One day after hitting absolute rock bottom, I shouted from my veranda, “God there has to be more, surely this can’t be it?”
I had never considered myself to be a religious person, so when the word God came out of my mouth, I must say I was a wee bit surprised, to say the least. But at the same time, it felt like it was a true relationship with God that had been missing all this time, and that for my life to change, I needed to look at the possibility that there was a God.
For me to even consider this was huge. Growing up, I was not religious and didn’t want anything to do with religion. I thought it was all rubbish, a waste of time and something that people used to hide behind to avoid not having to take responsibility for their behaviour, actions or thoughts. I believed that religion was something that instigated wars, caused people to behave in hypocritical ways and allowed a group of people to create something they called religion as a way to control, manipulate and influence others.
I know this sounds harsh, but as a young child heading into adulthood, from what I had observed, my perception was one that I later came to realise held some truth. However, the picture I had, and what I had observed of religion, was certainly not what I have now come to know true religion to be.
What if there was another meaning for Religion? What if for all these thousands of years we had falsely believed that God was a being that lived outside of us, that he was the only being that could grant us salvation and give us retribution, and permission to enter the golden gates of Heaven; or the supposed alternative, going to the fiery depths below, and that this was not actually true? What if religion was not outside of us but instead lived within us all?
What if we all have the ability to feel an inner glory, a fire that burns deep within, an inner-heart that waits for us to re-unite with it once more?
I have come to understand that True Religion is not something or someone that lives outside of us, it is not about visiting a place of worship or repenting our sins. True Religion is about building routines, rhythms and rituals that support us to live in a way that is based on love so that we can reignite the fire within our body and reconnect to the love that we are.
Knowing that all we need is already within, we have a choice to connect to our body and live by and from the impulses of our inner heart, or we can make the choice to ignore our body, and instead let our minds lead the way, allowing beliefs to guide us, instead of love and a sense of equality for all.
In contrast to the mind, which constantly seeks acceptance and recognition from others, the inner heart seeks nothing – it simply is. It knows it already has, and is, all that it needs – there is nothing else, only an allowing for one to be love, and to live in and from this place.
True Religion has no rules, there is no guide book, no dictates to follow, everyone and everything matters, there is always a bigger picture at play, a grander plan you could say, one that includes everyone and everything. Each one of us is affected and impacted by the choices we all make and the way that we choose to live. I have found that this way of life is not about self, but about everyone.
It is True Religion that re-connects us with our inner heart, allowing us to honour the amazing beings we are, supporting us to build and develop a relationship with ourselves and in turn, redeveloping our relationship with God.
After many years of attending Universal Medicine courses, retreats and presentations, it was this that I discovered for myself. I found that true religion was not just about God, it was about absolutely everything, and it was everything that needed to be encompassed when it came to the choices that I made in my daily life.
Before this I used to live with a lack of acceptance for myself, refusing to take responsibility for the choices I made and the life I had created, a life that I continually tried to escape from, to avoid, my life that stayed with me, no matter what I did or where I went. How can you truly escape from your own life? How can you change your life if you do not take responsibility for the choices you made in the first place?
It was not until I fully felt this, accepted it and began to take responsibility for myself, my choices and the life I had created, that things began to change.
And wow!… have they changed, all because I have chosen to love and honour all that I am.
Making heart-felt choices that support my body, eating foods that leave me feeling light, not heavy, dull or bloated, going to bed when I am tired, establishing a rhythm leading up to my bedtime, showering, preparing my bed by pulling back the sheets, lighting an incense and having a fresh glass of water next to my bed, not pushing my body beyond what I feel it is capable of in that moment and listening intently to the signs it offers me, the niggles and aches, no matter how large or small they are, are important and deserve to be heard as well as felt. These are just some of the things I now choose for myself and this allows my body to then be the marker for what comes next.
Beginning with a few simple but profound changes in my life with the ongoing support, love and inspiration of Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine, I am able to continue developing and deepening the love I have for myself and others by living a life of True Religion.
By Nicole Serafin, Woman, Wife, Mother, Hairdresser
Further Reading:
Observation builds trust
Religion|Unimedpedia
My True and False Experiences of God
The Truth about Universal Medicine 
Thank you Nicole, and taking “responsibility for the choices you made in the first place,” deepens the true appreciation we have for our own divinity and thus we start to also see the divinity in others, then we have rejoined true religion, through reconnecting to our inner-most and the appreciative-ness of that connection.
As much as we want to we can never escape our past, for every experience we have walks with us until we resolve and let it go.
I always felt religious. This was not from how I was growing up as a child going to Church etc, what I did.
But it was always the Connection to my heart, with God and the whole Universe.
To feel that connection, it supports me to make loving choices for the body, so we can surrender into our inner- heart. There we find all.
Our connection to our heart, our inner-heart is a key part of our lives, ‘Knowing that all we need is already within, we have a choice to connect to our body and live by and from the impulses of our inner heart’.
A beautiful description of the true meaning of religion: ‘True Religion is about building routines, rhythms and rituals that support us to live in a way that is based on love so that we can reignite the fire within our body and reconnect to the love that we are.’
