Returning to a religious way of life
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Returning to a religious way of life
To be in religion – is to be in constant re-connection with the divine part in ourselves and from there with all that we share life and evolution with.
The Soul is the Divine being we truly come from; we are more than physical. The terms, ‘spirit’ and ‘Soul’ are generally very well-known nowadays and many people have a feeling deep within that there is more to life than the physical comings and goings of existence.
Many people (and this could be you) reach a point where they realise that the way they have been living is not it, and that there therefore must be more. For most of us, this point of realisation, awareness or of a ‘reckoning’ of sorts usually only comes when something really difficult has happened to us – we lose a loved one, we or someone else gets really sick, we go through some sort of trauma or very challenging situation for example. For the most part, we are not willing to give up or question our seemingly comfortable life unless something rocks that comfort.
Whether we wait until that life changing moment hits, or whether we decide to look at it sooner, there is the opportunity for us, at all stages in life, to connect to something deeper.
We can keep life as the superficial, barely-connecting-with-others, largely meaningless conveyer-belt existence most people carry on with, or we can go deeper with an earnestness to find what we innately can feel is there. Generally, this starts with us wanting more out of life, or knowing somehow, deep within, that there must be more.
We become sick of the just getting by, or just getting through life and the lack of truth in us and those all around us, and we start to look for what it all truly means. This is a natural process – in effect, for all of us. There comes a time when the just-getting-by is simply not going to cut it anymore. It is at this point that we either choose to seek with a sincere and honest earnestness or, in reaction, we may choose to escape into deeper forms of comfort and or distraction, be it through spiritual pursuits or other mental distractions.
A plethora of DVDs, self-help books, modalities and sessions, classes, workshops, gurus, teachers, you name it is there, on call, for us – all promising extraordinary solutions and to be ‘the answer’. We may try all that for a while, but even all of that, with its promise of ‘light’ doesn’t make it all any better. In fact, despite the over-supply of all of that, for the last 30 years or so, nothing has changed --- humanity’s rate of disease and illness continues to escalate and go through the roof, people are generally not living a life of true wellbeing and most if not all carry a deep level of dissatisfaction and a knowing that there must be more.
The incidence of alcohol abuse, drug addiction, obesity, pornography, family and relationship issues, unhappy workplaces, coffee and sugar dependence, checking out on screens, and the like --- are all indications that humanity is not well, and our current way is not working…
So, despite all the promises such as ‘just follow the light’, the same gnawing feeling that there must be more, continues. What we come to realise is that the first light we access may not actually be the so-much-more that we truly are. We start to learn that perhaps there is more than one light that is there to connect to – the light of the spirit or the light of the soul – and that we need to discern which light is it that we are in fact connecting to.
Now for many the words spirit and soul are interchangeable and can therefore mean the same thing. Yet when energetically connected to and discerned what we come to find, eventually, is that there is a difference between the two. And whilst the spiritual awakening and realisation of ‘yes I am more than just this physical being’ can feel quite extraordinary there is something far, far grander and truly superb, and we don’t have to go anywhere at all to find it! No need for experts, ‘men of cloth’, gurus or whoever else to direct our way --- we can find it in a place within ourselves.
That place is known as the inner-most or the inner-heart. Our inner-most or the inner-heart is not the final point or the end of the journey but the very beginning of the real and true you.
Innately there is a Divine spark within all human beings. Those who have truly found it will say that it is within the heart. What they have re-connected to is a doorway to their Soul.
Our inner-heart is a place of stillness, joy and harmony, which remains untouched as our essence, no matter what has occurred throughout life, including what we have done. In fact, it is something we were all deeply connected with at least as babies and for some into at least young childhood, where there is a freedom in the body and in expression, and an abundance of vitality and joy.
Choosing to live a Soul-full life is simply choosing to live in a way that is loving, towards you and towards others. That is it. It is not rocket science – but it is what we all truly deserve, from ourselves and to and from others. It is this connection to the Soul that is far grander than what the spirit allows us to experience.
So what does this have to do with religion?
Before going deeper into the questions around religion, it would be worth first exploring our reaction to the word as many of us baulk when we hear the word ‘religion’, and understandably so, as we may recall childhood or adult experiences where we are taught/told:
- We are evil / we are sinners
- Women are less, especially dirty when they menstruate, and need to sit in a different area of a sacred building or are not allowed to enter at all
- We need a middleman to get to God – we cannot access Him on our own
- We are not His children – only one person was, and we were/are so bad he had to sacrifice himself for us to be saved
- We need to wait around for another saviour to come and, basically, without that, we are a lost cause
- We need a particular building to access God. We cannot access Him in our bodies, or our homes
- We need to pay money to access Heaven or God
- We need to recite particular words to be atoned
- We need to seek forgiveness for our sins, the biggest of which is the fact that we are human at all
It is fair enough that we would baulk at the word, religion. We have been taught that we are evil, less and God is some almighty being that sits above and meters out judgement and punishment. Can this really be religion?
