different traditions

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different traditions

Postby Quintus Aurelius Orcus on Sat May 29, 2004 11:24 pm

Salvete

Maybe its time to give the floor to the good people on this forum. To what religion or tradition do you people belong to? What do you think or feel about other religions? Please share this with the rest of us. We don't judge here or do we discriminate.
valete optime
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Postby Quintus Servilius Priscus on Sun May 30, 2004 1:37 am

Salve,

While I do not practice the Religio I do honor it and those who do practice it. I myself am a Deist. Thomas Paine was asked what the main tenet of
Deism was and he said "God Exists and There it lies".

From the Deistnet website:
"Deism is a belief in God based on reason and nature. More specifically, it is a belief in God that created the universe and set it in motion to run by natural processes (laws), and is based on the observation of orderly nature (universe) and human reason (speculation), rather than on holy books. Generally, it's a rational belief in God without accepting the creeds of any particular traditional religion."

I almost forgot. Here's a link to Deistnet: http://www.deistnet.com/deism.htm

Vale,
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Postby Lucius Tyrrhenus Garrulus on Sun May 30, 2004 6:14 am

SALVE.

I follow the Religio Romana, and try to maintain Roman virtues. But I think I might also fall under the category of a Marcionist. :? Which is an odd synthesis these days.

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Postby Aulus Dionysius Mencius on Sun May 30, 2004 9:24 am

Salvete sodales

Ecclecticism, that would be the word to describe my interest in religio.

I was born in the Christian tradition, yes, but I kind of always had a sense of nausea when it came to dogmatism, so on a more personal level, oriental forms of religion are more appealing to me, especially Buddhism. Why? One must find his own way to experience and deepen his religious mind, there is no dogma in Buddhism.

To counter this argument, one might state that there are schools of buddhism, eg. prajnaparamita, that follow one specific text, in this case the prajnaparamitasutra, the sutra of Perfecyion of Wisdom. Note that this text is not absolute, it is just a means for individual further devellopment.

That is how I see it.

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Postby Quintus Pomponius Atticus on Sun May 30, 2004 11:01 am

Salvete,

Lin Yutang beautifully expresses what is also my idea about religions or philosophical systems :

"What does one find as he goes through the field of Chinese literature and philosophy? One finds there are no sciences, no extreme theories, no dogmas, and really no great divergent schools of philosophy. Common sense and the reasonable spirit have crushed out all theories and all dogmas. Like the poet Po Chuyi, the Chinese scholar "utilized Confucianism to order his conduct, utilized Buddhism to cleanse his mind, and then utilized history, paintings, mountains, rivers, 'wine, music and song to soothe his spirit.' He lived in the world and yet was out of it. China, therefore, becomes a land where no one is trying very hard to think and everyone is trying very hard to live. It becomes a land where philosophy itself is a pretty simple and common sense affair that can be as conveniently put in two lines of verse as in a heavy volume. It becomes a land where there is no system of philosophy, broadly speaking, no logic, no metaphysics, no academic jargon; where there is much less academic dogmatism, less intellectual or practical fanaticism, and fewer abstract terms and long words. No sort of mechanistic rationalism is ever possible and there is a strong hatred of the idea of logical necessity. It becomes also a land where there are no lawyers in business life, as there are no logicians in philosophy. In place of well thought out systems of philosophy, they have only an intimate feeling of life, and instead of a Kant or a Hegel, they have only essayists, epigram writers and propounders of Buddhist conundrums and Taoist parables. The literature of China as a whole presents us with a desert of short poems and short essays, seemingly interminable for one who does not appreciate them, and yet as full of variety and inexhaustible beauty as a wild landscape itself. We have only essayists and letter-writers who try to put their feeling of life in a short note or an essay of three or five hundred words, usually much shorter than the school composition of an American schoolboy. In these casual writings, letters, diaries, literary notes and regular essays, one finds here a brief comment on the vicissitudes of fortune, there a record of some woman who committed suicide in a neighboring village, or of an enjoyable spring party, or a feast in snow, or boating on a moonlight night, or an evening spent in a temple with a thunderstorm raging outside, generally including the remarks made during the conversation that made the occasion memorable. We find a host of essayists who are at the same time poets, and poets who are at the same time essayists, writing never more than five or seven hundred words, in which a whole philosophy of life is really expressed by a single line. We find writers of parables and epigrams and family letters who make no attempt to coordinate their thoughts into a rigid system."
(From "The Importance of Living")

