Addiction #28 – Religion (05/01/12)
LICKING THE RAZOR’S EDGE
Addiction #28 – the challenge of RELIGION
IMPORTANT: If you consider yourself a religious person, please understand that this post is NOT an attack on your religion. Rather, it is simply a gentle exposé of the tendency we humans have to undermine our own spiritual beliefs by becoming addicted to them.
Whether you are a Christian or a Jew – a Muslim or a Buddhist – an atheist or an agnostic – a “New Age spiritualist” or an “otherwise undecided”, the following information is solely intended to deepen your appreciation of the miraculous nature of life; and thereby actually serve to intensify your reverence for the wondrousness that many call “the Divine”.
“You cannot know God until you’ve stopped telling yourself that you already know God … God cannot tell you the Truth until you stop telling him yours.” ~ Neale Donald Walsch
“I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.” ~ Galileo Galilei
“I never knew how to worship until I knew how to Love.” ~ Henry Ward Beecher
For the purpose of this discussion, a “religion” is a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature and purpose of the Universe. And according to this definition, as of July 2012, over 90% of the world’s 7+ billion inhabitants identified themselves as belonging to one religion or another.
Of course, religion in and of itself is not a “bad” thing at all. Indeed, for many people, religion provides a cultural framework that brings great meaning to life — giving them a sense of purpose, encouraging them towards moral behavior, and inspiring them to create works of great beauty. And as long as our religion brings Peace to our own lives and to the lives of those around us, it remains an enriching endeavor.
And yet, when our worship becomes obsessive & destructive – when it feeds the internal shadows of hatred, greed, arrogance or fear; or when it inspires the external tragedies of war, isolation, condemnation or aggression, then our religion has become counterproductive. And it is in such instances that our religion* has become an addiction.
[*NOTE: For the purposes of this article, both atheism & “New Age spirituality” are considered to be religions.]
Most of us are familiar with the more extreme examples of religious addiction – the suicide bomber, the overzealous televangelist, the atrocities of the Crusades. And yet what many of us do not realize is that a debilitating attachment to religion has subtly infiltrated most of our lives; tempting us to pray more than we pro-act, and to mentally or verbally condemn others more than we actively Care for them.
RECOGNIZING our own ADDICTION to RELIGION
An addiction to religion (or to “spirituality”) occurs when we become attached to the “high” that comes from our spiritual practices. We focus primarily on the personal benefit that our religion brings ourselves (and those who share our beliefs), as opposed to allowing our religion to inspire us to Care for others. It is seen less as a foundation of fellowship with friends or compassion for community, and more as a means to achieve our “personal salvation” &/or to manifest our own “spiritual abundance”.
As with any other addiction, we must first identify where our spirituality has begin to slowly strangle our lives before we can then free ourselves from its grasp. To assist yourself in this very important first-step, consider honestly answering the following questions …
Do you view “the Truth” as being objective, literal or absolute?
Do you attempt to persuade others to understand, accept or even adopt your personal spiritual beliefs?
Do you debate or argue about religious topics more than you calmly discuss them?
If religion happens to come up in a conversation, do you avoid revealing your personal beliefs in order to be “polite”?
Do you believe that your own religion’s “Holy Scriptures” are legitimate and accurate, while those of other religions are not?
Do you loyally follow the advice of religious leaders or “spiritual masters”?
Do you see your own religion as “the only way to salvation”?
Do you have pity for, worry about, or are saddened by the afterlife prospects of members of others religions?
Do you try to teach others “the correct way”?
Do you worship more in a church (or a mosque, or a synagogue, or a temple) than you privately pray during your everyday life?
Do you believe that “the Truth” is complicated, or that “Right Action” is difficult to determine?
Do you see God as judgmental? Do you think He (or She, or It) punishes the “wicked” — either in this life or the next?
Do you see members of other religions more as “lost souls” than as differently-devout brothers & sisters?
Do you preach Kindness and morality more than you practice them?
Do you tithe your money more than your time?
Do you feel that you need to confess your sins, or otherwise verbally repent for your failures?
Do you pray to God for personal benefits or for the benefit of loved ones?
Do you believe in Heaven &/or Hell?
Do you pray for the poor, the homeless &/or those in despair more than you actively reach out to serve them?
Do you feel inadequate or “down” if you do not attend religious services regularly?
