Groups

  • How to Stress Less
    Name:
    How to Stress Less
    Status: Member
    Description: Stress - it's the scourge of modern life, and it's everywhere. Here we'll share our tried-and-true coping strategies....they might be spiritual, they might be bizarre, but hey, whatever works, right? Let's release, relax, and kick stress to the curb!
  • Buddhist Holidays
    Name:
    Buddhist Holidays
    Status: Member
    Description: Hi, I'm Valerie, Beliefnet's Buddhism editor. This group is a place to talk about how you celebrate and honor Buddhist holidays. We can kick things off by talking about Rohatsu. How do you celebrate? What are some of your most profound Rohatsu memories? Bonus points for photos.
  • Helping Survivors of Katrina in New Orleans
    Name:
    Helping Survivors of Katrina in New Orleans
    Status: Member
    Description: For anyone who knows someone, has been to New Orleans to assist, who has survived Katrina, relocated there, anyone interested in the Truth of what is happening, you are all welcome!
  • Interfaith Perspectives
    Name:
    Interfaith Perspectives
    Status: Member
    Description: This is an interfaith group who's members are from different spiritual paths and who share their perspectives on various religious topics. Proselytizers need not apply (our first rule) -- there is a difference between sharing your faith's perspective and trying to convince another participant to switch to your faith. At the same time, the emphasis is on discussing what you do believe and / or practice, not on what you don't believe, as we are not a debate group (we are not into wrong making, and this is our second rule.) Our third rule is to share page space in the discussion threads, to allow others to participate, the same way it is done with in-person group discussions.
  • Mysticism in World Religions
    Name:
    Mysticism in World Religions
    Status: Member
    Description: Every religion is made up of two wings, the orthodoxy and mysticism. The word orthodox from the Greek means “having the right opinion” from orthos = right, true or staight, and doxa =opinion, praise, related to dokein which means thinking. Accordingly the word orthodoxy typically means adhering to the accepted or traditional and established faith, especially in religion. The word mysticism (from the Greek mystikos, an initiate of a mystry religion). This initiate is in the pursuit of communion with, identity with or conscious awareness of an ultimate Reality, Divinity, Spiritual Truth or God through direct experience, intuition, or insight. Mysticism usually centers on a practice or practices intended to nurture that experience or awareness. Mystic traditions generally form sub-currents within larger religious traditions - such as Kabbalah within Judaism , Sufism, within Islam, Vedanta within Hinduism, Christian mysticism within Christianity, Zen (Ch’an) within mainstream Buddhism and Taoism. The term '"mysticism'" is used to refer to beliefs and practices which go beyond the liturgical and devotional forms of worship of mainstream faith, often by seeking out inner or esoteric meanings of conventional religious doctrine. For example, Kabbalah (based in Judaism) seeks out deeper interpretations of the Torah, Sufism (in Islam) extends and amplifies the teachings of the Quran in the spirit of universal love, Vedanta reaches for the inner teachings of Hindu philosophy encapsulated in the Vedas. Mystics hold that there is a deeper or more fundamental state of existence beneath the observable, day-to day world of phenomena, and that in fact the ordinary world is superficial or epiphenomenal. This group, is for the mystics from every religion in order to reach this One and Universal fundamental state of existence in All the religions of the World.
  • The Faith Club
    Name:
    The Faith Club
    Status: Member
    Description: Have you always had questions about Christianity, Islam, or Judaism that you were too afraid to ask? Now you can get your questions answered, and meet people of a wide variety of faiths, in this group led by the authors of the bestselling book THE FAITH CLUB. The book tells the story of Priscilla, Ranya, and Suzanne: three women of three different faiths trying urgently to understand each other in the wake of September 11 and its aftermath. They’re not afraid to ask each other the hard questions about the other faiths — and you shouldn’t be either. THE FAITH CLUB is the November 2007 featured book of the Exploring Faith Book Club. Sign up now to ask your questions and join the conversation!
  • Being Ourself
    Name:
    Being Ourself
    Status: Member
    Description: This is a group for people who recognize in a profoundly personal way that we are all actually facets of one whole interacting with itself, or more accurately, Ourself. It is a place for peer discussion and exploration as we move through the challenges and insights we encounter while participating in the awakening of ourselves to our common fundamental identity, Ourself. As indivisible aspects of the single, infinitely diverse entity of everything/reality/creation we all have an opportunity and a responsibility to deepen humankind's awareness of Ourself, and to enrich our language with new terminology/ideas to more accurately portray that which truly is. We want to support each other as we discover wholeness while living in a society that defines everything (including God) as separate when in fact the creator and creation (including all people, animals, plants, minerals, and seen and unseen forces of spirit) are not in any actual way separate. So don't be shy... your vantage point of the whole is completely unique, and is just as valid and important as anybody elses. Enlightenment is the recognition of the wholeness, which by its very all-inclusive nature negates the validity of any kind of exclusive spiritual authority or guru. To allow ourselves to truly feel and be aware of ourselves as part of the great wholeness we need to stop putting others on a pedestal as a way of avoiding being accountable for shining our own light. Let's get the orchestra of the wholeness playing diversely, brilliantly, and powerfully enough to wake up humankind from the illusion of separateness. We can only accomplish this as a community of distinct voices and insights singing out in the harmony of the whole, and not by silencing our own special voice because we have decided some other "enlightened" teacher has a monopoly on authenticity! So sing out your insights, your questions... cry out your pains and frustrations... and love your neighbor as yourself because in truth they are; we are all precious dimensions of one whole. Let's respectfully, gently, and lovingly be Ourself together.
  • Beliefnet Blogging Contest Entrants
    Name:
    Beliefnet Blogging Contest Entrants
    Category: Just for Fun
    Status: Member
    Description: Thanks for entering Beliefnet's summer blogging contest! Throughout the month of July, you'll be writing in your Beliefnet journals, and we will name five finalists during the first week of August. This group was created to give you a chance to meet your fellow bloggers, ask questions, and stay updated on blog suggestions and promotion ideas. When you post a new journal entry, you can also publish it to the group so everyone has an easy way to read each others' writing.