What if the word ‘religion’ has lost its true meaning over the years, ‘What if religion was not outside of us but instead lived within us all?’
“I believed that religion was something that instigated wars, caused people to behave in hypocritical ways and allowed a group of people to create something they called religion as a way to control, manipulate and influence others”. It is easy to believe this as you grow up, as I did, because this is what we observe. This doesn’t mean that this is what religion is supposed to be about. Re-finding that knowing of God within me that I had and never questioned as a kid has been profound and is undoing the false ideas about religion that have been piled on top over the years.
No wonder so many people turned away from what they observed as religion, when historically it has been seen to be about wars, corruption, greed and hypocrisy.
We yearn and seek God, that connection to something that confirms us regardless, and to me religion is that connection, the relationship that is the dearest and actually unwavering even when I pretend it to be flaky or wobbly, as that is the truth of who we are.
It is incredible that the spark we all have within remains undimmed by time, or anything that we might do to it.. always ready to be reignited the moment we choose.
‘the inner heart seeks nothing – it simply is’. Suddenly all that drive, all the force, the complication drops away… and I find myself facing something so simple and profound. That is God (or an aspect of) and its simply a question of diving in deep.
I felt so poignantly the part where we let go of the recognition from the mind and just settle in the heart…we don’t need anything when we are here. And everything is being taken care of.
“What if we all have the ability to feel an inner glory, a fire that burns deep within, an inner-heart that waits for us to re-unite with it once more?” When that ‘What if?’ becomes truth we know we are a part of something profoundly amazing and that we are so much greater than we ever imagined.
What if we are so much grander than we could ever imagine, ‘It is True Religion that re-connects us with our inner heart, allowing us to honour the amazing beings we are, supporting us to build and develop a relationship with ourselves and in turn, redeveloping our relationship with God.’
I love the practical way you say that “True Religion is about building routines, rhythms and rituals that support us to live in a way that is based on love…” and how the intelligence of our body can guide us here rather than ideals or beliefs about how that should look…
Our body is like a wise best friend, we just have to listen to, and honour it, ‘Making heart-felt choices that support my body, eating foods that leave me feeling light, not heavy, dull or bloated, going to bed when I am tired, establishing a rhythm leading up to my bedtime’.
To free oneself from the pictures we hold about religion and just allow ourselves to feel the innate connection we have to everyone and everything and take our steps from there has us feel and walk and live true religion that is innately ours.
You raise an important point in your blog Nicole, was only when you took responsibility in your life that things began to change. Being part of a true religion now, I used to run away from responsibility but have found the power in embracing this quality and learning to live it more and more each day.
Where institutionalised religion has been created in a way that actually keeps people in separation from themselves and God, true religion will naturally bring them together, in a way where living in brotherhood and knowing God is simply a natural way of being in this world.
True religion is now a welcome part of my life too, ‘Beginning with a few simple but profound changes in my life with the ongoing support, love and inspiration of Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine, I am able to continue developing and deepening the love I have for myself and others by living a life of True Religion.’
Accepting the fact that one is deeply religious but this does not mean to accept that mainstream so called religions are such thing, is deeply liberating and has a huge impact on our movements.
The pull for us to re-connect with our innermost heart and divine essence is always there, often felt as a deep sadness from missing that connection that we have chosen to separate from. To make new choices to re-build the re-connection within is the way home to living and being true religion in daily life.
“True Religion is about building routines, rhythms and rituals that support us to live in a way that is based on love so that we can reignite the fire within our body and reconnect to the love that we are”.
What a welcome change, to have a world based on love, coming from the love we are in truth.
What we in society think religion is, is quite the opposite what it actually is, I discovered this as well. True religion starts with really honoring the body, which is our connection God. The more I am connected to my body, the more I am connected to God.
True religion has no impositions it allows you to be you and it comes from the essence of love.
“I found that true religion was not just about God, it was about absolutely everything and it was everything that needed to be encompassed when it came to the choices that I made in my daily life”- I could not agree with you more with this statement. True religion is in everything and not in a particular building.
” One day after hitting absolute rock bottom, I shouted from my veranda, “God there has to be more, surely this can’t be it?” ”
While it may look like rock bottom , it can be the start of the return to whats true . For when one hits rock bottom it can be the recognising that this presented way of life is in fact not true, therefore there must be a true way of life.
“What if there was another meaning for Religion?” The magic of reconnecting to the essence of our inner being and the truth of our divinity that is equally in all.
Discovering that God is not outside of ourselves but within, is a huge transformation, because it means we no longer see God from the ideals and beliefs we held of him, but truly feel the love of god from within.
I can confidently say I have had a few ‘religious experiences’ where I have felt deeply God by my side, and in me. Yet they still remain moments, peak experiences, because I have yet to weave that connection throughout my everyday. Simple question – why not? Its there for all of all of the time. We just have to choose it.
A religion that knows love and truth and expresses both could well be a true religion. The catch is knowing and expressing both love and truth, rather than dogma.
