IN SEARCH OF MORALITY
“To know only one religion is to know none at all.”
- The Tao of Jesus
“Those of you who seek peace and joy need only pacify your mind and live quietly.”
- Dharma
Human Beings are always seeking needs and wants, and because of this we create movement and desires, which was the sole cause of all our unhappiness and frustrations which drives some to desperation. Desires in the human heart are like root of plants which are buried deep below the earth where you can’t see them and won’t know that they are damaged until the buds of the plant begin to wither and die. Desire can sap wholesome energy from the four limbs and the body’s openings, turning it into unwholesome activity which cuts us off from the roots of joy and peace. Desires moves in two directions: it can be a craving, an excessive feeling of need akin to the intellectual struggle to find meaning, or it can be a deeper, more heartfelt longing without ego. It is egotistic need for knowledge and success that obstructs the path towards our original nature (Reigert, Ray & Moore, Thomas; 2004).
Many people believe more in being busy at something than in really accomplishing anything substantive. It can be doing for the sake of doing, busyness that gets nothing done. Much of our cultural activity prevents us from doing what needs to be done. Government makes all kinds of laws and spent great sums of money just being busy manning them but rarely tackles the deep needs of the community. We need a kind of doing that is not mere activity. Doing things for mundane reasons are not part of our true being. We will have to cast aside vain endeavors and avoid shallow experiences. Otherwise we will deceive ourselves.
One part of our life involves moral guidance. We all need simple instructions for conducting our daily lives with sensitivity towards others. We require motivation and ideas for living with a sense of justice and our day-to-day need. Morality is a way of life that provides a level of belonging and offers security to enable us to concentrate on our daily activities and have fellowship with the community we live in.
Everything we do will affects who we are, and so we may have to take concern in the way we conduct ourselves, the way we communicate with the others and the way we want others to treat us.
In a civilized society, there have always been a two fold systems of morality. One may be called austere system, and the other called the loose system adopted by the people of fashion. The degree of disapprobation with which we ought to mark the vices of levity, the vices which are apt to arise from great prosperity, and from the excess of gaiety and good humor, seems to constitute the principle distinction between those two opposite systems. In the loose system, luxury and the pursuit of pleasure are generally treated with a good deal of indulgence. In the austere system, those excesses are abhorred and detested.
At such, a man of rank and wealth, who is by his station the distinguished member of a society must attend to every part of his conduct, thereby obliged him to attend to every part of himself. His authority and consideration depend very much upon the respect which this society bears on him. He cannot do anything which would disgrace or discredit himself and is obligated to observe a strict moral behavior which the society expects of for persons of such rank and fortune.
IN SEARCH OF RELIGION
Human beings seem to always require tangible evidence before they put their belief on the omnipotence. Mystery thus becomes a puzzle to be solved but spirituality doesn’t survive in this kind of environment. The spiritual self will animate people and give them souls and a certain level of vitality. Religious belief is an art of mysticism, allowing us to live from our ideals in the most demanding and complicated situations.
Ego, psychology, practicality and self-interest will only bring us frustration. Indeed they are the roots of neurosis and personal frustration. They are not big enough. They don’t take into account the vast mysteriousness of nature, of which we are a part of it. Many people seek some form of spirituality out of their confusion and sense of meaninglessness. Happiness is imagined in terms of money and prestige. Envy takes the form of celebrity worships. People strive for satisfaction in the extraordinary conditions of wealth and fame rather than in the ordinary and natural pleasures of friendship and connection. To fulfill the material nature of ourselves, we need a spiritual viewpoint, a constant contact with origins, the holy winds and the laws exemplified in the natural world.
Religion and daily life support each other. The more you give to one, the more you get from the other. The more sensuous your participation in life, the more spiritual you will feel. The more spiritual you are, the more intense will be your life in your body and in the world.
