Bear with me, I’m getting to it.
Occasionally on this blog I have shared some Buddhist ideas. I have been wanting to sprinkle in some of my own faith, Catholicism.
We may think of Catholicism as more about rules, formal rituals, and prayer which there is; but there is a meditative side to it that doesn’t get much publicity. One school of thought is based on the teachings of St. Ignatius. Ignatius was a Spanish soldier who lived during the 1500’s. He was injured and could no longer serve in the military. While he recuperated he read a lot and reflected on what he was learning.
He came to the conclusion that God was present in our everyday lives and by paying attention to what was going on we could learn to make good decisions. There are retreats that you can attend to practice Ignatian Spirituality. They can be formal retreats at retreat sites or churches and you can even purchase books and do it on your own. There is also this website Ignatian Spirituality that you can visit for daily prompts.
They have a blog that I like to read and there was a recent post about Taoism (the T is pronounced like a D so it sounds more like “Dow-ism”). Taoism means “The Way” and is about living simply. I hope you will take a minute to read their post so to keep this short, I’m not going to expand on Taoism now.
If you would like to know more about Taoism there is a great book called Tao of Pooh. The link will give a nice overview of how Pooh and his friends can show us how to enjoy our lives.
Possibility & Light 
I read that book!!
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Christianity was also nicknamed The Way, and most people would say there are many ways to God. Although, I don’t think Taoism has anything to do with God,Like pure Buddhism, it is a religion of self enlightenment. Meditation and contemplation are common to all religions, because they are a natural part of what humans do. The difference is, I guess, in what people mediate on and what they hope to achieve. I think self awareness, reflection and contemplation etc are every important for our well being. In the affluent west, people are often too busy to reflect and sometimes they make themselves too busy.
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