Ah I’ve been going around and around on this New Age idea a bit today and am quickly coming to the point of view that its semantics.. People have a need to connect on a spiritual level with the universe in a way that is meaningful to them. Centuries of corruption and hypocrisy have made it all but impossible to do that with the religions that many of us were born into. To many of us, our families’ religious observances consisted of words, ceremonies and rituals that were empty of either meaning or feeling. A lot of new age thought distils what is good about ancient thought and makes it relevant.
Emphasis is often on both the practical and the positive. Connecting in love with our inner selves, each other and our planet. Advancing and growing oneself spiritually. Using ritual not in a traditional sense of repeating words (often in foreign languages, many of them not used in the modern day) and movements that one has memorized but in a living meaningful sense, using symbolism that has meaning for the person doing the ritual towards a goal that matches the aspirant’s intent.
Unfortunately way too often New Age thought can become as rule-bound and dogmatic as anything you can hear in a church, mosque or synagogue. While we can help, inspire and expose each other to cool things that work for us, if there is no inner spark or connection with what we are doing then it quickly becomes meaningless, no matter how cool the message is delivered and how obscure the jargon.
(To be continued, revised and expanded
Yes, ever since Martin Luthur the world has been expereneceing Religieous Pluralism. The fall of power and authority of organized religion. From power groups to individual interaction with God. I’ve said before that our greatist connection is the individual to God, our greatist values are practiced in our communities, and truth and justice transcend all religion. Thanks
TO Information forager:
“Yes, ever since Martin Luthur the world has been experienceing Religieous Pluralism.”
When were you born?
You sound like a “Baby Christian”. No disrespect intended.
Take a look into the Bhagavad Gita (Vedanta), the Zend Avesta (Zoroastrianism), The Koran (Islam), and many other “sacred writings”.
Christian fundamentalist preachers like to keep their “flock” in the dark. Too much light disrupts their indoctrination of members.
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TO Thinking About New Age:
Just a suggestion; forget about “New Age” and start looking into “New Thought”. Big difference.
You are right.
I was more starting a reflection having to do more with people’s reaction to the term “New Age” and my own reaction. At least “New Thought” has not become a term that has lost all meaning because so many people use it so often meaning different things
Each of the sacred writings that you mention have amazing value. Each of them has also been corrupted by translations, retranslations, calcified interpretations and practices based on these interpretations and occasionally prejudice and maliciousness. The fact that there is still much of value that can be found in them is tribute to their original sources. Thanks so much for your response. Namaste.
Actually I am familiar with those and also Krishnamurti, Yogananda & others. I only reference Martin Luther in the context of trying to communicate the point to other Christians, especially since they frequently don’t recognize these other groups as “Spiritual Peers.”
In the Christian community others are advancing Religious Pluralism; most notably Rob Bell with his book “Love Wins.” He states that he doesn’t believe in the traditional fire and brimstone hell and that has created a lot of controversy. I could have told the Christians the same thing but it wouldn’t have made any difference. The fact that he said it, a Christian minister, indicates that it’s changing from the inside out; that even many modern Christians don’t really believe in Hell.
You’re right, they want to keep the flock together and often when they think of religious tolerance they mean tolerance for other Christian groups; Seventh Day Adventist, Mormons, Baptists & others.
I actually don’t like the term New Age because again it puts it in a box and it undermines all the work and earnest learning that I have done. I don’t consider myself a New Ager but others do. Why can’t we just call New Thought Spirituality or acknowledgement of Reality?
Thanks