Religion has often been regarded as exclusive organizations and systems of belief. “The religions of the world offer many ways to deal with desire and evil, but what is important in every case is the deep method, that which lies within all the various approach to spirit.” (Tao Te Ching)
An awareness of the mysterious and the invisible one spirit is the very core of religious vision. We can live fully in this life yet sense inferiority when we confront the spirituality and realize it is unknowable and yet as important to human life as anything that can be perceived by our senses. Both the earthly and spiritual realms are part of the created world we live in and both stem from the work of the omnipotence
Human beings are able to conceive and organize religion because of their in-built intelligence. Human beings cannot endure emptiness and desolation. They had to fill the vacuum by creating a new focus of meaning in life. Religion starts with the perception that we are living in a sinful world – the fault of men. Therefore, religion has an attempt to find the meaning and value in life. Human beings will always be able to create a faith that will suit themselves, and to cultivate their sense of the wonder and ineffable significance of life.
Anyone who crosses the ocean must have a boat before taking on the wind and waves. But a broken boat won’t reach the far shore. Even in religion, one group sets itself above another with its claims of knowing the truth. One wonders if we shouldn’t just abandon the word altogether, since it has caused more harm than good. It takes a strong sense of self simply to observe the world with insight and precision, without bringing the ego into the picture and claiming ownership of your ideals. Whenever there is merit, there is fame; and whenever there is fame, we consider ourselves different from others. This clouds our minds and leads to self-pride which prevents us from attaining the state of perfect understanding. Truth cannot be verified. If we speak of truth, then in speaking of it our minds are obstructed and we move further away from it. We are not born to live forever in the world but are here to plant wholesome seeds that will produce good fruit in the world beyond this one.
Religions today are used mainly for praying and worshipping and gaining converts but not in action, which cultivate the mind. We talk about ecumenism but don’t take the step to experience how a variety of religions can contribute to a full, complex spiritual life. People would continue to adopt a particular conception of the divine because it worked for them. Modern life are characterized by depersonalization and exploitation and reducing God to a thing to be manipulated and made use to serve their particular purposes. There is always a distinction between belief in a set of propositions and the faith that enables us to put our trust in them. Faith in God sprang from an immediate apprehension that had nothing to do with concepts and rationality. There are people who try to seek salvation by becoming slaves to religious practices and by starving themselves and performing physical torture under the conception that by abusing their bodies, they could release their soul. Large sums of money were also spent on meaningless rites and rituals causing the death of many helpless animals and at times, even human beings are being offered as sacrificial lambs. It must be remembered that our physical bodies and those beautiful animals are not responsible for any of our wrong doings as to deserve such punishments. Salvation could only be gained through purification of the mind and gaining wisdom and not by inculcating blind faith or fear of god and man-created commandments in the name of God.
In religion, we believe that we are the instruments for God’s purpose of creation and that we should put our trust in Him, and be guided by the teaching. Devoted men and women believe that it is not up to us to decide how or when to try to improve on God’s creation. They believe and genuinely feel that they are led by God to do what they do, and what they do is obviously of great help and comfort to others. There is little doubt that these people are in touch with some inner voice or drive, which conditions their behavior.
But, there are some for whom the religious option is a way of escaping responsibility. For many others, a slavish interpretation of the rules of their religion is what life is about. They have unquestioning obedience to the priests. They believe in accepting the reasons and not to question the views of the hierarchy, do the right things, and everything will come out all right. This unquestioning obedience is what has given organized religions their power, both to do good, and too often, for evil, down the ages (Handy, Charles; 1995).
The ever increasing interest in revivalist and charismatic religions may be one response to the ever-increasing uncertainty of the modern world. In the search for another sort of certainty, one unconnected with the material universe, some even argue that the only proper concern of religion is this other universe, an argument that becomes an invitation to detach oneself from things and money and jobs. Those in charge of this more mundane world are often only too happy to encourage this otherworldly stance, wanting no transcendent values to intrude into their pragmatic concerns.
