Forum Post: Can the "Secular" and "Civic" be "Sacred"? Yes or No?
Posted 12 years ago on Nov. 7, 2011, 3:26 p.m. EST by SirPoeticJustice
(628)
from New York, NY
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
I give as my only example, the ancient cities of India... I think it is fair to say that since they saw everything as one through the lens of Tantra, there was no separation from anything, money, animal, plant, god, self, fellow human being. Thus, it is fair to say this is secular.
They didn't believe something or have "faith". They SAW, in their every movement and action, that they were one with everything.
This is the only example in history of a city of people who saw in such a way. All other people with this sight were nomads.
Even the Central americans saw themselves as separate from the "gods".
But it is critical to remember that Tantra was only the religion of the common people, never of the Brahmin.
Some of India's relics from this time are the most beautiful examples of architecture in the world, and the largest carved stone cities in the world.
Can the Secular and Civic Be Sacred Again, without making it about Belief?
It's been said you can live your life as if nothing was a miracle, or as if everything was a miracle. Many older societies did not have such a sharp distinction of mundane and sacred as the Judeo-Christian monotheistic systems. See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion "One modern academic theory of religion, social constructionism, says that religion is a modern concept that suggests all spiritual practice and worship follows a model similar to the Abrahamic religions as an orientation system that helps to interpret reality and define human beings,[3] and thus religion, as a concept, has been applied inappropriately to non-Western cultures that are not based upon such systems, or in which these systems are a substantially simpler construct."
Yes, I believe it can.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secular_humanism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altruism
We need cultural changes, not just legal ones.
The Republicans co-opted this country in the 70s with the culture wars, the backlash to the counter--culture of the sixties.
People who want to see co-operation & community spirit return as aspects of good citizenship need to start our own "war" for the hearts & minds of ordinary Americans.
Kuh! Mon!
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