Seconded

Ex-christian, Perennial philosophist here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perennial_philosophy

I don't lay claim to any one certain "spirituality", I'd call my current believe structure a mixture of Perennial philosophy, pantheism, advaita vedanta and Zen. One thing is for certain, I'm definitely a non-dualist.

Probably worth mentioning I was a materialist agnostic until I smoked DMT, which in 12 minutes managed to shatter 27 years of conditioning. I had excessive psychedelic experience before trying DMT but never had a trip that made me question my materialist belief system.

Funny how one hefty dose of DMT can change your life forever...

None whatsoever, which when I mention it leads people to think I might be imaginatively dead or philosophically bereft. A shame that these people lack imagination and philosophy

DMT didn't exactly change my life. It did provide an expanded insight but I owe the life changes over mushroom trips over a long period of time. It was never a sudden epiphany...gradual changes throughout the past ten years. I'm still exploring the spiritual realm, and sometimes the possibilities are seemingly infinite, and that can be a tad overwhelming.

I hear ya. I definitely don't claim any one philosophy either, but if I were to conceptualize it into a neat little package, I find "perennial philosophy" to fit rather nicely.



That's awesome.

I had a reality-shattering epiphany after smoking a Salvia extract. Connected a lot of dots and helped me integrate my OOBE's lucid dreams, and LSD/mushroom insights.

For me, spirituality is about waking up to the true nature of reality - whatever it may be.

yes yes yessssssssssssssssssssssssssss ,

i also believe powerful entheogens are the most direct way to the truth ,

also my spirituality in normal reality is all about enjoying the moment , meditation & concentration is a way of life for me ,

i am not into any religion nor any single philosophy satisfies me except perhaps my own , i believe in freedom , freedom from the human interpretation

i believe in God , yet my belief is God is reality - the moment whatever you want to call it , i believe what we and every other entity is experiencing is God , i believe the whole cosmos is one giant organism and thus experiencing itself ,

thus being one with the moment - and being one with God and enjoying the moment is all what i am into

enjoying each and every moment is the best deal possible , i guess its a profitable decison

NOW is the most technical reality , the experience is the highest truth ,

Blindly trust no one
Find your own light.

Simply put, yet undeniably deep.

I agree with this! I think that is why I enjoy Buddhist philosophy so much. Embracing and owning each moment as it happens in the present is one of the more peaceful paths of life from my experience. It also provides an entirely different point of insight that is delectably refreshing.

Related to what another member was saying about Buddhism I encourage everyone to read the "Bardo Thodol", known as the tibetan book of the dead.
astonishing and heart-opening lecture, and for us interested in spice a must-read due to its deepness.
i remember back in the days metzner/alpert/leary publishing a document about the psychedelic experience based on the Bardo Thodol.
I found the link, free read here but i recommend reading the actual book before.
http://deoxy.org/psyexp.htm
blessings
DG

I can't subscribe to any one belief system, I find it far too rigid and inflexible.

That said, I agree with a lot of Pantheism and some Shamanic teachings.

i don't usually like trying to box my "spirituality" (gah, another box!) into any specific arbitrary left brained term

some do resonate with me more than others though...like animism, toaism, pantheism, etc.. Its harder to find traditions that don't have kernals of truth in them than not.

"i also believe powerful entheogens are the most direct way to the truth"

I also lean towards this idea. There are many spiritual technologies but in my opinion there is no meditation, or yoga or anything that can compare to the deep entheogens in terms of where they take me. This is the conclusion I have finally arrived at. Nothing else has taken me so deep, and I have tried many things. Yoga and meditation are very different in some ways and do not take me to that level at all. I don't think there is any way around it. The power plants and medicines are a path unto themselves, not a door to some kind of other path. Any time I have gotten tryptamine like experiences without dosing, they were never on the same level emotionally or otherwise as when I actually dose DMT or psilocybin. There have been strong OBE aspects but not the catharsis of the DMT flash. Lucid dreaming is profound but it is just different, not the same thing.

I guess to get to where yoga takes one, yoga is the best path..and the same is true of entheogens.

I guess the path I follow is a gaian entheogenic path and I don't even really believe other disciplines like yoga etc are necessary but they can compliment it and a forest beats an ashram anyday.

Generally I am a mix of polytheism, animism, pantheism and panpsychism.

What if such a thing just does not exist? what if the only reason we only formulate such questions is due to our constant linear overly rational mentalities? We constantly try to pinpoint the time and place where we can say "this is the beginning" or "this is the smallest particle"..yet we always find something before or below that vantage point..and above the largest vantage point. What if the thing is not like a line? what if it's not even like a sphere? What if asking what the true nature of reality is, is already missing the point?

Mysticism

Mysticism (From Wiki) is the pursuit of communion with, identity with, or conscious awareness of an ultimate reality, divinity, spiritual truth, or God through direct experience, intuition, instinct or insight. Mysticism usually centers on practices intended to nurture those experiences. Mysticism may be dualistic, maintaining a distinction between the self and the divine, or may be nondualistic.


Nothing else can come close to defining my religion.
Though, I wouldn't call it my Religion... But my Spirituality.

Being a entheogen user fits nicely into this paradigm.

What would existentialist/absurdist fall under?

I've given up on spirituality and religion. Every single person is their own god able to shape their world, future and self through the actions and choices that they do and do not make. At the same time, existence itself is too absurd and impossible a thing for us to ever be able to explain or comprehend and any conclusions that we come to are inherently flawed due to the fact that our brain filters everything that we experience and condenses it down into this tiny little drop that we actually register and perceive.

That being said, I just live life as I see fit while doing my best to be a responsible and respectful person during my short and rather superflous stay here on Earth.

^This.

I will offer the same challenge as Shakyamuni..

Show me any evidence of a self.

We are completely and utterly interconnected/inseparable with the entire universe.
What you are doing right now, is literally what the entire universe is doing at the location referred to as 'you'.

The only way to grasp that sentence is to fully understand anatman.
Without this understanding talk of Buddhism is little more than conjecture.

Literally all the other dogma, all the other talk of lamas and reincarnations is extra add on. The primary pinnacle teaching of Buddha was the concept of no-self (anatman) and he used dependent origination to offer proof of his claims. He then laid down an open challenge to anyone that they should not take him on faith, but question his words to find fault with them.

Put bluntly, there is no you. No matter how hard you try you will never ever find a single part of your body, mind, or spirit, that is standalone, unconnected, or in any way shape, form, or fashion seperate from the whole. I mean did you birth yourself? did you beat your heart just now? Did you secrete that hormone from 'your' pituitary gland? Are your thoughts right now as you read this not utterly dependent upon my thoughts as I wrote this?


That is Buddhism. Everything else is dogma, perhaps true, perhaps not, but no self is truer than the sky is blue.