by Dr Rachel Hall, Brisbane, Holistic Dentist
When I was a child, other families had or did religion. They went to church on Sunday, wore a cross or had a bible. They belonged to a certain community or had been christened, they believed in God and that Jesus had died for our sins and came to save us. But not my family; we had no religion.
My Dad was raised a Catholic but fell out with God when my grandma died when I was around 4, and from then on he hated the church. My Mom, well she had been raised under the Church of England, but when asked about God she always told me she didn’t really know one way or the other. She too despised church, and when I was around 12 and wanted to go to the local church sermon just to see what it was like, she forbade it.
Both my brother and I were never christened and we only went to church for weddings and funerals. Yes, we celebrated Christmas but we were not religious. I had no religion.
At school, which was apparently non-denominational, we sang hymns in assembly, recited the Lord’s Prayer and listened to gospel stories. I quite liked them and some hymns really resonated with me, whilst others didn’t – so I simply mouthed the words rather than sing, so as not to get into trouble.
From these teachings, I began to view God as something bigger and better than me — something out there, ever watching and ready to reward or punish me. And, if I was a really good girl, if I prayed long and hard enough, He might just might talk to me or send me an angel or messenger, so I knew I was one of the chosen ones.
So, knowing deep inside that God was real but not knowing how to be with Him, I became a very good girl. I would pray long and hard, often bargaining with God in a futile attempt to get Him to contact me, to show me a sign, prove his existence – and yet I still had no religion.
By the time I became a teenager my knowingness of God wavered to an uncertain belief, and then waned to my claiming I didn’t believe at all – after all, I wasn’t even religious.
I found it easier to deny His existence than consider He had deserted me, left me out in the cold, or that I hadn’t been good enough, or prayed properly – and that’s why He never showed Himself to me.
My atheism continued for years. I would ferociously declare that God didn’t exist and religion was merely a crutch used by the weak and feeble to prop them up and excuse their behaviour.
Yet, when I was 20 and I received news that I needed to travel from Leeds to Birmingham because my Dad was seriously ill, I prayed and pleaded with God the whole journey to let him live long enough for me to say goodbye – even though I had no religion.
My Dad had actually died of a sudden heart attack, aged 47, and I never got to say goodbye in the flesh. However, when I visited the chapel of rest I was overcome with the unshakable feeling of my Dad standing next to me with his arm around my shoulder. I felt at peace knowing we didn’t need to say goodbye and that he was OK.
I started to question God’s existence again, so much so that I started to explore the religions. No one religion actually spoke to me and I was surprised to see so many similarities running through them, yet couldn’t fathom why they all seemed to be fighting one another. To me, if God was an all loving being there could be no chosen ones, punishment, judgment, hell or eternal damnation. So once again I had no religion.
That is, up until a few years ago, where I came to understand through attending Universal Medicine workshops and exploring the concept for myself, that God is about love. By allowing myself to feel and connect to God, and know love, I came to understand that organised religion was about reinterpreted scriptures and man-made doctrines which had very little love in them.
When taken back to its earliest definition, the word religion essentially means relationship. A loving relationship with self, nature, others and God.
I realised that if I were in fact from God, then I too was love. And that by being loving with myself, my fellow man and nature, that I was deeply religious. I also understood that each individual’s way of being religious was very personal to them, yet carried a common thread of union, love and equalness: that our religion comes from a way of living that is known inside of us and not from a book or a preacher in a church.
By being able to experience religion in its true sense, I know God as something I feel within and around me. I understand that being religious is a natural way for us all to be.
Now I can say, “yes, I have a religion” – a loving relationship with myself, others, nature and God. My religion is the way I live. It is called The Way of the Livingness.
The Truth about Universal Medicine 
“My religion is the way I live.” This is not what we usually associate with religion, a way of living, it’s normally beliefs, things we do like prayer or other rituals separate to life, diet, religious study, congregations, etc, but love is something we can live across all areas of life. Nothing fancy Is needed, no special activities, even putting out the bins with love is an experience with God. It’s up to us to choose whether we live with God or not, there are no conditions from God’s side, only from our own.
It is always a choice, ‘It’s up to us to choose whether we live with God or not, there are no conditions from God’s side, only from our own.’
“A loving relationship with self, nature, others and God.” Beautiful in simplicity and truth.
What I am feeling is how powerful it is just to be able to claim that I am religious. In that I am recognising that I have a relationship with God and everything, and that I am a part of something unfathomably magnificent. This word religion describes, and is, the very basis of our existence. Bastardise its meaning, everyone wants to run the other way.
