Although I write about religion from a negative perspective because it is mostly based in dogma, superstition, and misunderstanding, I am not against religious people. I know that most people who get into religion do so out of traditional views on what is right, wrong, and acceptable, but have little real interest in understanding deeply. They feel comfortable and somewhat secure in their beliefs as long as they don't question those beliefs. The promise of being saved from themselves and go to meet their maker after death is enough to keep them under control and somewhat happy. Most of these people will not know the truth in their lifetimes. Nor do they really want to know; they just want to believe and have something to lean on that makes them feel good, no matter how blind they have to stay to keep the dream going.
There are others who deeply feel there is something missing in their lives and truly want to find out what it is and turn to religion because they have not been presented with a different perspective on where the real problem is. They are usually open-minded and caring people, far more evolved than mere followers.
It has been through these more open-minded ones that some of the more mystical understanding that can be found in some religions came about. All religions have produced teachers with profound insight, in spite of the dogmatic structure of their religions.
In all religions there have been awakenings take place, but all too often, the people who have awakened didn't go far enough to break through the walls of their religions and realize how unnecessary religion is in finding the truth. They tried to fit their insights into a package that is finite, while the reality they have awakened to is infinite. They have kept the words of religion going while the Truth was showing them something quite different.
I am grateful for most religions having been there when humankind was so brutal that they most likely would have killed everyone off before we had a chance to really evolve and grow. However, religion has been around too long and has misshapen reality into something so far removed from the Truth as to be meaningless. We now see, as through most of our history, religion standing in the way of ever finding real peace and love among humankind. We see our government, in the U.S., more or less being controlled by the lowest level of human capacity because of the voting power of Fundamentalist Christianity. There is no Christian leader that has a clue of what reality is; yet, they can control the most powerful military the world has ever seen. We must awaken from this madness if we are to survive.
Recently I had the great pleasure of meeting two religious people who are not only open minded, but care deeply to see a transformation in the basic nature of humanity. One is a Sikh and the other a Hindu. Rather than coming from a place of defense of their religions, they are very open, honest, and loving. They want to fully understand the Truth and find freedom. They are not lost in dogma and see their religions as aids to find reality. We could communicate directly from the heart and I am grateful for having met them and learned from them. I know they are a very small minority of religious people and that most religious people do not share their openness and insight. They are beyond religion, yet can function within it and still seek the real.
I know most people are not so open and in fact prefer to stay blind because it feels safe, comfortable and they can go on feeling like they are somehow special because they are the chosen ones.
I am deeply grateful to all those religious people who do care and are doing their best to be good human beings. Most of the people I communicate with were religious at one time or still are but have remained open minded. We all have within our nature the wisdom to see reality. We just have to be brave enough to step away from our conditioned beliefs long enough to deeply question the reality of those beliefs.
We all owe it to ourselves, our families, friends and life on this wonderful planet, to look deeply into what is being pointed to, to try to come to that insight that will free us from dogma and illusion to see the face of Reality that is ever before us, as us.
