On Sun, Jan 14, 2024 at 2:04 PM Peter Griffin via Silklist < silklist@lists.digeratus.in> wrote:
> Many years ago, when I worked with Forbes India, as part of an anniversary > special, we commissioned an essay by Alain de Botton on a ‘religion for > atheists’ (he has of course written and spoken about this extensively > elsewhere). > https://www.forbesindia.com/article/ideas-to-change-the-world/alain-de-botton-a-religion-for-atheists/13532/1 > > I just came across this. > https://theconversation.com/church-without-god-how-secular-congregations-fill-a-need-for-some-nonreligious-americans-215749 > > I resonate with the thought. After beginning my walk away from > Christianity in my teens and twenties, and all religion some time after, > there have been many times I missed some of the peripheral things about > religion. The sense of community, the places of contemplative silence, the > art, the music. > > What do you folk — believers or otherwise — think? > > ~ peter > > Having grown up with an atheist father, I find myself more spiritual than religious. Personally, I have never felt the need for a "religion for atheists." I have dabbled in Osho's meditations at the resort in Pune, Vipassana meditation at Igatpuri and have liked them all but don't follow them systematically. Some of my friends are similar in that they are more religious than spiritual. I have often taken breaks with them to an ashram in Bhaja, near Lonavala in Maharashtra. Though the ashram is Buddhist, they do not impose their practices on us when we visit and our trips involve sitting quietly in the meditation hall, bird watching, trekking, admiring the flora and fauna, cooking and eating the locally grown produce, cleaning the ashram, and long conversations. I find that fulfilling in a wonderful way. Venky
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