RELIGION V/S SPIRITUALITY

[Guest guest]

SPIRITUALITY SAYS THAT GOD IS WITHIN EACH OF US

AND WE DON'T NEED ANYONE ELSE TO MAKE

THAT DIVINE CONNECTION FOR US

RELIGION SAYS THAT WE ARE SEPARATED FROM GOD

AND THAT WE NEED " THEM " TO MAKE THE

DIVINE CONNECTION FOR US

SPIRITUALITY SAYS THAT WE ARE FREE TO MAKE CHOICES

ON OUR OWN AND THAT WE MUST TAKE PERSONAL

RESPONSIBILITY FOR OUR ACTIONS

RELIGION SAYS WE MUST MAKE THEIR

CHOICES AND ACT THEIR WAY

THE THEME OF SPIRITUALITY IS

UNCONDITIONAL LOVE

THE THEME OF RELIGION IS FEAR AND GUILT

SPIRITUALITY DOES NOT REQUIRE US

TO MAKE DONATIONS

RELIGION HAS BECOME BIG BUSINESS

SPIRITUALITY SAYS THERE IS NO HELL, NO

JUDGMENT, NO ANGRY GOD... THAT WE

ARE LOVED UNCONDITIONALLY

RELIGION SAYS THERE IS A HELL, GOD GETS ANGRY

AND JUDGES US... THEREFORE, WE ARE NOT

LOVED UNCONDITIONALLY

SPIRITUALITY SAYS WE ARE FREE TO

CHOOSE OUR OWN PATH TO GOD

RELIGION COMMANDS US TO DO IT THEIR WAY

SPIRITUALITY SAYS WE GO TO GOD

TO LIGHTEN OUR BURDEN

RELIGION HAS TAUGHT US TO FEAR THEIR GOD

SPIRITUALITY SAYS WE SHOULD NOT BE ASHAMED

OF OUR SEXUALITY... THAT IT SHOULD BE A

SACRED CELEBRATION OF LOVE

RELIGION HAS TAUGHT US TO FEEL ASHAMED,

GUILTY AND DIRTY ABOUT OUR SEXUALITY

SPIRITUALITY TEACHES US TO

HONOR AND RESPECT MOTHER EARTH

RELIGION HAS TOLD US TO " BE THOU FRUITFUL,

MULTIPLY AND SUBDUE THE EARTH "

I REPEAT... " SUBDUE THE EARTH "

I SUSPECT JESUS AND BUDDHA WOULD

HAVE SAID SOMETHING LIKE...

" ACT RESPONSIBLY,

HONOR EARTH MOTHER

AND ALWAYS GIVE HER YOUR LOVE "

SPIRITUALITY ASKS THAT WE HAVE CHILDREN IN A

RESPONSIBLE WAY THAT IS CONSISTENT

WITH MOTHER EARTH'S RESOURCES

RELIGION SAYS THAT BIRTH CONTROL IS UNNATURAL,

A SIN, AND THAT WE CAN GO TO HELL FOR

PRACTICING IT. ARE THEY AFRAID

OF LOSING DUES-PAYING MEMBERS?

