Many of us seek to practice a religion because we want a relationship with God, Christ, inner nature or the enlightened mind.
My experience with religion has shown me that the religion into which I was born actually had me engaging in rituals that had the opposite effect from deepening my relationship with God.
I refer to the effects of ritualistic daily prayer. By ritualistic I mean the articulation of the same prayers repeated over and over, at the same time daily, constantly for years on end.
Prayer in this instance being the repetition of religious verses, sequences of words uttered invariably in a flat, often uninspiring, monotone.
I first became aware of the possible deleterious effects of this practice while staying at the home of my paternal grandparents. As a child, I recall my natural response to hearing my grandparents utter morning prayers for what seemed an interminable amount of time, was to slide down into the bedding further for warmth and there wait for them to finish so that the day and the business of life could begin.
I recall walking to the neighbouring village with my grandfather one summer morning. As I held his hand, I was enjoying the strength of his physical presence and a feeling of safety and protection as his large hand cradled my own. I was aware of the fragrance of summer and the lovely bright colours of the wildflowers in the hedgerows as we walked along together.
This was all brought to a sudden and abrupt end when the local church bells chimed out 12 noon. My Grandfather withdrew his hand from mine, closed his eyes and began to mutter incomprehensibly and quietly to himself.
“What are you doing, grandad?” I asked quizzically, disconcerted by his sudden withdrawal from our lovely walk together. “Shhh!” came the tetchy response.
It felt like he had totally left both me and himself and a coldness descended on what had been a quiet and pleasant moment of togetherness. When the chimes ended, he took my hand once again and we continued to walk to the village. I noticed that he felt different – now cold and distant. I asked why he did that and he explained it was to pray to God.
However, it didn’t feel right to me.
In the evening, dinner had to be served and eaten before 6pm because there were then more prayers, which had to start at 6pm sharp. These prayers included a list of names uttered by one person while the rest of the family responded with the same phrase over and over.
We visiting grandkids could not sustain the super rapid pace of the adults in the room and spent our time looking wide-eyed at each other, wondering what this was all about. It was such a relief when the prayers finally ended and we could all go to bed. The stillness of the night, the fragrance of the night flowers and the gentle humming of insects were all a soothing balm after the racing prayer ritual.
But what really struck me about all these prayer sessions, as well as the formal religious practices on Sundays and other times, was how much people lost themselves, how they left themselves behind. They had their eyes closed to block out distractions, but their words were harsh and rushed, and they seemed to be disconnected from themselves: they had lost their warmth and presence in those moments.
I could feel the prayer ritual was literally causing people to completely lose their sense of presence. I sensed that they had checked-out completely.
I saw many go directly to the pub after visiting their place of worship and the sense of relief was palpable. In all other social settings, the hospitality and sense of welcoming all as family was, and is, legendary. So then why the switch to coldness and distance when the situation is about relating to God?
For me – what I value and what feels right to me – is a sense of connection with myself. The more I am with myself, the more warmth, affection, and love I feel for myself and for everyone else also. I find I can neither feel nor express love if I do not have a sense of connection and presence with myself.
Now most religions assert that God is Love, something I feel also.
But if God is Love, then why do these religions encourage, even insist, on their followers engaging in practices, like ritualistic prayer, that cause them to lose presence and hence the ability to feel love or warmth within themselves, and, as a consequence, to lose the ability to feel love or warmth for someone else?
What purpose did it serve for my grandfather to transition from being a warm and loving adult, enjoying the company of his young, beautiful granddaughter, into a cold and distant, even fearful man, who had lost his presence?
Why is the predominant view of God one of exclusivity and isolation, so that as you commune with your version of God, you must withdraw from yourself and from your loved ones? Is not Love naturally expressed outwards from how one feels it within?
Why do institutionalised religions seek to cause this loss of presence with these religious rituals when it is presence that is the pathway to what they assert God is… Love?
It made no sense to me as a child and it makes no sense to me now, as an adult.
Why do institutionalised religions practice such rituals and seek to disengage presence?
God is Love: Love requires Presence.
By Coleen
Further Reading:
The Way of the Livingness: Understanding True Religion
Religion
My True and False Experiences of God
The Truth about Universal Medicine 
Praying to God cannot leave you cold, unloving. If it happens, revising the prayer would be in order.
Perhaps these ritualistic prayer practices are implemented by organised religions in order to keep people distracted away from connecting to their own body and thus with their souls that reside within, where they could so easily feel God’s presence through connecting with their own presence. Then they would not need any church or priest to be the conduit to God anymore, eliminating the need for those controlling false institutions.
Your final question is a good one Colleen. But it’s not just institutionalised religion that is like this. I feel we have made our lives so busy that life itself is this way. We become busy with work and everything becomes about work and any interruption to work can bring frustration, because we are focusing on what is to be done. What your blog does is assist us to explore and expose what we think religion is. I feel what is being offered here is that we have disconnected from its true meaning being that of our relationships with one another and with God.
It seems like these prayers are more used as an outer ‘tick-box’ system so you can be called religious when you do it, rather than that it is true religion. I noticed this in many parts of my own life, where I tried to keep up the image of me doing something and being a good student whilst actually deep down knowing I was not truly going there and truly bringing into practice what I knew was necessary. Even though we can fool ourselves and others as long as they are willing to be fooled in truth we are just buying time, delaying and not getting closer to the truth doing this.
When our view of God is one of exclusivity and isolation, then this reflects to me that our version of God comes from a belief that God is outside of us. This is what I fell for growing up, but when I was offered by Serge Benhayon to participate in the Gentle Breath Meditation, there was no doubt whatsoever that God was sensed within and around me, as the Gentle Breath Meditation supported me to surrender and connect to myself, to my essence and hence to everyone and everything.
A ritual can be a beautiful thing, but only if it is infused with love, feeling, immediacy. When it becomes a rote it is worse than meaningless as it actually withdraws you from the present moment much as this example with your Grandfather shows.
I find that God is in everything in life and can’t be separated with life. Even in the most mundane of daily activities, God can be felt and that to me is religion.
“Why is the predominant view of God one of exclusivity and isolation, so that as you commune with your version of God, you must withdraw from yourself and from your loved ones?” It’s bizarre really when you think about it but it’s a part of many religions to be like this to the point that monks, priests and nuns must remove themselves from family and community to withdraw to God. Like you felt as a child and state in your blog, love is something felt within that’s expressed outwardly. Both Jesus and Buddha, for example, were out with people and expressing outwardly. I also appreciated from your blog the simplicity of truth that is observed and felt by children, they are amazing sources of clarity and truth
When I read this blog I felt sad, sad that religion has been portrayed in this manner, people became stoic in the name of God and who requested this? Someone who knew no differently.
God resides in all of us and we don’t need to pray or attend a building, burn incense, wear certain clothing or carry any particular jewellery either. God is simple, humans complicate it with their flavours.
Coleen it was great at a young age you observed the shift in your grandfather when in one minute he was totally himself and the next the change when he had to pray.
