By Shannon Everest
RELIGION AT SCHOOL
For all of my schooling life I attended a Catholic school. It was the same school that my mum went to and also the same school that her mother attended.
Religion was a subject taught in different ways over the years as I made my way from Infant School to Primary, and then to High School. It was a compulsory part of the curriculum, the same as Maths, English and Science. We also attended a mass in church once a week, and when we had events like assemblies or graduations, we would do this in the church. We also celebrated all of the normal religious events in church, like Easter and Christmas.
GOING TO CHURCH
Sitting in the church was never a pleasant experience for me. It felt like time stood still and all I could think about was how long it would be before we could leave. It felt dark and cold in there and devoid of the natural lightness of being and joy I otherwise felt. I would sit and yawn over and over again, and I would look for opportunities to find relief by asking the teacher to go to the toilet as often as was feasible.
Why was it such an uncomfortable and unpleasant experience? Why did I dread going to church so much?
The most interesting part was getting up to receive the communion – a symbolic piece of wafer – only because you got to get up and move your body around and meet eyes with other kids… have a chat and some giggles. Like all children, I loved to sing but the hymns felt tiring, heavy and burdensome.
In High School, we had the opportunity to study all religions – Judaism, Protestantism, Ba’hai, Buddhism, Hinduism and so on. I approached it with eagerness – here was my opportunity to look further afield to find truth and something that resonated with me – but still I found nothing in my studies that made sense.
After leaving school I moved on in my life, with no real focus on religion. It wasn’t until my sister’s Year 12 Graduation 4 years later that I walked back into a church. I was shocked and gobsmacked to sit in the church for this ceremony; to now become aware, as an adult, of what I had learned to tolerate over all those years. In returning, I could now feel the cursing and imprisonment I was under as a student in a Catholic School. My rejection of religion grew stronger.
REJECTING RELIGION
All that I took in over those years left me feeling like I didn’t want to know about God or Jesus. What I had heard didn’t all add up and make sense with what I felt in my body and in my heart. So the easiest solution at the time was to reject it all.
I would question myself too – who was I to question all of this history and ceremony? I was just a child…
After spending all of those years in Catholic School and going to Church, I had come to reject religion and its concepts of God because:
- The way God was presented felt harsh and very separate to me.
- I was told that God was judgmental, and that you would go to heaven if you were good, or go to hell if you were bad. It gave a sense that God was someone to be feared. But how could a True and Heavenly Father be judgmental? – This didn’t make sense.
- I was told that Jesus was God’s only Son… and that Jesus died for our sins. This felt very intense and dark to me as a child, and left me with scarring that needed to be healed. If Jesus was God’s only son, that would mean that there was only one in the whole world who was special and worthy of God’s love, rather than ALL of us.
- I was taught that Jesus was a martyr: that he died for the sins of humanity. This is symbolism for someone who takes on other people’s issues. It glorifies the taking on, absorbing of and feeling responsible for the choices of another. As a person who has spent a lifetime taking on other people’s issues, I know the end result and devastation that results from this in my own body, so this can’t be a true way of being. I have learnt through trusting myself and feeling what is true based on the body I inhabit that the best thing for all is to not take on the issues of others, or try to fix anything with band-aid solutions, but call others to take full responsibility for themselves.
- The reason for Jesus being put to death, I was told, was to clear humanity’s sins or wrongdoings, but his death didn’t really change any of that… it all still continues. What I can feel now is that he was a speaker of truth and I have experienced that when I speak the full and whole truth, I can get persecuted for it. This feels more in line with why he died. Through time, there have always been those that fear the truth being exposed and therefore seek to silence that truth being delivered.
- I was presented a way of ritual, ceremony and devotion that wasn’t in line with the natural way I felt to celebrate. The true essence of celebrating always felt to me to be from a lightness of being – but my being never did feel ‘light’ in church. The light felt crushed.
- I had rejected many ‘religious’ words such as holy and glory because the way these words were used didn’t translate to the meanings I knew deep within me.
There was always something very wrong with my religious education; it conflicted with what I felt from within. My body would say “no, that just doesn’t sit well with what I feel”. My mind would say “but you must be wrong because this religion has been building its momentum for a couple of thousand years – with so many followers and so much history behind it”.
When I came across a religion called The Way of The Livingness, there was a sad realisation that I had rejected religion and my connection to God because of all that had been imposed on me that didn’t feel true. When I had rejected that version of Religion and God, I had also rejected the possibility of it being a living truth – and in doing so, I had rejected a part of myself.
THE WAY OF THE LIVINGNESS – RETURNING TO WHOLENESS
At presentations of The Way of the Livingness I have been able to re-claim back all that I know in my heart and soul to be true – because finally I am hearing the words that make sense. But not just that, the words are spoken in the quality that goes hand in hand with the sacredness and essence of Religion – a returning to the Glory we come from.
I no longer feel fragmented – like religion and God are separate to me: now we are one and the same.
The Way of the Livingness – the very name captures the truth for me, because it is about living the love in our hearts.
It represents the living truth that is now active again in me – that we all have within us the same and equal opportunity to live in the Glory of Love. There is not a chosen one or few, but there is a spark waiting to be re-ignited in each of us.
Those days in church always felt like I was hearing empty words. Yet in the presentations on The Way of the Livingness I can feel the energy of equal-ness, brotherhood, love and divinity – as the words are being spoken and in the very room where I am sitting. I can feel it in me, in the presenters, in everyone in the room, and in those outside the building too – it is Unifying.
In these presentations, I don’t find myself yawning, or bored or watching the clock, waiting for it to be over. I don’t feel like I am being cursed for being who I am, or imprisoned by being there. I can laugh out loud and have tears of joy in my eyes. I feel free to express the truth and the love in my body, heart and soul as an equal Son of God.
These feelings are not ones that remain in a building and that I can’t take out into my life and apply practically to all I do. I have come to feel a Holy Reverence at work and at home, washing my car, or shopping at the supermarket, talking to my children’s school teachers and paying my bills: and the feelings don’t stay the same, they keep increasing, strengthening and building over time.
So I have finally found the truth I knew was possible in my heart as a child in The Way of the Livingness, because it confirms what I always knew – that the Kingdom of God is inside me. Living this fact in a world that has accepted far less is not always easy, but it is a truth that lives within and I will now never forget.
The Truth about Universal Medicine 
To take on the burdens of another is pure folly and certainly not something that a person with great awareness like the Master Jesus would have have would ever do. Love does not require us to sacrifice ourselves.
Thank you Shannon for such a beautiful testimony on the truth about The Way of the Livingness. I would never have said I was a religious person but after experiencing a reconnection to God, love and divinity it feels very normal to claim this.
Having discovered The Way of The Livingness, it is joyously liberating to be free of the shackles of religion imposed upon as a child.
A religion which speaks to the fact God is in us, not as words but as a lived way, that is the Way of the Livingness, a religion that celebrates the glory of all of us equally so.
There are two distinct movements: one is the bodily feeling that this (a specific religion we take as THE religion) is not it. Lots of people are on that boat. Yet, to feel one that is IT is a different story altogether.
What I can feel is how multidimensionality gets removed from a living truth to make it suitable for the framework of creation and what remains no longer resembles what was there to begin with. Christianity is not a teaching of Jesus, Buddhism is not a teaching of Buddha. There was a truth that was lived.
These words so beautifully undo the lies we are fed through Christian religions. It’s quite amazing that the story of the life of Jesus has been twisted in a way that keeps people from truth when the man himself stood for absolute truth and even died because of his commitment to expressing it.
The way of the Livingness is simple as it says to live true to our inner essence, which happens to be truth/love/joy/harmony/stillness.
This beautifully expresses the process of coming from the bastardised religion to it’s truth, and my goodness what a difference there is. We are feed such a lie when it comes to Religion that when it truly enters our lives, we can reject, recoil and not want to see what is in front of us.
The way you share about Jesus is absolutely awesome and makes sense to every last cell in my body. I also love that you have honoured how harming it can be to take on beliefs that are imposed on us.
Martyrdom is not unifying or loving my in any way. Truth is powerful, unifying and synonymous with love.
This notion of heaven and hell that you talk about, which seems to be similar in other religions too, is interesting because I wonder if perhaps there is the story of hell as being another place, when in fact it could be said to be right here on earth, being lived in the life of any one person who is experiencing even the slightest part of misery. Because – given the stupendousness that we all come from and are – shouldn’t any amount of misery be considered as pure hell on earth?
Wow Vanessa that is awful, it’s been a while since I’ve had that daily ear to the school playground and this is definitely not how it used to be back then 15 – 20 years ago. It’s putting attendance rates before nurturing or even care for the child.
When Religion is about our relationship with our own sacredness and Glory we come from, it would most definitely be one subject I would make compulsory in schools. – What little person would not want to hear these teachings!
Thank you Shannon … you capture what the crushing of many of the established religions do so well, and I know I experienced this as a child raised also in catholicism. It was all about ignoring the body and what you felt and giving yourself away to a higher power, but without any acknowledgement that if we are from God then we are equal to God. Returning to church a few years back I was aware of how much the whole rituals and ceremonies are set up to destroy and dishonour people’s own connection to both themselves and God. And for a long time I too rejected God because of this, until I came across the Way of the Livingness, it just made sense, it was a coming home to me and to God.
It is interesting you comment about being taught to ignore your body by religion, as that is what happens now in schools in the UK. There is such a drive to have attendance, children come in sick and totally override looking after yourself to not let your class attendance rate fall. It’s awful.
Wow Vanessa that is awful, it’s been a while since I’ve had that daily ear to the school playground and this is definitely not how it used to be back then 15 – 20 years ago. It’s putting attendance rates before nurturing or even care for the child.
So much to appreciate that we are masters in feeling that if we didn’t we wouldn’t have felt how false many concepts and ways of living in the world do not make sense. We can’t blame the world because only if we allow the world to impose on us will we be controlled, as we are equipped with awareness and a body to express Truth, but we do have a process to come back to this harmony and support that is always there waiting for us.
Love it Elizabeth – the spark is never too far away that it cannot be reconnected to, no matter how far or how long we have not had that,
Its a terrible feeling to know a magic in the world and inside of me, and yet the natural places to look for a relationship with this magic do not deliver. Its both a travesty that the religions I was exposed to as a child do not have this, and a marvel to have found The Way of the Livingness that helps chart a course back to the beauty and majesty inside.
Love how you have expressed here Simon, the course being charted back to soul living, we are very much supported by God and nature to our natural way.
There is only one person throughout my life who has presented what, I can feel in every part of me, is true religion and that is Serge Benhayon. When he began to present The Way of The Livingness as a religion there was a part of me that wanted to run and hide as all the old programming of what religion was purported to be rose up in total opposition to what I was hearing. But the difference this time was that I was not just listening to what was being presented, this time I could feel the truth of the presentation right through every cell in my body; my mind might have been telling me to run but my body was saying so clearly – stop, listen and feel, for this is truth. So, I did and now today The Way of The Livingness is my religion, “the religion I’ve always known”
Can totally relate Ingrid, it was a big step getting over my suspicion of religion and once I could see the misrepresentation of the word and way of life that is religion it has been much easier to accept the truth and simplicity that is religion – reconnection to the soul.