SPIRITUALITY REMINDS US THAT WE

ARE ONE WITH GOD AND ONE

WITH EACH OTHER

RELIGION TEACHES DISUNITY AND SEPARATION,

WHICH IS THE OPPOSITE OF GOD

SPIRITUALITY TELLS US THAT GOD IS WITHIN

RELIGION SAYS HE IS IN HEAVEN AND THAT

THEY ARE THE ONLY INTERMEDIARIES FOR US

SPIRITUALITY SAYS WE ARE BORN

IN INNOCENCE AND PURITY

RELIGION SAYS WE ARE BORN WITH SIN

SPIRITUALITY TEACHES THAT WE ARE ON A LONG

SPIRITUAL ADVENTURE AND JOURNEY,

WHICH WILL ULTIMATELY END BY

REUNITING WITH OUR SOURCE

RELIGION SAYS WE'VE GOT ONE LIFE TO GET IT

ALL RIGHT AND THERE IS NOTHING BUT

HEAVEN OR HELL AFTER THAT

SPIRITUALITY SAYS WE ARE FREE TO EXPRESS

RELIGION GAVE US THE DREADED INQUISITION

SPIRITUALITY TEACHES

UNCONDITIONAL LOVE FOR ALL

RELIGION GAVE US THE CRUSADES IN WHICH

MILLIONS WERE KILLED AND PERSECUTED

IN THE NAME OF GOD

SPIRITUALITY TEACHES THAT WE SHOULD LOVE

ONE ANOTHER UNCONDITIONALLY AND

ALWAYS HONOR THE RIGHTS

AND CHOICES OF OTHERS

RELIGION TREATED NATIVE AMERICANS, THE MAYANS

AND OTHER INDIGENOUS CULTURES AS SAVAGE

PRIMITIVES WHO MUST BE SAVED

SPIRITUALITY TEACHES PEACE AND HARMONY

RELIGION HAS CAUSED MORE WARS

AND MORE KILLING THAN

ANY OTHER REASON

SPIRITUALITY SAYS RESPECT

ALL LIVING THINGS

I NEVER ONCE HEARD ANY RELIGION ASK THAT WE STOP

SLAUGHTERING MILLIONS OF TREES EVERY

YEAR FOR CHRIST'S BIRTHDAY

SPIRITUALITY TEACHES US TO HAVE

FAITH IN OURSELVES

RELIGION TEACHES US TO HAVE FAITH IN THEM

SPIRITUALITY SAYS WE HAVE ALL THE ANSWERS...

THAT WE CAN FIND THEM BY GOING WITHIN

RELIGION TEACHES US THAT IT HAS ALL THE

ANSWERS AND ONLY ITS ANSWERS

ARE THE RIGHT ONES

SPIRITUALITY TEACHES US TO SEARCH FOR THE

UNIVERSAL TRUTHS AND OUR HEARTS WILL

TELL US WHEN WE HAVE FOUND THEM

RELIGION TEACHES WE HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO

ACCEPT THEIR VERSION OF THE TRUTH

I think of myself, basically, as a teacher and a counselor. So,

lessons such as these are not meant to be literary masterpieces. I am

not concerned with being lofty and profound, but in dealing with

those day-to-day problems, for which people are seeking help and

healing.

In these essays, I am not presenting a new religion, startling and

shocking as some of the concepts may be. I am dealing with a

technique for the application of fundamental Spiritual Laws,

discovered and demonstrated by Jesus and many other great mystic

teachers—the thread of Truth, the fundamental concepts that enable

any individual, practically and creatively, to release his or her

own " Imprisoned Splendor. " I have been dealing with these insights

for many years. I have given thousands upon thousands of talks. Yet,

all of these millions upon millions of words can be synthesized into

just a few sentences. It is humbling to admit that a lifetime of

teaching can be summed up " in a nutshell " …but I think it can. So, I

would like to give that kind of a summation, just three simple things—

three simple fundamentals of this New Insight In Truth.

First: " The Omnipresence of God " – Someone once said, " If you aren't

as close to God as you once were, don't make the mistake about which

one of you has moved. " We sometimes act as if God were lost, and that

our efforts in spiritual unfoldment are to find God. This attitude

must be changed! God is not lost! It is simply that we must find

ourselves…take stock of ourselves. When we do, we find that we enter

a right relationship with things…and God is that relationship. We

find that God is the Wisdom of our mind, the Life of our body, the

Substance of our affairs. We will know that there are no God-empty

spots in our life—that the Presence of God is present, not absent.

Much that we have engaged in, which we have called, " The Practice of

the Presence, " has really been a practice of the absence of God,

because it has been a prayer or affirmation or some kind of devotion

that is based upon trying to reach out to God " out there somewhere. "

There are no God-empty spots, and where you are God is…vitally

completely and fully. So, religion is not simply a " one day a week "

activity, but an every day process of relating ourselves dynamically

with the God-Activity that is in everything and that radiates in and

through ourselves.

It is amazing how far we have strayed from Jesus' pure concept of

God, when he said, " The Father within knoweth what things ye have

need of, before you ask him, " [Matt. 6:8] and, " It is the Father's

good pleasure to give you the Kingdom. " [Luke 12:32] How could we

have missed this? In his Sermon on Mars Hill, the Apostle refers

to the omnipresence of God in words that should be re-emphasized in

every Christian church in the world: " The God who made the world and

everything in it, being Lord of Heaven and earth, does not live in

shrines made by man, nor is He served by human hands, as though He

needed anything, since He Himself gives to all men life and breath

and everything.…Yet He is not far from each one of us, for `in Him we

live and move and have our being.' " [Acts 17:24-28, RSV] " In Him we

live and move and have our being. " We live in the Presence…we live in

God. It is the milieu of our life. We can't get out of it. There is

nowhere to go to find God. Just " Be still, and know that I AM God. "

[Psalm 46:10] Be still and let the Divine Flow manifest in you and

through you. This is " The Omnipresence of God. "

Second: " The Divinity of Man " – Quite often, I am criticized for

saying that Jesus is not Divine. Actually, I am not saying that Jesus

is not Divine, but I insist that all persons are Divine. Jesus made

the discovery of the Divinity of man. He proved and demonstrated it

in his own fulfillment. But the discovery was of the potential of all

human beings. He said of you and me: " …the works that I do shall he

[you] do also; and greater works than these shall he [you] do…. "

[ 14: 12] So you see, when we talk about this idea that we have a

Divine Potential within us, this does not give less reverence to

Jesus, it gives more. Jesus is the " way shower, " the savior, in that

he has revealed the Divine Potential of humankind. He showed us what

we can all do. He showed us that each of us can go farther, can reach

higher, can unfold tremendous potentialities that are within us, and

that we can do it because he did it, and we can do it as he did it,

if we have the faith that he had. This begs a lot of questions, but

it simply indicates that life is a process of growth toward the

fulfillment of that Divine Potential.