In many parts of the world, wars – some of the most horrendous we have ever seen, have and are launched in the name of religion. Religion is the reason given for the separation and slaughtering of people – as has been done throughout history. Can this really be in the name of God?
In other parts of the world, some people claim that God is actually just for them and that unless you name yourself as one of them, you’re going to Hell (or the equivalent). Some religions say – this is the way it should be, and if you fit outside that, you’re less, you’re damned and that’s basically the end for you. Others say – the only way to reach Heaven (or a higher state) is to sit on your backside for many hours a day and read and recite ancient words. Don’t worry about living in the real world, religion and the real world can never be mixed.
When we sit back and really look at all this, does it actually make sense?
What if there is another way?
If we stop to ponder on it deeply, we may find that it is not the fact of a supreme being of love or the possibility of there being such a Godhead that we are reacting to, but the way the word ‘religion’ itself has been used, and what we have seen and been taught.
We may find that, deep down, we do really know that there is such a thing as a supreme being – we may choose to call Him God, or we could just call it Love – it is one and the same and doesn’t matter. Whatever you choose to call it / Him / Her, there is a spark of that being that lives within each and every one of us, and no one person has it more or less than any other. By living from our own inner-most heart, we can access that spark and if we want to, we can choose it be our source of self, our true essence or light --- not following another or putting any one or ones ahead of us or as more important, but following the light within our own inner-most.
To live religiously is simply to live in connection with your essence, or some may call it, your Soul – the truth of where we came from. This is actually no big deal….
The Way of the Livingness as a religion
The origins of Religion is to ‘re-connect’, ‘re-turn’ or ‘re-bind’. If we accept that, then religion is simply living in connection with your own inner-most heart. No bells, no whistles, and certainly no giving away of your power. Just connecting with what you know to be your inner-most truth and living that truth. Or, taking the meaning as to ‘re-turn’, it denotes a return to something we already have, and already are.
As we connect with the inner-most heart, we come to know as a fact that we are actually superb, Divine beings, and that there is an enormous amount of love available to us – to be felt in our body and expressed. As we align with this more and more, and give our inner-most permission to express, we reclaim our right to live as that in the world. By doing so, we open up the way to all others around us to do the same.
There are enough natural wonders that surround and keep reminding us of the obvious marvels that cannot be shrugged off by any explanation that is less than accepting of a much higher order that is ordering it all.
The true nature of religion
True religion is the connection within ourselves and nature, the magic that we hold equally within us and the understanding of what that magic is.
Whether one calls it 'God' or by any other form of equally acknowledging awe, there is most certainly a stupendous magnificence that is everywhere and beyond everywhere. We need only look with our entire body to see what it (our body) belongs to when it looks out at all it belongs to. As one discovers more and more, by, and only by the true Will to want to know, and that Will being one that is born out of or seeded forth by an earnestness that possess no pre-conceptions, conditions, beliefs and or ideals of what one needs to find, there will be found, or in-truth, re-discovered, a livingness of ever evolving Divine wisdom and knowledge that is not only stupendous by its essence, it is, by its essence, you, the real you.
To live one’s own natural Divinity does not mean living in a loin cloth in the far off East or parking oneself in a cloister/temple/other sacred building, cut off from the world. Divinity is the-all – and thus it is to be lived right here, in society – where family life, work, relationships and all the comings and goings of life are part of it, and things we can choose to bring Divine expression to, or not. Divine expression simply means to be love in life, with ourselves and others equally so. It is something we have the free-will to choose, as and when we are ready to do so.
Our choice to be truly religious is simply to live a life of love – where your own inner-most heart is your teacher, your guiding light and the source of all you could ever need. When one lives that way, it provides a reflection for all others to follow… and so it become possible for them.
Religion is a deeply sacred term, denoting the fact that each and every human being is equal, and equally love. Irrespective of skin colour, country of birth, class or status, level of wealth, culture, background, or what we do in life, each and every person, on the inside, is identical --- the spark that lives within one, is identical to the spark that lives within any other.
Our choice, within all of this, is simply whether to express from that spark, or not. Religion is to simply live in connection with the spark. That is all.
And yet ... we cannot underestimate the power of that choice – as choosing to express that Divinity and to show others through the love realised in your own body that we are all actually so much more than what we currently see, is deeply inspiring, as it provides a reflection to another that connecting with something so much more is very, very possible, and actually simple to live on an everyday basis.
Earth is not Heaven, and nor will we make it so. However, we can certainly express the love that we are here and make our lives about that.
"You will have true religion when you have a relationship with your Soul."
Serge Benhayon Esoteric Teachings & Revelations Volume I, ed 1, p 252
Choosing what we are religious about
A fascinating presentation on the true meaning of the word religion and how we are never not religious!
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