indeed there's nothing spiritual or religious about it, I have however met enough guru's, masters, and healers who would like to try and convince you differently and that it was because they show you the way and for $299.00 a pop they will happily do it again....
Do You Feel a Spiritual Connection with the Woods?
- Thread starter DanRobinson1
- Start date
To my mind any "Spiritual Leader" who charges above expenses for their teaching is not a spiritual leader but an out and out materialist!
I'm not in complete agreement, but I like transparancy, if your offering me something of value I'm happy to pay the going rate, as I would expect and get payment for what I offer society. But if you wrap it up in mystery, double meanings and party tricks I'll happily walk away and find someone else.
Only to those who want to catagorise stuff. I'm not aware I have done so?
It's like being expected to tick atheist under the heading religious belief in a questionare
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Where did you get that number? $299 for a week would actually be LESS than expenses (housing, food, etc) Fot that matter it's less than the going hotel rates for a weekend.
That said, most people I know have never been charged ANYTHING. It's usually provided free if you show finacial need. But those are only the ORGANIZED retreats. TBH, most people I know who go on retreat, just show up at whatever place they've chosen (be it a monastary or whatever) and request time there to be alkone. Just as we go into the woods whenever we please.
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I'm not in complete agreement, but I like transparancy, if your offering me something of value I'm happy to pay the going rate, as I would expect and get payment for what I offer society. But if you wrap it up in mystery, double meanings and party tricks I'll happily walk away and find someone else.
Only to those who want to catagorise stuff. I'm not aware I have done so?
It's like being expected to tick atheist under the heading religious belief in a questionare
Logically... if you make a statement like "there's nothing spiritual or religious about it" then you are creating/recreating the two categories of "religious & spiritual" & "Not regligious & spiritual" and placing "it" in the 2nd category.
If that's how you want to look at it, I have no objection, but I don't believe in the catagory 'spritual or religious' in the first place.
My point was there is nothing spiritual or religious about a man's place in nature any more than there is for a badger,squirrel or bird. You either feel comfortable in a particular surrounding or not.
I like the atheist tick box. I call myself an atheist but Corso's comment made me wonder. If that term means without God does that mean there is a God but you don't have it in your life? I just don't believe there is a God or even a need for one. It just seems to me a slight distinction somehow. Perhaps this feeling is also part of the reason I don't feel the need to use terms like spiritual to a sense of liking the outdoors. Just as I don't believe in a God I don't believe in a Spirit to a place. However I can feel comfortable or uncomfortable in a place however to me this is not spiritual.
Elen Sentier
Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
I've thought of being out "in the middle of nowhere", is what is natural for people. Walking around in the wilderness with no one else around, with no paths to follow or even no cellphone-coverage where it is actually needed to watch every step in order to stay alive and to only have oneself to rely on to not freeze, starve or thirst to death, and specially if there's wild animals that could be dangerous, awakens instincts that is not needed at home where people can just press a button to make it warm inside, a fridge filled with food, a comfortable bed to sleep in, fresh water etc. And the feeling a fireplace gives, peace and safety, is something that is imprinted into the mind of humans for such a long time that I think it has become an archetypical thing just like the sight of spiders, snakes, looking down a steep cliff etc. gives a feeling of danger. To want to hunt (some places it is even allowed to use bow and arrow instead of a rifle), fish, to build a dwelling by our own hands etc. is all things that is what humans have been doing for about as long as there has been humans, except when we broke out of the cycle of nature a few thousand years ago. And personally I think spirituality is also natural for people. Jesus walked out into the desert to be tested by the devil or up on mountain tops to meet God, Buddha sat under a tree and reached nirvana, some Native Americans performed a rite of passage that included having to walk out into the wild without water and food to gain revelations and this is still done today, the old Greek wise men lived in caves, monks have usually been seeking out solitude etc. I also feel drawn to the wilderness, even if life in the civilized world is far more simple, just to feel that what/who I really am wakes up. I don't think it is the forest in itself that is spiritual, but that the noise of the human world makes it more difficult for us to "find ourselves". It is not the fireplace in itself that is so special, but what happens inside us, just the same as when looking up at the sky at nighttime to watch the stars, then it is not the small dots of light that makes it fascinating, but the feeling of being part of something larger then ourselves.
Spirituality is a very personal journey, interpreted differently by different people in many different ways.. My take is as follows.... Do I feel "good" in the woods?? HELL YEAH!! That I feel enriches me inside.... Spiritually?? If that's the tag you feel comfy with, then yes I suppose so
R
Ramblingstar
Guest
Yes with me I think its more of a natural sense of connection espescially when my belly is full and Im not an athiest..
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