Open-source spirituality

[pandora_parrot]

I finally ran into the crazy Feri schism stuff going on. Don't bother looking into it if you don't know what I'm talking about. It's boring and silly and involves a bunch of people arguing about who owns what words. At least, that's what I got out of reading a handful of websites of people arguing about it. I'm not really fully aware of it, and I'm sure I'm mischaracterizing any real issues going on there. But at a cursory glance, it just seems like silliness to me.

Inspired by this silliness, I thought I would post a meditation of my own on my spiritual practice, my life, and everything else that I do.

I don't get this world sometimes. Frankly, I don't think anyone really does. The longer I live, the more I recognize that nobody really knows how to do this "life" thing, and that people are learning what they can, building on past knowledge, and making up the rest as they go.

What it comes down to for me is understanding my Self, and understanding my Universe. Or perhaps more importantly... improving my relationship with Self, as well as my relationship with my Universe.

All I want to do is figure out my way through this universe in a way that works for me. I want to be happy and satisfied with my life. This seems to frequently include helping others find happiness and satisfaction, so that's cool.

I know that I sometimes get embroiled in drama-filled arguments about what certain labels mean or how people should behave or whatever. I know that sometimes, I get stuck on an emotional button that I need to deal with.

But most of the time... I think it would be best to constantly remind myself that my Goal is to improve my relationship with Self and Universe.

I figure that we're all more or less struggling with these same sorts of questions, trying to find our own answers to things. We're building systems of information and knowledge. Behavior and practice. etc. It's really a cool moment when I get to listen to another person share their knowledge, information, and practices with me. When they can tell me about what they've come up with to answering the great questions of the universe. I also absolutely love to share what I've come up with as much as I am able.

In my mind... what better way to improve my ability to relate to and understand Self and Universe than to engage in a community of people that are all openly sharing what they've come up with, and where I can share as well... where we are a community of creators, creating the universe itself around us as we seek to comprehend and define it... A community that constantly welcomes fresh insight and thought... That embraces innovation and creativity.

Let's face it... I'm an open source junkie when it comes to knowledge. Whether it be computers, spirituality, science, art, poetry, whatever. If you see anything in my life that I've created, and want to improve on it, go right ahead. And I'd absolutely love to take anything you share and improve upon it in turn. Maybe by working together we can come up with something even more awesome.

Hell, this entire LJ is under a Creative Commons license:


All public works within this journal not otherwise copyrighted or licensed are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

So when it comes to spirituality, religions and religious/spiritual practice of any sort... I am firmly and completely on the side of doing what is going to benefit me the most, and in my mind... that's practicing open sharing of information as much is possible and appropriate. I'm not saying that guarding information is always wrong... just that it is usually less useful than full and open sharing.

If I were to throw a label on myself, I guess I'd say that I'm an open source witch.

Anyone that wants to take issue with that can go right ahead. Haters always gonna hate... Who cares? I'm not in this for them. I'm in this for my Self and my Universe. I'll make my own decisions about what's true or not and folks that disagree can just deal.

Everyone else that wants to talk and build on our mutual experiences, come on over. :)

Comments

[veedub.livejournal.com]

good post.

psychosis and religion are a deadly mix. i'm just sayin.

[kineticphoenix.livejournal.com]

I am so wishing that LJ had a "like" button right now!

[paradox-puree.livejournal.com]

As the daughter of a devout Catholic woman with borderline personality disorder... I agree...

[kineticphoenix.livejournal.com]

Walk your path and walk it strong, sister! I'm proud to know you, and to be practicing open-source witchery along with you.

[thespatula.livejournal.com]

so thats what I've been practicing all these years, Open Source Religion! That sounds so much cooler than "Nikiism" or trying to explain that my beliefs are culled from aspects of Gaia therorism, wicca, hinduism, among other things.

[io-spellweaver.livejournal.com]

my Goal is to improve my relationship with Self and Universe.

Sounds like you have figured it out right to me. Now the trick of that goal is to keep going no matter what. I am glad to share reality with someone such as yourself.

[bridgeweaver.livejournal.com]

I love this, with one comment. Improving my relationship with self and the Universe is a mid-term goal on the way to figuring out my place of service, or "the work of this God" in my most fundamental prayer.

