Prolifically Raw

Friday, January 01, 2010

Religion

Religion? Why does religion drive me away?

Control. You do not want to be controlled. You are a practioner of Buddhism, because the Buddha--according to the current mode of interpretation and translation of 2500 years ago--told his students, " don't believe anyone, not even me." The Buddha wasn't the only master to teach such a lesson. Christ taught this, Khrisnamurti, Maharishi, Rinpoche, Dalai Lama.

Human beings are so hungry for leadership, for philosophy and spiritual guidance, they find a teacher and open their hearts and minds and they become like little children. You are included in this, Jennifer. You follow like a little lamb, out of hunger and from a core belief that you do not know--when this is simply not true. You know--all people know. The power in a single human being is enormous and breath taking--as vast and as dizzying as the Grand Canyon, the pyramids, the sunset, the stars in the sky. What is lacking is belief. Human beings believe themselves to be small and consider others to be either dismissible or elevated. Since humans hunger so for divine guidance --a desire that orients from within--yet they look outward, set sights on a spiritual leader or teacher and give over their wise knowing. When questions enter their mind (and questions are vitally important) they press them down with doubt and a conditioned belief that they do not--cannot--know their own minds and then need rises up and gobbles the question away. The follower reduces himself and the priest, spiritual leader, teacher is elevated to a higher place. From this infantilization of self, dogma is born and exploitation results. Industry, the industry of religion is born.

Religion bugs you for this reason--you are infantilized--by your own condition believes of being small and worthless and unworthy--false humility as a woman (and there is a great deal to say about this) and then you are also exploited by the spiritual leaders--so called--who don't invite questions and debate and even complete disbelief.

Invite such a situation with your own writing students, your readers, your children, and your partner. Invite debate. "Don't believe me, look for yourselves." This is the true foundation of truth. Seek as a child of God--as God--as a life force in form.

If you are here, in a human form, able to ask the highest questions about being, suffering, transcendence, human evolution, intelligence and God, light and life, then you are capable of finding the answers within. For anyone who reads your writing and who asks questions, always remind them (and yourself) that you don't know. You seek as well. Invite debate and disagreement and ask--always ask--"what do you think and see and believe?" So many people will quote a test from the ancient writings of the bible or other spiritual teachers--they will pound on the table with conviction--refusing to accept that the text is old, has been translated a thousands times by that many egos and agendas. The words of ancient test are--in so many ways--old too. What is fresh and now is the knowledge within beings now. Humans--with a vast knowing--as great as the universe--have access to the library of all time and knowing. They need only reach inside and begin. Begin in a simple way. Ask the questions. If only by writing them down. Ask a notepad (and truly, this is how you began Jennifer. 15 years ago, that was your beginning. You had one unanswerable question. "Who was my mother?" The question, which you wrote into a journal, became the boat and the river and your life--all flowing to where you are today).

Ask questions without needing to know the answers. Your questions--today--come out of hearts and minds of this age, this moment. The questions are alive, they are wisdom, they are truth. Your questions get your boat off dry land and into the flow. Your questions are a form of surrender. You accept that you do not have access to answers--exact answers--and also open yourself to the greater intelligence of the universe--the unmanifested and yet alive pulse of being.