If we are willing to accept what we already know – we will access the vast library of the heart. Here lives everything the universe has to teach, an encyclopaedia of God.
For me traditional religion is not a coincidence, it’s no mistake that they function the way they do, to leave a feeling of austerity, guilt, sin, obligation and contraction throughout you. I feel it’s because there is a truth, a very real connection with God that we are here to return to, to celebrate and eulogise. It’s this each day we are here to live, like our own precious sermon to divinity. What’s not true just exists to obscure the beauty that there is. Thank you Shannon for this text.
I love the word ‘reverence’. When we reconnect to our own Divine essence, reverence becomes a natural way of being – a way of ‘the Livingness’ and a unifying way. The Way of The Livingness is a religion that has supported me to ‘heal’ my relationship with God, with Love and with my fellow man.
The Way of The Livingness is alive, vibrant and inspirational as it is one’s own religion and the religion of everyone equally at the same time.
All other religions, particularly Christianity, teach that one is less and have to transform oneself while The Way of The Livingness presents that one is already everything one needs to be, one just has to live that in full.
My experience of being brought up catholic and then moving on from this as it never felt true, to become a student of The Way of The Livingness has been such a wonderful experience. Always knowing there was God but didn’t feel like I was connecting with him truly. What I am experience from day to day is that this Connection with God is Religion and that I need not go anywhere, pray to him or have to say the rosary for the bad things I have done. God is Love, We are an expression of this Love when we were created so it is this that holds firm a union that can never be diminished no matter how hard we try.
There are so many things in life which do not feel true, our bodies are experts in truth. But anything we reject shows us there are parts we reject ourselves, as our inner reflects our outer. So why not just allow everything and anything to be and in the process do not hold back what we know is the true way and live that, this is my learning in life.
‘…there is a spark waiting to be re-ignited in each of us…’ So true. Something that inspires me to feel the brotherhood between us all.
” There is not a chosen one or few, but there is a spark waiting to be re-ignited in each of us. ” Amen, thank you for sharing Shannon just lovely.
Yes, a gorgeous sharing that speaks from the heart with heart of the truth of religion.
What better way to hide the truth than create a hundred imitations of what is right. Then people will spend their lives shifting through a million lies to find the real deal. It’s a cunning plan except for the fact that every woman and every man feels energy and thus the truth. We actually do know what’s love and what’s not, so intimately and feel so much more in this world than what we think. It’s just we have been so practiced at hiding and running away from the amazing knowing we have inside. True religion as you beautifully show Shannon is just a return to what is so clear and light.
“THE WAY OF THE LIVINGNESS – RETURNING TO WHOLENESS” this is a fact, as it is the only way for us to begin and accept the grandness of who we are and that is our responsibility to just let out and surrender to what already lives within.
“The Kingdom of God is inside you” is something that I wasn’t always familiar with until presented by Serge Benhayon. I truly understand what this is and what this means now and live it.
This is just so amazingly exposing to read, I was also raised in catholicism and I recognise so much in what you share and the unease I felt in church services and the fact that there were all these words that sounded great but were not lived in how I saw people being around me. Your points on the lies we’ve been told about God, and Jesus make absolute sense, how could sacrificing yourself for another be good and how does this support another to be responsible .. and that’s the rub and one I saw when I went back to a church service years after having left the church .. I was struck by how everything is geared towards looking without at an outside power and authority to find an answer, to confirm you and suddenly I could feel what the church does, it infantilises it’s followers, encourages them to look outside for the answers and in doing so doesn’t support them to take responsible for who they are, what they truly feel and that they in fact know God deep within. It takes them away from God and from themselves and that for me is a definition of evil.
I too went to a Catholic school and I can say since having also come to be a student of The Way of The Livingness that I have never known of such a practical simple, very real and joyful way of knowing God. No longer is it something confined to a building but rather He is forever someone there in everything you do. Perhaps one of the greatest ills in modern religion is how it separates us from the simple truth.
“a returning to the Glory we come from.” “I feel free to express the truth and the love in my body, heart and soul as an equal Son of God.” The Way of The Livingness offers the opportunity to feel the glory and love of your connection to yourself and to God in every move you make.
The Way of The Livingness makes sense of the feeling I have always had that I am religious.
I have had a similar church experiences, which rather than connecting me to me, just sent me searching for something else. However, The Way of The Livingness through Universal Medicine has provided me with an experience that has not been steeped in what a lot of organised religions profess. It allowed me to feel what real truth is in my body and to be responsible for my behaviours.
The Way of The Livingness has signalled my return to true religion also, after a progression similar to yours, Shannon. Indeed I’ve read a lot of stories like this by fellow students of The Way of The Livingness. It leads me to wonder if there aren’t forces at play and very much alive in our institutionalised religions and in the new age and spiritual paths that abound that are designed to keep us away from the truth of who we are, and the connection to true religion we can have.
I love re reading your sharing Shannon and am inspired once again to look within for the truth and not outside myself as most Religions would have us do. We are all part of the whole that is God.
“There is not a chosen one or few, but there is a spark waiting to be re-ignited in each of us.” – Absolutely – an immanent spark within us all no more or less in anyone and always there for us to re-connect with and bring back into our expression in this life.
The way religious institutions have bastardised the truth of its meaning, let alone the many misinterpretations that have been spread through it in which we are diminished as the sinners of the world, has kept us under the veil of not knowing who we truly are and what power we hold. How different is that when coming back to the The Way of The Livingness the religion of our inner heart. There we are glorified as being the Sons of God and are supported in returning to be the powerful beings we in truth are. How different is that?
I remember the most hated subject at school was Religious Education. And now I know why. Not because anyone was ‘bad’ but because what was being taught naturally conflicted with the truth of the body because it was never true to begin with.
Absolutely agree, the way religion is taught in school is very much the same as science. The love and beauty of the relationship with God is delivered from a place of no truth and is boring, dull, delivering naught of what is there to be expressed.
I love what you share here Shannon, ‘The Way of The Livingness – the very name captures the truth for me, because it is about living the love in our hearts.’ So true, The Way of The Livingness is a true way to live, it is about connection, brotherhood and living the simplicity of joy and love each day.
You go to a confessional school. You get a concept of education that is not it and you get a concept of religion that is not it either. This is indicative of the extent to which in life we get bombarded with notions, understandings, beliefs that pollute us and that end up meaning something to us, even to live a life in reaction to all of them.
Hearing the words from The Way of The Livingness presentations always makes complete sense and always feels absolutely true. Living from the love we feel in our hearts brings a wholeness and quality to our being.
Being told Jesus died for our sins is something I was told as a child but it was not until reading this that I realised how much I have taken on this belief and tried to live it, despite knowing it doesn’t work. It’s really helpful to be able to see the origins of beliefs like this, for in seeing them exposed for what they are, it is simple then to let them go.
Religion is a beautiful thing, it’s a shame so many of us turn away from it after experiencing a lesser and crushing interpretation of it. Its like a woman having a string of bad relationships and then when a truly loving and caring man comes along, she cannot open her heart to him because she is hurt and no longer believes in love. The Way of The Livingness is unique in the sense that it offers everything but does not push it onto you and leaves you alone to come to it or not. Its a truly inspiring that you were able to let go of the scares and open up to love once more.
If I hadn’t come to know The Way of The Livingness as presented by Serge Benhayon, I probably would have totally forgotten the fact that I had known truth and I had known God.
This is a great definition of what true religion is in practice – ” I have come to feel a Holy Reverence at work and at home, washing my car, or shopping at the supermarket, talking to my children’s school teachers and paying my bills: and the feelings don’t stay the same, they keep increasing, strengthening and building over time.”
I love what you have shared with us Shannon. The simple truth is that religion, as we know it, has far more to do with distancing ourselves from God/each other than it does with truly unifying us all. Because it is not yet coming from a love being lived but more so from a dogma that is being blindly/intellectually followed and adhered to, it leads us astray in one of two ways; either we align to a consciousness that is not coming from truth or, we react to it and thus we reject God/truth. Either way we walk away from the divinity we innately are until such a time as we can see through these veils and begin to live again the true beauty, wisdom and love we each in essence are. Only then can true religion be activated as we begin the re-turn to our true self.
I can’t help but wonder what all those dead saints’ body parts in key churches and cathedrals of our world really represent… is this a ‘livingness’, an inspiration to embrace and embody in full the Love of God in our everyday lives and living, a Love that equally resides within us all as you’ve shared Shannon? Or does it yet again further the deeply debilitating impost that we are NOT equal in God’s eyes or His Love, i.e. that there is only ‘one’ true Son and then added to this by this church, some additional folk who have somehow come to a closeness with God because they are more ‘special’ than the rest of us ‘sinners’…
Thank goodness for the true life restored in and by The Way of The Livingness – and the unifying truth that we are all equally His Sons.
Thank you Shannon, great to read your story and your relationship to The Way of The Livingness. One of the big differences for me is also that the words spoken carry an energetic quality that is reflective of a person’s livingness of the soul and God in this religion, there is a power that comes with that because living connected to God is very different to talking about God. With all respect I feel that to know about something we need to have a direct relationship with that thing, not just speak the words. For example if I get someone to repair an appliance they need to have direct experience with that thing, they can’t just know about it through words but have to have an active relationship with that to know what they are doing, and then to communicate it all to me. I kind of see God the same way!
At our core, every single person is religious, just as at our core every single person is deeply loving. How far we are away from accepting and living like this is being determined by how we live every single day. This is religion, a loving way of living, that returns us to the core of who we are. It’s ironic that they go hand in hand and have to be lived to be truly known.
What I am observing around me is that behaviours that may have started out as being subtle are now becoming more obvious eg. when my children started school 7 years ago there was very little religious teachings in school but this has and is gradually changing. I got to a point this week where I felt to begin to express how I felt about the changes and this was followed by my husband too expressing how he felt. Both different expressions but boy did I feel complete afterwards. What I do know is that if I as a parent do not begin the journey of expressing how I feel about new religious activities held in the school they will keep on increasing. I am beginning to realise the importance of speaking up against something that does not feel true or supportive not just for myself but for others too.
Yes the way we live tends to be so fragmented, I agree Shannon. But reading your words it feels important to observe that this is no accident. We like to have things in bits, to make compartments and cupboards with issues in, store boxes of unresolved difficulties. This separate way let’s us keep these things – instead of acknowledging the truth we know inside, that everything is one. This knowing equalises everything and strips away all the complication from our life. Coming to this understanding of God means letting go of being attached to all the junk we think is us.
When I was a child sitting in church to me, felt like total control. Like I was under a thick cloud and every move I made was being watched and judged. It was never an experience that supported me to connect to God. It was always dark and cold and this never made sense as God is light.
The fact that someone can attend a religious school and later reject religion is a clear sign that what he/she got in the name of religion cannot be truly it. Religion, in its true meaning, cannot be rejected. All the particles in a body know how deeply religious are we.
