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This was life-changing for me. I wanted to learn about spirituality through a different lens than the Catholic upbringing that constrained my mind and the rampa

This was life-changing for me. I wanted to learn about spirituality through a different lens than the Catholic upbringing that constrained my mind and the rampant "spirituality is synonymous with Christianity" that I find in the U.S. I went out and read a handful of ancient religious texts from all of the world. This led me to see that throughout the course of human history, tribes from all over the world have espoused the same truths about the nature of reality (non-duality). I don't believe I could have reached this knowledge by reading derivative works alone.

sdegutis 8y ago
In the same way, every Catholic around me reads "Catholic" books written in the past 20 years that are 90% watered down and 10% quotes from older books. So imagine my surprise when I found all those old books they were quoting were easily available on archive.org and easily installable on my phone (the PDF copies only) and in easy to understand English translations, despite being written 200, 500, 1000, 1700 years ago. And compared to these older books, even the 150 year old books, these 20 year old books are nothing more than overpriced flowery pamphlets.
- kurosawa 8y ago
  I find the same for books for the relationship between contemporary and classic works in other major traditions
- photojosh 8y ago
  I'm not Catholic, but my most revelatory reading this year has been Rene Girard's (a Catholic philosopher/theologian) 20-40 year old books. I guarantee they're not flowery pamphlets, they're mind-blowing.
  - photojosh 8y ago
    And serendipitously enough, an article on him made HN today! https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18585177 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18585177
sudosteph 8y ago
That's very cool. I'm just now attempting to study religion from a historical standpoint myself, and have been finding myself drawn to older sources as well. Though I must ask, can you explain what you mean by "non-duality"? Is duality something you experienced from the Catholic perspective? I ask because I actually find myself very drawn to some ancient texts from Gnostic perspectives (Book of Thomas, some Mandean texts) and "duality" as a part of nature seems to be a core belief to them (light vs darkness, good vs evil, knowledge vs ignorance). Is that the same type of duality you're referring to, or is the term broader than I'm understanding it to be?
- davebryand 8y ago
  Duality, for me, in the Catholic sense meant that there is "God" and then there is little old me. Non-duality is the realization that is available to all humans that we are not actually separate from the Tao, God, the Universe, or whatever label you care to place on the invisible power that governs the realm that we inhabit. You are an interconnected piece of life that through consciousness can impact future frames of life that are generated by the infinite universal computer that plays the movie in our mind. (Yes, you can come to have direct experience and knowledge that this power exists but it is a super-rational process that most of our left-brained peers, in our masculine, logic dominated society dismiss out of hand. This realization has been called Enlightenment, Awakening, Waking Up, etc) Back to duality. We must remember that light and darkness are not opposites, they are the ends of a spectrum measuring the same thing: amount of light. Our western mindset has these placed as opposites, but they are not, they are the same thing. This is the principle of polarity in Hermeticism. The main insight is that these things are not different, they are the same thing in varying degrees (number of photons, in this case). Here is a decent overview (Look for Principle of Polarity, although the #1 point that the universe is a giant mind is the most important to me) https://medium.com/the-mission/the-hermetic-revival-7-ancient-principles-for-self-mastery-9399e523648d https://medium.com/the-mission/the-hermetic-revival-7-ancien... I'd highly recommend reading The Hermetica. It's not exactly an ancient source text, but it attempts to distill the wisdom of the body of knowledge called Hermeticism. Your research is going to take you into works described as "occult". This bothered me at first, but then I realized it was my Catholic brainwashing about how occult is somehow related to satan or something. Occult simply means "hidden". These occult teachings, which every spiritual tradition possesses, are the pearls that were not to be cast before swine. This knowledge was typically reserved for initiates into a particular tradition. Basically, this means you had to be really committed and show your worth before you were taught this stuff. This is what many of the historical secret societies were protecting and teaching. This is what you learn when you reach the highest degrees of Freemasonry. Thankfully, the internet is blowing the lid off of this occulted information and people are waking up to the nature of reality at a great rate! You are on a nondual Christian track reading the Gospel of Thomas. This Quora post sums it up nicely: https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-teachings-of-nondual-Gnosticism https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-teachings-of-nondual-Gnos... Here are some ideas of what life looks like post realization of your nondual nature. #6 describes it well: https://www.consciouslifestylemag.com/spiritual-awakening-signs-and-symptoms/ https://www.consciouslifestylemag.com/spiritual-awakening-si... Best to you on your Path!