It is because religions can stop one from thinking for oneself that they can mislead, turning people into zealous, even into terrorists on occasion such as those actions we have seen or heard of late. Times of violent religious controversy have generally been times of equal violent political faction. Upon such occasions, the political party has for its own interest seek to league itself with one or the other religious sects which soon enabled in them to silence and subdue to some degree all its adversaries. Those adversaries had generally leagued themselves with the opposing party and were therefore the enemies of the conquering party. The clergy, in order to preserve their influence in those popular elections, became fanatics themselves, encouraged fanaticism among the people and gave the preference almost always to the most fanatical candidate. As the clergies of the political party had generally contributed a good deal to the popularity race, it seemed not unreasonable that they should seek some share of the spoils. In making this demand, they therefore consulted their own ease and comfort, without troubling themselves about the effect which it might have in future times upon the influence and authority of their order. Their great interest is to maintain their authority and popularity with the people, and this authority depends upon the supposed certainty and importance of the whole doctrine which they inculcate. The wealth of these clergy gave them some sort of influence over the common people. Should the sovereign appear to deride or doubt them and their doctrines, the clergy are immediately provoked to proscribe him as a profane person, and to employ all the terrors of religion in order to oblige the people to transfer their allegiance to some orthodox leader. When the teachers of religion propagate through the people doctrines of subversive of the authority of the sovereign, it is by violence only that he can maintain authority. He is able to influence only by fear and expectation of deprivation or other punishment, and in the expectation of further preferment. But should the sovereign attempt irregularly to deprive any of these clergymen of their freeholds, on account perhaps, of having propagated some factious or seditious doctrine, he would only render by such persecution the clergymen and their doctrines ten times more popular, and therefore ten times more troublesome and dangerous then they had been before. The ambition of these clergymen naturally led them to court from which only they could expect preferment. How dangerous must it have been for the sovereign to attempt to punish a clergyman for any crime whatever, if his own order were disposed to protect him and to represent either the proof as insufficient for convicting so holy a man, or the punishment as too severe to be inflicted upon one who had been rendered sacred by religion. The security of the sovereign as well as the public seems to depend very much upon the means which he has of managing them. The sovereign can never be secure unless he has the means of influencing in a considerable degree the greater part of the teacher of that religion of democracy. Fear is in almost all cases a wretched instrument of government, and ought never to be employed against any order of men who have the smallest pretensions to independency or democracy. To attempt to terrify them serves only to irritate their bad humor and to confirm them in an opposition which more gentle usage perhaps might induce them, either to soften or to lay aside altogether. The interested and active zeal of religious teachers can be dangerous and troublesome only where there is either one sect tolerated in the society, or where the whole of a large society is divided into two or three large sects. With regard to religion, positive law has always been, and probably will always be, more or less influenced by popular superstition and enthusiasm. The rights, liberty and privileges of every individual who is upon good terms with his own order are, even in the most despotic government, more respected than those of any other person of nearly equal rank. Human reason might perhaps have been able to unveil, even to the eyes of the common people, some of these delusions but it can never dissolve the ties of private interest. But that immense well-built fabric, which all the wisdom and virtue of man could never have overturned or shaken was by the natural course of things, weakened and afterwards destroyed and crumbled into ruins altogether. In some countries where the government was weak and unpopular, the reformation was strong enough to overturn the state (Smith, Adam; 1994).
Religious prejudice is so great that some people think it is an honor to be one of God’s poor. Others are dubious of the idea that it’s hard to be rich. At such, these poor had to comfort themselves in the belief that ‘those rich will find nothing but sadness and emptiness at the top’.
The rulebooks of the religions however have been as much about social order as about the right purpose of our lives. “The Bible (and all those holy books) are as good a philosophical textbook as you will find everywhere. Holy books were written a long time ago and simply cannot have answers to every problem we face in the modern world today. Many people have a narrow reading of the Gospel, saying that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. They take it to mean that if you’re not Christian, you can’t know the truth of things. But those words are open to another reading entirely. Jesus is a way towards living without the nervous, egotistic effort. His teaching offers an effective way to find what we are seeking, even if we don’t know what we’re looking for (Reigert, Ray & Moore, Thomas; 2004). Those rulebooks are not to be despised but they are only rulebooks for guidance, not invitations to stop thinking. Religion should only offer a second order certainty, that is, an assurance that there is a purpose to our lives.” (Handy, Charles; 1995). “It should not offer any first order certainty, any prescription of what that purpose should be. The first order of certainty should be our own individual responsibility”.