Then the responsibility in life is to reflect God, and in doing so there has to be a forever deepening of the Love we all are! Then understand what is energetically meant by Love, and seeing it is what is reflected. This becomes a quest to also deepen as a livingness the many attributes of God that so relate to Love, as love cannot stand on its own and is simple to bastardise. So if we understand that Stillness, Truth, Joy, Light and Harmony are also God in his Livingness, then we can also deepen our relationship with the True meaning of these words so we can also live in a way that reflects them, to the best of our ability.
I could never say the word “God” as I was so put off by religion, but when you substitute the word God for the word Love then it all starts to make sense! We are from Love and therefore we have a simple responsibility and that is to reflect that Love wherever we go and whatever we do.
So true Lucy, as our reflection is our greatest way of communicating, so having a True-Livingness-of-Love is super important, and to bring Love as our movement into everyday life with a Deepening-Humble-Appreciative-Ness shares so much without a word being spoken.
To have a religion and not hide is a brave move today, in a society where religion is deemed for the weak and stupid – the ones who are considered to not be able to think for themselves but use religion as a blanket. There is so much criticism and negativity associated with this word, yet that all comes because it is not used in its true meaning by a very big proportion of our population.
Thank you Viktoria. Religion like so many words have been turned upside down so we can be distracted from the Truth and our Divine Purpose! Understanding our sensitivities and thus feeling the energetic truth of words closes the door on evil that would like to shut down True Religion.
Beautiful blog Rachel. I too have never understood how the major world religions all have similar founding tenets or truths running through them all and yet seem to be in constant conflict with each other. If we make religion a way of living that brings us back to love rather than a membership, then surely this would end the fighting, in-fighting and conflict?
Bring it back to love, we are from Love, we are Love, and therefore we have a responsibility that is to reflect that Love wherever we go and whatever we do, simple.
To me what Serge Benhayon presents is the true way; he has re-instated the truth back to the meaning of religion. From my own understanding there is, as you say, a common thread of union with one’s soul, love, equality with all others. It is a way that needs to be lived within our bodies. It is not something that is handed down to us but a feeling; a way of being that flows through our bodies and can be felt and appreciated for the truth that it is.
Serge Benhayon brings truth back to the world.
I’ve always known there was a God, but didn’t know how to relate to that inner Loving quality I now know to be God, that resides within us all.
I agree kehinde2012k that in my experience God resides within all of us and is not more accessible to one person or group over another.
It is a small line, but one that stands out how you mouthed the words to the hymn at school to not get in trouble.This stands out to me because of how ridiculous it is, that our children know what is true so clearly yet we the adults, are so set and determined to carry on, that they (the children) just let us carry on, and mouth the words so that we ‘get what we want’ and they are left alone.
I could mirror your upbringing with my own Rachel – the ‘no religion’ option. But still I really wanted to believe or have something confirm what I knew within and when I looked into people’s eyes. I knew there was more and that I was a big part of it, but nothing confirmed that for me until Universal Medicine presentations presented The Way of The Livingness.
I could mirror your upbringing with my own Rachel – the ‘no religion’ option. But still I really wanted to believe or have something confirm what I knew within and when I looked into people’s eyes. I knew there was more and that I was a big part of it, but nothing confirmed that for me until Universal Medicine presentations presented The Way of The Livingness.
I observed when I was growing up, and still do, that if someone is part of a religion they are ‘judged’ as being a ‘good’ person. But, how many good people are out there and we are in the worst state of health and wellbeing than we ever have? I don’t think this is working . .
That it is easier to deny the existence of Thy Father (he who created us) than embrace his beholding love, is a sign of how far we as humans have drifted from our divine essence. It is also a sign of how much we have allowed a corrupted interpretation of this being and all he beholds to masquerade in place of the truth we all know deep within.
God is religion but not all religion is God
A life without religion is like a sky without stars. However, it is not something you go ‘out there’ to find but rather it is found deep within our innerheart, the place where all truth resides.
I love that – a life without religion is like a sky without stars. What joy 🙂
It is amazing Rachel just how many people who like your Dad think they have fallen out with god when it is actually the belief system of their chosen religion they have become disillusioned with.
Having come to a new understanding of what the word religion means it makes sense to me now that I never felt right to say I do not believe in religion, but what I did not believe in was the way in which people use the word religion to mean many things ungodly. As the author has stated ‘a loving relationship with myself, others, nature and God’ sums it up nicely.