The Way of The Livingness, is very much what it says, it is a way of living from our inner most first, it’s not steeped in beliefs like other religions, it’s about the way we live and how when we stand up for truth it is about humanity as a whole.
‘Mainstream religions’ and its teachings can only exist if the majority of people continue to give their power away to it. It seems many are quite comfortable in thinking and believing the stories of Jesus dying for our sins because it allows them to live irresponsibility with the excuse that Jesus will repent their ill doings. There must be a strong demand for irresponsibility and excuses otherwise it would be clear that these stories fall far short of the Majesty that is God and true Religion.
I find it ironic that many people of today despite not believing in or participating in traditional or present day religions continue to celebrate the religious holidays of Christmas which represents the birth of Jesus, and Easter which represents his crucifixion and apparent subsequent resurrection.
There is no doubt within me whatsoever that the kingdom of God is inside me so when I am approached by a couple of people at my door handing me a leaflet about the kingdom of God I cannot but stay true to myself no matter what they say. I speak up and as I do so the man’s face drops and he looks uncomfortable while the woman overrides the feelings in her in body and replies back. One thing is for sure I cannot but hold love in my body for these two people as they too just like me are a son of God.
“The Way of the Livingness – the very name captures the truth for me, because it is about living the love in our hearts.” – Yes it’s beautiful – something that is entirely about our way of living in every moment; re-connecting with our innate divine essence to bring it back into our everyday lives and expressions.
There is a beauty and light that is timeless and true. There is wisdom that we all know too. But it doesn’t exist in a far off place, big book or ancient time. It lives in the everyday moments of our lives, in the way we move and the quality of the things we do. And it doesn’t matter how far we stray, how much we try to go another way – it’s always there waiting for us to return, like a beautiful river or the sea, steadily present everywhere. Thank you Shannon for this reminder that no matter what occurs, I am not sunk, drowning or marooned, nor lost at sea but constantly held till I remember The Way of The Livingness and the fact of the Love that is me.
It is ironic that religions that want to share Jesus/God etc with people do such a great job of repulsing people, to the point where they can’t bear the idea of religion or want to consider having a relationship with God. Perhaps it’s time for them to have a deeper look at what they are offering. This doesn’t mean a superficial look either, patched up by becoming more modern or offering ‘cool’ live music. It means asking why churches feel so heavy, serious, oppressive.
“…the Kingdom of God is inside me. Living this fact in a world that has accepted far less is not always easy, but it is a truth that lives within and I will now never forget.” I feel the same Shannon and now can see the constant reminders around me in nature, lest I forget. There are messages from God in everything, tenderly and lovingly calling us back to our true selves.
‘The kingdom of God is inside you’ now has so much more meaning than when it was read to me from the bible. I now know that for the kingdom of God, or divinity to be inside me confirms so much about who I am and what I (and all of us) are capable of. I know that I can feel everything there is to feel and that we are so sensitive. I also know that to feel everything we must be connected to and part of everything. Feeling and knowing this in itself is a huge healing and gives us permission to reclaim who we are and our equal part in the universe.
It interesting how many people nowadays react to religion and their religious upbringing. We carry the scars of the impositions, as deep within our hearts, especially when we are young, we know the truth and can see through the lies of such institutions that make us live a life way off from the multidimensionality that we are.
Reding this you can really feel the bastardisation of religion. The heaviness of Catholicism and what it teaches is as though it is designed to make a sparkling son of God retract into a scared and contracted human being not knowing they are worthy of divine love or in fact made of love. Beautiful description, thank you for sharing.
The Way of The Livingness confirms the feeling of sacredness in us, in our bodies and in the way we move and relate to one another. This is true religion.
I was also taught that God gave over his only son to be killed because I was essentially bad, and that we are all bad. The huge amount of guilt and shame I felt as a child due to the this questionable story which has continued as a belief pattern well into my adult years, has been palpable and rather shocking how much it has influenced my life.
I also was taught big time that Jesus died for me/us. I never really questioned it but I can certainly still feel the effects from this teaching in my body. It feels like Jesus did me a favour taking away all my wrong doings and that this was an act of love teaching me that doing for another is love instead of observing and allowing another to take responsibility for the choices they have made. This has felt deeply entrenched in my consciousness that I will take on another’s pain because it is what I think is less painful than (say) watching them die. Although I can feel the remains of this belief/curse within my body what I do know is that it is certainly not true and it will eventually leave my body as I develop love more and more within my body.
This article could be also talking about my schooling as it sounds very much the same. My experience was one I remember as being very controlling when it came to religion studies or church. I remember so many children asking to go to the toilet, so much so we were spoken to as a group about it by the teachers a number of times. I remember being allowed to go to the toilet and taking the long way around, getting a drink and walking very slowly. I didn’t remember that until I read this blog and it was a deliberate slow walk that made me smile when I think about it now. I didn’t like going to church and looking back we were all the same, it was put down to all of us not being able to sit still and this was a sign of disrespect we were told. Looking at it now there was much more going on then I was aware of then. The Way of The Livingness as presented in this article has given me the space to look deeper into many things and one was religion. I was sold a dummy and took it and then allowed it to myself to make choices from there. The Way of The Livingness has supported me to clear the dummy and breathe clearly again. Now I see the world and don’t let it impact on me like I use to.
“There is not a chosen one or few, but there is a spark waiting to be re-ignited in each of us.” – Beautifully said Shannon. How we call anything less than this to be loving or religious..?
What is whole does not feel heavy as it is complete and full of love. What feels heavy can never be whole or full and because the void that remains is filled by heaviness and not love.
When we were growing up it certainly seemed like there are so many conflicting viewpoints and paths to take, so many versions of knowledge and so many people who claim a truth but nothing seemed to confirm or acknowledge what was already inside a person and what we can all feel, it was instead all about an external achievement which then we would have some form of recognition for whether that be a “well done” and look of approval or simply being left alone.
A great blog Shannon, confirming and deeply appreciating ‘The Way of The Livingness’ as a religion founded on true love and truth.
Like you I attended a Catholic School from the age of 6 to 17, but I enjoyed the sensory experience of being in the church: the candles, the incense and the singing. Funnily enough, I still enjoy all three but don’t have to be in a church to do it. Occasionally I return to my old school to attend a ceremony and go to the mass out of curiosity. I listen to the words of the priest with greater awareness and can feel how absolutely unGodlike his words are. They are a complete bastardisation of how I now know God to be and how we are within God as a one-humanity.
Speaking words but not honouring what the words actually mean can be dangerous. Just look at the word God, a word that people have used to go to war over. ONLY because they have strayed from what that word actually means. If we knew what God is we would know that He is about Oneness, Brotherhood and Unity.
For a long time I turned my back on religion, not because I was not religious, but because I could not find a form of organised religion that was in line with my understanding of the world. In so many religions, there are seeds that ring true, but then as you unpackage them and pull them apart, there are things that don’t quite make sense. For a long time this meant that I just sat with myself and my form of religion, until of course I met Serge Benhayon. At first I could not put my finger on what I trusted about what he presented. It was at first a feeling, a sense of things that was confirmed by the practical nature in which he unpackaged what one would ordinarily say are complicated subjects.
I too felt the same way Adam that I was religious but could not find a religion that matched what I felt in life.
What a great reminder as we go from one year to the next that the divine spark of God is right there just waiting reignition, always a choice !
I have found that my connection with religion has been re-ignited through The Way of The Livingness and the connection for me was knowing it brings the love that we are into a living way to be lived in every aspect of our lives – not saved for Sundays or a select few but equal for all, all of the time. I don’t feel like a sinner any more, I don’t feel unworthy, I feel like I have choices and consequences and I am more aware than ever that my choices affect all others whether I choose to be aware of that or not. That is empowering.
The Way of The Livingness truly is unifying and supports us all to re-connect with the divinity that lives inside of us all equally. For me too every aspect of it truly represents what religion is about and it is a true joy to experience. I love how you describe feeling able “..to express the truth and the love in my body, heart and soul as an equal Son of God.” And how this feeling ripples out into all aspects of your life, not being contained to a special building or service, but is an integral part of everyday living.
I realised today in reading your blog that I had accepted a belief that Jesus was a martyr and to be a martyr was a good thing. I did not have a particularly religious upbringing but somehow this belief had made its way into my consciousness. Great to become aware of this and see how it has coloured my thinking and supported my following a way of living that is not true, how it has led me to feeling small and giving my power away and how there has been an element of this way of thinking, of self sacrifice in many of the religions or philosophies that I have dipped into, and/or subscribed to, for a while, in my search for the truth and a true religion.
If religion is about truth and only about truth, then things change. Religion immediately becomes compatible with science as science is about truth and religion must give a reason why it can do better than science in at least some areas. If religion passes this test, though, then religion is worthy of as much respect as is given to science today.
Thank you Shannon I enjoyed a re-read of your in depth article, I feel blessed to have come to know and learn to live The Way of The Livingness understanding that God lives within and always has, that we are love and beloved, not the lost, sinful and unworthy beings the church would have us believe.
“There is not a chosen one or few, but there is a spark waiting to be re-ignited in each of us.” This is the divine equality of The Way of The Livingness, that there is a divine spark in each and everyone of us but as we have free will, it is our choice whether or not we choose to live that spark or not. And I love that Universal Medicine are bringing back the truth about Religion and bringing forth The Way of The Livingness, so that we can (re)learn how to live that spark on a daily basis.
I totally agree Shannon Everest. Having lived a life as a Roman Catholic I now claim The Way of The Livingness as my True Religion. As a child, as many children do, I had a sense of God through play and nature. That sense of when we are naturally flowing and playing without any life pressures and we feel surrounded by a natural beauty well it is this beauty that The Way of The Livingness brings back to life. As I go through my days there are moments where that flow is evident again, whether it be putting my make-up on, speaking with the lady next to me on the bus, handing a tissue to a fellow passenger or mounding through heaps of paperwork and case files at work, there is a magic that is always present in my day to day life due to this Religion that everyone that we meet is touched by due to its all encompassing and unifying manner. The Way of The Livingness is not for one but is for ALL. There are no special or chosen ones, but it is a way of living that brings great JOY and can be chosen by anyone if we feel that it is true for us. Thank you Serge Benhayon for bringing Truth and the magic of God back into life. I feel well on my way to now living in FULL communion with God, unashamedly so.
It’s such a waste isn’t it when we don’t feel inspired or confirmed by the church experiences we are made to have when young. I used to willingly take myself off to church as a young child trying to be good and find the support for right way forward – where was Universal Medicine back in those days? All I found back then were dusty prayer books and formalities. I wanted to do all I could to be good- but I couldn’t find any answers in formal religion. Thank God for Serge Benhayon
The Way of The Livingness answered all the questions I had as a child brought up in a catholic environment. The catholic church called things mysteries where with The Way of The Livingness there are no mysteries, no confessions of sins, no judgmental God, no one greater than another. The Way of The Livingness is about living from the connection to the Kingdom of God found within each and everyone of us.
Thank you again Shannon for your sharing of your journey. The Way of The Livingness is the truth for me no doubt about that. The presentations by Serge Benhayon and the involvement of the Student body, brings through and inspires us to be in the Livingness of this Religion!