Properly understood, religious approach offers us ways to get in touch with our true selves, with the good that lies in each of us. Beauty in all its forms, great music, fine buildings, and these all uplift the soul, and can’t be bad. Religious rituals reinvigorate you, at their best. They pull you in, allow you to cleanse yourself of the things you are ashamed of, lift you up and push you out into the world again. Religion like this is a great aid to self-responsibility and might even be essential. But it is religion without the creeds and without the hierarchies. It is the religion without doubt and uncertainty, which offers one the strength to persevere, and to find one’s own way in a world that is, inevitably, very different from any world that was known to those who went before. This is a responsibility, which falls on every one of us.
Spiritual knowledge is awareness of the heart. When our heart is open, we will know things we didn’t understand when our heart was closed. There is an intelligence of the heart, a knowing that comes only when you are capable of profound compassion.
Beliefs are always personal but they need not be private. Shared and spread, they can change the world more than government can. Freedom to choose is our splendid prerogative along with the freedom to choose wrongly. Choice and the chance to sin go together. They can’t have one without the other. Blind faith in rituals and prayers cannot purify our mind. Human minds are capable of intelligent thoughts and should not be blinded by emotional fervor and religious ecstasy.
The Almighty Creator could have fashioned a gentler, harmonious living environment, yet the world we ended up with obviously delights His heart. God seems to be content with His wholly imperfect world.
God demands of His children the best they can be. He demands that they be like Him, and the cost for failing the courses is your liveliness and happiness. However, as long as we are fighting the battle tenaciously and courageously, the magical, unseen hand of the Divine is there to aid. All good things come to those who strive with patience. Don’t lose heart, give yourself a little room to fail, and empathize with others when they fail.
“To know only one religion is to know none at all.”
- The Tao of Jesus
“Those of you who seek peace and joy need only pacify your mind and live quietly.”
- Dharma
Human Beings are always seeking needs and wants, and because of this we create movement and desires, which was the sole cause of all our unhappiness and frustrations which drives some to desperation. Desires in the human heart are like root of plants which are buried deep below the earth where you can’t see them and won’t know that they are damaged until the buds of the plant begin to wither and die. Desire can sap wholesome energy from the four limbs and the body’s openings, turning it into unwholesome activity which cuts us off from the roots of joy and peace. Desires moves in two directions: it can be a craving, an excessive feeling of need akin to the intellectual struggle to find meaning, or it can be a deeper, more heartfelt longing without ego. It is egotistic need for knowledge and success that obstructs the path towards our original nature (Reigert, Ray & Moore, Thomas; 2004).
Many people believe more in being busy at something than in really accomplishing anything substantive. It can be doing for the sake of doing, busyness that gets nothing done. Much of our cultural activity prevents us from doing what needs to be done. Government makes all kinds of laws and spent great sums of money just being busy manning them but rarely tackles the deep needs of the community. We need a kind of doing that is not mere activity. Doing things for mundane reasons are not part of our true being. We will have to cast aside vain endeavors and avoid shallow experiences. Otherwise we will deceive ourselves.
One part of our life involves moral guidance. We all need simple instructions for conducting our daily lives with sensitivity towards others. We require motivation and ideas for living with a sense of justice and our day-to-day need. Morality is a way of life that provides a level of belonging and offers security to enable us to concentrate on our daily activities and have fellowship with the community we live in.
Everything we do will affects who we are, and so we may have to take concern in the way we conduct ourselves, the way we communicate with the others and the way we want others to treat us.
