Jiyū shūkyō topics

Meta

How to approach creating a personal jiyū shūkyō
Fields of study in jiyū shūkyō
How to study jiyū shūkyō
Doubt

Relating with the larger religious community

Western free-religion

God
Unitarianism
Transcendentalism
Non-theism
Non-supernaturalism

Eastern free-religion

seiza

Jōdo Shinshū

• Radical faith to amida buddha

Shintoism

Filipino free-religion

How to approach returning to indigenous or old religious expressions

• How can indigenous spirituality be integrated into a modern, contemporary free religious spiritual life?

Anitism

Creative expressions of free-religion

Others

Oneness

• What exactly does Oneness look like?
• How is it concretized in a community?
• How is it concretized in society?

Deciding what to let go

• What is useful and what isn't?
• How does one arrive at this understanding?

Returning to roots (indigenous religious traditions or traditions we came from)

• How do we show appreciation or even reintegrate these roots

TO DO

• Review newsletters, essays written on jiyū shūkyō.
• Review my commentaries on Shin'ichirō Imaoka's principles of living.

Liberation

Andrew's translation includes "liberating" spirituality.

Now this word comes out often in many of my current readings.

In Jodo Shinshu, liberation from the self.

While reading liberal religion in the West and even in Imaoka, one of the ways liberal religion and free religion liberates is through liberating us from superstition.

But our recent conversations on community has finally prompted me to begin my research on possible sources of free religion in my own life context.

Realization: of the obvious fact that our experiences of liberation is nuanced.

I read an article on Filipino psychology. I encountered this statement.

So what I realized is that the germ of free-religion could result to an experience of liberation that is different: that is it could still be superstitious and supernaturalist but it is still free-religious.

This is using religion to liberate from colonial rule.

Examples:

1. The first leaders of the revolution were catholic priests.
2. Collorum uprisings.
3. Connection of religion and the Katipunan itself.

Now this personally puts me in a dilemma on how to approach returning to instances of free religion in my own culture.

I don't have a lot

This is making me realize that perhaps one reason why liberal religion as practiced in the West didn't really appeal in this country is because its trajectory has always been indigenous or indigenizing the foreign. And that indigenization is almost always superstitious. It doesnt want enlightenment ideas.

Obviously, the Philippines no longer is in colonial rule.

NEED TO READ RIZAL

I understand the dangers in believing in God but if imaoka decided not to proceed with converting catholics this means free religion could help them be good catholics -> wrong bec free religion will ultimately lead them to being skeptical of God and superstition.

Walking and the Well

Introduce Rem Tanauan.

• Friend
• Started a poetry group during the pandemic
• Used the metaphor of the well as something within us that is a source of poetry
• At frist, water simply comes up (dirty, violent)
• But after repeated coaxing, clean water comes out
• Rem said the ancient Chinese symbol for well is a sharp symbol, saying because it is where surrounding people draw water from

Many of the members of the group were first time writers.

I realized later that the well metaphor could also work well for the decision to share one's writings to the world.

I realize that a well was located near one's inner community.
The farther one was away of the well, the farther one is from one's community or comfort zone.
Water drawn from the well nurtures one but also allows one to gain the strength to move out of one's community.
But since there is a well, one could return to it to be replenished.

A budding writer could similarly approach their practice with this measured and cautious approach.
At first, it is okay to have oneself as one's audience. Oneself is the closest other.
Eventually, one could start sharing one's words to the immediate community.
One could stay there as long as one wants.
But eventually, one is expected to be a bit more uncomfortable, to move out of the immediate community and share one's words to the public. There will be more risks but also more rewards.

I see a parallel to this approach with our general way of being in the world, which is connected with our spiritual and religious practices.

At first, it is wise to focus on individual spirituality, to go within one's well.
But doing this, one immediately realizes that the well is a communal thing, it is shared and to fully enjoy the water, one needs to move around one's community.
But then one needs to consider what is out there, out of the community. The others, who are still my kapwa, my neighbors. It is there where our compassion is most tested.

I think nurturing one's well and the community around it only makes sense when we realize that the direction of the journey is going out and that the well is there to make it possible for us to do the difficult work.

Personal note:

• As I grow deeper into free religion, I realize how much I'm part of a minority existing within a culture that is still very religious. And often, my default when being around other people is not simply to respect their spiritual expressions but also somehow to yield to them. To join prayers. To listen to my father's beliefs. I find that I've lost the evangelizing spirit I had before, which latches on every opportunity to preach the truth to someone. Now it simply listens and doesn't feel moved to correct others or to share what I'm learning. Most sharing I do these days are in my newsletter and blog.
• This is of course making me wonder whether I'm "playing it safe" whether I should engage more. In this matter, I'm unsure. But there is one thing I'm sure of.
• Ever since I've taken on liberal religous stance and free religious stance, I've become ever more compassionate about the other person's faith and their difference. I'm no longer annoyed with their expressions of faith and welcome them instead. I also listen and recognize dissenting voice. I wonder whether this is exactly what the experience of courage one gets when one moves away from a free religious community—one becomes a listener and facilitator of expression rather than a debater and prozelitizer.

Returning to One

Kiitsu = Returning-to-One

Define Kapwa

• a relational self

Define loob

• literal meaning, "interior"

Utang na Loob (UNL)

• Without thinking about the welfare of the Other, it becomes a form of moral obligation. -> Emphasis on the debt
• When thinking about the welfare of the Other, it becomes a prompt for thinking about solidarity, i.e., what we owe to others spiritually. -> Emphasis on the Interiority

Utang na Loob (UNL) as a tool to achieve Kiitsu