I’m building a different relationship with God and I’m loving it, the ‘good’ the ‘bad’ and the ‘ugly’.
Its a good question Coleen, and I tend to the generous side… that these practices first start with good purpose, something as simple as its good to have three times a day which are markers and an opportunity to connect to God or dedicated to God if the connection has dropped in between. Problem is that over time it becomes ritualised, a set of rules with which to beat yourself or judge others (as being less pious). The walk is a classic example – if your Grandfather was fully connected in the walk as you were, then prayer time comes and his response can be ‘way ahead of you, already in deep connection with my granddaughter, myself, the day and the Universe’. Check in complete!
No matter what role, but when we take on a role solely we are gone from the connection with ourselves. This feels cold and inhuman, sometimes monster like, whether we are a religious person, a mom, a professor whatever, we are no longer ourselves if we take up the qualities of an ideal and lose the connection with ourselves.
” God is Love: Love requires Presence.” yes this is so true , for in presence you can be only who you are, the expression of the love, one is.
God is Love and holds all humanity in His embrace of Divine Love and not someone or something sitting in perpetual judgement demanding repeated empty words in order to buy a place in Heaven.
When we are not connected and present with love so we are neither with God or anyone else; we are not in prayer. In such void faith and empty ritual become a substitute without substance. Such is much of what is considered to be religious although being religious simply means to be connected with the all that we are.
Thank for such a clear exposé of the separation that orthodox religions create when they espouse the opposite and also that the repetition of prayers becomes doggerel. For many years I practiced Tibetan Buddhism and would sit for long periods of time chanting prayers in Tibetan not knowing what I was saying. With hindsight it now appears bizarre.
I’ve noticed this reciting under one’s breath while doing other things recently and it did not make sense to me either.
Reading this blog and my comment again I realise it was a way of hiding from responsibility – handing myself over to someone to give me the answers to/for life like a child expecting the parent to provide.
As a child I never understood the prayers I learned and at times had to pray either before sleep, lunch or in church or for penance after confessing something that I also didn´t understand as a wrong, but was considered as such by the teachings. Even today some of the words or verses come to mind now and then and I am still wondering what it is actually saying, especially because the prayers were spoken in a monotone pulp of words. None of these prayers ever connected me with God but for sure disconnected me from myself.
When words are meaningful they can support us to connect deeper within ourselves, but as I remember and you described Alexander: “the prayers were spoken in a monotone pulp of words.” It is like some words are said without feeling the meaning of the words or connection to ourselves, just to tick the box and be religious but it is worth questioning what we are truly doing when we do this.
“Why is the predominant view of God one of exclusivity and isolation, so that as you commune with your version of God, you must withdraw from yourself and from your loved ones? ” Something that came to me as I read this question is that if we think of God as outside of us then we have to try to develop a relationship with him which we erroneously think we have to do by focusing just on God and no-one else. But in truth, God is within us all, in the space of our stillness, so to have a relationship with God all we need to do is connect to our body, be present, as Coleen has said. The God will be expressed through us.
It is a great question Colleen. Many would argue and answer your question until I suppose they’d understood what being present means within or with the body, with all of humanity and everything around you like nature.
I remember saying the rosary over and over as a child trying to get it over and done with, prayer was also used as part of penance for sins committed, not only did we go into practise with no heart in it at all but we were told we were unworthy and so pray was some sort of pleading with God to forgive us or a trying to appease a vengeful God all this was absolutely devoid of any presence and love, separating us further away from God.
Some very pertinent questions are asked here. The extent of the cold, separative feeling that one can feel in organised religion is actually immensely scary, for in this separation, we cannot feel the uniqueness of each person, we cannot hold another in and with the love that they and we are, and in such a space, we are able to judge another, or compare with another, we also allow jealously to be directed to another. It is with these energies that wars are begun. When one looks at the number of people that are a part of organised religion, one can become very sober, as the realisation of what they have instigated in our world is felt.
“God is Love: Love requires Presence.” It is our connection to presence that
connects us to the soul and then also connects us to the all. We confirm all by connecting to who we are and then moving with that presence. Our movements then express the divine quality of God that then beats within us all.
Coleen, your blog is so beautifully written and exposes how disconnecting, cold, separative and loveless these religious rituals and prayers are. God is love, so when we practice or express anything that is void of love we are already disconnected from God and ourselves.
What was held as religion to me when I was growing up was certainly not fun, no laughing or even smiling, extremely serious and rigid. Who knew this was nothing to do with what religion truly is and now I am holding little of those ‘hard’ times. The saying of the same thing over and over was like some type of lock down that would have you almost assume a certain position as well. Everyone has the freedom to choose what they want to do in this world and so I understand more of what this means and I choose to live what I truly see as free and religion is something I freely live, within me and not a rigidity of repeating something over and over in the hope it will do something.
Reading this reminded me of the time I spent 3 days at a silent Buddhist meditation retreat where all you did was meditate. After a few hours my body ached and I wanted to connect with the other people on the retreat but we had to follow the ‘rules’ and not speak, it felt totally unnatural and everyone seemed so miserable it was clear to me from this experience that this was not the way to live and move in life.
You pose some really poignant questions Coleen. The image of your grandfather withdrawing his hand to pray and becoming cold and distant is striking, and you’re right, it makes no sense if the prayer is supposed be about love and bringing this to the world.
A religious movement is one in which we have connected to our bodies universal intelligence and then move from there, this then connects us to God and all which unlike religious prayer only stops us accessing this divine quality and separates from this universal way.
It is a grave illusion to we think that our relationship with God can be found in what we do. Where in-truth, well before whatever we do, resides within us our essence, the spark of God we are, through which we were born knowing religion. This quality within remains true, unchanged and unalterable however it is our relationship with this quality that does and has changed. As such it is in our surrender to our beingness that we are in a constant relationship with God, through which all that we do can essentially be in prayer, in communion with God, with life, and with our innate Divinity.
This blog has a beautiful revelation: when someone goes into prayer in a religion that does not honor the body, the being, and provides no real connection to God, the body of the person changes for the worst energetically speaking. This gives away everything that such ‘religion’ is in truth.
The word prayer conjures up feelings of heaviness and a chore. But what is prayer – communication with God. There is no heaviness or chore in this – it is pure joy.
I agree Nikki. And with this there is no difference from one movement to the next as with every breath, wherever we are or whatever we are doing, we are simply being true selves, in union with God.
‘The stillness of the night, the fragrance of the night flowers and the gentle humming of insects were all a soothing balm after the racing prayer ritual.’ When we connect to nature it brings us closer to God than any prayer can bring us. it is the magic of God and there is no magic in a prayer as you’ve described here.
The example you offer of you and your grandfather holding hands and him withdrawing it, sums up the disconnection one chooses when they search for God outside themselves. It’s drop everything including you fellow brothers, you can’t help but ask where is the love in that?
I keep forgetting – but I actually went to a Christian kindergarten. I do not remember any of the prayers or hymns, but I remember feeling told off every time we got together at a hall. They could all talk about God and love and all that, but any child will know when there is none of that.
