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 
The rituals Coleen described were indeed very cold, and devoid of love, ‘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?’
It is up to each of us to understand our responsibilities in life and understanding that we are all the same and thus have the true-under-standing that we are actually more than physicality, because we are Soul-Full beings returning to that; our true essences.
Children feel everything and most of all they sense when we disconnect from them, even for a moment. The experience of rejection can haunt a child their whole life leaving a needed adult who lacks self-worth. It is never about perfection, but bringing awareness to how we are with each other should be a very basic foundation of Love and respect.
What you write here is very important to sit with. If God is Love, which he is, and we are made from Love, we are that Love, so when we disconnect from ourselves we disconnect from God not connect with God.
How many of us question the religion we are born into? Many take it as a given, “this is what I was born into so this is what I will practice” – what if what is around us is not it, what if all the dogmas & rules are not it, what if all of that is coming in between our inner heart and our connection with God?
No question about it Viktoria, the lies of religion as exposed in Robin Hood 2019 produced by Otto Bathurst give us an understanding of how ridiculous life can be and how we have all been set-up and feed lies-upon-lies over many life times.
It’s seems to me that what the great teachers of our past like Jesus were sharing was pretty simple, love and brotherhood. Religion in some cases has become quite convoluted and has stepped away from that simplicity, and the outcome can be a reduction of the love we feel and can share with others, even though we may be ticking the religious box by reciting prayers for example. With respect to people’s free will and for their way of practising religion, for me if it doesn’t deepen me into the love I have within, which is my connection to God, I can’t feel it as being truly religious for myself.
Many of the main stream religions are not based on love, and are hypocritical in what they put forth.
“I can neither feel nor express love if I do not have a sense of connection and presence with myself.” rattling off words learned in the head is to disrupt any feeling of connection to your inner-heart.
Pretty much everything we get taught about what and who god is, and what you should do to connect to him or the bigger picture, is based on a need to control and coerce people – a bastardisation of the daily rituals and rhythms that are personal to each of us. We each have our own way of relating to the world and the bigger picture that we’re all a part of: no one can tell us how it has to be for us, it’s something we learn and figure our through our own lived experience. Ultimately, our connection to God, the universe, the bigger picture, is something we all innately hold within and know through our body.
As a child it must be very confusing to see and feel the changes in adults behaviour and not understand exactly what is playing out.
Yes, what Coleen describes must have been disturbing for her as a small child.
Reading this, I have memories of growing up, when as a child I had to recite prayers with adults in the evenings and it was a race, there was no presence whatsoever I now realise, and that feels very deliberate. For if you’re busy reciting something at speed you are not with yourself, and of course then you accept what is presented to you from without; and in all this you’re asked to defer to that outside authority, and you are not with you – to me it exposes the falsity of much of our religious practice and how they are designed to disturb our innate stillness and connection with ourselves, and thus with God, for God is love and love is presence.
Monicag2 when we were asked as children to recite something religious we were always in a hurry to get it over and done with because there was no truth in the words spoken they were empty of anything that is God. We know this as children because from young we have an open access to God which unfortunately gets closed down in most cases so that we forget who we are and where we come from. This played out over many lives results in us yearning for something we cannot quite remember, all that remains is the longing for a deeper connection that we have lost.
Rituals are about holding the same vibration of energy that is in order to the quality you are living. If for any reason the quality drops I would then not call it a ritual.
We are not taught or reminded of the fact that God is walking the earth through each and every one of us. No need to whisper to Him, just speak to the checkout chick and Woolworths while getting your groceries and you will see Him listening.
Great question, Coleen, what is the purpose of religious rituals if they are making us disconnected. It’s interesting how being right seems to be able to claim the position of highest regard for many of us, even allowed to interfere with what we are obviously experiencing as lovely. I agree, love seems to have been extracted from the equation of being religious.
Thank you for sharing your experience Coleen, your Grandfather was clearly closer to love and God when you were walking hand in hand, rather than in his belief that God was there to be prayed to at set times of the day, how easily we caught up in a belief only to lose our true connection.
Yes, a great example of how beliefs can and do really mess with us.
‘Why do institutionalised religions practice such rituals and seek to disengage presence?’ A great question to ponder Coleen, as many religions like to keep you in separation and disconnected from your Soul and God, for if you are present and truly connected you can easily expose the lies you’ve been told.
Which means Anna that the religion is exposed as a complete fake too, they are exposed in their domination for control of the Masses in what ever form that takes.
I love how simply you have unpicked this Coleen. It is a bit like math: coldness and rigidity do not add up to form love, so if God is love, coldness and rigidity can’t truly be part of true religion and God.
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.
A great question to consider, ‘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?’
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.