Thank you Shannon for this in depth sharing of how it was for you during your time in the Catholic Church compared to what you have experienced since being introduced to The Way of The Livingness; what an amazing contrast, one that I felt so clearly as I read. Even though I was not raised under the beliefs of any church I could still so easily relate to the challenges that came in your life; taking on other people’s issues, feeling confused by what was being presented to me as being religion, the emptiness of words and so on. Like you I too have embraced The Way of The Livingness as my religion, a religion that is simply about reconnecting to me, to others and to the world I live; and as you say so beautifully, “returning to wholeness” and “living the love in our hearts”.
What I sorely missed as a child being raised with a catholic upbringing was the true livingness of God in my life. So much of what was presented was empty words that had understanding in the mind but no true lived experience could be felt in the energy of their use.
I agree. Religion felt like a straightjacket, worse than learning grammar ‘rules’. You had to learn things that made little sense and there did not seem much connection with reality.
In fact they are probably worse than a real straightjacket, because at least with a real straightjacket you know you are bound and due to the physical limitations, seek to be freed from its hold. With the invisible binds of religious belief in our life, we may not even be aware that we are bound by its way and hence do not even seek to free ourselves from it. It offers the illusion of freedom in the sense that we are not physically locked up or bound in any way yet we are within our minds.
I can really relate to that Joshua so much do I gave up on God altogether. Only to now feel very much the divinity all around is at all times.
The Way of the Livingness has always rung true to me and like you shared Shannon, when I’m listening to a presentation it is all encompassing and holds everyone equally in the knowing that we are amazing from the very start.
What you have presented here Shannon is typical of the path of the earnest seeker who is looking for the truth to life, but discovers that there is nothing extrinsic that can deliver the truth that we instrinsically know but cannot find. The story of the Buddha in its own way tells the same tale – of a man who looked to the world for all its suffering and undertook a journey to discover its source. In the end, after looking to every religion, he realised the grandest illusion of all was held by those who held onto the notion of an extrinsic form of divinity.In doing so he freed himself from the dogma of the time and saw through the veil that keeps us disconnected to the truth of our own divine essence. And so he lead the way…..
Religion as many know it today cannot be true religion given the rot that goes on in each and every practice. If religion is truly about relationships, then we have come very far from this. Enter The Way of The Livingness, an age old religion that comes back to the truth of what religion is, where it comes from, what it means and the fact that we are naturally all religious. This has been the only practice that has felt expansive in my body, and all encompassing.
Thank you Shannon for sharing your experience of religion and then finding the true religion. I can so relate to what you have shared about the Catholic Religion having attended the same religion. I was shocked in my late twenties when I found out about the persecution that went on in the dark ages by the Catholic Church; I felt sick to my stomach and never entered the church again. I have since come to understand the falsity in its teaching by coming to understand and live by the teachings of The Way of The Livingness, that God lives within us and always has.
The practical questions you ask about the teachings of christianity expose many gaps, for it is clear God would never hold anyone less than another.
Great to return to your sharing Shannon. I too have found the true Religion I have always known, and not the one the church I grew up with presented. The Way of The Livingness as presented by Serge Benhayon is undeniably the true religion I have been searching for. The truth of the equality, love and brotherhood of humanity.
As a child there was a pull in me to be in a church and the community but once I was there it wasn’t ‘it’ and I would back off. It has been since meeting Universal Medicine that I have been able to fully open to God and what this feels like and means to me and the following sums up my experience beautifully – thank you “… in the presentations on The Way of the Livingness I can feel the energy of equal-ness, brotherhood, love and divinity – as the words are being spoken and in the very room where I am sitting. I can feel it in me, in the presenters, in everyone in the room, and in those outside the building too – it is Unifying”
The first three chapters of getting to know God but eventually rejecting the ideals that are being propagated is such a similar pattern. Yet I am equally blessed to have the fourth chapter, and a chance to reconnect with God thanks to The Way of the Livingness.
Shannon I remember as a child feeling how cold and unloving churches were and the scary pictures from the bible gave me nightmares. With The Way of The Livingness I feel the real warmth and love no scary judgemental God, just pure love.
Institutionalised religions have a lot to answer for, regardless of faith. In huge contrast stands “The Way of The Livingness – the very name captures the truth for me, because it is about living the love in our hearts.” Not one iota of judgement, but instead there is understanding, acceptance, appreciation, love and truth.
I too found nothing of substance in any religion I bumped up against during my formative years… with parents who were effectively atheist, it was a almost encouraged to be disparaging about the usual religions that were active around me during teenage years. Discovering The Way of the Livingness through my associations with Universal Medicine and it’s teachings on the other hand, has been transformationally life-changing to say the least. Coming to understand what true religion means, and how to live religiously, has enriched my life and relationships beyond measure… and that’s what I always understood religion was supposed to do.
It actually is rather disconcerting as to how many feel the same in relation to mainstream religion, that it is judgemental, heavy, controlling and not quite right, that so many people continue to be held by it because they let their mind tell them it is right, even though the body is constantly communicating the opposite. Just how far away from our bodies do we as a humanity live each day?
Every time I set foot in chapel I was bored and my coping strategy was to withdraw. I attended Sunday school and on reflection I felt I had to change and be someone that I knew was not me that is an obedient and ‘good’ girl that listened and did what they were being told. This way of being felt very different to what I now experience when I attend Universal Medicine presentations in that my body comes alive and I want to know more. Essentially, I am supported unconditionally to be the real me – sweet, open, beautiful and encouraged to speak what I feel to say without feeling judgement.
It is curious that once we can feel our connection to God within our body, religion is the most natural thing and there remains no resistance to it.
Adding to that: the way we are taught as children about religion really puts us off, as we know within that this has nothing to do with God, heaven or who we truly are.
A very beautiful, strong, real and accessible testament to what religion truly is – thank you Shannon. Like you I was raised in catholicism and there as much there that did not make sense and for me the biggest one was the empty words, those words spoken with a lived truth behind them, and it felt like it was all about how it looked but not about the quality of how you were in life. I always felt uneasy with this and could never reconcile it, and eventually I walked away from it completely and gave up on religion and God. It’s only been years later when I found The Way of The Livingness that I came back to the naturalness of what God means to mean and embraced the fact that I am religious and that my previous scarring from my religious upbringing had meant I shut down to this most natural expression. So now there is a joy in me knowing I am religious and it’s a lived way, one that speaks and lives the way of love.
I never really had much to do with religion growing up, and what I was taught in school didn’t really add up, For me the Way of The Livingness was absolute heaven, it was music to my ears and it resonated with me like no other religion had done so before, I knew immediately that what was said was true, every cell in my body was sighing with relief and saying yes to what I heard. Looking back this was the first confirmation that I had that it is through the body that we know truth, even though I was not fully aware of it at the time.
“It represents the living truth that is now active again in me – that we all have within us the same and equal opportunity to live in the Glory of Love. There is not a chosen one or few, but there is a spark waiting to be re-ignited in each of us”. So true Shannon I could feel the love of God in my body for the first time in a very very long time when I came to Universal Medicine and The Way of The Livingness
I agree Shannon, a truth lived speaks more to the human frame than all the knowledge in the world spoken at you. The Way of The Livingness is living the truth. It is the difference between telling and showing . One can be seen and felt and absorbed and the other is something that cannot be fully absorbed or understood as can be seen as just empty words.
The problem with all that has been done that is evil in the name of religion, is that it has turned people enmasse from the term religion itself. People are no longer comfortable with the term, as it is associated with zealotry, and blind faith. But true religion is neither of these things. It is instead a developing relationship with the initially unknown, that eventually becomes known through the process of acute observation. In this way, the true process of religion is actually quite scientific. Faith has no part. Why this is not understood, however, is because we tend to associate observation with our capacity to use the 5 senses. The observation I talk of however, requires the development of our 6th sense – or ability to feel energy. And through the development of that 6th sense, our other senses equally become more acute. This enables a form of observation rarely considered, and one that leads to great pondering and revelation, all of which eventually deepen our religious relationship with the truth of our higher state of being – The Soul.
I have always loved the saying that -“the kingdom of God is inside you’ but somehow used to think it applied to everyone else but myself. Through living the principles of The Way of the Livingness I absolutely know that it applies to us all equally.
This is beautiful Shannon. The Way of The Livingness belongs to all of us equally. It is the spark of God lived from our essence. It is joy and love and never judgemental. It is something we can build on when we express the truth we all know from deep within.
It is truly beautiful to find a religion that imposes no dogma and excludes no one… that is deeply personal and yet universal all in one.
I went through a period of rejecting God as I could not reconcile the idea I had absorbed from my religious upbringing that I was ‘unworthy’ because I could not sustain ‘goodness’ on a daily basis. It made feel wretched so I simply gave up. Now I ask myself why I imposed such high standards on myself, because others did not … My experience of The Way Of The Livingness has healed this disconnection with God by exposing the ideal I had created. I can breathe again, and more and more I can see when I am going into ingrained habit of self-critique before I get totally caught up in them. The more I am understanding and caring of myself the negative drops away and I feel more of me and my connection to God.
“In the presentations on The Way of the Livingness I can feel the energy of equal-ness, brotherhood, love and divinity I can feel it in me, in the presenters, in everyone in the room, and in those outside the building too – it is Unifying.” Beautifully said Sharron The Way of the Livingness is Unifying and the Kingdom of God is inside us all.
Its very interesting to hear such a detailed experience from someone that was raised in a religious school. I was not raised with any religious beliefs and went to a public school. My mother always told me that god was inside my heart and god was love and we were all equal, all very good words but coming from a woman (my mother) that openly admits that she did not live these things and therefore although I knew her words to be true, they carried no weight and I chose drugs, alcohol and boys over these empty words and their true meaning. My feeling is that no matter what one puts forward, if it is not lived, it means very little. The way of the Livingness lives everything it presents and therefore speaks to your cells not your mind.
Beautifully said Sarah. The Way of The Livingness really is the real deal – something that you can feel not just read like nice ideas on a page. What you say emphasises that it is not just The Way of The Livingness that is like this, but that this natural law of energy applies to you and me, and everybody. However much we like to think that good words or right answers are what life’s about, the truth is clear here in our bodies.
We grow up in the midst of organised religion, and sure we might say ‘this is not for me’ or think that it does not make sense in any way. But are we willing to see how much these ideas we learn of who God is, and how life works actually carry on in our lives underneath? Are we ready to admit just how much these ingrained beliefs have informed and distorted our way of life? For as you show Shannon even in our apparent rejection of these traditional points of view, we get stuck in a world where God is removed from me and you, where Love is outside of our heart and truth is a selective thing you can own. When we know God by energy, wow how could we ever doubt we are held, nurtured, guided and looked after in the most constant loving way?
As children can certainly feel the imposition of organised religion and know that it isn’t it and that what’s missing is truth.
Thank you Shannon for sharing your experience, I too was brought up in the Catholic religion, and took it all in, and put myself in the “good, right and pleasing God” box until one day in my late twenties, I discovered what had happened during the dark ages by that Church, so that was the end of that religion for me, After years of searching I came to a talk by Serge and that night I knew my searching was over I had come home. Home to my own inner heart where the glory of God has always resided.
