”Religion is the realisation of Truth already in man. The religions of today make people separate from each other. The world does not need more religions, we need humanity. Humanity is conscience and sincerity. Still we are only Homo sapiens — we are not yet human. We are not yet civilized. Be human! Lack of conscience and sincerity bring misuse and demoralisation. We need diversity, not separation and duality”.

Swami Sri Ananda Acharya

What do you think? What is religion? What does it mean to you?

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There are many things that can be used to separate us: language, culture, history, class, race, nationality AND religion. Obviously we can't do away with all of these.

What we can do is to make each one of these PERMEABLE instead of solid, changeless and fear-based . This takes a shift in consciousness towards honoring and loving the common ground of our humanity and not just "tolerating" our differences, but seeing beyond them to the Truth of Who We Are, each of us, as children of the Light, by whatever name we give that Light.

Such a shift has to begin within each person and within each subset/group/nation/religion. We do this by making it obvious that our fears are the source of our conflicts, not the other way around. Most people don't get this, but with concerted effort, we can show the world that we are greater than our differences and that the common ground of humanity is more important and more sacred than any division.

Salaam, Shalom, Shanti, Peace.
Following Adam, Abraham, Noah, Moses, Jesus, Muhammad and all the Prophets

We're just some lost souls
Swimming in a fish bowl,
Year after year,
Running over the same old ground.
What have we found?
The same old fears.

This is a fantasy world, life after death is the real world, that world is so hard and so rude.. No love, no mercy, no Kindness, no forgiveness a lot i cant write..

We are In Cafe... every morning GOD is giving us lot of mercy... At morning wake up and going for exchange...

So find the similarity among us and you.
Not the difference what is 2,000 years conflict.

AT LAST STILL MORE TOO COME, I ALWAYS PRAY NOT TO COME GOG AND MAGOG IN THIS WORLD.LOVE TO ALL and LOVE FOR MANKIND.
(IN BUDDHISM OM SHANTI, OM SHANTI, OM SHANTI) means
PEACE, PEACE, PEACE,
In Christianity AMIN...
In Islam Also AMIN.
Well..........honestly, not because of religion to be blamed about separation of people in this world....blames should be the founder of the religions hahahahahaha! nah.........honestly that's up to people, if they are born selfishly then all they know to care is about their religion and their selves ,which is crazy cause...religion is your belief. And i'm so sorry cause i do respect your religion...but don't used the religion as the reason why every human being has each boundaries. Do respect each other and be unites as one for better world. Think about we are just human being...that stepping in the ground with our own feet, we may not equal in way of living but we are so equal in being same person, that's breathing, eating and living in this so called planet earth. Destroy the boudaries or wall and let's all UNITES and have PEACE!!!!
Dear Donna,

thank you for this "sine ira et studio"-statement on religion, showing your profound quest in understanding the paradigm as such and in the same time offering the suggestion of a freedom of decision. And you are right that these decisions will very much depend on your education ( not only that receive from parents and so) but even more from that you have attained or given to you by your good self, by restlessly asking (the right) questions, because it seems that first of all you hve to aks the right question. Who will dare to answer these?

I wish you a peaceful weekend,
Richard
I think inner Gods have the very real propensity to reflect back into the world with outer arrogance.

Religion I've got no idea what that is.

Acknowledging that there is a higher force than that in what we are as human makes sense to me.

I call this force God and often look to the Christian representation of Jesus to clarify my own faith.

Have I received clarification?

Not yet but then I don't think we are meant to know all that is faith or love for that matter, by the very nature of how these things are to be felt.
Very important question vis-a-vis peace, and perhaps war too - when not at peace a person fights, even with her/himself!

One of the most popular discussions is that of 'Guidelines..." initiated by David Califa himself.

Why he did so? Perhaps for appropriate regulation, sort of a constitution?

Now guidlines are updated and amendments are done in constituons; 'religion' is also a constitution and religions are amendments done to keep pace with the evolutionary process, and the latest religion, 'Islam' claims to be a 'deen' (way of life) and not just religion equivalent of which in Arabic has narrow meaning of 'deen'.

The constitutions are left to constitutional lawyers and 'religions' to clergy for interpertation who use these as 'tool' for advancing 'vested interests' and here start the problem.

Those citizens who know their constitutional rights and obligations are not prone to exploitation by others, similarly those who correctly understand the religious teachings they believe in and honestly practise these are always at peace with themselves and others and enjoy ultimate benefits of their religion.

But those who have ulterior motives use religions as 'miscreant tools' - they always asks others for going to wars; Pope is real king of Christians and Mullah is (mis)-ruler of Muslims! Same is the case with other religions.

Therefore, no religion, law, custom and even culture is not singularly bad for humanity. Need be that instead of 'religion bashing', the religionists must be told where they err according to their own religion and the end result will be 'peace' at least for majority population of the world.

Khalil Gibran has written very interesting peace somewhere (I read the book around 30 years ago and don't remember its name!) that:

Once God sent angels to kill Satan who was fatally injured, fell unconcious and angels went back thinking him dead. On regaining his senses Satan saw a piously looking man nearby and shouted, "O my fried, help me". The man asked, who are you and on knowing 'Satan' tried to go away. Satan insisted, listen, I know you are a clergyman and always befool people by cusring me. If you go away leaving me in distress I may die and if people would know I am dead, they will not give you a penny afterwards and you will die of hunger. Hearing this, the clergyman took along Satan, nursed him to regain health and thus now both clergy and Satan continue befooling people.

Well, if there must not be any religion yet corporatocracy is already serving the same purpose. Religion or no religion, these merchants of death always find execuses for killing and carnage supplying arms to both warring parties!

Kindest regards. Sadiq
Buddhists say that religions are like boats meant to carry us from the shore of ignorance to the shore of enlightenment. The problem exists in that people are in the middle of this raging river, worshipping their boat and fighting with other boats, totally forgetting that the purpose is to get to the other shore.

It's also been said that "religions are what happens when God leaves the room." We end up arguing over our interpretations of what was revealed, instead of living from the revelation.

So religions have a purpose, just like fire has a purpose, but only when used intelligently, with compassion (warmth), enlightenment (light) and community (by the fireside). If it gets out of control or we use it destructively, then we get burned.

Salaam, Shalom, Shanti, Peace
Thank you for the clarity Seamus... may our boats all find the currents that will lead us to the other side.
Respect each others belief and be UNITE as one. Doesn't matter what religion you , they, we, i belong from. What the matter is let's all be one equally as human being. Let's all be one and shades this world into colourful paradise. Not hard to do , if we all just be ourselves. :)

If you have your own belief, then i'm sure you believe as well that nothing's impossible. ;)
Hello Irina...

We are not yet civilized...? True enough. Good point... But, I would like to espresso (haha!) my opinion based on my rough observation in my country (I would not and could not give any opinion or judgement based on what I do not experienced, directly) that the ˝battle˝ grounds are: status, symbol and institutions... Based on religion or not... :)...
I believe that each person is a point of contact between this world of form and the Divine, by whatever language they use to define that Infinite Presence. Every person is his/her own point of light, every person is called to be clear and direct and not hide that light under a bushel basket. Every individual perceives themselves and their connection with that Presence in their own way.

So if I look at it that way, there are 6.5 billion religions in the world...and every one of them is valid.

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