This is a great blog exposing from the innocence and clarity of a child, the harmfulness of such rituals.
Ritualistic prayer has no heart in it, no connection to the love we are, and no connection to life, instead it becomes a duty something to obey, a form that lacks and quality of presence, God and love.
Life through the eyes of a child, it’s a refreshing view. Children tuned in to what is love and presence and what lacks all of the above…if we want to know if something is true of not all we have to do is imagine a child’s view on it and it becomes very clear, very quickly.
Love does indeed require presence, never have I felt the warmth and love within me and from God or anyone else while disconnected. However the love expressed by another has been able to catch my attention and reignite the fire within me.
People know that there is more to us that our body, that there is a greater power, but in their desire to know that they look outside rather than within.
As I read this it occurred to me how we have this picture of needing to be serious with God. As a child there is much beauty that we experience in the moments of life and the playfulness that also goes with this. To me, those moments are a moment with God. The formalising of God is something that lacks divinity and separateness people from their relationship with God.
What you have exposed here Coleen, about the rituals and expectations of institutionalised religions, does not make sense. How is it that so many people just ‘follow along’; follow along with something that disconnects them rather than connects them to themselves and to God. Thank you for sharing your experiences and your wisdom Coleen, there is much to ponder here.
What a fascinating study on the effects of ritualistic prayer Coleen, and how unappealing it seems. There is certainly a mindlessness to what you describe, in the sense of a lack of questioning by the devotees of the rituals you witnessed as to the effects it had on others and themselves – and what seems to be a blind acceptance of a practice handed down from who knows where and created by goodness knows who.
Your beautiful honesty and innocence of a child is felt in your blog Coleen, I am deeply touched because with expressing in this way you are undoing and exposing the grip this form of ‘being religious’ or ‘connecting to God’ has on so many. Reading what your Grandparents would do each day, and many many others, felt awful and almost abusive to themselves like they had done something wrong and needed to make up for it… which many religions endorse. But, then I realised how as mothers or fathers or bosses or teachers etc, we can be one way as a human being and then walk in a particular role and become it and lose ourselves, and can feel the very same coldness and detachment as you felt as a child from those around us.
Coleen your blog has been a big reminder to me of how wise and aware children are and how sensitive they are to what they see and feel in every day life. We can learn much from a child’s observations and their ability to lovingly be present and connected to who they are, who they are around and what they are doing.
I often sat and listened to the humdrum of the Lord’s Prayer when I went to chapel. The dull and boring sound I would join in because everyone else was saying it but there certainly was a part of me that questioned its purpose. (I wonder how many of us were reciting because another was doing it?) I was attached to the belief that I had to say the Lord’s Prayer to get closer to God but when I felt the presence of God in every cell of my body and in every cell of the body of another at a workshop presented by Serge Benhayon there was no doubt I felt God and it was not from reciting the lord’s prayer or any other ritual but by simply focusing on my breath (The Gentle Breath Meditation) supporting me to let go of that which was outside of myself and surrender to be present with me and my body.
When we seek God outside of ourselves and also place him higher than ourselves, we need to disconnect from who we are and from others. And togetherness is then replaced by coldness and distance. This is what I always experienced while visiting the church on Sundays. Connection with other visitors could be felt but always only after the mass when we joined together on the church square relieved the mass was over.
I think this is a great expose of a consciousness that says that we need to withdraw from ourselves and others or that we need to do a certain ritual in order to be in communion with God – which is the opposite of bringing us closer to God and our Divinity in my experience.
Yes definitely exposing Fiona, and starts a conversation of why is this allowed to be? I feel it is to delay us from knowing who we are and where we are from and that we are all equal Sons of God.
The falseness of the religious practices is to me that they are there to take us away from ourselves and our togetherness, that we have to pray to a god that is outside of us and that we have to pray to connect to him and show that we are good christians, muslims or any other religion you can name while god is simply inside each of us and constantly with us unconditionally.
“what I value and what feels right to me – is a sense of connection with myself.”
When connected to myself I would say the same, and this connection has been growing over the last few years with the support of Universal Medicine’s presentations. However as I read that particular line I thought ‘wow it would be great to value that above everything else’, in a tone that says ‘I can’t, don’t have that in my everyday life, And yes I don’t live every moment with that value as being my highest value in life but I don’t feel that I can’t, it just takes practice and choosing to value how my presence feels compared to the disconnected moments.
What kind of a loving relationship would expect the other party to repeatedly focus their attention and reel off statements by rote however grand the words might sound? This picture to me is indictment of the arrogance in man that seeks other people’s subordination and adoration, and makes me think of the pomp and the exclusivity especially at top levels of religious institutions.
At no point do I see the way prayer is promoted as anything connected with God. I can not ever communicate clearly and fully with anyone if I am not present with myself – this is no different when I commune with God.
There is much to ponder on here in this article . It has brought up for me the fact that in my life I have known a few people who lived predominantly from their essence. What stood out in them was their unwavering warmth, and how they held it always, for all. This I now know is to be living in from their essence, their connection with God. None of these people in my life lived with a mainstream religious belief, much here to be considered.
This blog just brought me back to feeling the responsibility we all share in being totally present in everything we do. Rituals can easily become an automatic response where we are actually not required to be with ourselves to perform them. This kind of checking out is a withdrawal from the real world and what is happening to us and around us.
“I could feel the prayer ritual was literally causing people to completely lose their sense of presence. I sensed that they had checked-out completely”.
Doing anything over and over, without any conscious presence with the body, is the fastest way to be ‘living from the head’ rather than from the innate body wisdom. A sure way to the beginning of the energetic steps towards dementia.
It is makes no sense to me too that God is out or up there in the sky as is the belief of institutionalised religion I was taught in Sunday school for in God being outside of me means I am separate to him so whenever I find myself following a belief, something which is outside of myself I am without a shadow of a doubt disconnected to God and therefore to love and have lost all presence to myself, everyone and everything.
An astute revelation on how we have rituals that are done in the name of ‘religion’ but that actually serve to dis-connect people rather than unify. Something may on the surface claim to be religious or a way of bringing us closer to God, but if it takes us away from our natural presence then I would ask if it truly has anything to do with religion or God at all…
Wow Coleen you have hit the nail on the head with this blog. Exposing the true purpose of most religions – that is to disconnect instead of connect to self and God.
Ritualistic prayer fosters lack of presence and in that a religion has more hold over its adherents and this is at the root of the evil that religion propagates.
I have always felt bemused by the ritualistic nature of prayers and the speed with which they are repeated which is very excluding of everyone else. The lack of equality and the expectation that repeating them somehow makes you good/better didn’t make sense to me growing up and I rejected religion for many years and it was not until I was introduced to The Way of The Livingness that I could connect to religion in a way that made complete sense and felt like coming home because it is about how I live my life in every moment and not just reserved for ‘special’ times.
It’s interesting how religion can be viewed as something separate from life, as something special and those who administer it, so to speak, special and ourselves only special when we are connecting to this religious source. The illusion created here fosters dependency and takes us far from the love and truth that is intrinsic to our very nature. This nature expressed for example by a grandfather and grandchild walking together hand in hand .
