Author: P.

One of the most interesting things about religion is its tenacity to survive and thrive off fear and human emotion. Many if not all of the institutions I came across during the pandemic were having “pity parties” reminding themselves how bad life is and how suffering MUST be part of faith and the human journey.  It may well be part of the human journey but part of the Spiritual man it is not.

As well as this there are churches who claim to have “grown” and are wholly welcoming ALL people into their fold in a kind of don´t ask don´t tell basis, just come and worship with us. (and sign the regular donation form) These groups, despite  rather dark pasts, seem to be able to forget their own histories and are settling into a new identity, distancing themselves from involvement with slavery, anti LGBTQ rights and other topics which they still don´t feel comfortable discussing. The idea is you go, say nothing controversial with a promise that the pastor won´t either and you all sit comfortably for an hour on Sundays talking about how bad the world is.  This seems to be the religion of the day. Add in Jesus, the cross, suffering and you have a recipe for feeling very sober by the time you leave.

This style of religion is dying and it seems that with every new generation, we move further and further away from any kind of agreement or Mind and are settling into a bunch of egos whom by the end of the service really hate each other and don´t go back. To play it safe, other churches simply have a rock or pop concert without any other sermons or words to avoid lack of unity – who can blame music?  As such, religion is dying and is offering nothing new except the age old belief that there are two powers. One of good and the other a kind of Benny Hill style devil: out to tempt us on every corner with a trident ready to throw us into hell. But it seems it is no longer vogue to mention him either.  Then comes a virus. The Churches really don´t know what to do with that – is it from the Devil or from God?  Let´s not think about it and just say it´s here, that is the approach. If the Churches close, even better, they don´t have to deal with it.

My religion is a God who is Good, who knows no pandemic, who knows of no evil sickness sin or death – as such there is no point pleading with him because he cannot see our issues: It is not because he is cruel it is simply because these issues are products of our own thinking, not of any reality. Like a ghost under the child´s bed – the mother comes and shows there is no ghost. So God comes to tell us there is no suffering.   Let me put it another way: If money was not the most important thing in western countries, would we have closed everything down to protect ourselves from the pandemic?  Likely no, older people would be at home instead of nursing homes, friends and families would assist each other and Governments would have less of a role to play.  Common sense would have prevailed and companies would have shared their products instead of hoarding to sell them to us later.

What if we did not believe that mankind was a bunch of created individuals who live for themselves and their own motives. Right now we are the center of our own universes, demanding, judging, viewing, passing sentence and executing.  What if we are one Mind, a reflection in a pool of goodness, only able to reflect perfection. Without any small mind to judge. What would the world look like?

A good place to begin is to explore what that Mind is and how we can trust it in our day to day lives.  it begins not by realizing who God is but by realizing who we are, a reflection of something beautiful whole and perfect.

It is our beliefs that shape our world, so pure true beliefs will show us the reality of something beautiful.

We should not be relying on any kind of institution for support for this – we should be quietening down our minds to realize “I and my Father are One” and that´s true for everyone no matter what our brain tells us about the guy next door or in the next seat.

The quicker we are able to let go of Sunday Morning religious practice and realize instead that God is one Mind and a force to be trusted in every moment, the quicker a better world will come.

Lets trust one power today – let it be Good.