my personal belifes run along the lines of taoism. it was mentioned in the first post not to espouse a preticular religion, but the beilifes of taoism are very difficult to explane without interjecting the word 'tao', which according to the tao te ching is a word lao tsu used to describe the indescribable. for all i know the word 'tao' could have been someting he made up on the spot...

my belifes however, returning to the topic of discusion here, are mostaly without dogma and tend to sound like the advice of someone who upholds holistic practice. i dont belive, well i wont say belive, but i dont worry about offending a god or gods, i dont worry too much about demons (although i have had friends who have been attacked by them). for the most part i worry about doing what is healthy for my mind and body. keeping this in balance with a amature effort to be ethical i tend to arrive at something that is like taoism explained through christianity. this is mostaly due to the fact that i was brought up a christian, and as the bible says "train up a boy according to the way for him and he will not turn away from it." so i've foun that through all the meditation and spiritual experiences i've had, at my base level of understanding my ideas on things revert to being in terms of spritual beings used in christianity. i notice that my mantra use, marrow breathing, and other obscure taoist practices are greatly strengthend when i allow my mind to use the imagery of angels, archangels, the holy spirit and an a soveren, almighty god.

the intresting thing i've noticed about all this led me to make a theory, and i belive that this theory holds the summation of my belifes. the theory is that our lives, our ways of thinking, and our desires like buddha said are the cause of our suffering and bar us from enlightenment. and in this way i've noticed that the self-created prison our minds our in is like a pyramid. looking at all the religions of the world, christianty, hinduism, paganism, taoism, satanism, ect. i notice many things incommon especialy in the words and experiences of their highest sages and prophets. like a pyramid, the higher one raises ones mind the more one ends up at the top of this pyramid. and at the top is a core concept, a form of imagery, a zenith! that is open to interpitation by he person experiencing this height. in the east certain buddhas we're said to have reached enlightenment through different senses, taste, smell, sight and hearing. in the west we have people experinceing unity with god, and in india there are gurus who practice yoga, which means unity with the divine and are doing miricles that are on the same level as jesus.

the vast majority of peoples minds are operating on a very low level, as if they were asleep, and looking at the worlds religions, almost all of them have instructions for spiritual development and evolution if not some way to become a vesel for the will of a divine being. the reason i chose to follow the offering of taoism is because in my oppinion taoism is very versitile, and because of its lack of any major dogma, one is able to find peacable understanding of those who do strictly adhere to specific dogmas.

By choosing one religeion, you are, by proxy, dismissing all others. Whats to say that the religeon you were brought up to believe is the correct one?

Whats to say that the religeon you were brought up to believe is the correct one?

im jehovah's witness. i believe in God and his name is jehovah. i believe in the bible also.

Yes its true, you do dismiss other religions by choosing one. However, this does not hold any weight. Why? There can only exist a single true religion.

What is to say it isn't? Hence the word faith.

If you look up the definition of faith, the common theme is that it is a complete confidence in something.
Unfortunately... I don't have time to say more about what you have said... I will expand later.. if I remember