whitesail

I guess the short answer would be I don’t have a religion. Many religions I abhor as they are mainly groups that are brought together for the express purpose of collecting and wielding power. Most religions claim to have the “answer” to life, or worse yet, the path to life AFTER death. Most religions have no respect for other beliefs and spend time and money trying to convert the non-believer to their way of thinking. Many religions do try to do good, but much of that comes from individuals within that religion. Many times there are strings attached to the help given, from having to join them to, at the very least, having to listen to their version of the Truth. There are religions with vast resources that could be used to help other people, but sit dormant, or even worse, used to allow their leaders to live in luxury…and wear funny hats. At the core of most religions, is the simple tenant, that our way is correct and the only true way to God and that if you do not believe this, you are going to Hell. This enables people to demonize others in a way that makes it okay to perpetrate atrocities as heinous as murder, or as subtle as not allowing them to marry who they want.

You may have guessed that I do not have a high opinion of religion, and I don’t. I admit it. There is a quote from someone, that I cannot find exactly, so I will paraphrase it. “God gave us spirituality, and the Devil turned it into religion.” Many people don’t understand the difference between religion and spirituality. Spiritual beliefs are more universal, and are included in most religions. Be kind. Don’t kill or steal or hurt others. Do unto others as you would have them do to you. These are universal beliefs that everyone, or most of us, believes are correct. They do not belong to any one religion, but to all humanity. Most religions have these core beliefs, but then add dogma to it, many times making the dogma more important than these core beliefs. Thus, in Christianity we have as the main tenant the belief that we can only be saved by believing in Jesus, the one true Son Of God. On top of that is a pile of uselessness that basically distracts us from what Jesus actually taught.

What did Jesus actually teach? Love God and your neighbor. Jesus said more than once that we can do what he did. He taught us to pray, “Our Father…” which tells us about our relationship to him and to God. Jesus is our brother, if I believe what he said. He taught us to not judge, which is something most religions do constantly. Most importantly, Jesus taught us to forgive each other for our wrongs, and he told us that our Father would forgive us for our wrongs as well. None of this squares with the old, “believe in Jesus or you’ll roast in hell for eternity” bullshit, does it?

So, what is my religion? I have none. I love what Jesus taught, but not what has been done with it. I pick on Christianity here, because I am very familiar with it, but other religions are guilty of the same things. So what do I believe? I believe in much of what Jesus is purported to have taught. I word it that way because I give myself the freedom to use my mind and heart to dissect what I perceive to be crap in the Bible. It’s easy to pick out the pearls of wisdom that come from an enlightened heart and mind, and just as easy to discard the crap that I believe, in my heart, did not come from Jesus, but from whomever put the Bible together hundreds of years later. And don’t get me started on that Paul guy…..

I’m also very fond of Buddhism and Taoism, and the offspring of these two religions, Zen. Buddhism is the one religion that, at it’s core, teaches it’s adherents to respect other religions. Buddhism is less dogmatic, with the exception of a couple offshoots, and far more heartfelt and respectful. Buddha taught us to not believe what he said, but rather try out what he was teaching and decide for ourselves. He taught that if something doesn’t work for us, to discard it without hesitation. Zen is filled with stories and aphorisms such as, “if you see the Buddha in the road, kill him.” What does this mean? It means that even something as venerable as Buddha should not stand in the way of our growth and our enlightenment. “Buddha is shit on a stick.” Buddha is not a God or holy….at least not holier than any of us, and not even holier than something as crude as shit. We are all one and nothing is more important than anything else.

One of my other favorites is anything Pagan. Pagans do not worship the devil, as they do not even believe in Satan. Pagans, generally, are respectful of others beliefs and very gentle. I love the kinship with nature and I also love the responsibility that Paganism teaches. If I want to make a change, I need to do my part. Also, I am more powerful that I have been led to believe, and I can use that power in somewhat miraculous ways, if I can learn to focus my mind. Are spells supernatural? What is a spell? Let me answer that question with another question…..how is a spell different from a prayer? There is no difference to speak, as a spell is just a prayer worded differently and more ritualistically.

I’ve become more interested in Magick and the occult recently, as well. These two words are full of negative connotations, but should they be? Occult means secret, and occult teachings are merely secrets, mostly open secrets. Magick is the art of changing something through an act of the will. How is that different from prayer? In Magick we are working with the Universe to make a change. In prayer, we are petitioning for God to make a change. “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law?” Taken from a more egoistic mind, this means anarchy. But, in Magick we are taught that our true will is actually God’s will, but God does not sit up high and tell us what to do every second. We have freedom of choice, and I have that freedom to do what I will at any time. I also live in a universe that has laws that govern it, meaning that if I do something that hurts someone else, I will have to deal with the repercussions that come from it. Do what thou wilt means that I am a grown up and I can live the way I see fit, but I also will have to deal with the grown up consequences…..karma, baby.

The Law Of Attraction is something else that has been at the forefront of my spirituality recently. And, the funny thing is, it fits right in with the rest. The LOA says that whatever I focus on, attracts more of the same. Does not prayer do the same? Or a spell? Or a magickal ritual? The last two teach me to focus unerringly on the end result, and put the onus on me to create my life…my reality. What The Bleep Do We Know teaches us the same thing, but brings it current by showing how Quantum Mechanics can possibly explain scientifically how this works.

So, really, what to I believe? What is my religion? The Dalai Lama said, “My religion is kindness.” That’s as good a start as any. We are all One, so what I do to you, I do to myself and everyone else. Everything else complicates it, doesn’t it? If you can’t see that we are one, which I have trouble with too sometimes, remember this: See the computer in front of you? The desk? Feel the chair under your butt. Look at your hand. They are all solid right? Not really…..everything you see is almost completely empty space.

A Zen koan to leave you with: Things are not as they seem, nor are they any different.

I will be going into more detail on each of these topics in the coming weeks, not to try and teach, as I’m not qualified, but rather to make things clear to myself. Somehow, I’ve become more interested in spirituality again lately, and I’m very excited. Nothing but good can come from this.