What is the essence of all religions?

[Lunitik]

Originally Posted by seattlegal

Lunitik, love and hate are not direct polarities, imo. Hate is usually a reaction to perceived unrighteousness, imo. While love and righteousness may be the optimized yin and yang of mankind, hate is more an obscuration of love, imo.

I have stated what love and hate are...

Love is a desire to come closer, hate is a desire to push away.

Certainly, due to the idiotic teachings of ordinary religion, many will try to push away the unrighteous person, but that is not what hate is fundamentally.

Love is a yes to whatever arises, hate is a persistent no.

[Lunitik]

In the height of love, there is no distance at all, there is only one.

This is what religions idealize as God, and what they try to convey to society. There is no religion that does not try to convey that experience of merging, of coming into absolute resonance, but not all use this ideal of God to teach it. All Godless religions come to the same peak through love of themselves, always the conclusion is that you ARE love - only those who have not known the peak can disagree.

[Lunitik]

God is love objectified
Man is love subjectified

Go deeply into this in light of complimentary opposites and you will experience your divinity, you will come to a point where love is realized as all there is.

This will open the heart chakra if you are total in it.

This is the birth of your soul.

[Thomas]

Originally Posted by ResistETIntervention

What is the essence of all religions?

Deceptively good question ... as the simple ones always are.

Some thoughts:
God is the essence of all religions, for without the will of God to make Himself known, then the knowledge of God would always be an abstract concept.

Love is the essence of all religions, for it is love that is the common tongue of God and man.

Life is the essence of all religion, for life is the first gift of love.

Light is the essence of all religions, the light of mind, the light of knowing, the light that lightens every soul, the light that shines unseen in the darkness of our comprehension.

Liturgy is the essence of all religion, it is the embodiment and transmission of the essence Itself.

God bless

Thomas

[Lunitik]

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[radarmark]

Originally Posted by seattlegal

It took me a minute to get that! (I think!)

Is that a reference to the collective unconscious?

"Why Don't We Do It In The Road"--the national anthem of the collective unconscious. Actually, I am more a Joseph Campbell sort, "The Grateful Dead are the antidote for civilization" (one of my fav quotes).

[Lunitik]

Originally Posted by radarmark

"Why Don't We Do It In The Road"--the national anthem of the collective unconscious. Actually, I am more a Joseph Campbell sort, "The Grateful Dead are the antidote for civilization" (one of my fav quotes).

For an antidote to civilization, first civilization has to happen.

What we call civilized is nothing but a mask, underneath most remains the ravenous animals we have previously called Barbarian.

[radarmark]

Ah, you see, Lunitik, if one goes even beyond that you can accept G!d is beyond... then it merges with what non-Theists say. Ditto for liturgy, for what are the wrtings and concerns of a teacher but liturgy in an anarchistic sense?

[Lunitik]

Originally Posted by radarmark

Ah, you see, Lunitik, if one goes even beyond that you can accept G!d is beyond... then it merges with what non-Theists say. Ditto for liturgy, for what are the wrtings and concerns of a teacher but liturgy in an anarchistic sense?

Indeed, for me atheist and theist are again two poles in the mind, non-theist has simply dropped the whole idea. In my awakening, I dropped the concept of God and myself - these were the final opposites before Samadhi. What to call what was beyond these concepts? I can only call it love, and it is the same that I refer to as oneness, pure love, I have made many attempts to express it but all fall short.

The teacher is not anarchistic, although it is rare a true teacher is not rebellious - it is not the same thing though. Anarchy destroys just for destruction's sake, the rebel destroys to replace with something superior. Liturgy has no meaning, it is dead repetition. I do not even like to call them teachers, I will say mystic instead, but these people do not repeat anything. Their primary characteristic is absolute spontaneity, they are speaking from their very heart, there is no script necessary.

You only repeat another if you lack the courage to be original.

[Lunitik]

For me, this is the truest definition of poverty, that you lack the courage to be yourself. Even the wealthiest people materially can be absolutely impoverished if they lack this spontaneous uniqueness. They strive because they have been told to strive, they cannot look at it with honest questioning.

True wealth is intrinsic, and even those without materially can possess it, it is that flame of life, that persistent smile and the ability to make the most of every situation which presents itself. The richest is the child, for the child has no concern for others, they are only concerned with expressing the energy which they possess. We gradually teach them it is wrong to share this energy, that it is wrong to share their love for simply being, and so by the time they are what we call adults they are already as dead - this death appears to me to be the very definition of adult, whenever someone instructs us to act like an adult, it seems they are really saying be a little more absent of life.

Most of us desire to go back to our childhood because we remember how rich it was, but it is unnecessary, we must learn instead to have that same freedom again, that same spontaneous joy for life must be fostered within us once more. It only needs a little courage, an unwillingness to let society kill us - however slowly - just so they accept us. Those who are worth journeying through life with will accept this, even cherish this quality in you, they are the true friends who bring more life to you, those are the enemy who kill this.

For me, it seems most adults in the world have been defeated, just waiting around for the final blow, physical death is followed by "flawless victory", fear stands over another victim, laughing.

[radarmark]

Sorry, your way is too limited for me, the door too small.

[Lunitik]

Originally Posted by radarmark

Sorry, your way is too limited for me, the door too small.

Where are you seeing the limitation?

There is no door at all, just an open field waiting for you to play in.

The only requirement is to be absolutely yourself.

Mutual acceptance sprouts love of its own accord, nothing more need be done.

The only barrier is your reluctance.

[Lunitik]

I am not creating limitation, I am trying to show that current perceived limitations are false. You are looking for a door because you think there is somewhere to go, please see you are sat in the divine this moment, where can you go where it is absent?

It only takes a little awareness, a little more sensitivity, a little less protection over your "I". It is as difficult as your entanglement in the "I", if you have no reluctance at all in dropping it, it is easy. All difficulty is created by us, now all sorts of practices are invented to try to create distance between your being and this concept of "I". If you can ever overcome it, you will laugh at your foolishness, you were always exactly what you sought... all else was nothing but illusion.

"Seeker, follow no path, for all paths lead there, truth is here".

When you realize the futility of all paths, when you have run out of ideas for where to go next, when you feel absolutely hopeless. When you drop your notion of the doer, it happens.

[Lunitik]

Not hopeless as a desperation either...

Hopeless as in the absence of hope, for hope is merely desire, and desire is the nature of the "I". Be it desire to remain as you are, for nice things, whatever, these combine to create your idea of who you are. It is the very same thing which Jesus calls the personal will.

This has to be dropped to see who you really always were.

[Lunitik]

Jesus even pinpoints the hardest aspect of the personal will, the "I", to drop:

He says "if you do not hate your father, your mother, your brother and sister - indeed, unless you hate your own life - you cannot be my disciple".

Family are the first ties which tell us who we are, and from this stems our love for ourselves, our desire to remain alive as a distinct being, and it is the foundation of all conceptions. Jesus says you are not really his follower if you still value these things above truth, if you are unwilling to sacrifice even your own life.

Yet, the reward is abundant, unimaginable springs of life flowing through you, you only have to overcome your limited state which is comfortable for you.