I did not truly connect with any type of religion growing up, we weren’t forced into a church or made to go to anything, my parents being very open and not imposing at all. In fact they encouraged us to find our own way, understand the universe and all it has to offer us, that we are bigger than what is presented in institutionalised religion, which I am forever grateful of. However, when I did find ‘the way of the livingness’, I did feel like i had come home, it brought the universal wisdom, into a day to day practical way of living, which we need to see, feel and touch. Amazing.
There’s so many parts of mainstream religion today that simply don’t quite add up and don’t feel right. I agree with all your points, my biggest confusion was how God could be all-loving yet so condemning. The Way of the Livingness is the first religion I have come across in which every single part makes sense AND feels amazing every single day.
For a religion to be true, it should make sense to all of life, and something that can be made sense of, rather than be something that we use for hope and that is enshrouded in mystery.
I too remember the feeling of freedom when I came out of church services but I always knew that God was there but that I didn’t know how to connect. The Way of The Livingness presented the truth and opened the way for me to know that what I had always known was the truth. God is a living part of my true essence and religion is in the way I choose to live.
Thank you Shannon I also was brought up a catholic and went to a catholic college that my family had attended for a couple of generations. I found that I had to turn my back on empty words also. The Way of the Livingness was like a breath of fresh air to me as I could also feel the energy of equal-ness, brotherhood, love and divinity that seemed to missing in all searching I did after leaving the catholic church after I left school as soon as I possibly could.
The Way of the Livingness is a religion that confirms us for what we know is true within us and that is the love and connection with divinity around us.
Your sharing is so close to the way I experienced religion in my youth. I did not attend a Catholic School but have many family members who were and when they spoke of their religion I too felt the restriction and imposition put on them as sinner responsible for the death of the one Son Of God. In truth the religion I was part of which was Anglican was very similar. The Way of The Livingness is to me the truth of who we are all equal Sons of God, not sinners but made from Love.
Your sharing is beautiful and honest Shannon. I loved the way you discerned and analysed your experiences in the Catholic Church which was clearly not about living the love in our hearts. What you expressed about The Way of the Livingness is simple, profound and wise.
“The Way of the Livingness – the very name captures the truth for me, because it is about living the love in our hearts”.
I loved every bit of your sharing Shannon. Through your sharing I realised how much I rejected church and religion as well in the past. There was a time when I thought I can only have a relationship with god, when I’m in a church. And when I was in the church it was terrible – the consequence was, I didn’t go into the church again, i.e. no relationship with god, so I thought. Thanks to “The way of the livingness” I know now that I can have a relationship every second of the day with god. It doesn’t depend on anything. And that I’m a living son of god as well, as everybody equally.
Thank you Shannon for a great blog, I had been in a few religions during my time but none offered me anything, only more searching. When I sat in the hall for the first time and heard Serge speak, I knew in my heart, that at last I had come home, that what he offered was what I had been searching for, I didn’t need to look far, for what he offered was within me all along.
‘I no longer feel fragmented – like religion and God are separate to me: now we are one and the same.’ I had this feeling all the time whilst I was growing up – the constant search for fragments of a fractured truth. It is amazing to have found the whole truth, not from being presented but as a known quality from inside me thanks to Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine.
‘ The Way of the Livingness I can feel the energy of equal-ness, brotherhood, love and divinity ‘ – Beautifully said Shannon and I agree The Way of the Livingness is everything I ever knew to be true about Religion and God that was greatly missing from Catholicism when I was growing up. What an absolute blessing to discover this true Religion.
It is so easy to picture you as a child Shannon, with “the natural lightness of being and joy” you describe. It is beautiful to read and feel how you have returned to this way of being inside. Thank God for The Way of The Livingness.
Yes l too feel the absolute truth is “there is not a chosen one or few, but there is a spark waiting to be reignited in each of us.” It is through our simple choices to be loving and gentle with ourselves first, and then all others, every day which will bring this true quality to humanity through brotherhood. Once and for all.
Your experiences echo my words exactly. This is precisely what I felt from living for years of being in mass and church in a Catholic parish and a Catholic school, feeling like the Catholic way was in fact the way it was, the only way, yet it never made any sense at all why they said what they said because they were talking about Glory.. yet none of the priests or teachers were particularly glorious! Living something is the most powerful way of sharing a truth with another
I agree Kevin “the way of the Livingness” is nothing like an other religions. “It is just about love and truth and learning to trust in what we feel. We are all sons of God, each and everyone one of us not just a chosen few.” This feels so true to me, there is no one person better than the other, we are all equal.
I went to church when I was younger and I was always bored and felt like running around and playing. Also when I was older, I went to church around Christmas and the words that were spoken did not feel like lived words. Like you say, they carry an emptiness. With The Way of the Livingness and how Serge Benhayon presents this, it comes from a livingness. I can relate to it, as he relates to me from a deep knowing, a knowing that I have as well.
Such a steady and deeply loving blog Shannon, thank you for writing it. I wasn’t brought up a Catholic in this life but I can still feel hurts being stirred within me as I read your words and those of others who have commented, more to ponder here and feel.
What a beautiful blog Shannon! I was not brought up a Catholic but I could totally feel the heaviness and imposition of the religion in the houses of friends who were. I am forever distressed by the images of the suffering Jesus on the cross that sit on the walls of rooms in the house or churches, constant reminders that we are flawed beings and that someone suffered and died on our behalf, thus glorifying martyrdom and self-sacrifice. Such a contrast to the lightness and expansiveness felt in the presentations of the Way of the Livingness.
As someone who was raised in the Catholic religion, attending Catholic schools etc, I can easily relate to all you have written here Shannon. I was particularly struck by your words around the separation you felt between religion as you were taught it and the contrast when you started to learn about the Way of the Livingness and it being a ‘living truth’. When I consider religion in this way I can appreciate the simplicity around the concept, rather than the fear provoking imagery I was raised with in regards to religion.
Yes, and the simple fact that a lot that had been taught simply cannot be true. Listening to untruths is a burden especially if it goes on for a long time.
“The Way of the Livingness – the very name captures the truth for me, because it is about living the love in our hearts.” And for me too Shannon. God in our everyday living, in every moment, it’s a choice, and one I willingly and appreciatively make. Having clearly felt the difference, and the unimposing nature of true love, I would choose no other.
Religion for me is simply reconnecting to and living the love and divines wisdom of our inner hearts in our ordinary everyday lives.
“I no longer feel fragmented – like religion and God are separate to me: now we are one and the same.” My catholic upbringing also made me feel separate from others, carrying around with me for years the guilty feeling of not having done good enough, not being good enough, not deserving of heaven. The Way of the Livingness has a unifying power, is free of judgment and encompasses every single one of us.
“Those days in church always felt like I was hearing empty words. Yet in the presentations on The Way of the Livingness I can feel the energy of equal-ness, brotherhood, love and divinity – as the words are being spoken and in the very room where I am sitting. I can feel it in me, in the presenters, in everyone in the room, and in those outside the building too – it is Unifying.”-
Shannon I can totally relate to all you have said.
I went to church because I had to, if not I sinned. I feared doing the wrong thing growing up so I became the “good catholic girl”.
One time I missed confession before Easter Sunday so I prayed to God for forgiveness for about an hour in my room.
How crazy! I actually feared God’s punishment of going to Hell when I died, instead of heaven.
Thankfully, since meeting Serge Benhayon all that he says makes sense and I have now reconnected to my own inner knowing in the inner heart and can feel truth.
I used to dread having to go to Sunday School and Church and found it all very tedious and judgmental, however the Way of the Livingness holds a joy and expansion and TRUTH now knowing that we are all equally the Sons of God.
‘As a person who has spent a lifetime taking on other people’s issues, I know the end result and devastation that results from this in my own body, so this can’t be a true way of being.’ I can really relate to this and know now that I used this activity to avoid looking at my own life and taking responsibility for that. This is yet another example of the bastardisation of the meaning of the word religion that is present in mainstream religions and which leads to so many problems which you have highlighted so well in this blog and how The Way of the Livingness calls us to focus on the way we are living and the responsibility we have to live lovingly and reflect this out to humanity thank you Shannon.
This is a great blog for explaining the way that ‘traditional’ religions cut the joy out of us from an early age, sending us packing and how exactly the Way of the Livingness feels different. ‘I don’t find myself yawning, or bored or watching the clock, waiting for it to be over. I don’t feel like I am being cursed for being who I am, or imprisoned by being there….I feel free to express the truth and the love in my body, heart and soul as an equal Son of God.’
The Way of the Livingness has shown me it is possible to live as a Son of God on earth as Jesus represents in all the stories I remember from Sunday School. This is what resonated with me but was not lived in my body until I came across this religious activity that is the Way of the Livingness which supports me to set a solid foundation of religious practise and discipline that is full, whole and complete.
I now feel the true meaning of religion and God in my body. It has become a simple connection to my stillness and a very tangible sense of my light and a connection to the preciousness that we all hold.
More on the voice of truth – We should never let another’s choice to not hear the truth, be cause for us to not speak it.
I agree with this in Full Liane! Truth is not made to be held back, it is made to be living, and expressed from us without reservation. I have been deeply confirmed and feel a blessing in your writing, thank you so much.
We have a long and bloodied history of persecuting people open enough to speak pure truth. The persecution is there to scare others away from speaking with an open heart. Why do we do this? It would seem that we have become a humanity more committed to living what is not true, than living what is. We are so enmeshed in our comfortable cocoons that we refuse to see that what we have created is a vastly reduced way of being compared to how we were originally created when we were breathed forth from the body of love that is God. So when a claimed Son of God graces our lives and reminds us that we are all the equal Sons of God, we cannot hear him. We cannot hear him because we don’t want to hear him, for it would mean we need to step up and out of our imprisoning cocoons and actually make the choice to see things as they truly are and not how we would like them to be. Truth never hurts, it’s the lack of it lived that hurts us to our core. So when someone comes speaking pure truth with absolute love, we are left to feel, by virtue of their reflection, what we have forsaken. In this situation, there will always be those who will pull to where the truth speaker stands, and those who refuse to move and so seek to silence the voice of truth.
‘Truth never hurts, it’s the lack of it lived that hurts us to our core.’ Well said Liane and a great reminder for me this week as I face changes in my life. Thank you.
Well Said! This is full of power Liane! It clearly just outlines the game that we play on a constant daily basis, avoiding truth, or at least the full expression of it. We have settled for a lesser life and one that is very comfortable. God’s love does not say be comfortable, it is ever evolving. The state of our world, relationships and the tension that exists should be enough to wake us up and say “what is going on?”; it’s certainly something I ask everyday.
