thread: 2007-01-10 : Some questions about worship
On 2007-01-12, Blankshield wrote:
I considered it prayer, but not worship, and gave my reason already, but I'll flesh it out a bit.
I said "It's not worship if you're not placing some spiritual authority in the object of your prayer."
Worship, as I understand it involves at a minimum, acknowledging spiritual authority. Whether you are worshiping God or Bhudda or Kali or the uncarved block or the kung fu janitor in the basement matters very little. What matters is that you are acting as though this person/thing/concept is more spiritually advanced than you are, and that you will approach it to learn and trust* it to teach.
As above, I'll note that I don't consider fear of reprisal to be a required component of worship, although it historically and currently is pretty darn common. (Hell and damnation, karma, etc.)
*Trust here includes a whole spectrum of approaches, from the blind faith of zealotry to the 'bargaining with god' approach that's been mentioned here a few times (NinJ? I think)
James
ps: I always say toaster now.
