Religion and Spirituality are not the same-July 2015
Post date: Jul 12, 2015 3:39:56 AM
Religion and Spirituality are not the same - July 2015
Written by Pavithra LH @ starcrystalportal.com
Most of the people think these two are the same. When we look at it closely we can see a difference between them and then sometimes one path leads to another.
One leads to a control dogmatic duality thinking that force us to obey and follow and loose our individuality while the other give us freedom to open ourselves to the nature, universe, source, God..
Spirituality is something where the person searches, explores and finally finds within. If people were brought up in a religious background, and they are courageous enough to break the spell and read between the lines of those religious scripture or teachings, and pick up the truth that might have been hidden. They might begin to seek truth in many sources outside of themselves at first but at the end they will come to the conclusion that all they are seeking is within them. They will take their power back from outside sources and begin to bring that power back to themselves. This allows the person to stand on their own. To think freely. To take responsibility for their actions and their beliefs. All together take responsibility for their life and responsibility for where they are going after their passing. They will find spirit, their true God self within and make that connection that brings them comfort, love and freedom. The result will be that they will make their own reality.
Religion is created to do the spiritual thinking for people. Where the people give their power away to an outside institute and middle men. They don't ask so many questions, they are being told and made to believe asking question is like questioning god, so there is fear in every concept, idea, thought in the books, teachings that were made for us to obey with fear. Questioning is going against god and can lead to hell, be not chosen by their version of god who is a male and most times is a judgmental, punishing fearful, wrathful tyrant who we can't reason with.
Religion is created to do the spiritual thinking for people. Where the people give their power away to an outside institute and a middle man. They don't ask so many questions. The commandments have been told to some other fellow thousands of years ago, so who am I to ask questions, is often what is said. Some think, I already am a sinner and nothing, so might as well follow what the book says. Or for others, their thinking might be that those demi-gods are more powerful than I am, I am just a human. There is no power in me is what they are telling themselves. And for most of them, the teachings are so ancient and by believing in them, they have formed a reality for themselves and no longer see beyond the confinement of those veils and boxes. Their thinking might be who am I to question these teachings? These teachings have been in their culture and history for so long so why doubt now? Beliefs, institutes and the religious middle men have taken their power long time ago. Their powerlessness is so much that they no longer feel that they are powerful beings to think for themselves. They have forgotten who they are and where they came from.
This happens in religions and most of the new age groups. For new age groups, some go in there to find fellowship and support as their new way of thinking is no longer welcomed by their families and friends. This is a good thing, if they can keep an eye of what's really going on in the group and the teacher. The trap in these groups is that some begin to follow blindly without thinking about what they are being taught. They also begin to police each other and control the group through their own agendas and needs. This is also an important thing to look for as now the ego of the group is running the show and what was once a spiritual support group is turning in to a cult. This kind of situation can happen often as we are all working on healing our own egos. But when the ego runs the group, if the people that are part of it are all blind followers, there is no saying where the group might end up. It is best to look at this situation compassionately; they came to find freedom but are now trapped in a group where they too are giving their power away to some outside source.
In the case of religion, they either follow due to lack of understanding, lack of power or fear of being punished by an angry god. They also follow because it is the "right thing to do". As their ancestors did this, so did their parents and the community. Who would want to go against that or why change something that works? Some people simply go their because they need friends and support. These days I am also seeing that some are going there because they can sell their products to the fellow followers. Most of the marketing companies have figured this out, so they tell their sales force to make a connection with the religious institutes, and follow the book. All of these actions are okay to some people, as they believe this is how things work and there is nothing wrong with it. This is where people begin to believe in lies. They forget to think for themselves and begin to lose their values. Just because the others do it, it does not make it true. If they really listen to themselves they know it already but there is so much muck that is covering who they really are.
Programming
Another factor we cannot dismiss is that of the childhood programming that effects every human. Shame, blame and guilt are the most prominent and distorted human programming that most of the humans get from their childhood upbringing. These poisonous seeds of programming could expand and cultivate throughout the person's journey in to adulthood, and possibly run their whole life if they are not aware of them. Many religious teachings have been created to cater to these beliefs. Lost and low self-concept humans can be easily manipulated into believing that there is a saviour out there that could save them and take them out of this inner pain that they are experiencing.