I loved reading every word of this Shannon, thankyou. It feels like a real claiming back of true religion and I am with you on every word. I have always felt that we strayed from what religion was all about when we ‘placed’ God outside the body. Once externalized, the next step was to build a place where he ‘had to’ be worshipped. And from here, all the various impositions were easy to instill because we had already separated from truth. Once fragmented in this way, it becomes very easy to be sold fragments of truth as the whole truth because we have lost sight of the absolute. The manufactured religions we have today are accepted because of their long lineage and not because they contain truth in its entirety. They are the tasty morsels offered to those who have forgotten or ignored the simple truth that the Kingdom of God lies within us all and the true church is our heart. It is this that The Way of the Livingness honours and thus this door is open to all, for it beats within the chest of the every one of us.
I really loved this Shannon, I too went to a Catholic high school, but was not a Catholic. At the time, the school was brand new and was ‘allowing’ non- Catholics to join the school, I am 100% sure to be seen to be tolerating others and being non biased. When I started, I had no knowledge of Catholicism, not having been brought up on it, through primary school and the like. But I did have a similar experience to you, when attending ‘Religion’ as a subject and learning about the bible, it felt heavy, very critical and was not a pleasant experience. Since coming to the Way of the Livingness, feeling true religion really for the first time in my life. All the criticisms and judgements that were first taught to me, make a whole lot more sense, a lot more loving sense, than anything I learned about the Catholic Church.
I enjoyed this and can relate to much of what you have written. For me as an adult I always felt as though by attending church I was waiting for something to be delivered, so you can imagine my disappointment after each service. The best bit was meeting up with people afterwards and having a chat.
I can relate to what you share in the beginning of this blog- that when you walked into a church it felt cold. This has been my experience too, every church I have walked into has felt cold and the seats always uncomfortable- as a kid it just never seemed to me like that would be a place that God would chose to create, any place he had a hand in I imagined would be warm and supportive for people, not a place that picked fault and told them what they are not or condemned them for mistakes they had made. God’s love is warm and supportive bringing out all in you that is true.
Reading this blog again, I could feel what a great religion The way of the Livingness is and what i truly means, “The Way of the Livingness – the very name captures the truth for me, because it is about living the love in our hearts.” This line says it all, It is for all to live the love that is in our hearts.
“The reason for Jesus being put to death, I was told, was to clear humanity’s sins or wrongdoings, but his death didn’t really change any of that… it all still continues.”
Absolutely true! It seems that this perspective on His death gives many people an excuse for continuing their bad behaviours with an easy way out, being let off scot free. People joke about it, going to confessional and saying Hail Mary’s, thus illustrating their lack of intention to address their behaviours, ie, their lack of integrity and responsibility.
The unifying energy of the Way of the Livingness, founded on love and divinity is something I have never felt in any other religions. The truth within it is all embracing and undeniable.
The Way of the Livingness aligns with the truth in the heart. Nothing is more beautiful to live from this place. I grew up around people who had rejected the religion they were taught in childhood, this confused me as I was born a seeker of wisdom, seeker of the truth and I knew deep down that there was some truth in religion as it was taught in the bible. But after attending church I could feel it was deeply flawed. How did I know this? Because the truth was inside me all along. When I discovered Universal Medicine and The Way of The Livingness I knew I had come home. it’s a way of being that allows you to stand in your own power, and the truth you hold in your heart. This is THE way.
Wow Shannon, this was really cool to read! I grew up with Catholic education too and had forgotten all the detail and guilt in the story about Jesus’ death. I always loved spending time in mass at the Chapel of my school as it allowed me quiet time and space to just be me. I did not feel this way in all churches, and can certainly relate to what you shared about falling asleep at times. One time I even fainted in standing around the alter! I have felt this in other places too where the energy is quite heavy, like a blanket that won’t allow you the freedom to be you. The Way of the Livingness to me is complete love and freedom, and allows me all the space I could ever need to expand and be the glorious me I know I am.
Our inner knowing as a child is so clear and true, yet the outside world in whatever form begins to impose as soon as we are born. The comment ‘a living truth’ holds particular power for me this morning as I read your blog Shannon. These three small words encompass something very powerful and that is ‘The truth is something that is alive, breathing, moving and active – it is us in our lives living the re-connection to who we all truly are – The Sons of God’
That is very huge, what you are sharing Shannon – you expose a lot of things in the catholic church, which don’t feel right and yes – we are all sons of god.
Thank you Shannon for showing that for a lot of us, religion was some strange thing that was outside of us that if we did not enjoin we would be damned. True religion is where it has always been and will always been…within us all. Trying to loose your religion is like trying to run away from your shadow. When we rediscover that god is in us, we have no shadow because we shine like the sun for all to see.
When I read your words here Shannon, there is a feeling of freedom and acceptance at the end as you describe what The Way of The Livingness means to you. It is beautiful to feel your return to the lightness and natural joy that you always knew.
I searched in all directions to find a true religion, I studied and lived quite a few of the so called religions, with utmost dedication to detail, and always ended up feeling awful – until I found “The Way of the Livingness”. Again I really put in practice what was presented. And my life has become amazing on a very practical level. It is actually the first true religion I found, because it reconnected me back to myself. The other religions were mere bundles of ideals, that don’t harmonise with all and everything equally.
I was never indoctrinated with any religion apart from a few visits to Sunday school, Buddhist temples and meetings.
However what this blog has highlighted is what religion actually is.
From my experience it is something so natural so innate and something that is always able to be connected to no matter how dark the situation may be. Because religion is carried around everywhere with you and everyone else.
It sounds horrible to read and consider that the current forms of religion are so far removed from the truth that can actually be felt within. Your account in not an isolated one Shannon as many who have commented not only on this particular blog but on the others in regards to religion have been able to relate to such experiences, myself included. The dark wood inside the school church and the supposed songs of glory did not relate to me as outside through the open door I could see the sun shining on the fields. It felt like the church wanted to be and sing and praise about everything that was out there in the field but had confined itself inside this tiny stone structure. What that experience showed me, and only later confirmed by The Way of The Livingness was that God cannot be contained to a building and no amount of singing in the dark will bring glory. I now know that God is and can be felt within me so even if I am underground on the tube, that light can be felt.
I love your description of the stone church here Leigh it is so true churches always feel damp and cold, even the mighty structures like Salisbury cathedral, they do not emanate the glory that is outside the window and certainly do not reflect the glory within!
The Way of the Livingness is the only religion that presents the teaching of the true origin of the word religion! From the ancient Latin the word religion means to reconnect or return to. We reconnect or return to our inner heart as presented by Universal Medicine through the inspirational teachings of Serge Benhayon.
Greg I felt the same – when I feel what the word religion means I no-longer have an aversion to it like I used to before when I associated “religion” with man made institutions like the catholic church.
I agree David, I used to have an aversion to the word religion. What Serge Benhayon, presents he lives no more no less!
I had for most of my life cringed at the word religion. Finding the true meaning religion will change the world in time.
Absolutely sjmatsonuk, the changes in the students of the Livingness are a divine blessing that the world can see now! So let true religion share what the religious assemblies lack. Return or reconnect as the son of God and to know ” the Kingdom of God is inside me ” is for every-one not just a select few!
So true annemarie00, God, Religion, Buddha, Jesus, and many more words have lost their true meaning. So is it any wonder it feels like returning home when the Ageless Wisdom presentations by Serge Benhayon offers us the true meaning of words!
I love your blog Shannon, I felt the same as you when I first learnt about religion. None of the religions felt true to me, there was something that just didn’t fit. Reading your blog explained it so well how I felt. Although I never had to go to church it feels like I can relate to the feelings you’ve described. Now, through The Way of The Livingness my relationship with God feels whole, true and loving. It is a never ending relationship I am building and connecting to God. I love that knowing and feeling that God loves us all equally without judgment or punishment. We are all worthy of his love, no one is excluded or rejected. God’s love is always constant and accessible to all.
A religion that doesnt impose on you with its dogma and separation ,but allows you to be in your connection and joy feels like true religion to me
Same here Greg. The joy I feel when I connect to who I am and God is amazing. My journey back to God is only beginning and I never feel rushed or pushed to be or do anything. I am enjoying the journey in my own terms and from my own discovery. Not needing to prove anything but to just follow my heart in knowing and feeling the connection to God.
Agree Greg. While I’m still letting go of my personal reaction to religion, I do feel quite strongly about religion not needing to be a tool to separate us. Living and working together as one huge universal team sounds like the way it should be.
Yes, a true religion doesn’t impose. That is so true. A true religion inspires you just to be you and to serve humanity, to show other people, that there is another way – the way of the livingness.
It’s true Shannon, at the Way of the Livingness or Universal Medicine presentations I’m never bored, never looking at the clock. I’ve only realised now that this rarely happens… Must mean it’s got something about it then, hey? True religion with true meaning and depth that captures who we truly are. Reading this -‘left me feeling like I didn’t want to know about God or Jesus’, it made me wonder about the missed opportunities to connect with God’s wonder… And how bastardised things can become so that it looses its joy.
Thats So beautiful Emily! Im never bored at a Universal Medicine presentation either! I find them so true! Its amazing
The Way of the Livingness gave me back the words like Glory and God and the true meaning of religion. There was a resistance to use and claim the words because of my history with the Catholic Church. By hearing and reading the true meaning and spoken in the quality you are speaking of Shannon I could feel this wisdom equally in my body.
“The Way of the Livingness – the very name captures the truth for me, because it is about living the love in our hearts.” So true and great to re-read your post Shannon. Connecting with who we really are in our heart – not paying attention to all the nonsense that gets into my head on a daily basis trying to bring me down.
I also like the fact, that it is about living the love. So many people just talk about love, but they don’t live it. For me it is an unfolding journey to feel my love in my heart more and more.
Awesome Article Shannon, even better on a re-read. It confirms so much that I know, because the way of the livingness is for everyone and it is the most natural thing. Everyone has a heart, everyone has love in their inner heart and every comes from God. Connecting to the joy of this is the way of the livingness, and openly sharing it with all others. When you walk to the car IT IS THERE, when you are doing the dishes IN IT COMES and when you write about it I FEEL LIKE IM CELEBRATING EVERY MOMENT OF THE MAGIC OF GOD THAT IS LIVED! that is wonderful and powerful. If a religion can’t allow you to connect to that then its not a true religion.
Awesome observations harryjwhite!
Love your comment Harry, if a religion does not allow you to connect to the riches of the soul then it is not true.
Thank you for sharing Jo, what a confirmation from you and your mother of how much we need to speak the truth to one another and expose these things that have been impacting on us. I feel so inspired by your mother’s response.
Yes, that is an amazing statement. I caught up with an old friend last year, after 15 years and what he said after seeing me again was that it ignited a spark within him. Magic moment.
Shannon this is such a powerfully expressed and deeply moving piece of writing that is so confirming to me that true religion begins with loving ourselves and living that love in the world.
Thank you Shannon, thats an awesome reflection how we turned away from truth because of the imposing ideals and beliefs of the institutionalized religion that has nothing to do with what religion and our connection to God is. When deeply resonated in me was “when I had rejected that version of Religion and God, I had also rejected the possibility of it being a living truth – and in doing so, I had rejected a part of myself.” Great blog, thank you!!!