Valete,

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Postby Gnaeus Dionysius Draco on Sun May 30, 2004 3:07 pm

Salve Orce,

With regards to the spirituality and the existence of dieties I am actually an agnostic. There are too many first-hand experiences I've heard to just dismiss the supernatural or divine as fiction. But because these phenomena remain slippery to identify or define, I'm very hesitant to label them as 'God', 'gods', 'angels', 'spirits' and whatnot.

With regards to morality and perception of the world, I consider myself to be, if anything, a Buddhist influenced by classical philosophy (Herakleitos, Sokrates, Aristoteles), Nietzsche and Popper.

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Postby Anonymous on Wed Jun 02, 2004 11:26 pm

I practice the Religio. I have done for several years now. I became interested in Rome in the late Republic several years ago and that led to studying the Religio. I'd already described myself as a sort of Romano-Celtic polytheist but the Romano side of it sort of took over. I have a Lararium and make offerings daily and serve Vesta.

It was my interest in the Religio that led me to this site.

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Postby Quintus Pomponius Atticus on Thu Jun 03, 2004 8:35 am

Salve Flavia,

And welcome to SVR. I hope you'll soon take root in this Collegium Religionis (I'm confident your 'Celtic touch' will be a stimulus for the exchange of ideas here) and that you may also find something to your taste in the other sections of this forum.

Vale optime,

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Postby Quintus Aurelius Orcus on Thu Jun 03, 2004 10:29 am

Salve Flavia

Welcome to SVR. Maybe you post something about the beliefs of Celtic-Roman polytheism, because i find it interesting to combine Roman religion and celtic religion. How do you see the Gods? Maybe something for a new topic or thread.
vale
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Different traditions

Postby Anonymous on Thu Jun 03, 2004 7:29 pm

Salvete sodales,

It would be safe to say that I am a Unitarian Universalist (though I do not formally belong to that faith) with Stoic/Buddhist ethics. Indeed, I have come to believe that Stoicism, indeed all Greek philosophy, was influenced by Indian thought. Certainly Clement of Alexandria, writing at the end of the 2nd century ce, thought so when claimed the "the Greeks owed their philosophy to the Hindus."

I have a home altar and I practice contemplative prayer before it every morning and evening. At its center is a plaque of the Black Madonna of Czestochowa, flanked by a replica of the Bamiyan Buddha and an icon of the Crucifixion. These represent for me the Deity, human wisdom and human suffering. The Madonna can just as easily be a statue of Isi , or Cybele by the way.

Pomponius Atticus, thank you for that wonderful passage from Lin Yutang.

Vale.

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Postby Anonymous on Sat Jun 05, 2004 3:59 pm

Salvete Omnes!

Not too long ago I would have described myself as a Romano-Celtic Polytheist just like Merula but when I think about it the Celtic elements of my personal religion have long been dormant and now I practice the Religio Romana with a keen interest in Etruscan beliefs and practices(a bit like looking for a grey cat in the fog!). I greet and share my breakfast with the Lares and Penates and Mother Vesta in the morning, and pray to my patron Deities in the evening at a small altar I have in my garden. I also try to remember other Gods on days that are specifically sacred to Them. Philosophically speaking I suppose I'm most influenced by Pythagoreanism but one of the joys of being more scrupulous about my prayers is that I find I can experience a sense of spirituality, an intimacy with the Lares and the Gods which doesn't seem to need too much thought. I am a deep thinker by nature and find this aspect of my faith something of a relief.

