myself as separate from deity, it is that very quality that allows me to cultivate a relationship with deity.

eh, it's a bit weird but i can't help but wonder about these things. so, can you explain the concept of anatman to me?

[freesprouts]

Anatman is basically the idea that the self doesn't exist outside of the five aggregates: form, sensation, perception, volition, and consciousness. Basically, those aggregates constitute the thing we can "self" and there's no permanent, unchanging soul or anything like that in there. Since the aggregates are impermanent, when they disappear, there is no longer anything to constitute a self.

[vegdumpling]

that's pretty interesting stuff, although not quite the same as my point of view. that gives me new things to think about.