8 Ideas Bigger Than Religion

What is religion, but an idea? A concept that has cosmic transformative potential… However, any idea can be turned in on itself to become the very thing that it stands against. When we speak of religion, we do not speak of our way of being. We mean how devoted we are to an imaginary deity in the sky that we would either run from screaming or pay hard cash to abduct us. In other words, we neglect the very foundation of religion that consists of ideas, which are much bigger than any organised religious system.

1. Freedom

 

Whatever you preach, to whomever you pray…You are free and nothing in this world can ever change that. Whereas every religion may have followers that perceive their religion to be the one true path to enlightenment…The truth is quite the opposite. There are as many religions as there are beings on this planet. Everyone walks their own unique path…and this must not change. True spiritual leaders have shared this little fact since the beginning of recorded history. The Gautama Buddha, for example, insisted that a mind cannot become enlightened solely by walking in the shoes of another. You can be the most saintly person on Earth, working ceaselessly, donating every penny to charity…but without freeing your mind…without deep contemplation, you’ll spend a hundred lifetimes doing exactly the same thing again and again with the same result.

2. Equality

Regardless of your gender, colour, creed or race, we were all born equal. The life of the smallest insect matters just as much as the life of a human. The contribution of a man, woman or a child is just as important as that of our life-stock. That notwithstanding, the quality of life of sweatshop worker should be equally as important as that of a multi-million dollar CEO…but we treat both poorly. We treat them as if the sole purpose of their existence is to maintain our sense of superiority…and in so doing, we neglect that all lives matter equally. Our global community was founded on noble ideals, but they perpetuate unequal wealth and resource distribution. We may feel equal, the reality is that powerful people disagree.

3. Compassion

Only by reaching out to another can we begin to fathom their inner struggles. The term com-passion was derived from the latin word ‘compati’ which means ‘to suffer with’. In spiritual circles, it implies that we can be receptive to the suffering of all beings, as the only means to truly eliminate suffering…but it is a concept that goes far beyond religion. It is embedded into the very fibre of reality. Without compassion, we cannot connect on a mental or even emotional level. We cannot truly love anyone, if we lack compassion, even ourselves. Religion may teach us that we can carry the burden of life for others…We do not need it to motivate us. It can help, but if we are not compassionate beings, then the chance is that it’ll take more than lip-service to awaken our empathetic nature. Without genuine compassion, religion exploits and profits shamelessly from the people that it promises to liberate. It traps them in a cycle of blind faith life after life without real hope for liberation.

Foot-Note: Ideas like religion cannot and should never be sold! It is no longer religion, when it becomes a financial matter…when it begins to appeal to the self-interest and ego. When it takes from the poor to empower the rich. Spiritual practitioners, such as Leonard Orr, have taken money from the wealthy…by donating over 100$ before the seminar even begins, he creatively guaranteed he’d have their undivided attention, but to my limited knowledge, Orr never gave to the poor. He most likely donated money or food…He undoubtedly gave and still gives selflessly, but even charities are a part of a corporate community that was irreparable corrupted decades ago. He did what Yogis and other spiritual practitioners were taught never to do…To take anything from anyone with an abundance of negative energy…To take anything that would represent a karmic injustice. To clarify, accepting a donation from a thief is very similar to accepting blood-money. Money, which was unlawfully taken, since people have no other choice but to cooperate with the financial system that our ancestors got stuck in. Jesus turned over the money tables. Many yogis were killed for refusing to handle money… Their motives may have been of spiritual nature, but the message they were attempting to convey was a lesson in morals bigger than any religious teaching.

4. Empathy

The difference between compassion and empathy is that you require one to be capable of the other. Without a basic level of empathy, we can never strive to feel for or suffer with others.

Religion teaches us to look beyond our woes, even to deny ourselves…but how can we help others, when we keep suppressing our true nature? The part that applies reason and logic to understand what someone is going through and empathise. Empathy means we must learn to cope without generalisations and rationalisations. For example, when we empathise with someone as a victim, we instantly project a level of hostility toward the attacker. Considering that we live in a rape culture, we are low risk of that happening, but the rehabilitation of an offender and the psychological recovery of a rape victim are only successful when we understand someone well enough in order to help them make positive inner changes. When we begin to pick and choose who we empathise with, we are missing the point of empathy. Empathy is a universal phenomena that takes place between all species to assist us in obtaining higher states of consciousness.