Well said Coleen, it is crazy how many Religions forget the true meaning of God and love and instead spend endless hours reciting prayers and ‘doing good’ when in fact they are polluting the world with more separation and lovelessness. To live who we truly are and to embrace love and everyone equally would be a great starting point before we began to pray and then our prayers would have a loving imprint and quality that would benefit humanity enormously.
I remember that palpable sense of relief that would come from everyone present after they came outside of church after a religious service when I was growing up and I also remember thinking that surely that cannot be quite right that we would all feel more at ease with ourselves, with each other and with God outside the building and religious ceremony than we ever did inside of it.
Coleen your blog reminded me of the phrase ‘Religiously follow’ when in truth there is nothing to follow just be.
“Why is the predominant view of God one of exclusivity and isolation, so that as you commune with your version of God, you must withdraw from yourself and from your loved ones? Is not Love naturally expressed outwards from how one feels it within?” Interesting questions Coleen. God is in everything we do and we are all sons of God, so there is no need to separate ourselves from humanity.
God is all encompassing there is no reason to drop everything in order to be with God, as God is always with us, it is our choice to be with him, or to ignore him.
Its amazing how certain moments from childhood are memories that we remember every single detail of. This was a very profound one for you Coleen. I think as children we are still very open to asking questions. My opinion is that as adults we become socialised to no longer question, but just manage our lives, accepting our lot and believing ‘this is it.’ I am very grateful for the children and adults around me who still have that curiosity and keep asking the questions that I may not think to ask.
True – whilst we all have our right to seek God in whatever way we choose there has to be some form of resemblance of what God truly is. If God is love which I feel he is then being love in all that we do, seems like a great way to get closer to him.
We are always in a relationship with God whether we choose to be aware of it or not, we cannot but be as we are, as we all are, the sparks of God forever held in its all-encompassing embrace. We simply have chosen to walk away from this truth. Through our connection to who we are within, our Soul, we are able to deepen and explore our eternal relationship with the ever-present magic of God, nature, the universe and each other, as all are an integral part of the inescapable and magnificent whole we belong to.
A very revealing experience of how institutionalised religion has become about obeying rules and dogma and forgotten how to feel the presence of God within oneself by connecting to our own inner-most love.
Great to read Coleen and one I can relate to the ritualistic prayer was something you did, to appease God, ask for forgiveness, and protection. It was also a badge to look or feel good, and thereby be worthy in Gods sight. There was nothing about being who you are, because we were all sinners to begin with. We are blessed today with knowing and living the truth of who we truly, we are divine sons of God living with God in every moment.
Your account of this manner of praying exposes that it is in truth not prayer, and not love.
Too much of the discussion today is based on the argument over whether God exists or not, which in its own way is quite limiting, and of course at times very emotive. What is really missing is an open inquiry into the possibility that if God does truly exist, then what is his true nature, for as the atheists rightly point out, it certainly does not make sense that his nature is judgmental, or for that matter all forgiving, for it makes no sense to the way of the world as it is. Equally to say there is God on one side and the devil on the other, as two separate beings responsible for all good and evil, and that human beings are essentially sinners equally makes no sense, Much to explore here, and it is this type of pondering we should encourage rather than the simple belief based arguments that dominate the topic of religious discussion.
What an interesting experience and how clear the difference was. The relationship with God is warm, loving, caring, honest, direct and above all constant.
This made me consider the saying ‘learned by heart’ and realise that what we mean by that today is that we can remember it; we can recall and recite something. This usually means we are engaging with our head and not our heart at all.
“God is Love: Love requires Presence.” As a connect with my inner-heart more and more, I can feel this Love and can feel this Presence, and in this I can feel my relationship with God…
Its funny that you should mention a ‘flat, uninspiring tone’ as that is exactly my experience of prayers at school and in Church. Reading something out by rote, and no one had any feeling behind them. It was lifeless and uninspiring… and this echoed and reinforced my relationship with God as a young man. These days, and assisted greatly by Serge’s work, that relationship has come to life, and if you get me onto the subject of religion there is a boundless enthusiasm!
Religion as it’s currently practiced and as our many churches encourage us to practice is all about looking without, placing your power in an outer force and in many traditions considering yourself less, than God and often those who act as his ministers in those same institutions. The truth is this is not natural to us, as you so clearly felt as a child and in order to do this we have to cut off from ourselves and become cold and distant. And this makes no sense as love is not about coldness or distance, it’s about a warm presence, and us being with us in all we are – be it with God or with another human being. That coldness and distance you observed, which I did also as a child shows the lie of how religion is often lived now, it’s about separation from yourself and others and in that how can there be connection to God?
It was lovely sharing your journey of religion through the experience of you as a child Coleen. Children are wise and are very good at discerning what is going on. You picked up as a child the truth of what institutionalized religion is based on. It seems not connection to self, others or god.
“Why is the predominant view of God one of exclusivity and isolation, so that as you commune with your version of God, you must withdraw from yourself and from your loved ones? Is not Love naturally expressed outwards from how one feels it within?” The total opposite of what true religion really is, which is our loving relationship with ourselves, everybody, and all of life.
“My experience with religion has shown me that the religion into which I was born actually had me engaging in rituals that had the opposite effect from deepening my relationship with God.” Sadly very true. In the religion I was raised in we were taught to fear God and it’s very difficult to have a relationship with anyone on that basis.
There are so many points that makes total sense, part from the one where we lose what is obviously a direct reflection of God to engage in something that is obviously not. What is God or not is always and forever very very simple because we can feel it – looking into the eyes of a new born, feeling nature in all its glory, the presence of a child, it’s all there, so we don’t really need all these man made rituals do we, when it’s all served with such an ease, God is simple, which is something that I know and practice living more and more of.
‘Why do institutionalised religions seek to cause this loss of presence with these religious rituals when it is presence that is the pathway to what they assert God is… Love?’ Great question. Makes me ask whether our relationship with God has to be ritualised, and to what extent are the rituals a means of organising society around a set of beliefs?
Everything we do can be a truly religious ritual simply through being connected whilst we live life.
Well said Fiona and very true.
All the rituals of the various churches all have meaning, not because they are meaning full but because of the meaning we give them. That means they are all man made constructs…designed to define a way of living, rather than unify the world.
The contrast you describe is an interesting one Colleen; the warmth you felt from your grandfather while enjoying a walk together, feeling his presence and love; compared to the coldness you felt when he disconnected from you to focus on reciting a rote-learned prayer. While the mind may try to rationalise and justify your experience, the body does not lie. What a powerful marker you got to experience and feel in your body at that young age – clearly showing you what love feels like in your body.
Same here, Joel. Some years ago I took a trip to Italy with a Catholic group who were going to meet the Pope in Vatican. I never saw people drinking so much vodka, swearing and making dirty jokes. It was awful and made me question the same-what kind of religion is that?