I can relate quite strongly to Marius' comments about the stream near his home as I feel a strong attachment to a neolithic burial mound on a heath a short distance from where I live and have 'adopted' its erstwhile inhabitant(s) as a sort of honorary ancestor. I try to keep the mound tidy and make occasional offerings up there. I am also developing quite a keen interest in my little garden and maintaining this is quite a spiritual pursuit.

Vale!

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Postby Quintus Pomponius Atticus on Sat Jun 05, 2004 5:06 pm

Indeed, I have come to believe that Stoicism, indeed all Greek philosophy, was influenced by Indian thought. Certainly Clement of Alexandria, writing at the end of the 2nd century ce, thought so when claimed the "the Greeks owed their philosophy to the Hindus."


This is a question I'd eagerly want to study and discuss with you later, when exams are finished and when I return from Italy (Lupus, Mus and myself will be visiting Pompey during the second week of July 8) ). I'm very much in favour of comparing Greek with Eastern thought myself, as I think they can very much complement each other, just as the different schools in Greek and Eastern thought can (and should) complement each other.

In fact, if you would ask me what my philosophy is, I would say that I'm a Confucian-Taoist-Buddhist-Epicurean-Stoic-Aristotelic-Platonist (in no particular order) with a keen interest in Nietzsche, Schopenhauer and Heidegger and many other 'moderns' as well :lol:

In fact, I already planned to do a bit of research into this comparative area during summer holiday, as I bought a good reference book about Chinese philosophy and would like to investigate while reading what similarities and differences I can find with Greek philosophy, with which I'm acquainted somewhat better already.

Vale !

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Postby Gnaeus Dionysius Draco on Sat Jun 05, 2004 9:47 pm

Quintus Pomponius Atticus wrote:Lupus, Mus and myself will be visiting Pompey during the second week of July.


Visiting Pompey! You traitor!! Caesar will have you hanged for this.

Vale,
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Postby Curio Agelastus on Sun Jun 06, 2004 12:13 am

Salvete omnes,

Religiously speaking, I'm an atheist with deistic leanings. Philosophically speaking, I'm a nihilistic-existentialistic-moral subjectivistic-anti-Anselmist. :lol: Politically speaking, meanwhile, I'm a decentralistic-pacifistic-anarchist. Gotta love those istic words. 8)

Draco, btw, there's no need to fear Caesar. Even if he were alive he couldn't take on a starling with 2 broken legs and a sprained wing. :twisted:

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Postby Anonymous on Mon Sep 19, 2005 12:00 am

Salvete Omnes!

Wow! Such intelectually minded people we have on here.
I was raised in a non practicing Christian home,with an atheist step father so I wasnt raised in a church or anything.Now,I Consider myself a pagan that honors a Earth Mother and a Sky Father,with interests in Religio Romana, Strega,Anglo Saxon Heathenism and Romano British beliefs.I also believe in animism and reincarnation,but not in the same since that Hindus believe.

Confusing Aye! Tell me about it..lol.

Im not much into philosophy,I do however think that all cultures have some good things about them..and I respect them all,especially the Buddhist and Confucist ones.
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Postby Anonymous on Sat Sep 24, 2005 6:11 am

Save amici!

I really consider myself a Transcendalist in the old New England tradition.
I have, however, always tried to follow the practice of maat, so I show certain Kemetic tendencies, as well as a certain connexion to Priapus.
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Re: different traditions

Postby UrsusofUNRV on Fri Apr 17, 2009 1:26 pm

I tried following an exclusively Roman practice but found it didn't work for me.

These days I honor Greek and Greco-Egyptian gods in a Hellenistic format. Hermes, Zeus, Dionysus and Athene are all gods to whom I have paid homage at one time or another. I also honor Isis.

I have made offerings to the genii of Roman statesmen when I felt called to do so.

