I do not know if it is spirituality or not, I like the idea " love your enemies" because it has the potential of being the way to peace for humanity .. However, enemies should not exaggerate!"

Promise is promise. Is it a spirituality?. I like it too much.

Love your neighbor as yourself.

Behave as human not other creature.

Emad

Such sayings originally appeared in Ancient Egyptian literature at least 2000 years before Jesus-figure. Many others too!

Love your neighbor as yourself

• It seems to me a very important spiritual sentence because to love you learn by being kind to my person, developing my capacity for introspection and thought / action, and with that, to heal my body and spirit.
• In this way, by starting from my physical, metal and spiritual health; I will be able to relate better and in a more human way, with my family and later with my peers in the different social groups.

love and peace. Peace is a vital element of spirituality. Peace with the holy, peace with humankind, peace with self. Balance of mind, body and spirit. Love of the holy, love of others and love of self (affirming the above) is key to spirituality. Unneeded conflict, stirring controversy, lack of acceptance of where others are spiritually, and exclusive behaviors cripple spirituality in one's self and to others.

I am Catholic Christian, so the Eucharist is the most appealing to me as I am able to have than inner union with Jesus that brings much peace and sustenance to mu soul.

Many thanks,

Debra

I like the miracles, especially if there is convincing evidence they are true.

Depends what one means by spirituality.

For me the assurance of eternal salvation by the redeeming work of Almighty God through the once and only sacrifice of The Lord Jesus Christ giving an assurance of eternal life by faith.

I find the spiritual practice teachings of the Christian contemplatives most enriching (e.g., Gregory of Nyssa, Ps.-Dionysius, The Cloud of Unknowing, Eckhart, John of the Cross, and today's Centering Prayer movement).

And they are "persuasive" because they are experientially verifiable.

At heart, I very much sense that the type of humble intimacy with the miracle of lived being that is uncovered and fostered by such practices is a foundation and motive force of healthy religiosity worldwide.

It's not hard to find contemplatives across cultures practicing very similar techniques. And while such techniques entail allowing a too-simple-for-words process of experience -- and are thus apt to draw to themselves verbal depictions that can appear quite different in various practice traditions (e.g., the Buddhist's "no self," the Vedantin's "all Self," and the Christian's unio mystica) -- such necessarily ineffable experiencing is more than persuasive. It's a kind of utter sobriety.

Put playfully -- in doubting all we can think and know, we can allow thereby a mode of experience that is beyond doubt.

Follow up to 'Do unto others..........', is this considerably earlier saying found in Middle Kingdom Egypt: 'The reward of the man who does is what is done to him: in the heart of God, this is Maat.'

Maat appears to underlie Greek ethics-the virtues etc-and Christian ethics. It is in fact difficult to note any separation. All have a serving motif, are pragmatic, meeting the needs of loyalist officialdom-transmuted into courtesy codes of conduct that anticipate reciprocation.

The Christian mystical experience wins my vote. Mystics from all traditions seem to share a common experience, even as we describe it differently due, at least in part, to cultural differences. I personally can both agree with and disagree with the concept of total unity. My personal choice is to describe the full mystical state as one where barriers between one's self and the rest of reality are not maintained, but rather eliminated. One continues to be an individual, but also is sharing fully and openly with the balance of creation, no secrets, nothing hidden, no fears or anything to protect, just total openness.

Contemplative prayer in conjunction with the Eucharist are the most attractive elements of Christian spirituality. Contemplative prayer, which I practice in the form known as Centering Prayer, enhances my personal relationship with God while the Eucharist feeds my communal relationship. The practices work together as my spiritual journey unfolds.

Thank you, Leslie! Would you argue that activism can only be motivated for a long period of time when its actors directly experience and thus embody the Divine? I think of the work of Gandhi and King as paradigm examples of sacred activism. Or to put it another way, can activism only endure through pressing challenges if it is sacred activism?

As a note on Kirk's question about activism and motivation, I'm reminded of two things.

It's my understanding that the Aramaic underlying the historical Jesus' "Kingdom of God," "kingdom" [malkuta] is dynamic term; hence something like "the Reigning of God." And there are suggestions that Jesus embodied a "realized eschatology," as reflected in the Gospel of Thomas' logion [113], "The kingdom is [already] spread out on the earth, and people just don't see it."

Thus, in reflection, my mind goes to the consideration that in that manner of "realization," we're called on to step out from under our habitual preoccupations and allow ourselves to be "motivated" instead by a living Truth that's always already here.

Mahayana Buddhists speak similarly in pointing out that the twin paramount virtues of Wisdom and Compassion ultimately lead to and are conjoined with one another. Wisdom entails seeing through our preoccupying illusions, and Compassion involves the active embodiment (or "sacred activism") of a kindness and considerate care for others that is an expression of our truest nature.

And while both discourses - the early Christian and the Mahayana Buddhist - can imply that there is work for us to do in order to realize the Kingdom and/or to embody our original nature, there's also the strong suggestion in each that all we actually need do in the end is effectively just get out of the way of a living truth - and, if you will, an original motive force - that's already here.

Put playfully, both outlooks advocate a dual "letting go," in the sense (1) of releasing ourselves from all that separates us from the original living truth of ourselves and of all that is, and (2) letting that living truth "go" as in the sense of "actively happen."

As we realize the latter manner of activity, my sense is that in the end that can be something which is self-sustaining, in that it ultimately entails a kind of selfless "realizing" and an on-going act of creation.

The very Person of Christ.

Marcel Matley

Meister Eckhardt gave some important elements.

Hello,

The most striking thing about Christianity, which I observed when I was in America, was Christians' honesty and their view of the importance of truth in man's life. however, I personally believe that all the elements which Christians cherish and value come from and are overshadowed by the greatness, uniqueness, grandeur and nobility of our beloved prophet, Jesus Christ. He is all the reason , and perhaps, the main element empowering Christianity as one of the popular religions of the world.

Best regards,

R. Biria

Be your brother's keeper.

Forgiveness to your enemies

You are the light for the world.