Why I had to let it go
I was brought up in a large Irish Catholic family. Around Easter time we would attend Easter Thursday evening mass, Good Friday morning Stations of the Cross, Good Friday afternoon 2-hour mass service, then the late and very long Saturday evening Mass service. It was a church marathon, and me being the good altar boy that I was, would observe everyone one of these wearing my red and white altar boy outfit.
Do you feel connected to a religion? I certainly did.
I would pray each night before bed, say the rosary after dinner with the family, not eat any food an hour before communion, say an act of contrition if I felt did something naughty so didn’t go to hell, go to confession once a month, and carry a guilt with me for years about my fallibilities.
But beyond all those rules and regulations, I also developed a deep connection to the man that the religion was built on. Jesus Christ.
As the years went by, I explored deeper into spirituality, meditation, consciousness and the soul. I came to an awakening that beyond all the man-made structures of this religion, there was something very simple and pure. Something that transcended all the imitations, the fear and the human conditioning that comes with a religion. I realised that there was a simple message, and that was all I needed to connect with.
That message was to walk with gentleness, kindness and as the embodiment of love.
I discovered that I no longer needed a religion to inspire me to do that.
Sure there are inspiring people that walked this planet that can help guide me, however I didn’t need to belong to a club to do that. It was something that I had to diligently apply each day.
Hey, I’m not totally there yet. This is an ongoing journey, a journey we are all on.
Our TRUTH at our deepest level is that we are love and everything love stands for, and our life is a process to re-discover this, or…. to RE-MEMBER our Oneness in love.
Am I suggesting you walk away from your religion now?
No, certainly not.
Think of a broken leg. To stabilise and heal the leg we place a cast around it. This cast is a firm structure to create stability while the leg grows. But after some time we need to release the structure of the cast and let it go. If not, it will go from being a source of healing to a source of damage as it causes things like gangrene or atrophy in the leg.
So rather walking away from your religion if you have one, and this goes for spiritual practice also, ask yourself some questions:
- Does my religion or spiritual practice move me towards love or away from love towards fear?
- Does my religion or spiritual practice promote gentleness and kindness?
- Does my religion or spiritual practice help me feel more at peace with myself?
- Does my religion or spiritual practice help me dissolve the boundaries of separation and enhance a feeling of Oneness?
- Does my religion or spiritual practice inspire humility, generosity and wisdom?
How’d you go with those questions? Often we just continue to do the same thing over and over again without really questioning why we do the things we do. Religions can be like this.
One of my favourite quotes is from the Dalai Lama:
“My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.”
Wise words from a wise man.
Please share with us your thoughts on this. It’s a prickly subject, so if this resonates with you or is something that you disagree with, either way, I’d love to hear from you.
And if you’d like to read more about spirituality and consciousness, you may like to explore my book Spirit & Soul.
In this book I take you deep down the rabbit hole as we delve into the 7 states of consciousness. Reading this book will elevate and enlighten you. As one reader by the name of Phil wrote: “Your Spirit and Soul book was astonishing in it’s clarity and simplicity. It is so revealing and inspiring.”