Very well said Brendan. For me, there seems to be an inconsistency in what these religions teach. I do not understand how there can be the ‘good’ and the ‘bad’ elements (which aren’t often seen/talked about), which really contradict each other. For e.g. how can any form of child sexual abuse be in the ‘highest roles’ of people within Christianity?
Another aspect was that whenever such prayers were expressed Coleen, I realised how we can use ‘prayer’ to reach someone (God) that we deem is above us and separate to us. In this separation, our repetition is justified. But what if it only took one prayer to connect, and to live in a way to stay connected?
Such great points you are sharing here Coleen, this one stood out for me – ‘I could feel the prayer ritual was literally causing people to completely lose their sense of presence. I sensed that they had checked-out completely.’ – Very revealing and true of how we can disconnect and go into auto-pilot bringing no quality or love to what we do. It doesn’t make any sense to live like this and actually feel you are bringing good. To remain present and loving can bring more true change than any prayer recited from a Religious belief.
I can remember in primary school everybody saying the Lord’s Prayer each morning without any idea of what it was about. I quite enjoyed all chanting the same words together and felt there was a different feel to starting the day with this prayer, even if I didn’t understand it. My interpretation involved looking at the clouds or stars and seeing God’s ‘art in heaven’, sensing this presence everywhere, feeling quite encompassed and held. I also knew I had a delicious sandwich in my bag for lunch, so my daily bread was provided. It’s only later that I realised there were differing interpretations. Children are very perceptive and can sense energy, such as a cold disengaged hand as well as the warming love of a grandparent.
“I could feel the prayer ritual was literally causing people to completely lose their sense of presence. I sensed that they had checked-out completely.” That is an interesting observation you have made Coleen. I am very glad that I was not raised in strongly religious surrounding.
As a young child I would stay at my grandparents and we would do evening prayers before bed we would sing Amazing Grace following the words from a tea towel hung on the wall. I never did evening prayers at home there wasn’t an expectation that we would do it either so it was kind of a novel experience that I went along with to show my grandparents “what a good girl I was” I knew there was a god and I would chat often I thought the rituals of prayer were amusing more than anything else it was a bit like role play or copying what was done on TV.
In Coleen’s description of the walk with her grandfather, it is very interesting to see how even though he clearly had a deep love for God, the religion he was a part of did not promote that this love includes everyone all of the time, because if it did, perhaps he would not have felt that he had to let go of Coleen’s sweet little hand or to be ‘tetchy’ in reciting his prayers. It perhaps could have been an all-inclusive experience for them both, something that brought them closer together in a celebration of God’s love as they stood amongst nature.
The institutionalised religions seek to impose on their followers a set of rules of how prayer and religious ritual must be conducted. The religion of the Way of the Livingness has no rules or dogma but is a way of living in love and brotherhood with yourself, all those around you and with God.
“Why do institutionalised religions seek to cause this loss of presence with these religious rituals when it is presence that is the pathway to what they assert God is… Love?”
Why indeed Colleen and why do the masses follow without question?
Thank God for Serge Benhayon; showing us another way through the Ageless Wisdom teachings.
It seems that these religions give many a place of comfort and irresponsibility, a false claim that allows evil to dwell and fester with many happy to feed the beast.
Coleen, you have exposed the true evil behind religion’s. The evil of separation, under the false claim of being closer to God. It’s a nasty trick that has kept human kind separated for many, many lives. Such evil to see that many have been fooled to think that they have to separate from one another if they are to feel the love of God, when in truth it is taking them away from God being present in all they do.
Brendan this seems like such an obvious question that you would think most people would consider before undertaking any rituals associated with any religion. However we know that most people blindly follow without even questioning. As my relationship with God deepens I understand that it is very healthy to question and discern pretty much anything in life that I may become involved in.
Yes beautifully said and confirmed Raymond. Your comment reminds me of an atheist person I know, who is the most amazing photographer – of nature, people, his family, friends, and the most tender true moments of what I would describe as God’s Love lived and known… The light of God is in this man’s pictures – as clearly as it is in the beauty of Coleen’s description of her moment with her granddad and all that was around her. And yet, he calls himself atheist…
In short, we’ve been completely duped to have so removed our lived experience of God and Godliness in our everyday – and place it into what are commonly old and cold buildings that seem to ask you only to feel lesser than Him, and belief systems that do not allow His Love to flourish amongst us.
Reawakening to His Love in our everyday… confirming and celebrating it when it is known, restores us to a truly natural religious way.
Love that this can be so simply said here, thank-you.
And so is the former of what you describe Adam true prayer? To me it is not. In prayer we meet God, we are in communication with Him, completely open to His love. We confirm that we are always held in this Love, and that we are His children.
In living with the awareness of the true nature of prayer and of God, the insidious disconnection of ‘hope’ cannot exist, and we have a completely different understanding of what ‘suffering’ is, and our own responsibility in it.
very true. It is not God who brings us suffering, but our own choices. And when we are connected, the existence of God is not something we hope for. It is, rather, a knowing that is confirmed by the way we move and live.
Absolutely agreed. There is such an insidiousness in any teachings/beliefs that place God ‘outside’ of us and hold us as ‘miserable sinners’ never actually worthy of his Love. The God I know would never so condemn, nor exclude – leaving His children caught in an unnecessary miasma of suffering, misery and hope.
It is a worthwhile discussion indeed, to question any practices that may have been ‘followed’ – and whether they truly confirm who we are and our innate knowing of God, or actually do the contrary.
For myself, I see hope as a creature of the mind, Victoria, and so many steps removed from the Love that is Our Father. Hope is something people cling to when they have lost connection with both their love of self and their love of Our Father. He is reached through a loving self connection within and from there He meets us in the like quality of that Love.. Hope is like a constant delay of this natural and innate process.
Beautifully described Coleen. In ‘hope’ we are left ever standing outside of the circle of God’s Love, which is actually ridiculous – for we are ever held within it.
And so in ‘hope’, we, by a choice of our own will, deny all that is there for us – the Greatness of God’s Love – we reject it, and we must maintain the effort to do so. Can we pause to consider just much effort this must require when His Love is EVERYTHING? And if we only but allowed ourselves to stand – by alignment of our Will – in the circle of His Love again, just how powerfully our lives would change?
You have shared something deeply significant here Coleen. It makes no sense, that in order to connect with God and celebrate Him in prayer, that we go into anything that is so disconnecting.
From my own experience, my connection and atonement with God is all the more strong, when I am deeply connected with myself – and that connection begins first and foremost with a conscious choice to be present with myself and my own body.
We often do things because we are told that they are right or true – when we have the capacity to discern or feel the truth of it for ourselves. To do this we have to override our own inner wisdom, and give our power to an ideal, or someone else in power that we see as more or better than us. It is this denying of our inherent wisdom within and this given over of our true power that has allowed religions to get away with murder – literally – throughout our human history. But we need to ask ourselves why we do this… why we forsake our own power and glory to live a life of servitude to beliefs and ideals which always confirm that we are less and not full and complete as we are. Why avoid our own power so? It is a fact that when we start to connect to and accept our own power, grace and wisdom – we naturally have to see the illusion, lies and harm we have invested in over years and lifetimes which has led to the world in its current state – in short, we have to take responsibility. Whilst this is our true way forward and the first step towards change and evolution, we do not want to feel, we do not want to feel that we have been living a lie if we have been living anything less than love – and so we accept beliefs, ideals and dogma that tell us how things should be, rather than the instant and universal wisdom of our own heart and soul.