[paradox-puree.livejournal.com]

I used to place "service to others" as one of my fundamental Goals, but over time, I have decided that that is simply a byproduct of improving my relationship to my Self and my Universe. I am happiest and most satisfied with my life when I am acting in service to others.

[dv-girl.livejournal.com]

I don't know the feri folk but I can guess what is going on.

Spirituality is a difficult thing to opensource because we all have different experiences and different understandings of words. No two people hear words the same way. Nor do they emote them the same way.

For instance: "The Universe is Love." I could say that and wholeheartedly mean it but maybe someone else thinks I'm being sarcastic or someone is in a lot of pain when they hear those words and so my statement sounds superficial, stupid, and cruel.

It's very easy for a path to become distorted even when the follower is sincere. Nevermind all the people that NEED to PROVE how holy they are. Just look at Christianity for examples.

I've considered this problem a lot and it's a difficult one to deal with. Even if you have THE ANSWER there's no good way to distribute it. Even in a disciple system it's a game of telephone and most people have a lot of ego so it is inevitably going to fall apart. Even if the person is speaking the right words and has the right intent and is trying to listen, it's easy for them to trip up. The other problem is that it's entirely possible to succeed and fail at the same time. The Christian Prosperity Gospel is a fine example. People who are making money and living comfy from their beliefs though they are a complete perversion of what Jesus was trying to teach. (And not to pick on Christianity, we could also cite the Brahmans in Hindu traditions. I'm only using Christianity because it's familiar to our culture)

So, for any spiritual leader who genuinely cares about people and wants the world to be a better place, there's a real difficulty in figuring out how that tradition gets passed along in a way that it stays true to its core ideals.

I haven't been able to come up with a good model for making this work in an open-source way and I don't have the time/wisdom to do it in any other way. So my optimal solution for now, instead of being a spiritual leader is to inject memes into society which only have the intent of making people think and open their minds so that they will seek out their own paths.

For myself, I might sometimes be cynical about the same thing because I believe I'm smart enough to be given all the answers right now. My current view however is that raw processing power is not the only thing I need. There's a bunch of weird ego stuff I also need to deal with. But that's just me.

[paradox-puree.livejournal.com]

Even if the person is speaking the right words and has the right intent and is trying to listen, it's easy for them to trip up.
I think that's the thing, though... No one has the "right" words. Everyone's just stumbling around in the dark together.

there's a real difficulty in figuring out how that tradition gets passed along in a way that it stays true to its core ideals.
Why does it have to stay true to its core ideals? Sometimes, the best thing for an open source project is to fork it. Sometimes the fork will survive and thrive on its own. Other times, the fork will die. Still other times, the fork re-merges back into the whole.

For me, I believe that collaboration will lead to greater leaps in understanding. Collaboration of the open source/wiki variety.

[dv-girl.livejournal.com]

Everyone's just stumbling around in the dark together.
I completely disagree. As a for-instance: I've never had a problem getting or keeping a job. I know what to say in my resume and how to present myself. In the past, I've beat out far more qualified people for a position because I know how to sell myself. I know plenty of people who I have looked at how they wrote their resume I know they can't make it past the slush pile. Or, by how they present themselves in an interview, they've undercut themselves. I CAN provide them some guidance and tell them what they need to do. BUT beyond a certain point, I cannot help them even though I know what they need to do. It is a lesson they have to learn for themselves.

I believe that collaboration will lead to greater leaps in understanding. Collaboration of the open source/wiki variety.
Sure. Collaboration is the end goal... But how many people have you encountered who believe they can code vs those who actually code well? I have interviewed dozens of people who thought they were suited to a job who demonstrated to me that they lacked the real skills required. I'm currently in the midst of fixing some really jank code written by a contractor of similar skills. Opensource is egalitarian. The archive maintainer does not keep poorly written code submitted by hacks. If we were to apply looser standards to our minds, we'd all be Scientologists by now. :/

[paradox-puree.livejournal.com]

But how many people have you encountered who believe they can code vs those who actually code well?
I figure that comes down to me deciding for myself what I believe vs. what I don't. I welcome even the "stupid" people to share their thoughts on things. But if they're not terribly enlightening for me, I'll just walk away. :)

Collaboration with others doesn't mean that I have to accept or believe everything they believe. It just means I'm open to listening and judging on my own terms.

As for stumbling around in the dark... We've all figured some things or other to some degree in our own lives. That's why sharing that info is so damned useful, sometimes.