Licking the Razor's Edge (2015)

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. Consider the foremost consequence of our
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 in this way, and if we choose not to earnestly Care
for them as a result, then we will over time automatically begin to shun them. Our
compassion will fade to mere tolerance – our tolerance to callous judgment – our
judgment to raw condemnation – our condemnation to blatant intolerance – our
intolerance to aggressive conflict – and our conflict to cold distance & bitter 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 truly intimate relationship with our version of God, much less a deep-seated sense
of Contentment with 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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