I too have always known that God is everywhere, especially within. I spent the first 15 years of my life going to church, including going to Catholic school. It wasn’t until I left and then went back for weddings etc that I was blown away with the repetitive sayings or prayers that were recited. Not only did I still know them all of by heart (and I reckon I still would, if I walked into a church), but I could feel how there was no connection to God and the life that we have been blessed with.
I grew up in the same sort of family as you nikkimckee with very little church attendance and like you am very appreciative after reading many of the comments. My connection to God came through nature which my father introduced me to from very early on in my life and continues to this day.
When I was a child I was brought up in the Church of England, but on a few occasions attended church services at the local Catholic church with friends, and was always astounded by the fact the services were held in Latin, and had been for centuries. So a totally outdated ritual and language continued to be used for centuries, perhaps to keep congregations in the dark, with little idea of what was being said and performed during service, so not only was God outside of you, someone so distant from you as a sinner,( a belief that was pushed more heavily in the Catholic church) but the very meeting with God was in a totally foreign dead language, just to remove God even further.
Great awareness of the difference you felt in your grandad in how he was naturally warm and present with you in nature, and how this all stopped and was replaced by a coldness as he started his prayer ritual. I agree with what you share here Coleen,’ what I value and what feels right to me – is a sense of connection with myself. The more I am with myself, the more warmth, affection, and love I feel for myself and for everyone else also. I find I can neither feel nor express love if I do not have a sense of connection and presence with myself.’
Yes, this feels like a religion I would choose, connection with self and with everyone, ‘True religion is a living way just being who we are in connection with everyone and everything’, and so naturally connecting with God.
I know exactly what you are talking about Coleen. I can remember feeling consistently angry when I came out of church on Sunday, and knowing this was ridiculous when I consider that we all come from love and our connection with God is love. How did we all become so disconnected within Religion when connection was the very thing we sought?
When I was truly honest with myself I realised I was going through the motions because that was what I knew and that belonging to a religion actually got in the way of my true connection with people and God. Surprisingly it was easy to change this. It was easy to stop saying the prayers that constantly reminded me of how bad and unworthy I was. It was easy to begin a new relationship of love with myself and therefore with everyone else. It has been challenging to unravel the ideals of what is good and to truly feel what holds us in equalness and what keeps us from really growing. This is a life long adventure that is now lived in the joy of love and connection.
Brendan this is so apt with all that is done in the name of religion. Do religions rituals deepen people’s relationship with God is a great question. I can’t imagine people would say otherwise so then I have to wonder if God for some is a mental construct who can take on board any opinions or attributes a person so chooses; and for others God is felt through ones connection with ones inner heart that connects a person to the divinity of us all. What rituals, habits, behaviours keep us locked in our heads and what rituals connect us to our inner hearts?
I think of the little things I do during the day where there is a ritual. The way I lay out my clothes, or my showering routine have this quality of ritual in them. It is in this love of the details and appreciation of the beauty of those choices that I feel presence and connection to God. More and more I can feel that he is with us 24/7. The only time I cannot feel this is when I am not there being present!
What i love about these rituals, Fiona, and i have some too, is that they are OUR rituals, no one has said ‘do this if you want to feel your connection to God. We each have developed our own rituals. I find that beautiful.
Fiona, this is gorgeous and is not something that is presented by mainstream religions..that is the power of or own choices and appreciation in the detail to our everyday. There is also such a simplicity in this. The beauty of our connection to God is in our everyday moments. This is stunning.
It is hard to be fully present and not in a bother or worried when I feel rushed. Hence I am learning to create a rhythm and routine where I need not feel rushed – as best as I can.
Reading the first line of this article, I too was one of those many people who practised religion because I was seeking an intimate relationship with God. I remember as a child I would stop off at Church on the way to school, to say hello to God and to greet him before I started my school day. This became a daily ritual for me for quite some time. However, what I was missing back then and what I know now is that God is there with us all of the time, he is not outside of ourselves and there is no need to go to a special building called a Church to connect with him. He is right there within all of the time. All it takes is for us to choose to feel and be with him, not through our minds, but through the loving connection that we have with our bodies.
“I could feel the prayer ritual was literally causing people to completely lose their sense of presence. I sensed that they had checked-out completely.” I experienced these same prayer rituals as a child Coleen, and as a child the prayers were baffling. How would it be if grandparents spent loving moments connecting to their grandchildren, would there not be more love present and more connection to God?
My feeling is that we buy into it beause it suits us to not see the impact of the choices we are making, and by that not having to take responsibility for the collective disharmony we are in as a humanity.
So true, Adam – the church / religion seems to be guaranteed its following when we are in despair or suffering and to asset us through things like passing on…until we realise another way, of course……the fact of our true nature and our actual relationship with God as Our Father.
Agreed Coleen, and powerfully said. And so we do have to ask, is this really about a true relationship with God? Or a subjugation of a following who willingly choose to stay in hope, suffering and separation from Him?
It is possible to know and live in the absolute Joy of His love every day. To ask why we would we want to stand so tragically outside of this, is a good question indeed.
Religions have indoctrinated us from left, right and center and it sits deep in our psyche even when we are an atheist. It may only be when we truly re-build our very personal connection with God that we get aware of how much the religions have implemented the most insidious hindrances for us to come back into our innate union with him.
Showing that what is assumed being religious is in disconnection to life, hence God would be separate to life, meaning such forms of religion are designed to take us away from life in the illusion of aspiring to something higher that turns out to be unreal.
God is real, God is life, God is inside and with us in every detail of the day. We just need to embrace him/her and that is done by embracing ourselves in full.
That is beautiful Alex, what a rich and gorgeous life knowing God is inside you and with you always. I often get that feeling and this has inspired me to explore it more – thank you.
Well and beautifully delivered Alex. Such disconnecting rituals which ask us to remove ourselves from life to be with God only confirm that we can’t be with God 24/7.
This is ridiculous if we are open to the truth that we all live within His body – we are all, each and every one of us, held in His love. To separate from this is our choice alone.
Coleen’s blog powerfully exposes institutionalised separation from God – there for the taking if we would rather not connect to Him in our everyday living.
I know which route I’d rather take – the commitment to deepening my connection with Him in my every day, and never ever fall for the falsity that I am somehow ‘outside’ of His love.
Thank you for exposing so clearly what the ways of most religions have become and what the result is. I have observed people praying and could feel how even though their intention was to connect to God there was little to no connection, not even to the words, let alone to God. Presence is the key to connection and only in this way can we truly be with God.
One of the greatest tricks of prayer is you do the same thing each day, saying the same thing hoping that something may change or come to you in life. You are never moving from that space and actually stagnating. We are forever evolving and changing so how can you use the same thing daily, when nothing is the same.