In a civilized society, there have always been a two fold systems of morality. One may be called austere system, and the other called the loose system adopted by the people of fashion. The degree of disapprobation with which we ought to mark the vices of levity, the vices which are apt to arise from great prosperity, and from the excess of gaiety and good humor, seems to constitute the principle distinction between those two opposite systems. In the loose system, luxury and the pursuit of pleasure are generally treated with a good deal of indulgence. In the austere system, those excesses are abhorred and detested.
At such, a man of rank and wealth, who is by his station the distinguished member of a society must attend to every part of his conduct, thereby obliged him to attend to every part of himself. His authority and consideration depend very much upon the respect which this society bears on him. He cannot do anything which would disgrace or discredit himself and is obligated to observe a strict moral behavior which the society expects of for persons of such rank and fortune.
IN SEARCH OF RELIGION
Human beings seem to always require tangible evidence before they put their belief on the omnipotence. Mystery thus becomes a puzzle to be solved but spirituality doesn’t survive in this kind of environment. The spiritual self will animate people and give them souls and a certain level of vitality. Religious belief is an art of mysticism, allowing us to live from our ideals in the most demanding and complicated situations.
Ego, psychology, practicality and self-interest will only bring us frustration. Indeed they are the roots of neurosis and personal frustration. They are not big enough. They don’t take into account the vast mysteriousness of nature, of which we are a part of it. Many people seek some form of spirituality out of their confusion and sense of meaninglessness. Happiness is imagined in terms of money and prestige. Envy takes the form of celebrity worships. People strive for satisfaction in the extraordinary conditions of wealth and fame rather than in the ordinary and natural pleasures of friendship and connection. To fulfill the material nature of ourselves, we need a spiritual viewpoint, a constant contact with origins, the holy winds and the laws exemplified in the natural world.
Religion and daily life support each other. The more you give to one, the more you get from the other. The more sensuous your participation in life, the more spiritual you will feel. The more spiritual you are, the more intense will be your life in your body and in the world.
Religion has often been regarded as exclusive organizations and systems of belief. “The religions of the world offer many ways to deal with desire and evil, but what is important in every case is the deep method, that which lies within all the various approach to spirit.” (Tao Te Ching)
An awareness of the mysterious and the invisible one spirit is the very core of religious vision. We can live fully in this life yet sense inferiority when we confront the spirituality and realize it is unknowable and yet as important to human life as anything that can be perceived by our senses. Both the earthly and spiritual realms are part of the created world we live in and both stem from the work of the omnipotence
Human beings are able to conceive and organize religion because of their in-built intelligence. Human beings cannot endure emptiness and desolation. They had to fill the vacuum by creating a new focus of meaning in life. Religion starts with the perception that we are living in a sinful world – the fault of men. Therefore, religion has an attempt to find the meaning and value in life. Human beings will always be able to create a faith that will suit themselves, and to cultivate their sense of the wonder and ineffable significance of life.
Anyone who crosses the ocean must have a boat before taking on the wind and waves. But a broken boat won’t reach the far shore. Even in religion, one group sets itself above another with its claims of knowing the truth. One wonders if we shouldn’t just abandon the word altogether, since it has caused more harm than good. It takes a strong sense of self simply to observe the world with insight and precision, without bringing the ego into the picture and claiming ownership of your ideals. Whenever there is merit, there is fame; and whenever there is fame, we consider ourselves different from others. This clouds our minds and leads to self-pride which prevents us from attaining the state of perfect understanding. Truth cannot be verified. If we speak of truth, then in speaking of it our minds are obstructed and we move further away from it. We are not born to live forever in the world but are here to plant wholesome seeds that will produce good fruit in the world beyond this one.