I don't have an especially detailed philosophy on life. I simply believe in respect: respect the gods and divinities, respect your fellow man until they give you a reason not to, and respect the earth and its animals.
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Re: different traditions

Postby Caeia Julia Regilia on Thu Apr 23, 2009 1:58 am

Salve Omnes

I practice the Roman Religion, though more in a revivalist sense than a strict recon. I think the difference is that I tend to fill in the gaps by observing modern paganisms and then using that and my knowledge of the historical practices to come up with a practice that works and honors the spirit of the religio without being stuck in the 2nd century BC. I think it makes sense as we really haven't had a living pagan culture in more than 1500 years, and times have definatly changed since then.

I read the Stoics and Pythagoras and Plato. I have read modern political theories, and on the US political scene, I'm pretty much where the Catholics are -- Pro-life, but Democrat. And as a revivalist, I find the republican obsession with Reagan Maximus rather familiar, as well as the Obama mania. They both do everything but burn incense. >({|:-D
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Re: Different Traditions, Different Folk

Postby Valerius Claudius Iohanes on Fri Apr 24, 2009 12:02 am

Salvete, Omnes qui heic legitis.

This is an old thread, begun under the SVR's founders, but still of interest. At the risk of being a doofus, I think I will comment on my own position a little:

My stance in the world of thought is half-assed, eclectic and a bit eccentric but, I propose, still a valid one. Having lived too much of my little life in fear, self-judgment and the fear of judgments, all of which belong in the end to merely limited, self-interested mortals, and having in recent years hit my head hard enough against life to have come up dazed but with a greater clarity of sight, I now embrace all the things in my life that are recurrent but are not simply vices. That is to say, I honor my own Ingenium Mortale - my limited but insistent Self that is ever trying to come to be. (And which, you know, may finally be getting a little closer to that goal. It had better - I'm not getting any younger!)

Among these things I now allow myself to hold dear are:
a reverence for other people's beliefs,
a disdain of extremism and prejudice, and the actions springing therefrom,
a faith in the basic unity of the best of teachings,
an acceptance of the utter imperfection of Men and Things,
a love of epigrams and quote-culling and explication,
a joy in the Indefiniteness of Life (again, an acceptance of Universal Imperfection and Ultimate Ignorance),
a joy in the notion of the Gods, who are Immortal also for their recurrence in our minds,
a grimmer acceptance of the nature of the Anima Mundi (in so far as a mortal can accept something so prodigious and inhuman),
and a bit of hero-worship for the better sorts of men and women, for the Good Ideas and Good Conduct they exemplify.

In addition, and as a more recent discovery, I have come to admire and concur with the notions and fragmentary knowledge (as imperfectly known and transmitted) of the imperfect sages such as:
Herakleitos,
Ecclesiastes,
Lao-tzu,
Zeno of Citium,
Epicurus,
Christ,
Epictetus, and the Stoics generally,
and so on. Although my education suffers from my own limitations, it nonetheless continues.

As for traditions, I follow none in a hard-core 'religious' sense. I make appeals or give testimony for the Gods, but rarely, just as I rarely go to mass to receive the Eucharist, and only rarely find the moment free to light a candle to the Beings and Powers I honor.

What are the Gods? Magic remnants and present Spirits - places of refuge for Notions of Life and of Living - ghostly partners in a broken world.
Who are the Gods? They are family.

I honor Shamash-Jehovah-Iuppiter, the Spirit of Justice and Living Right;
I honor Iesu Christ, my native Spirit;
Tellus Mater I honor, the Spirit of Life Unbound or Abundant;
Minerva I honor, Divine Kin and Spirit of Intelligence and Good Conduct;
and I also honor the Two Greater Spirits:
- the Minor Spirit, of perseverence and peace, of compassion & good conduct, and
- the Major Spirit, of the horrifying Anima Mundi, of Suns and Atoms, of dread Necessity and Ubiquitous Eternity.

And I hope that is not too long, rambling and repetitive. Valete.
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