As many of you know, I am studying to become a Buddhist minister (even though I’m Agnostic). This week I’ve been having a lot of spiritual breakthroughs.
I recently have also been studying the concept of Universalism. Universalism is essentially the belief that humans inherently have this sense of love and kindness but express it in different ways. One of the most common ways has been the concept of God. If you were to replace the word “God” with love, kindness, helping, etc., most Christians would still agree with the message. We should explore and celebrate the different ways that we experience the inherent love that we all have within us, not let how we express it divide us.
The differences in how we express it have lead to people being scared, which breeds other things like greed and hatred. When organizations are established and become large enough, these things can institutionally affect those who are a part of it.
I choose to express my inherent love and kindness in a unique way. I was raised Mormon and have many of the frames of mind and verbiage from that part of my life. I also have found a lot of comfort in Buddhism, which focuses on learning how to accept what life throws at you. It can be incredibly freeing in accepting instead of trying to change things we have no control over. One of the biggest things that I’ve come to learn is that you should put all the effort into something that you can and then accept what happens. Change what you can and accept what you can’t. I made a handy chart that explains all the core Buddhist concepts here: https://gileriodekel.com/buddhismmadesimple/
The LDS church is abusive in many, many ways, and one of those is spiritually. Roughly 77% of modern Ex-LDS become Atheists or Agnostics because of this spiritual abuse. I felt this abuse as well and was off put by spiritual things for a while. However, I felt the pull of spirituality and have found a good place for myself. I really want to be able to create an environment where people are able to explore their spirituality after they’ve been spiritual abused. Nothing forced down your throat, no requirements, just love, community, and discussions. I would do it using terms and venacular that are familiar to Mormons, because I really I want to help Mormons who have left the LDS church explore and express their sense of spirituality in a healthy and in a safe environment, but it would be open to everyone. Ideally we would pick a topic that we’d like to discuss, have someone start the discussion for a few minutes, and then have a discussion about it.
I made a FB group for Mormon Spirituality outside of the LDS church. It’s goal is to help you find your own spiritual fulfillment in a community that is doing the same thing. If you’d like to be added to it, PM me and I’ll get you added 🙂