Ancient philosophies tied in to culture
In the east some of the old philosophies from early teachers are weaved in with the culture, as part of the lifestyle. These teachings give the people a way of life that supports their human existence, to give them a sort of freedom and comfort. If picked, chosen and used well, these basic teachings can be a foundation to freedom. But as time went by some of these teachings have become religions and many of the teachers have become idols to be worshipped.
The characters in the stories have become gods, devas and deities to be worshipped and if possible ask help from. Even though some of the teachings are quiet useful to the people, people are not in the space to ask questions and think about everything they are being told and practice. These teachings are quiet ancient and the beings or the characters in the stories are alive in people's reality. To the people, in their limited perception, these characters posses much power, because people believe this to be their truth, these characters have power over them, so they are being feared as well as worshipped for their spiritual protection.
Fear and worshipping factor stops them from asking questions and this leads to creating strong belief systems that bind the being to one way of thinking or we can say the only way of thinking. Their strong belief in the stories have boxed them so they are not willing to think beyond what they are told and are also scared to think and act because in there reality these beings have power. They don't understand that they have given these characters their own power, power over them. For them there is nothing more, this is their truth and this is their way out. They are willing to fight for these truths and there is not much that an outside source can do about it.
Giving power away
When we look at all of these factors, one thing is really prominent for us to see. They all have given their power away to an outside entity, a middle man and a institute. This has been going on for thousands of years and these imaginary characters are running people's lives and their countries now. These people don't have to take the responsibility to think for themselves or for their actions. Someone else is taking care of that problem for them, so they can go back to their 3D life and try to live a normal life, whatever that means to each individual. They also don't understand how much of their life force and power is being harnessed by these entities that they have given their power away to.
Blame
If all goes wrong and all they believed was a lie and they end up in a dark place after their passing, they can always blame someone else for that situation. It's their fault, I am in this situation, no one told me otherwise. But is this the truth? Not so, they gave their power away and they gave the responsibility away. Nothing is more fatal than conformity!
One can argue, stating that it is unfair to express these observations as these people are innocent and they don't know anything more than what they were taught. They just do or follow what their parents, culture or society did. Your observations are correct, these beings are innocent and are just doing what the rest of the people around them are doing. They have been brought up in strong cultural or religious beliefs and for them there is no question about what they believe in. This is their truth.
Collective trance
Once in a while we've heard of a being that is awakening and asking questions from these groups. For them what they have been doing for all this time does not make sense and they know that what they are following does not make them happy or free. They made that strong decision to be free and they have opened the doors so that the light can shine through them and this got us all to think for ourselves.
They were not treated well among the mass but they kept going. These are the path cutters for the rest of us. We are very grateful for these beings and their courage. Lately we are seeing this happening more and more as the human collective is waking up. As many are waking up the human collective is being freed from the collective trance of illusions. This is a huge thing for all of us to see as it is time for this planet to ascend, and the collective to decide to wake up and be conscious of what has been going on for them as a race, and as a planet.
The goal of religion or spirituality is to attain higher consciousness, and attain freedom. From that point of view we can question, what's the point of existing as a living being if you are not conscious of yourself, as to who you are, or what you are doing and following?
Many people are asking this question now a days and seeking answers by breaking free from the chains of bondage of religions and many other ego-based followings. Even though we do not see this outside in the public arena yet. This is happening in pockets all over the world. The more people that are awakened and connect to their eternal spirit/God, the easier for the other humans to get the message, as the human collective is slowly turning the wheel towards freedom.
Most of the stories are not what they seem to be
Most of the teachings are talking about a certain set of truths and stories that explain the teachings. But when we really look at them from the human stand point or multidimensional senses they are not what they seem to be. From the human stand point, some of the stories lack freedom, they tend to make the person feel trapped in another dogma; the "freedom to be" is being taken away somehow.
