Religion

As Barbara Norby states... "Isn't it amazing how people everywhere hold the same false beliefs and hear the same destructive voices in our heads? We can call that the lower self. That in itself shows that we are all basically one consciousness, albeit based in physicality and duality. But to the bright side, there is also a higher consciousness, a Oneness, we share. We can wake up to that lower self, see that it has never served or protected us, and let go... into the Silence and Stillness where there already exists the freedom and peace we long for."

And as Kahlil Gibran said, “Faith is an oasis in the heart which can never be reached by the caravan of thinking.”

He continues... "This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness."

As above, so below. When you realize the connection, you also realize the Oneness. As Deepak Chopra puts it: “The consciousness hidden behind your thoughts is the consciousness that upholds all intelligence in the universe. It is personal and collective at the same time.” Connecting the isolated ego self with the higher self.

If you don't care about personal growth, that's OK. You might be quite happy and you will stay that way, until something happens that you don't have the resources and wisdom to handle - then you may go downhill. Or you may get old and wonder where your life went, since you had been living in a safe but limiting cocoon. Or you might be pretending you're quite happy, because you don't want to face that actually you are living someone else's life rather than what you want to be doing, and that you spend considerable effort avoiding things you don't want to confront. Or you might consider that painful emotions are just a part of life that is inevitable, and you can continue to live with this suffering.

Most people do nothing, and so human nature continues to create all the problems that we see in the world, on a personal, familial and social/political scale. But it is possible to 'find ourselves' through releasing the limitations we impose on ourselves as a result of our upbringing and negative learning experiences. Only such a person can fully and freely love - without judgment - their fellow man.

This is a Christ consciousness we're talking about, and it's what the world needs - without all the false dogma and political manipulation we see with established religions and cults. The second coming is not the physical return of Jesus, it is the return of his message and his teachings through a global effort of love and service.

Progress on the spiritual path is really directed toward Gnosis, which means intuitive knowledge of spiritual truths. There's an interesting history to this. It goes back to Egyptian times, when the people worshipped Osiris, a man who found God within himself, was persecuted and suffered, and was resurrected. It was the same as the Jesus story, and in fact a myth that reappeared over and over in ancient Mediterranean cultures. That story was the external knowledge that everyday people believed in and it gave hope to their lives. Continues...

Pain and suffering are regarded as miseries; they are not. They have divine parts to play in the evolution of the individual. The higher you seek to rise, the more difficult it must become. The test is not what you believe, but what you have done, otherwise there would be a complete mockery of divine justice. There is an infinite storehouse of knowledge which is placed at the disposal of all who desire to have it, but it must be earned by growth and struggle, by evolution and progress. Continues...

Even though most people do not conform to the outward show of religious custom and practice - mostly Judeo-Christian in western culture - the beliefs and superstitions remain deeply embedded in their subconscious, influencing many aspects of their daily lives without them realizing it. And as several sociology studies have shown, the superstitious beliefs that used to be attached to the formal religions have in many cases simply been transferred to other objects, persons or events. Continues...