Prayer gives us false hope at times and can actually stop us from feeling and seeing the truth we have created in our lives and can actually stop us from taking responsibility for this.
What you have said about prayer Gail is very powerful. It’s like prayer is used to seek relief from the situation or circumstance we are in, therefore as you say this prevents us from looking at the choices we ourselves make and seeing the part we have played in the events of our life.
God is love and God requires presence. You ask some very pertinent and, to me, almost unanswerable questions Coleen. Why are religions set up the way they are?
Thank goodness there is another way; one religion, where God is love and we find God within; requiring presence.
True, prayer has usually been an attempt to fill emptiness with emptiness as if the sheer doing of something, praying, going to church etc would be it, but actually simply being a duty that leaves one even more empty afterwards to then seek some other form of surrogate to continue – a sinister vicious circle.
Quite similar to me, it always felt awkward when we had to pray or sit still while the adults spoke their prayer. There was nothing I could relate to, not the person uttering the prayer, not the prayer itself as I didn´t understand its meaning and the whole purpose felt like being nothing more than a tedious duty. I guess the actual point is exactly what you describe so accurately – there was no connection, something we as children are especially aware of as everything is about connection and it is connection that makes us have a relation to people and things. So when the adult doing a prayer can not be felt, the connection with that person is practically not existing and there is no feeling of what today I can clearly sense as my connection with God what good is it for ?!
You have stated the truth Christoph, the power of love is such that we will all return to love in time.
How devastating would it be indeed, Mark, if everyone realised that the physical place of worship is not at all necessary to connect with Our Father! Perhaps we need to be making plans about what we can convert all those redundant buildings into when we collectively realise this truth? 😉
I rather suspect that the singing and bell ringing parts kept a lot of us going along with the church practices, Shirley-Ann: I definitely experienced them as light relief compared to the heavier aspects in which we engaged! I guess it’s the old ‘engage all the senses’ trick – surround us by music and art work and we will be too distracted to voice what we feel about the energy and truth of what is going on.
I keep coming back to how exposing the walk with your grandfather really was. You felt him to be “..cold and distant..” after praying to God. I thought prayer was to connect and bring one closer to God, but your experience demonstrates this is far from the truth. True connection with God comes from truly connecting to our inner most essence.
Yes Hannah, only through connecting with ourselves and knowing who we are in truth can we then have a true connection with God, without connecting to self the latter is impossible.
I had a very different experience of going to church, I was blessed with having a very beautiful and loving minister. Whenever he engaged with me I felt loved and seen, two things that were very lacking in my life. Somehow I innately knew that God was love, and this was supported by the loving and gentle way of God’s representative in my life, my minister. When I was about 11 the minster was moved to another parish and the incoming minster was a complete shock to me, cold, hard and officious, I soon lost all interest in going to church, but not God. It took many years though for me to understand that the love of God was within me. Only with the teachings and love and support of Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine have I come to deeply know and feel this love within, and I agree with you totally Coleen when you say, God is love and our connection to that love is through presence.
Yes – I have found that I have opened up much more to others too but am aware that there is much more to go. Since being aware of and letting go of this arrogance this has left room for more awareness in other areas. For example, another thing I have been becoming more increasingly aware of around judgement is that to judge another I first have to judge myself. I have been in quite a bit of denial as to how far this reaches within me and therefore reaches out to all others. When I can let go of the judgement I hold against myself (which has been pretty harsh and heavy) I know I will finally be free of judging others, no matter on what level.There is an insidiousness to it that catches me out many times over.
Powerful to observe how current religions can do this. And in many areas it is so entrenched in society, such a part of the fabric of our consciousness, that we have to be super honest and diligent to observe it. Insane that a ‘religion’ can imbue us with a latent sense of being “wrong”, when in fact, if we are true to ourselves it is impossible to be “wrong”. Firstly because there is no “wrong” – there is only truth or un-truth. (in fact the whole notion of “wrong” is an invention of these religions – now that is worth pondering!!) Secondly, because if we are true to ourselves, then we are expressing the divinity that is within us all anyway, so what could be “wrong” about that? One day soon, the full extent of the web that ‘religion’ has spun around us will be exposed. I certainly am only just beginning to see the bigger picture.
Spot on Lucy I can also relate to a complete disconnection from the prayer when hearing or reading it, like you say it as if I am just a portal for the words and I know that is in no way truly religious, when I can speak from how I am feeling and can feel myself then I feel far more connected to God and the universe to when I cite some prayer that is supposedly holy
Same ritualised worship in a spiritual group I used to be part of – except the ritual was not emotional faith based, but intellectual dogma based. Very disconnecting and many frowns on faces trying to work God out 🙂
Did you ever “work Him out” Simon? I cant help but chuckle at your comment- it reminds me of the tonnes of theological studies I have observed in university libraries….so many theories, so little truth and so little life!
Whoa – Coleen, what a thing to see as a child!… on a similar vein, I went to a catholic school for a year as the only non-catholic, (in fact non-christian), and the things I saw were ‘unsettling’ to say the least. The fire and brimstone of eternal damnation in hell was interesting….I would be meant to get a ‘blessing’ from the priest whilst the other kids were ‘confessing’ (most of them made things up to look ‘good’!) – but spent the time questioning if God is love, how can there be a hell he would send people to? The priest could not answer many of my questions, (challenges) and used to joke that it was I blessing him, as I seemed to know God more than all the ‘Catholic kids’ combined (umm wonder why!) – but then would add that I should become catholic so I would not get sent to hell, and the church could ‘do with people like me’ – there was no sense in it at all – and was like water off a ducks back. Anyway point is that I can understand how symbols are barstardised and contribute to so many shutting down their natural divinity and true connection with God; for example, when I am connected and my heart is glowing through my whole body, that warmth could easily be described as fiery, and brings me to feel at one with God and with all, yet the church went out of its way to make fire something to fear. The painting you speak of sounds like a curse. How things like that can be associated with an all-loving beholding God, I will never fathom, as you say, ‘an incredible abomination of the truth’.
Life and Living is prayer,” and in our presence we are the presence of God. How strange is it that the places that you are meant to go to find God or have a relationship with something more, may be the places that actually disconnect you to the things that you are looking for ..
Coleen this amazing and honest account of your experiences as a child, reminding me of how whenever setting eyes on a church I would feel cold and grey, as feelings of shame, sin and never being good enough was stirred. One day I bought a house that once belonged to the church and the church next door needed a care taker so I accepted the keys. There was no need to go inside until this day with friends together we played on the Organ and sing-along songs and danced playfully all around the church, bringing back some fun and light-heartedness, after all that building was built by the community for the people as a place to come together, that I could relate too, as the love and the joy was there as God is inside all of us.
Totally agree Rebecca – that never made sense to me either.
How strange is it, that the places that you are meant to go to in order to ‘find God’ or have a relationship with something more, may be places that actually disconnect you to the things that you are looking for…
… and are already connected to in a very natural way. Why not extend and deepen the connection we have to an even more stupendous way of being and living as a sense of oneness, interconnectedness with all God as the One we are all part of and held by?