I agree , this blog is so true and honest account of what most if us have to endure and therefore most of us experience a disconnection from God because of the teachings loaded with conditions and rules. To me most religions just didn’t sit well or felt true. True religion to me is The Way of The Livingness, bringing harmony, stillness, joy, truth and love and uniting humanity.
So true Chan – loaded with conditions and rules. That doesn’t make sense at all. God is just love and he reflects his love to everybody, no matter what somebody is doing or not doing.
Shannon The Way of The Livingness is certainly the only religion where it not only makes sense but everything about it feels true. I remember being involved in what I used to think was religion such as catholic but not only did so much of it not make sense it also felt empty with a scattering of things that I could agree with but overall it felt untrue. You’ve described very beautifully true religion as is the case with The Way of The Livingness – God is no longer a mystical man on a cloud but a love inside and all around, I am no longer a sinner as I grew up being told but an equal son of God.
A beautiful blog Shannon and so gorgeously expressed. I can relate to just about everything you have shared. As I child I felt the same as I also went to a Catholic school and had to attend church regularly. What we were being taught about God, Jesus and religion was contrary to what my personal experiences and feelings were about God and Jesus and the rules of religion. As I felt that the light of God was within me, I could truly feel it. Yet what we were being taught do not confirm this. When I shared this I was encouraged to doubt this feeling. So I also began to reject religion as what was been presented did not feel true. Many years later, when I came across the religion of The Way of the Livingness I knew in my heart and soul that what I was feeling when I was a child was indeed true. This is what was being confirmed and there was no doubt. ‘The Way of the Livingness – the very name captures the truth for me, because it is about living the love in our hearts. It represents the living truth that is now active again in me – that we all have within us the same and equal opportunity to live in the Glory of Love. There is not a chosen one or few, but there is a spark waiting to be re-ignited in each of us.’ – beautifully said. Not only do I now feel the light of God within me again (and know it is equally within everyone) but now I can choose to live, celebrate and share the joy of this glory in my everyday living.
Shannon, like many before I have also had a very similar church experience, which rather than connecting me to me, just sent me searching for something else. My connection to Universal Medicine is such a living way for me and allowed me to feel what real truth is in my body and to be responsible for my behaviours. More importantly I know that my soul has everything I am and can be, and I am on an unfolding journey back to feeling my own divinity.
I love your words “I am on an unfolding journey back to feeling my own divinity.”. We are sons of god and we can celebrate us every day for just being us. There is no need to prove anything.
I can relate to everything you have written about your experiences with religion Shannon. As a child I felt the coldness and heaviness inside the Catholic Church and the sermons were never confirming of us as loving gentle souls. It has been very beautiful to be supported by Universal Medicine to reconnect to the love I am within, reconnected to God again.
Very beautiful and healing to read Shannon, thank you. When I read your words: “When I came across a religion called The Way of The Livingness, there was a sad realisation that I had rejected religion and my connection to God because of all that had been imposed on me that didn’t feel true.” I could relate completely. I have rejected religion for the same reasons in the past. But now I know The Way of The Livingness and this is turning around my rejection of the word religion. I now feel what it truly means and that is that God is in every way living inside me with all that I do as I am a Son of God. This is such a warmth in my heart to feel instead of the damp cold I used to experience with the Catholic church.
This blog feels very whole in its description of the religious experience, certainly it resonated with my own experiences, it doesn’t make sense that Jesus would be the one and only and the interpretation that this was so seems to be wholly inaccurate, it feels much more believable that Jesus was one among many down the ages who connected to an essence that we are all able to access. The martyrdom does not feel true either, as this is not what God and love truly represent, so it is no wonder that as a small child who could feel all this I was put off and bored and resentful of being in church, as the preaching was filled with words I consider then and now to be empty and lacking in truth or love. Thanks Shannon for your immense contribution on this sometimes treacherous subject.
And how many people do we see and feel living in martydom today, unconsciously and consciously? We are yet to fully fathom the depth of harm deeply within us, that has constructed a completely different way to live, that is not close to the love we innately hold within. Universal Medicine has been the antidote to this.
Absolutely Shannon, The Way of Livingness allows us to find God by our connection within and to honour and care for our bodies as it is the way through which we express divinity to all.
Amazing blog thank you. In the not so distant past I felt a huge amount of discomfort and rejection of the word ‘religion’ but I realised this was because of all the lies I had been subjected to over the years. Thanks to Universal Medicine I now embrace religion in the true sense of the word.
Shevon, I was the same. It was very hard for me to understand that too. As I always knew, I was always an equal son of God.
Shannon this article is so glorious, I could not agree more. The way of the livingness is everything I always knew a religion should be. I can look back now as you have described Shannon, and see the Catholic religion for the falseness of what it is. You have been able to describe the deficiencies of the catholic institution without angst or frustration or judgment.
Thank you Shannon for expressing so beautifully and eloquently what The Way of the Livingess is about. I loved to sing but like you I found “the hymns felt tiring, heavy and burdensome” and they filled my mother with emotion she would just cry and cry. They only seemed to support the misery instead of the joy of being alive and the lightness of being which as a child I knew to be true. Like you The Way of the Livingness brings a joy in expressing the love I have in my connection to God, myself and others and this way of living I will never forget ever!
I loved reading your blog Shannon and am reminded of the tension, frustration and anxiety I deeply felt during my 25 years teaching in Catholic Schools. It was not actually the students, curriculum, school community or my colleagues etc etc, that caused these feelings in me, but the obvious deception, manipulation and harm perpetrated by the Church.
It is with deep appreciation to Serge Benhayon for his presenting to us “The Way of the Livingness” Religion, what a blessing.
There is so much here in your blog, I was particularly taken with your words;
“There is not a chosen one or few, but there is a spark waiting to be re-ignited in each of us.
What a powerful blog in claiming “The Way of the Livingness” as your way Shannon. The Anglican church I grew up going to, also felt very sombre, dark and gloomy, full of contradictions – definitely not joyful, the best part of Sunday was going home for a baked dinner. I wholeheartedly agree with what you have expressed here “The Way of the Livingness – the very name captures the truth for me, because it is about living the love in our hearts”.
Awesome sharing Shannon – and yes, so simple – the Kingdom of God lies within us all – this is the heading, the bottom line, the fine print, the ALL. For me it is about accepting this more and more each day and embracing it more and more each day. But I do know it is there – some days I am more connected and can feel it more, other days less so, but either way does not change the fact that it is there, simple as that.
Thank you Shannon. I too can relate with feeling a heaviness and and austerity with organised religion growing up, dismissing religion and god as a result for many years to come, only to rejoice from the depths of who I am when I rediscovered the true religion that I have always known through The Way of the Livingness. Religion is an intricate part of my life and it always was and always will be. The tainted version of religion tried to stamp it out and have me walk away, but in the long run I did not. True religion is always about a deep communion with ourselves, with everyone else and with god in celebration of all that we are, and this is embodied and exemplified in full through the Way of the Livingness.
It must have been so tough to be constantly imposed upon, yet there are many others who have the same experience as Shannon. Hopefully before too long, religious education at school will change as it is already at its breaking point considering what is going on amongst Catholic schools and many parents refusing to let their children attend scripture classes, etc.
Thank you for sharing your experiences with religion Shannon. I can so relate to what you have shared. And I agree that the Way of the Livingness is unifying and confirming of both myself and others that we have the divine within us all. Not out side as something very hard to attain.
Shannon you’ve reminded me of the feelings I felt at school and about church. It’s quite shocking the impact the church’s version of religion has had on me when I look back in the past and how I would avoid the very word religion. It’s been a gradual process to see what a true religion is and how very different the Way of the Livingness is from any of the other religions I have an understanding about.
I agree David, it is difficult to fathom the full impact that religion has had on us all, whether we have been involved in various religions or not, we are all affected by a certain way of being, to play small, to not shine, to not show your greatness, this is weaved throughout society, so thickly. It is part of the way the world is based upon an energy that is not truth or love or honouring of the people living in it. A way of being that comes from the mind and people ‘saying so’ when in fact the authority is not coming from a lived wisdom.
So true the spark is waiting in each one of us to be re-ignited. It never disappears, when the moment comes it it ignites. How beautiful that is.
Thank you Shannon. I can very much related to the experiences you had growing up. I also reacted against what I saw and felt about the teachings of the church and religion in general, parked God in a corner somewhere with a do not touch sign on him. I blamed God for a lot of what I saw and I know this is very common. I can now feel how it can often be easier blaming someone or something else that actually taking responsibility for ourselves and really seeing the truth that we make our own choices in all things, which means there is no-one to blame – ever. I have always knows that God lived within everyone, but that we don’t often allow that connection. This knowing is now something that is alive in me and its in every small moment or every tiny detail – which makes every day and joyful and precious experience.
This is a really fantastic blog Shannon – so beautifully expressed. I can relate to a lot in your story except I did a lot less questioning of Catholicism as I grew up, which is now interesting to see and feel. I have always felt there is a part of me that is deeply religious, but have not necessarily been able to put words to it until my experience with the Ageless Wisdom and The Way of the Livingness. I knew in my late teens that Catholicism was not for me, as the teachings did not all hold true, therefore I could not agree with just part of it. Now I feel the absolute truth – presented with the ancient-ness of its lineage, but with absolute application to life the way it is now. It really is amazing, and I know too that I have found again my true religion.
Hello Shannon, I remember church as well and we went to the same school. It was a huge building with statues and to be honest as a child I didn’t go in there alone. The building always smelt funny and some of the things they said just didn’t make sense. The priest would visit our classrooms once a week to say hello and speak to us. I use to ask him questions about the things I didn’t understand and I remember being more confused by the answers, so I would ask again and usually he would get a little annoyed at me and then ignore me. I learnt to just be quiet and listen and after some time it would be finished. I didn’t realise how this would set me up to be an adult in the way that instead of saying what I was feeling and asking questions I would stop short and be careful not to offend anyone and just wait for it to be over, smile and walk away. One thing I noticed about church and the bit I always looked forward to was when it was over, everyone would stand out the front and chat and children would play.
After I left school and was old enough I didn’t return to church it just didn’t make sense and I would also shy away from saying I was catholic. I didn’t really want to have a religion or be a part of anything like what I had seen. When Universal Medicine re introduced the word religion I cringed at first but as we got back to what the word actually meant a lot more made sense, it simply means to tie or bind over again. There is nothing about buildings or anything like that it’s just about a connection. I don’t worship anyone or anything but I have a deep care and love for everyone and everything. The Way of the Livingness is all about connection, thanks to Universal Medicine I have and have had a religion all along and that religion simply lives in me and I connect to it over and over. Thanks Shannon.
I love this Tim, that this is how you feel and it is also how I feel, not ashamed at all. I know what it is to me, from within me and it can’t be taken away
I relate to the feeling of having rejected religion not because it is not a very true and important part of life but because of how and what I was taught religion was. The way of the livingness, has shown me a very practical and personal expression of this very precious part of life.
Its is so beautiful to live the Way of the Livingness. A religion that truly returns us to where we are from, and so clear in where we are heading to. An amazing gift as it is something we all already know deep within.
The Way of the Livingness brings truth, clarity, unity and love back to the word religion.
