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We live in a cynical time, especially when it comes to faith. We see religious people portrayed as misguided simpletons, while newspapers headlines reveal some spiritual leaders as charlatans. We see people kill other people in the name of religion, and we hear a common criticism time and again that religion has done more harm than good in this world. Such problems would cause anyone to pause before venturing down the road of spiritual pursuit. Many people have made a jumble of religion, and it repels us; yet somehow we know that something has been taken away from us, something precious has been lost without the guide of spiritual teachings. Our connection to the Source, to one another, to the magic and the moment, to the core of life itself has been left behind somewhere. Still, we long for belief, for hope, for the supernatural above or beyond ourselves that we can reach out to and feel, draw to ourselves and wrap ourselves in. We know that spirituality is more than religion, or the blind allegiance to ignorant dogma.
It’s not just the vast armies of religious zealots who have caused many of the rest of us to give pause before joining such a following. Our inability to believe is also deeply affected by Western culture, a world of consumerism, commercialism, and constant marketing propaganda that bombards us with messages that we do not have enough, that we deserve the world, that we need to put number one, ourselves, above others. Although these messages do not necessarily prevent us from seeking spiritual life, they devalue such a pursuit, as if it were nothing.
What we witness around us contributes to our lack of initiative to pursue faith. One of my friends who dropped out of the marketing profession to seek a career in a helping profession once put it this way, “I just got tired of perpetuating the illusion.” The “illusion” is that spirit simply doesn’t exist and so can bring no satisfaction, let alone happiness. To fill up the void of spirit, we are urged to accumulate material wealth and possessions, to live in the moment and experience any aspect of diversion that suits our pleasure, whether it hurts another or not. And On the other hand, the news sources daily recount tragic stories in which misguided religious people through their perverted interpretations and fanatical acts in the name of religion have turned the pursuit of spirituality either into a dangerous game of who’s who in God’s little book of the damned or into a true life-and-death situation where the innocent are slaughtered as the fanatics carry out their “heavenly” mission.
But these barriers stem from illusion themselves and so can be overcome. Maybe you’ve heard some say something like, “I’m not a religious person, but strive to be a spiritual person.” There’s a lot of wisdom in that saying. Can we drop our preconceived notions of religion and spirituality and start from scratch? We can.