Good point Raymond – it seems exactly like a set up, or a game of some sort, that the place(s) that is supposed to bring you closer to god takes you further away. This is what I value in Universal Medicine, that the presentations are about discerning and also about understanding the real meaning of words, as if we just take everything at face value, it is very easy, since the world and we are offering to eachother a lot of lies or half-truths, to be misled.
How amazing that as a child you could feel the cold separation that was caused by religious ritualistic prayer. ‘Why is the predominant view of God one of exclusivity and isolation, so that as you commune with your version of God, you must withdraw from yourself and from your loved ones? Is not Love naturally expressed outwards from how one feels it within? Great words, thank you Coleen.
Coleen, you totally expose institutionalised religions when you ask “. . .if God is Love, then why do these religions encourage, even insist, on their followers engaging in practices, like ritualistic prayer, that cause them to lose presence and hence the ability to feel love or warmth within themselves”. Anything that takes us away from feeling the connection to the love within ourselves is not true religion no matter how many prayers are said!
Your observation how your grandfather changed and left himself has confimed to me the behaviour I can see in people I know and also are religious. It feels to me like the head would be separate to the body and this feels cold.
I too remember that feeling Kerstin in similar circumstances from long ago. I could never fathom why most of the people at the end of a Church service when gathered outside the front entry would feel so distant, not at all emanating a loving feeling of connectedness – but rather very much a sense of separate-ness. The sense of ‘duty’ to be seen at Church was quite palpable to me even then as a child/young teen.
I agree Mariette, and if all we have to do is be present, all we have to do is accept our Godliness… in every choice in every moment of every day.
Bastardising the sacredness of true ritual is easy when you take away connection to self. No repetitive behaviour or ‘ritual’ in the world will ever be sacred without our connection to who we are. This exposes every institutionalised religion, and ritual in the ‘name of God’, that is void of our own Godliness.
As a young child I was always weirded out by the heavy energy I felt when I went into a church and was always happy to leave as I could not see the joy in people nor the priests. I never understood why it was said to be a place of god, when I always felt closer to god when in natures parks and gardens. Luckily for me my father was not into church, only my grandparents and mother more, so I was given the choice to go or not.
Well said Coleen24 – that’s exactly what is happening.
I am learning to not judge another for what religion they choose or the practices they feel to follow, as often we can associate people with their religion whatever that may be, their religion may be Christianity, alcohol, a music group, TV, sport something they have relationship with and at times deeply devote their life to. A ritual could just as easily be watching the football every week, going shopping on a Saturday afternoon or being on Facebook. I know I have and still do at times and this is deeply arrogant. In this I miss connection with that person and the fact that they are the same as me.
Repeating various chants and prayers in church always seemed very empty to me , like there was never even a need to think about what I was saying because it was so meaningless and repetitive to me. I speak to God daily wherever I am, and it’s a vibrant communication I can feel within me.
I remember doing this with Buddhist Sanskrit mantras gillrandall. Could be done for ages – 108 times/repetitions around the mala bead chain (no different to a ‘hail Mary’ from what I hear…). Reflecting back, this served to numb me from pain I felt in my life – I could focus with strong mental intent, and effectively disconnect myself from whatever else was going on. This was not communion with God – in taking me away from myself, it only furthered the well of pain and separation I was feeling at that point in my life.
Today, and for many years now, I feel the same as when I was a child – God is everywhere, and the communication is constant. Sometimes I need to remind myself of this fact (work in progress!), but nevertheless the Joy I feel in constant connection with Him is absolutely undeniable.
There is nothing cold about God, he is an absolute warmth that radiates from inside my body.
Absolutely gylrae. In my experience, when I feel something cold and damp that is purporting to be religious, it’s a signal to me that what I’m feeling is not the true love of God – for His love holds us deeply, warmly and as the precious beings and children of Him we all are.
There was very little religious ceremony or ritual in my childhood, and yet I can very much relate to what your say in the few times I went to a place of worship it was cold and distant – there was no friendly warm conversation or the meeting of friends, only silence and the occasional whispers. The ceremony itself felt completely detached from me – I was just one small child sat on an uncomfortable pew, not connected to by what was happening or being said. So I have to agree that for me live and God starts with a connection, with myself and also with others.
I found similar experiences Rebecca. I did not grow up attending church with regularity, but did take a ‘look in’ to see what was going on with my grandmother a couple of times. What struck me the most was the lifelessness of the ritual and everyone in the church – there wasn’t an iota of Joy in the room…
In the deep connection I know with God in my life today, which I find deeply confirmed through the Way of the Livingness teachings – there is a Joy which never wavers. My connection to and understanding of God is confirmed and also deepened immeasurably, by these teachings from Serge Benhayon that speak the truth of God I have known since I was little. I have found no other church nor spiritual organisation that carries such truth in its totality – all of our truth – none.
So true.
I can relate to this Victoria. I joined the local youth group when i was in year 9. I loved the send of belonging to something and being part of a group. But as things happened not everyone seemed to value all in the group and positions of power were abused and thus I became very disillusioned about God. But it wasn’t God’s fault at all. I was in the wrong place to have a connection with him, it was not as advertised in the youth group pamphlet.
I fall asleep like this now, hands on my chest, lying on my back. I love it when I wake up in the morning in exactly the same position. It is a lovely time to be deeply present with oneself as you lie down to go to sleep.
Hi Shirley-Ann and Sally – I have long slept that way, too! I also had the coffin thought creep in a time or two, but it couldn’t stop me from sleeping that way..So, it must be a very natural way to sleep and surrender to self if three of us are confirmed in doing this!
I love falling asleep like this too Sally and Shirley-Ann. It feels so deeply embracing and ‘heart-felt’ (pun intended!) way to be present and filled with love with oneself and God in sleep.
Coleen’s final words say it all – God is Love: Love requires Presence.
Love this Shirley-Ann, I can so relate to liking the singing and the music part whenever I attended church.
Are not institutionalized religions just a form of corruption? If we go back a few years, 500 will do, when the churches and the kings had the power and the land. The people that lived and worked on the land were squeezed like grapes. Are todays rituals in religious facility’s a way of controlling us. When they pass the silver tray around are we paying for admission into the pearly gates, booking a seat on the bus? Or, are they an attempt to buying absolution from our ill choices with out the need to deal with them? This is something to ponder on.
I recited and played the organ in chapel to get the attention and recognition I so much craved. I didn’t particularly enjoy going to chapel but these activities and the approval I got from doing them made it worth while. It’s incredible the lengths we will go to, to override what we truly feel inside.
For me this is great sharing Maree, as all awareness and choices come back to our choice to feel and be present -just as Coleen noticed as a little child how unnatural or strange it felt for people not to be present. Also, I had in the past frequently experienced very mild or soft Yoga, as well as chanting and meditation that has caused that same checking out, which brings the question is it the physical intensity or the consciousness that causes disconnection?