Thank you of reminding me of the huge awareness and wisdom that we have as children. As children we don’t need to figure things out, we just know. I went to a boarding school, and we had to go to a horrible dark church every Sunday where much was made of swinging intense incense around. I too hated it, and knew very clearly that it offered no love or truth. I hated the sight of it, sound of it, smell of it, and its darkness, and coldness. I didn’t need to know why, I just knew, without any doubt.
Religion had always represented a separate and fractured way of being. I was seen as a catholic and those in a different or no religion were viewed not as worthy of God’s love as we were, priests were more worthy of love than me, women were the root of all evil and there are many more examples. The point I am making is there was no equality, no true union of people in brotherhood even though the church preached this to be their way.
The Way of The Livingness is a religion actually based on the quality of relationships we have with each other, it is very personal in the fact it offers space for much personal healing and reconnecting, yet at the same time it is about bringing the essence of ourselves to join with all the essences of the rest of humanity to evolve together in true brotherhood.
I too had walked away from religion when finding it did not represent any consistent truth, yet when I found The Way of The Livingness I knew straight away it was for me and it is the only way. Since being involved with this Religion my whole definition and understanding of God and religion has changed.
Thank you Shannon for sharing your story. Religions were formed after great men and women as Mary, Buddha, Jesus, Mohammad had lived religious lives passing on how simple the truth was and how it was there to be lived. Never at the expense of another but an all encompassing way to live. It was all about people there relationship with each other which was divine as we all in truth reside in our divine father a body of love. Seeing themselves equally to all men and God,
Religions as we have known them, took this living way and made it all about doctrine and lost connection with the living divinity we share. And so we don’t feel it and react to it in all our different ways knowing that it is not truth.
The Way of the Livingness as presented by Serge Benhayon is true religion as it is founded on living religion, a living connection we all share with divinity in all our daily life..
I agree Eduardo. And the beauty of the Way of the Livingness is that it is up to each of to take responsibility and not blame God for how our lives are and the way the world is.
Living along side a true religion feels amazing. To know what you hear and read feels so right, for oneself and all others equally, is so very refreshing and awesome. I didn’t even make it into a church when I was young. I was given the choice by my parents and based on only what I had heard from others about hell and sins etc it just didn’t make sense to me and I’ve never been to church or heard mass, ever. While this was a good thing on one hand it left me feeling confused as I associated God with religion and because I didn’t believe in region as it was presented by the main religions of the day, I didn’t grow up having a connection to God. It felt too big and confusing and I threw my hands in the air and said nothing makes sense. Finally it made sense when I attended a course presented by Serge Benhayon and read all his books (I was not a big reader so to complete these should have been hard but I finished them very quickly). It all finally made sense, and for the mysteries of the world to now make simple sense, there really isn’t a word that could embody the enormous gratitude I have for Serge Benhayon and all at Universal Medicine.
Tracy I could not agree more. True religion is an amazing feeling. A religion whereby your body and heart know something is true rather than having to have “faith” and “belief” that it is true. Likewise I was not a big reader when young but the books written by Serge Benhayon have inspired me to read. They are the only books I know where you read then one day and then if you read the same page at another point you understand a whole different level of what is being said.
I always had a very ambivalent relationship with God, somehow I knew He was for real, but all the religious tamtam around it made me very confused. And cynical, because of all the atrocious things that happen(ed) in the name of God. I felt it was actually better to stay away from all religion, so I searched in new age modalities. Which did not give me the answer either. Now, through The Way of the Livingness, I found a true connection within and I know I can not be fooled anymore by anything outside that is not coming from that Ancient and Universal wisdom.
Reading your blog Shannon brought back many feelings and memories of my convent schooling, the coldness and lack of joy is something that defined my years in school. This felt so repressive and so far away from the love that I now know is the marker of true religion.
Yes beautiful Giovanne. It is so simple.
Thank you Shannon, your blog opens me up to re examine the Catholic education I had for 12 years. It formed an image of God that was distant from me. The word religion was associated with feelings of onerousness , an institution that has commandments that I had to follow because they are ‘right’.
I can recall the musty warmth of the school chapel, the nuns, the prayers, the songs, the talks and sermons by the priest. Some of the teachers and nuns were caring and kind. The place was a safe and secure haven, with moments of boredom and mundanity that was removed from the life ‘outside’. I believe that the community of people did their best to behave charitably, do the good and right thing. There was a sense of duty and rules, a kind of stifling sensation held you.
After that ‘education’, I just walked away from everything associated with it.
With my life now and my experiences with Universal Medicine and the Way of the Livingness my eyes are opened to a completely new meaning of what life can be. I am re building a true relationship with myself and others. I am coming to understand and feel what God and our divinity could mean. That it is possible to be alive with joy, fun and freedom..An expansiveness and truth that connects us all. And that to be religious is simply learning from our relationships to all beings and things.
This is really awesome Shannon, your experience echoing that of my own.
“But not just that, the words are spoken in the quality that goes hand in hand with the sacredness and essence of Religion – a returning to the Glory we come from.”
What you have said here is so true, there is a quality which I too have found here, and never have I found it anywhere else.
For me, being religious meant fanatically, blindly faithful. God was someone I couldn’t quite get on with – I was never good enough for him and I acted as if I didn’t care, even though I had a secret longing to be accepted and prayed and tried to speak to him only when it suited me. The Way of the Livingness allows me to understand religion, God and my relationship with them in a bigger picture. It offers me to build an undeniable foundation and claim the rightful place in this space called Universe.
‘There is a spark waiting to be re-ignited in each of us’ So true Shannon, we all have this spark within, a spark of great potential constantly offering another way, the way of the Livingness.
I agree Matthew. This spark is within us all equally, but the world is not geared towards living it. The Way of the Livingness is not a set of rules, like may religions espouse of their ‘way’. It is a way of developing our awareness so that we individually take responsibility for connecting to our spark and nurturing its expression in the world.
Thank you thank you thank you for this blog Shannon.
There needs to be no further rejection and/or resistance of what feels untrue ever again, when we simply live the living truth in all situations, no matter how powerful it seems in the world now. And this living truth has no element of fighting, or having to be right, it simply is joyful and light and amazing.
Religion was a pretty big part of family and extended families lives. I went to Sunday School and then on to a fellowship from the age of 15 but I am pretty sure if I had been left to choose I would have avoided Sunday School ,but fellowship was fun.. I gave up attending church after I married, except on rare occasions, Then I had children and decided to have them Christened in the Church , the first two were Christened, then because I wasn’t attending Church regularly there was some question around Christening in the Church of the third child, it did happen but for my fourth child I though maybe I shouldn’t bother but she may have felt left out or not worthy so I took her to my Home Town and an old Minister that the family knew Christened her with no questions asked. I had a few conversations with Ministers concerning what Jesus would have done in the circumstances , turned the child away? Judged the child on what the Parents did or didn’t do with their church attendance? I am seen to be a quiet little mouse but when I feel the injustice of a situation I can rise to the occasion! So when Serge told us The Way of The Livingness is a religion I didn’t have any great reaction other than to feel the rightness of this for it all makes so much sense to me. The loving, joyful and harmonious teachings the feeling of community and equality and that we are all the Son’s of God. Thank you Shannon for your great blog.
Dear Shannon,
To hear how it was for you growing up in a Catholic School was quite an eye opener for me. I had very little religious education in my growing up. Most of that was with a lady at our school. Even though I had very little exposure to religion, I too could feel that some how it didn’t fit, because deep inside I new God loved us all, this is not what religion taught me. Instead it taught me that there were many rules that I had to abide by, that I had to be perfect in every way for God to love me. A belief that had seeped into every fibre of my body. Letting go of perfection has been a most challenging walk for me, one that at times I am still revisiting as another aspect of it appears for me to heal. Religion the way it has been portrayed before the Way of The Livingness, brought to me no real love, just a constant pressure to keep trying to be perfect. I have never felt this in any of the Way of the Livingness Presentations, here I only feel deeply loved.
It makes such a difference between the words being alive and being dead.
The second, important part is that the ‘aliveness’ that I feel isn’t harsh – there are plenty of current religions where it feels electric and alive – but the aliveness is more like a jolt or harsh or cold or simply not loving. What they consider love is a felt clarity or a buzz but neither is love – once you experience love, the difference is enormous.
I was raised in a very religious Catholic family. There was so much that didn’t make sense but I felt I there must have been something wrong with me because everyone else seemed to accepted the teachings. So I essentially shut down my knowing to conform and put more effort into being ‘good’. In doing so, I absorbed many subtle implications such as guilt, a sense of self loathing and low self worth for being an ‘unworthy sinner’ who needed to pray and try hard for God’s love and forgiveness. Since becoming involved with Universal Medicine and listening to presentations such as The Way of the Livingness I have started to understand a different concept of religion and God. I have some way to go to clear the remnants of my past (undoubtedly accumulated over many lifetimes of being side tracked by forays into various false religions). However, I definitely relate to Shannon’s comments about what comes through in The Way of the Livingness in that ‘…the words are spoken in the quality that goes hand in hand with the sacredness and essence of Religion …’ and ‘… I can feel the energy of equal-ness, brotherhood, love and divinity …’
Can so relate to that ‘there must be something wrong with me’ feeling. I can’t count the amount of times I have had that thought throughout my life. Now I confirm to myself that there is nothing wrong with me, but something wrong with the way it all is and the norm that we live in.
I felt very similar when going to church occasionally with my Grandmother and on Christmas day when I was younger. It just felt sad and, burdensome like you said and I probably said that “I am bored” at the time to describe how I was feeling. Much like you said that its like it seemed to go forever and then you just wanted to leave. Now I know why I never liked church, because I was feeling that this heavy and sad place could in no way represent the God that I knew on the inside, one of Joy and harmony.
I know harryjwhite, and imagine what that heavy sadness does to people? We then have a world full of heavy, sad people walking around, not feeling joy, not feeling connected and who don’t even admit that this is the case.
The Way of The Livingness is so beautiful because it is about love…everyone is equal, everyone is welcome, the spark of God is inside all equally and there is no judgement or competition or comparison. Everything that is said builds on our evolution back to our true selves. How simple to belong to a religion that comes from within myself. Beautiful.
Amanda. So beautifully said. True equality in everyone, and God being with us 24/7
Amanda this is lovely, your words beautifully describe the essence of the Way of the Livingness and the essence of each and everyone of us, love.
What an awesome blog, it so simply explains how religion must make sense, and likewise none presented to me ever did until the way of the livingness. Your experiences remind me of how I used to feel during religious education and how I felt like acting up all the time. I knew it was wrong and couldn’t handle the energy of it and just wanted to wriggle and scwirm or do anything to get away from it.
Rebecca thats so true, fragmented is a great word for how I felt everything was. Now whole/complete/unifying are words that are more inline with what I feel and know to be true in my heart.
Thanks Shannon,
We really do know what is going on all the time don’t we. Your article makes that so clear for me to see again. It really is about honouring what we naturally see and feel, from moment to moment, each and every one of them. Then we live!
The simplicity of this is so lovely Kevin. True religion is honouring what we see and feel in each and every moment.