Religions today are used mainly for praying and worshipping and gaining converts but not in action, which cultivate the mind. We talk about ecumenism but don’t take the step to experience how a variety of religions can contribute to a full, complex spiritual life. People would continue to adopt a particular conception of the divine because it worked for them. Modern life are characterized by depersonalization and exploitation and reducing God to a thing to be manipulated and made use to serve their particular purposes. There is always a distinction between belief in a set of propositions and the faith that enables us to put our trust in them. Faith in God sprang from an immediate apprehension that had nothing to do with concepts and rationality. There are people who try to seek salvation by becoming slaves to religious practices and by starving themselves and performing physical torture under the conception that by abusing their bodies, they could release their soul. Large sums of money were also spent on meaningless rites and rituals causing the death of many helpless animals and at times, even human beings are being offered as sacrificial lambs. It must be remembered that our physical bodies and those beautiful animals are not responsible for any of our wrong doings as to deserve such punishments. Salvation could only be gained through purification of the mind and gaining wisdom and not by inculcating blind faith or fear of god and man-created commandments in the name of God.
In religion, we believe that we are the instruments for God’s purpose of creation and that we should put our trust in Him, and be guided by the teaching. Devoted men and women believe that it is not up to us to decide how or when to try to improve on God’s creation. They believe and genuinely feel that they are led by God to do what they do, and what they do is obviously of great help and comfort to others. There is little doubt that these people are in touch with some inner voice or drive, which conditions their behavior.
But, there are some for whom the religious option is a way of escaping responsibility. For many others, a slavish interpretation of the rules of their religion is what life is about. They have unquestioning obedience to the priests. They believe in accepting the reasons and not to question the views of the hierarchy, do the right things, and everything will come out all right. This unquestioning obedience is what has given organized religions their power, both to do good, and too often, for evil, down the ages (Handy, Charles; 1995).
The ever increasing interest in revivalist and charismatic religions may be one response to the ever-increasing uncertainty of the modern world. In the search for another sort of certainty, one unconnected with the material universe, some even argue that the only proper concern of religion is this other universe, an argument that becomes an invitation to detach oneself from things and money and jobs. Those in charge of this more mundane world are often only too happy to encourage this otherworldly stance, wanting no transcendent values to intrude into their pragmatic concerns.
It is because religions can stop one from thinking for oneself that they can mislead, turning people into zealous, even into terrorists on occasion such as those actions we have seen or heard of late. Times of violent religious controversy have generally been times of equal violent political faction. Upon such occasions, the political party has for its own interest seek to league itself with one or the other religious sects which soon enabled in them to silence and subdue to some degree all its adversaries. Those adversaries had generally leagued themselves with the opposing party and were therefore the enemies of the conquering party. The clergy, in order to preserve their influence in those popular elections, became fanatics themselves, encouraged fanaticism among the people and gave the preference almost always to the most fanatical candidate. As the clergies of the political party had generally contributed a good deal to the popularity race, it seemed not unreasonable that they should seek some share of the spoils. In making this demand, they therefore consulted their own ease and comfort, without troubling themselves about the effect which it might have in future times upon the influence and authority of their order. Their great interest is to maintain their authority and popularity with the people, and this authority depends upon the supposed certainty and importance of the whole doctrine which they inculcate. The wealth of these clergy gave them some sort of influence over the common people. Should the sovereign appear to deride or doubt them and their doctrines, the clergy are immediately provoked to proscribe him as a profane person, and to employ all the terrors of religion in order to oblige the people to transfer their allegiance to some orthodox leader. When the teachers of religion propagate through the people doctrines of subversive of the authority of the sovereign, it is by violence only that he can maintain authority. He is able to influence only by fear and expectation of deprivation or other punishment, and in the expectation of further preferment. But should the sovereign attempt irregularly to deprive any of these clergymen of their freeholds, on account perhaps, of having propagated some factious or seditious doctrine, he would only render by such persecution the clergymen and their doctrines ten times more popular, and therefore ten times more troublesome and dangerous then they had been before. The ambition of these clergymen naturally led them to court from which only they could expect preferment. How dangerous must it have been for the sovereign to attempt to punish a clergyman for any crime whatever, if his own order were disposed to protect him and to represent either the proof as insufficient for convicting so holy a man, or the punishment as too severe to be inflicted upon one who had been rendered sacred by religion. The security of the sovereign as well as the public seems to depend very much upon the means which he has of managing them. The sovereign can never be secure unless he has the means of influencing in a considerable degree the greater part of the teacher of that religion of democracy. Fear is in almost all cases a wretched instrument of government, and ought never to be employed against any order of men who have the smallest pretensions to independency or democracy. To attempt to terrify them serves only to irritate their bad humor and to confirm them in an opposition which more gentle usage perhaps might induce them, either to soften or to lay aside altogether. The interested and active zeal of religious teachers can be dangerous and troublesome only where there is either one sect tolerated in the society, or where the whole of a large society is divided into two or three large sects. With regard to religion, positive law has always been, and probably will always be, more or less influenced by popular superstition and enthusiasm. The rights, liberty and privileges of every individual who is upon good terms with his own order are, even in the most despotic government, more respected than those of any other person of nearly equal rank. Human reason might perhaps have been able to unveil, even to the eyes of the common people, some of these delusions but it can never dissolve the ties of private interest. But that immense well-built fabric, which all the wisdom and virtue of man could never have overturned or shaken was by the natural course of things, weakened and afterwards destroyed and crumbled into ruins altogether. In some countries where the government was weak and unpopular, the reformation was strong enough to overturn the state (Smith, Adam; 1994).
