Ah ha! Got it: Regarding Methodist:
“and the Enlightenment emphasis on experience as the most secure path to knowledge. “
So there we go: I was attracted to Buddhism for the experiential aspect of it. I was raised Methodist which was experiential and rational, and the Eastern Orthodox because of the noetic prayer, Theosis and other experiential things.
Cool. I found my theme 🙂
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If there’s a God or not, wouldn’t matter if it was unintended or pre-ordained: If God exists, I can’t know the hidden order… and if it’s unintended consequences (happenstance), I can’t know the hidden order of that either.
Still hidden order (even if it’s called random) either way.
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More tie-ins:
“The 3rd to 5th centuries in the Christian East were rich in theological and mystical thought, and witnessed the growth and spread of monasticism.” [clicks for me]
“Methodism spread rapidly through the formation of “societies,” – my interest in forming “discussion groups” on the early Internet and throughout the past 27 years online whenever a topic interested me. Same idea as Bible study: gather people together and discuss something as broadly and deeply as possible.
“Early Buddhism was primarily monastic, ”
So, there’s my monastic + social tie-in.
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More cores in me:
“In Eastern Orthodox belief, humans are made in the image and likeness of God. The goal of life is communion with God.”
That’s the Theosis / ‘divinization’. Part of the whole experiential thing. It was very attractive to me. Totally suited my personality. Cool – I’m learnin’ stuff.
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Human nature is illustrated by the Buddhist teaching of dependent origination, or arising, which shows how poisonous mental states give rise to suffering.
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Yup. This ties in perfectly with the Orthodox thing, and when I read the entry for Methodist, it didn’t ‘click’ in for me. Never understood what “grace” was supposed to be and ‘sinless’ never seemed possible – just do the best you can and stuff.
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“Eastern Orthodoxy teaches that the Christian life will ultimately lead to the deification of humans and all of creation.”
Yup. That one resonated with me as well. The deification of all Creation – yeah, that stuff really clicked well with me. Heck, still does even though I’m not part of it really. You have the power, through God’s energies (even though God’s essence is unknowable, God’s energies are), to bring God’s energies to all of Creation, all people, the planet, the Universe… the Bulk if that was before the Big Bang, whatever.
Powerful stuff.
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There we go. Yea, that was awesome to see what parts were attractive to me in each. I could probably do one for Quaker and Unitarian and New Age (if it’s up there) to see what I drew from theirs as well.
MY journey so far has been ‘random’ – that is, I have no idea what’s going to grab me next. I just go from thing to thing. I’m making choices and yet if something ‘seems right’, it probably is. I don’t trust my intuition entirely as it can be flawed – I temper intuition with reason but the intuition rules over the rational, as I found rationalizing can be FAR more misleading if it’s given total control. Reason guided by intuition, intuition tempered by reason – they’re in a relationship.
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“Reason guided by intuition, intuition tempered by reason – they’re in a relationship.” – that sounds quotable.
I must’ve read it somewhere before, I dunno. Seems like mine, but how many ideas are novel, really?