5. Exploration

The key to knowledge is understanding. Without understanding, we may never strive to reach higher levels of thought or knowledge. We cannot know whether an idea is good, bad or just plain ignorant, unless we experiment…unless we get out there and gather experiential data. Religion was created and expanded through brave men and women like Joan of Arc that died for their faith, simply for being different. Science, a religion in its own right one may argue, was equally created through people that took grave risks by defying  mainstream beliefs (i.e. William James, Carl Jung and Nikola Tesla)

Without the ability to question and investigate, what are we? Not free. Nor equal. How could we capable of relating to each other or treating each other as equals, if we cannot use our mental faculties to critically assess a situation? What would we be other than sheep marching to the slaughter? (Bäähh)

6. Gratitude

Whatever may happen, things could always be worse. If you have food, shelter, running heat and water, you are better off than countless young children, adults and seniors around the world… Hard times come and go. Without them, we could never appreciate how lucky we are just to be alive and kicking in the present moment. Never envy another human being for who they are, what they have or any of their problems that you’d rather go through than your own… Everyone has their issues, and you don’t know how you would handle them, if you were in their position. It is all too easy to imagine you would, but if you had lived their life…you can’t guarantee that you wouldn’t make the same choice.

We have much to be thankful for. To be born in this time is a rare but valuable experience (that we may still regret a little before the end). A man-made mass extinction does not happen every lifetime…and only by understanding exactly what we are witnessing can we appreciate its significance. The human race is at the cusp of great change (after great death) This is the time of the Kali Yuga, the time before the prophecised Golden Age…

Every day, we have the opportunity to express our gratitude with empirically-verifiable benefits, such as increased vitality and a more optimistic outlook on life. Evolutionarily speaking, the more we give thanks to our loved one’s, God and the universe, the more likely we are to value that which we do have instead of what we do not. – Chronic dissatisfaction is a major problem in modern society. We are all so occupied thinking about what we will achieve or obtain in the future that we fail to enjoy the moment, when it arrives. Each time we practice gratitude, we pierce through layer after layer of what we think we need or desire until we become fully absorbed in the here and now…and we realise the present moment is all there is.

7. Evolution

Although pelope falsely believe that they need to choose between creationism and evolution…the concept of evolution is far older than the Bible. In fact, it dates back to the very beginning of recorded history.

In the Vedas, creationism and evolution are often interpreted as walking hand in hand… The unmanifest essence of creation and the gradual development of the physical body fare alongside the human consciousness. There is not one being in the universe with properties of sentient consciousness that is incapable of consciousness evolution, even more instinctual creatures have the inherent potential to move onto the next level of consciousness. Contrary to popular belief, evolution doesn’t just happen. It is long-winded process based on continued development. Evolution is daily hard work! That notwithstanding, every species changes through the sheer passage of time. (Although one may argue that slowing the process of aging is an inherent part of overcoming death, which in turn is key to cultivating full consciousness…Evolution is uniquely tailored to the environment and the individual mind-body complex with few exceptions)

Our bodies change with every hour. Every 7 years, we literally become a whole new person. Every single cell has been recreated from the nutritional nourishment we’ve taken in…but our control over this process is limited by our global lifestyle. Unless we’re obscenely rich and live underground in a hermetically sealed dome, we cannot escape the evolutionary repercussions of the ongoing environmental changes. These changes affect our biology. Few are tranforming through them. Solely from a statistical viewpoint, one in a billion may adapt to the current changes caused by geo-engineering naturally. Terra-forming of any environment into another over time has the effect of altering biological lifeforms therein… Evolution is a word so often used but rarely appreciated for what truly is on a universal scale.

Little Fact: Our offsprings genetic template is partly derived from our own, but there is always room for epigenetic gene switches. In other words, the mind-body complex can activate dormant genes or switches off active genes. As proven by consciousness research, this can be done through linguistic programming, guided imagery or real-life experiences.

8. Consciousness

What is consciousness? Infinite awareness…but what exactly is that supposed to be? It not only transcends time, it exists prior to the multi-verse. It is that which we all come from and that which connects all of us…It is what we call the Unknowable, Iksvara, God and/or the Absolute.

“Life is a bridge over the sea of changes. Do not build a house on it.”

– Sai Baba

To fathom the infinite, we must first understand that the infinite cannot become manifest in a finite universe… The infinite may try to express itself in a trillion or gazillion ways, but many scientists have argued that this may be in vain. Infinity cannot become manifest in the finite, which only leaves two options: Either an infinite number of finite multi-verses are created until finally an infinite multi-verse is conceived for whichever purpose, making all other realities obsolete…or the infinite may never find a way to express itself in this manner and explore other alternatives. In any case, there are many theories that pure consciousness originates from light…That when it reverts back to its natural state, it exists only as photons in the form of a light-matrix that predates time. A light-matrix, in which all multi-verses exist as one, including all lifeforms within them.