Religious prejudice is so great that some people think it is an honor to be one of God’s poor. Others are dubious of the idea that it’s hard to be rich. At such, these poor had to comfort themselves in the belief that ‘those rich will find nothing but sadness and emptiness at the top’.
The rulebooks of the religions however have been as much about social order as about the right purpose of our lives. “The Bible (and all those holy books) are as good a philosophical textbook as you will find everywhere. Holy books were written a long time ago and simply cannot have answers to every problem we face in the modern world today. Many people have a narrow reading of the Gospel, saying that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. They take it to mean that if you’re not Christian, you can’t know the truth of things. But those words are open to another reading entirely. Jesus is a way towards living without the nervous, egotistic effort. His teaching offers an effective way to find what we are seeking, even if we don’t know what we’re looking for (Reigert, Ray & Moore, Thomas; 2004). Those rulebooks are not to be despised but they are only rulebooks for guidance, not invitations to stop thinking. Religion should only offer a second order certainty, that is, an assurance that there is a purpose to our lives.” (Handy, Charles; 1995). “It should not offer any first order certainty, any prescription of what that purpose should be. The first order of certainty should be our own individual responsibility”.
Properly understood, religious approach offers us ways to get in touch with our true selves, with the good that lies in each of us. Beauty in all its forms, great music, fine buildings, and these all uplift the soul, and can’t be bad. Religious rituals reinvigorate you, at their best. They pull you in, allow you to cleanse yourself of the things you are ashamed of, lift you up and push you out into the world again. Religion like this is a great aid to self-responsibility and might even be essential. But it is religion without the creeds and without the hierarchies. It is the religion without doubt and uncertainty, which offers one the strength to persevere, and to find one’s own way in a world that is, inevitably, very different from any world that was known to those who went before. This is a responsibility, which falls on every one of us.
Spiritual knowledge is awareness of the heart. When our heart is open, we will know things we didn’t understand when our heart was closed. There is an intelligence of the heart, a knowing that comes only when you are capable of profound compassion.
Beliefs are always personal but they need not be private. Shared and spread, they can change the world more than government can. Freedom to choose is our splendid prerogative along with the freedom to choose wrongly. Choice and the chance to sin go together. They can’t have one without the other. Blind faith in rituals and prayers cannot purify our mind. Human minds are capable of intelligent thoughts and should not be blinded by emotional fervor and religious ecstasy.
The Almighty Creator could have fashioned a gentler, harmonious living environment, yet the world we ended up with obviously delights His heart. God seems to be content with His wholly imperfect world.
God demands of His children the best they can be. He demands that they be like Him, and the cost for failing the courses is your liveliness and happiness. However, as long as we are fighting the battle tenaciously and courageously, the magical, unseen hand of the Divine is there to aid. All good things come to those who strive with patience. Don’t lose heart, give yourself a little room to fail, and empathize with others when they fail.
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