Some of the teachings explain about the higher dimensional or heavens or the mind worlds and how they are supportive and where the supportive beings live. When we really look from the multidimensional senses, some of these heavens or spaces are dark and the beings that are in them are there to trap the trusting human for their own agendas rather than to support or guide. One can wonder and ask what happened here. Where is the supporting heavens and the divine beings that are suppose to inhabit these spaces? I too was wondering about this when we looked at these spaces with certain names from certain religious teachings. We were not that surprised to find one of the heavens to be a dark world. We can come to a few conclusions here: 1) for the last thousands of years something must have happened to cause these worlds to be taken over by the dark. 2) the dark have created copies of these worlds, heavens, spaces and what we see when we are moving along our path are those places; then when we remove them from our path we should be seeing the real places, so far we have not seen them. and 3) the stories that were told were not true and somewhere on the way for the last thousands of years these false stories were inserted in to the teachings.
We have come to the conclusion, that believing in the stories, their characters and trusting them will lead the eager humans to traps that have been set by the dark. Being aware and always questioning the beings and their motives seems to be the way to go about dealing with this situation. This is not the case when it comes to religions or blind followers in groups and their believers; they believe without asking questions. Another way of approaching this is not to believe in the stories and their characters, not to give them any more power by believing in them. They are illusions of the mind anyways so why give them more power. As always it's our choice to find our own way.
All paths lead to one path at the end
While talking about all of these factors that we are witnessing around us, we cannot really blame any person for their choice or teachings that they follow. Everyone has to start somewhere. All of these teachings are in a way a learning experience to find our way out. Some might spend their whole lifetime following a religion or a teaching and that might be it for them for this life. Others might chose to explore many religions and teachings to see what truly can bring them freedom. For many spiritual seekers, their search ends when they realize that they have explored many avenues of teachings and the true freedom lies within. Ultimately we are responsible for our own freedom. We must find our own way to freedom. So all the seekers out there who are seeking, however difficult it is to fathom what they are following and getting themselves in to, it has to be a way of learning, their way of learning through many avenues.
Your Spirit is calling you. Can you not hear it?
There are so many light workers that are being born at this moment to assist the earth in her evolution and they are all around us. You might find an eccentric, or weird one in your family or social circles, who is talking about these things. Have you stopped to really think about what they are talking about? Did you feel threatened by them or felt embarrassed when they talked about feelings and loving nature kind of stuff. This might have come across to you as not so cool to your status quo or does not match your class. Think about this, this is not you, this is your programming, your ego talking. Other than the eccentric light worker you just met recently, who had a message from spirit for you. How many other ways are you being tapped on the shoulder by your spirit to see these new ideas and thoughts that are filling the consciousness field of this planet? How many more times do you think these gentle nudges go on, till your spirit decide to take the four by four bat out?
Why wait?
Do you need to go through all those pains to be awakened and to see the truth and free yourself from the bondage you are in? Or do you need to wait for your next incarnation to get it? Why waste another lifetime when we have a tremendous opportunity in front of us right now? The planet is ascending, why not be part of it?
Self sovereignty The bottom line is, the difference between religion and spirituality is self-sovereignty and personal power. The freedom to think, freedom to choose and freedom to be. If a person truly wants self-sovereignty, they have to break free from the prisons of religious beliefs, societal rules, and blindly following.
They need to see the programming in them. Begin to read between lines, seek the truth in everything that you come in contact with. Make a strong connection to inner spirit/God Self to find what is in alignment to you and what is not in alignment to you. However hard it is to leave the tribe, do it. Learn to stand on your feet. Think for yourself. Take responsibility for each and every area of your life. This is the true spirituality where the being is free to think and be. Where they can learn that they are spirits having a human experience.
True spiritually is where the being is working to allow the spirit to express their true natural state, without boundaries, lack or limitations, or distorted thinking. Ultimately that is what spirit is.
Spirit having a human experience
Finding and connecting to spirit or the formless consciousness that created the eternal creation in the first place (also called God). This is one of the most important things to a human being. We are all "spirits having a human experience", or we can say the formless consciousness having a experience in a form. So making that connection to ourselves must be the most important thing in our whole existence. Many search and search, throughout ages to find this comfort and re-join with spirit. All along it is within them. You are God period, there is no other deity greater than you. You came from the eternal creation as a God/Eternal Spirit. Anywhere you go this spirit is always with you. Remembering this might be of use to you as you go about your day. When you are ready, you can remember who you are and go back to the creation again as a conscious being.
When people take responsibility for themselves and take their power back, there won't be any corruptions or lack or limitation. True freedom lies within us taking our powers back and being responsible for ourselves, and our own thinking and actions.
Pavithra