What Is Religion
Religion, as a general concept to me, is the process by which an individual person’s spirituality can become subsumed by a collective narrative that may or may not reflect the beliefs of the individuals contributing to the established religious doctrine. Within most religious dogma, rules and customs are established that may provide a sense of belonging, in a communal sense, but that may also serve to deny an individual what I believe is their most basic of rights - the right to worship whatever it is that they believe to be the most supreme of all entities, the sum totality of all that lives, or even simply the collective nature of awareness itself on an universal level. This process can lead an individual to feel that whatever it is that appears to be most closely aligned with the truth of their own heart may be incorrect if it fails to appropriately align with or to be in an acceptable level of correspondence with what the religion has presented as the fundamental requirements for proper spiritual observances. If that process of self-doubt occurs, then that participating individual may elect to abandon what they feel in their heart, instead accepting a collective narrative that may not be at all appropriate for their own life.
As such, religion may become a negative experience when the individual's desire to worship in any manner that appears to them to be the most appropriate, regardless of social norms or mores, is prevented or otherwise interfered with, denying them what I believe to be one of the most transformational experience that any human can enjoy - a direct experience of the unity of all life, which must at all times be a wholly personal experience, not one that is governed by operating principles that dictate what is an acceptable or unacceptable method of communion with God, the universe, or any other concept that encompasses all that is as well as all that may be.
This should not be interpreted to mean that it is impossible for any particular religious schema to be permanently or intractably out of alignment with the truth that any particular participant might feel is what best represents the truth of their own hearts. Indeed in many situations, a person may find great joy at discovering a group of other individuals who share similar views and espouse commonalities of judgment and acceptance that have acceptable levels of correspondence with each other’s personal beliefs. Within such a framework, the individual’s personal energy sphere may become able to merge and grow, with each participant sustaining each other and allowing for the creation of a space of freedom and awareness of that which is higher than individual consciousness. When this alignment and compassionate synchronicity occurs, great and mighty relief can be found in the shared experience of worshiping in an aligned and communally reinforcing manner.
But if the opposite happens to occur, and any particular person participating in a communal worship process finds themselves unable to accept the truth of their own hearts, especially when such truth appears to be incontrovertibly out of alignment with what their particular religion requires them to accept as being undeniably true, then a loss may occur that is so great that there can be no justification for the damage that may occur. Only though acknowledgment of each person’s God-given right to find their own personal sanctuary within their own hearts, a place of undeniable peace and light, can any greater structure provide the necessary clarity and nonjudgmental acceptance that is necessary to support the great variety of beliefs that may occupy the hearts of so many of its disparately different adherents.
This then should be the ultimate goal of any religious organization – to be able to provide a place of such welcoming energy and a certain lightness of awareness that all who wish to worship in a manner that is not totally in alignment with the original requirements or instructions of the foundational features of the religion are made to feel welcomed and accepted, regardless of their personal opinions on or acceptance of all of the prescribed principles of the religion. Through this willingness to accept all who approach without striking fear into their hearts lest they be rejected for finding within themselves a truth that is not appropriately represented with the original organizing principles of the religion, a great a mighty service is performed, allowing all who feel similarity with the others who participate in that religion to be welcomed and accepted just as they are. What more could possibly be joyful in this world than to find that one is accepted just as they have found themselves to be today, without regard for their willingness to cast out their own personal alignments in favor of a set of principles of belief that may not provide the perfect answer to all of the questions that each participant finds arising in their own hearts?
As such, religion may become a negative experience when the individual's desire to worship in any manner that appears to them to be the most appropriate, regardless of social norms or mores, is prevented or otherwise interfered with, denying them what I believe to be one of the most transformational experience that any human can enjoy - a direct experience of the unity of all life, which must at all times be a wholly personal experience, not one that is governed by operating principles that dictate what is an acceptable or unacceptable method of communion with God, the universe, or any other concept that encompasses all that is as well as all that may be.
This should not be interpreted to mean that it is impossible for any particular religious schema to be permanently or intractably out of alignment with the truth that any particular participant might feel is what best represents the truth of their own hearts. Indeed in many situations, a person may find great joy at discovering a group of other individuals who share similar views and espouse commonalities of judgment and acceptance that have acceptable levels of correspondence with each other’s personal beliefs. Within such a framework, the individual’s personal energy sphere may become able to merge and grow, with each participant sustaining each other and allowing for the creation of a space of freedom and awareness of that which is higher than individual consciousness. When this alignment and compassionate synchronicity occurs, great and mighty relief can be found in the shared experience of worshiping in an aligned and communally reinforcing manner.
But if the opposite happens to occur, and any particular person participating in a communal worship process finds themselves unable to accept the truth of their own hearts, especially when such truth appears to be incontrovertibly out of alignment with what their particular religion requires them to accept as being undeniably true, then a loss may occur that is so great that there can be no justification for the damage that may occur. Only though acknowledgment of each person’s God-given right to find their own personal sanctuary within their own hearts, a place of undeniable peace and light, can any greater structure provide the necessary clarity and nonjudgmental acceptance that is necessary to support the great variety of beliefs that may occupy the hearts of so many of its disparately different adherents.
This then should be the ultimate goal of any religious organization – to be able to provide a place of such welcoming energy and a certain lightness of awareness that all who wish to worship in a manner that is not totally in alignment with the original requirements or instructions of the foundational features of the religion are made to feel welcomed and accepted, regardless of their personal opinions on or acceptance of all of the prescribed principles of the religion. Through this willingness to accept all who approach without striking fear into their hearts lest they be rejected for finding within themselves a truth that is not appropriately represented with the original organizing principles of the religion, a great a mighty service is performed, allowing all who feel similarity with the others who participate in that religion to be welcomed and accepted just as they are. What more could possibly be joyful in this world than to find that one is accepted just as they have found themselves to be today, without regard for their willingness to cast out their own personal alignments in favor of a set of principles of belief that may not provide the perfect answer to all of the questions that each participant finds arising in their own hearts?