Do you primarily associate with people who share your own spiritual beliefs?
When listening to a sermon, are you able to respectfully hear the potential validity of the speaker’s words, even if they “rub you the wrong way”?
Do you feel that humankind are innately “sinful” or selfish, or that the world is “bad” or filled with “evil people”?
Do you believe that the Universe will somehow “repair itself” (e.g. “the Second Coming” for Christians, “the Great Shift” for New Agers, etc) and someday bring forth for you — without you having to do anything at all — a world of harmony and justice and joy?
Do you have a rigid moral code of conduct?
Do you think that God is watching you?
If devout, do you scorn science?
If secular, do you scorn faith?
Do you feel that God (or the Divine, or the Universe) shares information with you that is not available to everyone else?
Do you feel embarrassed or ashamed whenever you slip up and violate your religion’s moral code?
Do you use words like “never”, “someday”, “always” and “forever”?
Do you use words like “should”, “ought to”, “have to” and “must”?
Do you call yourself a “reverend”, a “healer”, a “guru”, a “pastor”, a “psychic”, a “rabbi”, a “minister” or a “lightworker”?
Do you think you are already “enlightened” and that others are not?
Are you absolutely certain that you are “saved” and that others are not?
Do you spend more time “at church” than with your family?
Do you spend more time “at church” than serving your community?
Do you believe that your destiny in this life is simply “in God’s hands” – or “fated by the stars” – or predetermined by karma from your past lives?
Do you meditate or pray more than you actively care for others?
Is your worship more melodramatic than jovial (more tears than laughter)?
Are you striving for “spiritual growth”?
Most of you probably answered “yes” to at least a few of these queries. Again, if you did so, it doesn’t make you “misguided” or “crazy” or “inferior” in any way. Like I said earlier, religion can be a powerful force for harmony in our lives – it is only when it becomes too polarized or entrenched that it begins to have the opposite effect.
In essence, the questions that you answered in the affirmative are not the places where you are “sick”, but are simply the areas in your life where your spirituality has started to be counterproductive; where your religion has started to hinder the realization of your deepest possible experience of Peace & Joy.
The MAJOR CONSEQUENCE of ADDICTION to RELIGION: RELIGION ADDICTION BREEDS VIOLENCE
If we are not going to respect others spiritual beliefs, we are not going to be able to respect them as fellow human beings. If we feel the need to “correct” or “save” or “enlighten” anyone else, we are not going to be able to truly & deeply Care for them. And if we cannot truly respect others, and if we choose not to earnestly Care for them, then we will automatically begin to shun them. Our compassion will fade to mere tolerance – our tolerance to judgment – our judgment to condemnation – our condemnation to intolerance – our intolerance to conflict – and our conflict to distance & enmity.
Our sense of spiritual superiority comes from our critical judgment, our critical judgment comes from our arrogance, and our arrogance comes from our fear.
Love cannot co-exist alongside that fear, and real Peace cannot exist at all in our lives without that Love. Plain and simple, as long as we are mired in any form of religion addiction, we will not be able to sincerely and humbly Love others, and we will therefore not be able to ever come to know a deep-seated senses of Contentment ourselves.
Indeed, it is impossible to effectively worship God at all (or revel in “the truth of science”, for that matter) unless we are doing so actively – unless we are “walking our talk” with a life of humble service. And it is impossible to serve others purely if we are doing so out of a sense of religious obligation – or worse — in order to merely attain some semblance of “personal salvation”.
Unless we choose to set our spiritual arrogance aside in favor of humble gentleness – especially for those who happen to maintain spiritual beliefs different from our own, then we can all rest assured that war & bigotry and aggression will continue to thrive on this planet.
Unless we choose to replace our rigid religion with a suppleness of spirit, we will continue to be a source of suffering –- not solace — while we are here.
“When you call yourself a Hindu or a Muslim or a Christian — or even an atheist — you are being violent. It is violence because you are forcefully separating yourself from the rest of mankind.” ~ inspired by J. Krishnamurti
“I love you when you bow in your mosque, kneel in your temple, pray in your church. For you and I are sons of one religion, and it is the spirit.” ~ Kahlil Gibran
“True religion is real living; living with all one’s Soul — with all one’s goodness and righteousness.” ~ Albert Einstein
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