Since I live in the West and I was raised in the culture of Western Civilization, my spiritual journey has been turbulent. Struggling with the doctrines of Christianity and the lack of a female counterpart to the male God, I have battled the fear, guilt, shame and rejection that have been part of my experience of this religion. When I reached my spiritual bottom, I decided to leave Christianity, not knowing what I was going to do with the love I had for God and the desire I had to heal and love my world. I have always had a deep love and respect for the natural world. Eventually finding the Earth paths of Wicca and Native American spirituality, I was opened to learning more about what spirituality meant to me. I was able to reconnect to nature and to connect to spirit in a new way. Everglades University also gave me the opportunity to explore Chinese and Indian medicine systems and what principles they were founded upon. Our text has also given some insight into these spiritual and philosophical approaches to life.
One of the things that was troublesome to me was how Western religions tended to take a piece of the truth and run with it as if it were the whole truth. I have seen this done over and over. When embracing new Eastern understandings, this has also been the case. I went to Bible school for 3.5 years and learned how to research the meanings in the Bible. Most of the time, I was finding out that many of the things I thought meant one thing were not true, but meant something much different. To gain an understanding of the meanings of things usually meant that I had to first understand the context of the information, the culture in which it was expressed, the time it was expressed in and the person who was saying it. Unless one is able to study the Eastern religions and understand context, it is difficult to gain the full meanings of things. Many get an insight and forget that it is in a context of understanding. They run off with it as if it is the whole “cookie” when it is only a crumb from the whole “cookie”!
The wisdom of the Eastern religions touches the spirit where it is hungry and awakens a part of us that has been asleep: that part that connects to the earth and the spirit, the ancient understandings that are part of our unconscious memory of our past lives. I think that is why the impact that Wicca and Native American spirituality had on me was so profound. It touched my ancient self. This continues to be why the teachings of ancient India and ancient China also have great influence on my developing spirituality.
In not associating this wisdom with our Western religions, which are very different, we tend to think that we are leaving the God we have known and sinning. I was taught that Eastern religions were demonic, as was any religion outside of Christianity. This was not true. I found that the Eastern understandings of spirituality opened me up to a larger, loving Creator that was pure divine and pure love. The use of a monotheistic religion, in this case Christianity, had limited me and had kept me in a narrow way of thinking about my world and myself. Its understanding of God, sin, etc. had caused me much spiritual pain and damage. For me, it was not where I belonged.
Quantum thought embraces the understanding that all things are sacred, that the divine is present in all of creation and that we are all one in it, as does Hindu and Chinese religions. The teachings of Indian and Chinese spirituality give us a freedom and a responsibility toward ourselves and our world in joy and love for them. We are all connected. This understanding that all things in the natural world are divinely infused, gives us a sense of reverence for the Earth and each other. As you draw closer to this understanding, it makes the walls and the negative emotions fall away and you can enter into a harmonious relationship with the natural world, each other, yourself and all of creation. I see all humanity, the natural world and all its inhabitants as one family on Earth. Seeing the divine nature in everything compels us to respect all that has been created. Love becomes the main thing in our relationship with our world. We begin to see that all the sorrow and suffering is because there are those who do not know who they are or why they are here and, many times, do not want to know. Greed has motivated many of the sufferings of our world.
The Hindu medical system, which embraced spirituality as part of our health, is perhaps one of the oldest in the world. Studying it has shown me how advanced human kind was in those ancient times. The divine that is described is incredible and seems to validate all that we know in science and spiritual reality. The religious aspects give deep spiritual food to the soul and the spirit.
Wicca gave me the Goddess to relate to and she helped to heal my negative feelings about being female. This path has empowered me and brought me to a place where I could appreciate the divine principle of Eastern thought. The Native American spiritual understandings brought the reverence of nature and each other as all things are of spirit. Both of these paths are part of my spirituality and the Eastern concept of spirituality had deepened and enriched my spirituality. In adding spiritual knowledge to my life, being eclectic, I have become more balanced, open and compassionate.
The polytheistic understanding appears to be a “forerunner”, concept or form before gaining the knowledge that Spirit is in all things and is the Divine Principle. In a way, polytheism fragments the unity of the divine into persona that hold different aspects, abilities and relationships to each other and the world. It does not see the divine principle as permeating the created universe. Both pantheistic and monotheistic understandings are limiting to my mind because there is even a bigger more encompassing understanding in the Eastern thought of the Divine principle, which is in all things.
I like to view the different gods and goddesses as aspects of Creator or spirit beings that have specific abilities to help human beings in this "boot camp" of spiritual development.I often ask different spirit beings for help. It is amazing how you get answers from the spirit no matter who you address for help! It certainly blew my mind when I sang to the goddess and found a new level of the presence of spirit, both God and Goddess and a more clearer sense of the reality of Spirit. It has been interesting outside the Christian boundaries which held me captive for so long. I am much happier and I find that learning about the past really does give you new perspective on the present. Maybe the future can be different. Hinduism offers many insights that have been lost to Western thought. I feel grateful that I have been exposed to them and now will have the opportunity to explore this knowledge without fear, guilt, shame or any other negative emotions. Knowledge is power because ideas are revolutionary and that is probably why religions do not like their members to look too much in other directions. This is what the taboos are about, keeping ideas from making the people wise and leaving the fold. I think they forgot that our spirituality is as individual as each human being is because we each must find our own unique connection and purpose in love.
The ancient wisdom of India has had a profound and significant influence on my view of spirituality and of the natural world. Together, the spiritual paths I have embraced have given me the knowledge that we need to care for our Earth, care for and love all that lives on the Earth and, as healers, give healing to all that suffers. We are indeed one family!
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