sdegutis 8y ago

In the same way, every Catholic around me reads "Catholic" books written in the past 20 years that are 90% watered down and 10% quotes from older books. So imagine my surprise when I found all those old books they were quoting were easily available on archive.org and easily installable on my phone (the PDF copies only) and in easy to understand English translations, despite being written 200, 500, 1000, 1700 years ago. And compared to these older books, even the 150 year old books, these 20 year old books are nothing more than overpriced flowery pamphlets.

kurosawa 8y ago
I find the same for books for the relationship between contemporary and classic works in other major traditions
photojosh 8y ago
I'm not Catholic, but my most revelatory reading this year has been Rene Girard's (a Catholic philosopher/theologian) 20-40 year old books. I guarantee they're not flowery pamphlets, they're mind-blowing.
- photojosh 8y ago
  And serendipitously enough, an article on him made HN today! https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18585177 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18585177

sudosteph 8y ago

That's very cool. I'm just now attempting to study religion from a historical standpoint myself, and have been finding myself drawn to older sources as well. Though I must ask, can you explain what you mean by "non-duality"? Is duality something you experienced from the Catholic perspective? I ask because I actually find myself very drawn to some ancient texts from Gnostic perspectives (Book of Thomas, some Mandean texts) and "duality" as a part of nature seems to be a core belief to them (light vs darkness, good vs evil, knowledge vs ignorance). Is that the same type of duality you're referring to, or is the term broader than I'm understanding it to be?

davebryand 8y ago
Duality, for me, in the Catholic sense meant that there is "God" and then there is little old me. Non-duality is the realization that is available to all humans that we are not actually separate from the Tao, God, the Universe, or whatever label you care to place on the invisible power that governs the realm that we inhabit. You are an interconnected piece of life that through consciousness can impact future frames of life that are generated by the infinite universal computer that plays the movie in our mind. (Yes, you can come to have direct experience and knowledge that this power exists but it is a super-rational process that most of our left-brained peers, in our masculine, logic dominated society dismiss out of hand. This realization has been called Enlightenment, Awakening, Waking Up, etc) Back to duality. We must remember that light and darkness are not opposites, they are the ends of a spectrum measuring the same thing: amount of light. Our western mindset has these placed as opposites, but they are not, they are the same thing. This is the principle of polarity in Hermeticism. The main insight is that these things are not different, they are the same thing in varying degrees (number of photons, in this case). Here is a decent overview (Look for Principle of Polarity, although the #1 point that the universe is a giant mind is the most important to me) https://medium.com/the-mission/the-hermetic-revival-7-ancient-principles-for-self-mastery-9399e523648d https://medium.com/the-mission/the-hermetic-revival-7-ancien... I'd highly recommend reading The Hermetica. It's not exactly an ancient source text, but it attempts to distill the wisdom of the body of knowledge called Hermeticism. Your research is going to take you into works described as "occult". This bothered me at first, but then I realized it was my Catholic brainwashing about how occult is somehow related to satan or something. Occult simply means "hidden". These occult teachings, which every spiritual tradition possesses, are the pearls that were not to be cast before swine. This knowledge was typically reserved for initiates into a particular tradition. Basically, this means you had to be really committed and show your worth before you were taught this stuff. This is what many of the historical secret societies were protecting and teaching. This is what you learn when you reach the highest degrees of Freemasonry. Thankfully, the internet is blowing the lid off of this occulted information and people are waking up to the nature of reality at a great rate! You are on a nondual Christian track reading the Gospel of Thomas. This Quora post sums it up nicely: https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-teachings-of-nondual-Gnosticism https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-teachings-of-nondual-Gnos... Here are some ideas of what life looks like post realization of your nondual nature. #6 describes it well: https://www.consciouslifestylemag.com/spiritual-awakening-signs-and-symptoms/ https://www.consciouslifestylemag.com/spiritual-awakening-si... Best to you on your Path!