Welcome to Gaia! ::

what i like about hinduism is (as far as i can tell) how all souls are connected to brahman and through that to each other, almost physically.

i see it as like we all live on the rim of a wheel, and roll around through the world all the days of our lives. however, that rim is attached to spokes, and each spoke is atman, or soul, so that i can find my atman by going more into the heart of things from my rim position, and so can everyone else because we're sharing atman in different ways.

then at the hub there's brahman, which is what turns the wheel and gives us orientation. that is our center, the depth of our sould. then through that center we can reach up to someone else's experience of atman.

i don't know if that's accurate, but i like it!

huh? who did that? isn't it all there in the original greek and hebrew words? so how can it go away?

I'm in the same boat as Gameangel. I practice a sort of mixture of Hinduism/Yoga, and Buddhism, but I study most other religions. Currently I'm working on putting together a collection of the holy texts from as many religions as I can find. I've currently got 2 different translations of the bible (King James Version & New International Version), a bunch of collections of Buddhist Sutras from Mahayanan & Therevadin traditions, and 2 different translations of the Bhagavad Ghitta, which will be 3 later today. I'm planning on acquiring a fourth copy of the Ghitta before I go off to college (the translation and commentary done by Paramhansa Yogananda, everyone here should check out his books, the man is amazing, be sure to read "Autobiography of a Yogi"), and a copy of the Qu'ran. While I enjoy reading about other religions, I find the best way to study them and understand them is to read their holy scriptures, supplemented by other material.

Definitely. I haven't read much Sufi poetry, but I really like what I have read of it. I haven't read any Nasrudin, but I think I'll definitely check it out. Thanks for the recommendation.

As I am Hindu, I would recommend checking out some of the scriptures that are popular in India, like the Ramayana, Bhagavad Ghitta, or Mahabharata. Not only because these are absolutely beautiful to read on an intellectual level (most, if not all Hindu holy scriptures are epic length poems, since they were passed down through time orally for thousands, if not millions of years), but also because, from what I have read, it is likely that the Christ was traveling in India, studying Hinduism and Buddhism during the many years that are unacounted for in the Holy Bible. I do not mean to offend any by saying this, and if I have done so, I apologise.

There are actually numerous abridged versions of the Ramayana and Mahabharata in print, and the full length works are actually not easy to find at all. Although, in terms of other interesting stuff, if you aren't a fundamentalist conservative, I would definitely recommend some of John Shelby Spong's books. An especially good one, which I have skimmed a bit, but not read cover to cover, is "Reclaiming the Bible from Fundamentalists" or something similar. Its about how to interpret the Bible on the symbolic/fiqurative level, instead of the innerant, literal level that most fundamentalists do.