The word religion has been bastardised, it has lost its true meaning, and many evil acts have been carried out under the banner of religion, ‘what I did not believe in was the way in which people use the word religion to mean many things ungodly. ‘
“My religion is the way I live. It is called The Way of the Livingness” I love this because it is so true. Religion is about the way that we live and not about attending church or reading the bible but living each day in our truth.
God’s love is often unfathomable for me. To know who we truly are; Gods just like him, and to give us all the space we want and free will to do whatever we want, that is true love to me.
‘“yes, I have a religion” – a loving relationship with myself, others, nature and God. My religion is the way I live. It is called The Way of the Livingness.’ As a child I could have never imagined that this could be a religion, for I associated it with a church, priests and ‘cold’ ceremonies. And now I love having God in my life on a daily and very practical basis by the way I live.
My family also did not practise any religion and there was no mention of God in our life and I don’t remember thinking about him or her. However, reading your bargaining with God reminds me how I used to do things like say “if I can walk 8 steps without looking back will you make the bus come?” I had various strange conversations like that so clearly must have imagined there was some being to talk to.
Through the grace of Serge Benhayon I have received a true reflection of Love and through that been blessed to reconnect to the Godliness within myself and all. So like you I now have a loving relationship with myself, God and others and it is a joy beyond words – the bus has come after all.
‘..,our religion comes from a way of living that is known inside of us and not from a book or a preacher in a church.’ True Rachel we give our power (what we live from inside out) away the moment we follow a preacher or the knowledge from a book. Our wisdom is in us all,called the Ageless Wisdom.
“My religion is the way I live. It is called The Way of the Livingness” Never did two sentences make so much sense. The way we live speaks volumes. It is everything.
When we connect to the love we are inside and learn to live our life from this love, this is true religion, The Way of the Livingness, available equally to all as it lives inside each one of us.
I can and now do say ‘yes’ to this, “yes, I have a religion” – a loving relationship with myself, others, nature and God. My religion is the way I live. It is called The Way of the Livingness.’
Evil is the bastardisation of the practice of religion. With few people having little understanding of its true meaning, we either follow blindly or reject it outright. True religion brings us back to basics and is simple. It is our direct relationship with God, without any intermediaries dominating and controlling access to God. God is owned equally by all of us and is not found in church or temple.
How familiar is this tale – the lack of any relevance in what has historically been ‘sold’ as the religion we grow up with? So how delightful to be find Universal Medicine and the fresh approach there is to our relationship with God, to something real, up to date, and very much inside of us and entirely out responsibility to connect back to.
“My religion is the way I live. It is called The Way of the Livingness” I love the simplicity and profoundness of this closing sentence. So many of us who railed against established religions now rest in the knowing we are all equal sons of God. All we’re called to do, is live it.
“Now I can say, “yes, I have a religion” – a loving relationship with myself, others, nature and God. My religion is the way I live. It is called The Way of the Livingness”. I can now say the same Rachel. The religion of The Way of the Livingness is simple, practical, it makes sense and is accessible and embracing to and of all. There is no question in my mind (or heart) that this is the only religion I will choose forevermore.
Of course it is the way we life as that is constantly with us ! So is religion. I love that ! We need to appreciate this fact very deeply.
We are all imposed upon by organised religions regardless of our parents as the consciousness is everywhere. Sometimes it is even worse when we don’t realise it is happening than when it is in our face.
The religious consciousness is everywhere for all of us such that we don’t even realise it sometimes to this day. Any reticence in living and claiming our divinity or that we have to look outside or ourselves for love or truth. Any smidgeon of guilt, not good enough, unworthiness, any aspect of being good rather that true, and form of separation or that someone is better or knows more and so the list goes on and on from the day we are born and from every society we are born into with different varieties and flavours of same separation.
Religion is what we live and not what we believe.
Yes it is, a lived way and expression.
It seems to me like we would be better off if we didn’t have all the big religions around. We seem to get more confused about God with them than without them. And perhaps that is because, despite their grand numbers of devotees, they do not fully capture the true meaning of what God truly is, something we seem to know and feel innately and hence why we react to certain religions and feel they do not deliver “the goods”.
The relationship with God is always there whether we know it or not, that is the nature and blessing of God.
Yes God is always there (here) it is us that is absent when the connection is not felt, lived and experienced.
Yes also, when we are absent to ourselves we cannot feel God’s loving presence in our lives, ever patient waiting for us to return.
How all those lies keep us away from the very true fact that we know love, we know truth, we know what truth is inside our hearts. All the rest, is made up simply distracting us away from our truth.
We do know Love and Truth, it is innate within us.