Every person contains within himself or herself a Spark of

Divinity, " that little Spark of Celestial Fire that a man may

desecrate but never quite lose. " [ Washington] The purpose of

life is to express and unfold this God-Self, this Infinite Potential.

The same Potential indwells you that was in Jesus. Remember, the

Apostle says, " Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ

Jesus. " [Philippians 2:5] This is the same idea. The only difference

is how good we are at discovering it, in mastering it, in expressing

it. The difference between you and Jesus is not in the manner of his

birth, but in the quality of his consciousness. The paper that is

used in a fifty-dollar bill is exactly the same as that used in a one-

dollar bill. But a different value has been placed upon them. The

substance is the same, yet no one would say that the one-dollar bill

is as good as the fifty, or that you are as good, in the quality of

your consciousness as Jesus.

Years ago, in the General Electric Company, there was a standing joke

that was played on every new research scientist who joined the staff.

His first assignment was to frost the inside of electric light bulbs.

This was akin to being sent out to find a " shelf-stretcher " or a " sky-

hook " or a " left-handed monkey wrench. " Everyone knew this was an

impossible task. So, the joke went on for years and everybody had

many good laughs. But finally, a young fellow came along who was

determined to make good on his first job, and he did it! He actually

developed a process that frosted the bulbs, which made them stronger

by diffusing the light. This process is the basis for all modern

electric lighting, invented by a man who didn't know it could not be

done! That's the great key. That's the idea that Jesus suggests and

demonstrates and fulfills. You can do the impossible! You can do

more, you can have more, you can be more, when you realize that you

are a Child of God, a Spiritual Being, and that you have an Infinite

Potential awaiting releasement. Your role, as Browning would

say, is to " open out a way whence the Imprisoned Splendor may

escape. " This is the concept of the Divinity of man.

Third: " The Creative Power of Thought " - Mind is the connecting link

between humans and God. We must let our thoughts express God, rather

than simply expressing reactions to things of the world. Thought

itself is creative, and we become positive, creative, powerful beings

when we think original God-thoughts. Elbert Hubbard [1856-1915,

philosopher, writer, editor, school teacher, and lecturer] once

said, " Man is not what he thinks he is, but what he thinks, he is. "

Your life, as you are now expressing it, is the reflection of the

framework of your mind, as formed by your dominant attitudes and

beliefs of consciousness. If you are not satisfied with what you are

experiencing, then you must begin today to rebuild this mental

framework— " …be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, " [Romans

12:2] as said.

When Jesus said, " …be it done for you as you have believed, " [Matt.

8:13, RSV] and, " According to your faith be it done unto you, " [Matt:

9:29, KJV] actually, he was referring to thinking. " Faith " is another

word for thought. Jesus was saying, " According to your thoughts, be

it done unto you. " The thoughts you think actually are the key to

manifesting the conditions of your life. When you think in terms of

the possibilities of life, then the door to success is open. If you

think in terms of self-pity, of injustice, then the door is closed—

but you open it or you close it by the way you think. You can think

yourself into being unhappy or depressed. You can think yourself into

being glad. You can think yourself into being well and prosperous…or

you can think yourself into being sick and poor. You can actually

think yourself into unemployment…or you can think yourself back on to

a good-salaried position again—doing good work with good

compensation. This is a very important thing.

Because we have not recognized the importance of words and thoughts,

we continually and habitually express such thoughts as, " What a

stupid fool I am " or, " Everything I do fails miserably " or, " Oh, I

suppose, once again we're gonna have more of those difficult times. "

These are your thoughts, and your thoughts are going to determine the

kind of conditions you experience in your life. Your thoughts set

your own evaluation. In a very real sense, your thoughts determine

what you become and the way others see you, for life is always lived

from within-out. As L.C. says, " Things may happen around

you, and things may happen to you, but the only things that really

count are the things that happen in you. "

So here we are…three aspects of what I call, " The Truth in a

Nutshell " : " The Omnipresence of God, " " The Divinity of Man, " and " The

Creative Power of Thought. " I give many, many talks on each and every

one of these subjects, giving them broad expansion. In a sense, this

is what it's all about: " The Truth in a Nutshell. "

WHICH ONE FEELS BETTER TO YOU?

SPIRITUALITY OR RELIGION?

GO TO YOUR HEART FOR THE ANSWER

IT WILL NEVER LIE TO YOU

THE REAL GOD MADE IT THAT WAY