‘True Religion is about building routines, rhythms and rituals that support us to live in a way that is based on love so that we can reignite the fire within our body and reconnect to the love that we are.’ This asks us to be responsible for every choice we make, to feel every message from our body and make changes accordingly.
By making loving choices for ourselves we are actually introducing religion into our lives. As we are from love and then by introducing love into our lives we do appreciate the fact we are and deserve to live in the love of God. This is simply already religion, the acknowledgement that we are love and deserve to live that love that we all can sense lives within.
“True Religion is about building routines, rhythms and rituals that support us to live in a way that is based on love so that we can reignite the fire within our body and reconnect to the love that we are.” Religion is so simple and practical. Why did we make divinity so complicated?
Yes, very similar to life. Identical even?
Bring back the simplicity, let go of complication is all part of living a life based on love.
Most people who are members of an orthodox religion have the best of intentions and truly believe that they are connecting with God yet ironically the system that they are member of actually alienates them from the thing they crave – love and fullness. However, intention is not an excuse for anyone not to discern that what is being presented does not deliver what they desire – it is just more comfortable not to question.
The false religion that I belonged to was all about self sacrifice for the good of others, when I came to understand what true religion meant and how to have it which started with connection to my innermost and loving myself instead of denying myself this was a huge turnaround to make, how simply divine it is to learn to live from the love that resides with in us that has always has been there.
“I found that true religion was not just about God, it was about absolutely everything, and it was everything that needed to be encompassed when it came to the choices that I made in my daily life.” A great reminder for today – that religion is about everything, which includes every movement and every choice that I make – no matter how small. . Thankyou Nicole.
I loved reading this blog again today Nicole, what a different world we would live in if people began to live true Religion. So many Religions today are lacking this deep wisdom, truth and love, it has been very powerful and inspiring to be introduced to The Way of The Livingness and to be part of a true Religion that is about developing a beautiful relationship with God and reminding us of the divinity and sacredness we are all truly from.
When I came to Universal Medicine, even though ‘God’ was mentioned, it wasn’t until a few years later that the word ‘religion’ started to get uttered, and I could feel I knew exactly what it was, but I was doing my very best to avoid using that ‘r’ word to describe what it was Universal Medicine was presenting through The Way of The Livingness. I thought I was simply learning to live. Now it makes absolute sense that that is the true religion. It is about life being lived and its every aspect. We may try looking away, but it is not possible for us not to be in a relationship with the All.
Its not that God creates wars, its the people who invest themselves into an ideology, don’t connect whatsoever with a true relationship with God, and then preach that in opposition to the next guy… Its crazy that this is what we thing religion is and have done for thousands of years… very revealing of the continued human condition.
Let put it this way, instead of saying that a true relationship with God was missing, we could also say a false relationship with God is what I was engaged with…. And did not truly work. Saying it one way or the other may convey the same basic message. Yet, the second way allows us to become aware that a false relationship with God is the basis for false relationships with oneself and with the other ones.
When we start to feel the innate truth that we’d live in the beholding love of God that is the interconnected oneness within and around us all, the idea of humanity railing against an external God becomes very surreal.
When I read ‘True religion’ I can’t but listen within me and feel how it truly feels like. And this feels very different to what usually is presented in any religion. It’s not something external that I have to learn or fit in, it’s just living the sacredness in my daily life, having my own connection and communicaton with God, without separation, but by honouring the divine in me and allowing this to expand with my movements.
Embracing the true meaning of religion felt like a liberation from the lies of what I thought religion was. Now knowing there is no more searching outside of myself for God and religion, but simply connecting to my inner heart and living from that love in every aspect of my life, knowing and experiencing God within.
I am still developing what the word Religion means to me, still unwrapping it. There are a few comments on this blog that really add to what you have shared Nicole and its just a great conversation to re-imprint, as the word Religion has been used in many untrue ways over the years. I like how practical you make your relationship with this word Religion.
In my experience and observations of people, it is like we all crave something more it is just about whether we give space to explore this or shut it down and try to fill it with something else.
What you have expressed here Nicole is so true and wise; a reminder for us of the responsibility to live true religion for the benefit of all;
“True Religion is about building routines, rhythms and rituals that support us to live in a way that is based on love so that we can reignite the fire within our body and reconnect to the love that we are.”
True religion is us living in connection to the fact we are divine. Our greatest prayer is to move, breathe and speak knowing we are Sons of God and beings of light. Forgetting these essential facts leads to all the war, devastation, anger, blame and hurt we see. It just goes on, endlessly. We should always know you seem to say Nicole, that we are so much more than just the limited everyday that we see.
We all know God, whether we admit it or not. We may wait until our dying breaths to admit it, but the knowing is there within.
Religion as a re-uniting with God and the love that we innately are – coming home to our essence; that is true religion to me too. Thank goodness for Universal Medicine helping to bring back the true meaning of this word.
True religion is the breath felt in our lungs, the connection to our heartbeat and the feeling of our feet touching the ground. We then take this connection within our bodies, into our daily living and bring greater awareness to our interactions with others. We can then continue to confirm, learn, appreciate and explore more and more of our connection to what living a religious life really is and how joyful it can really be.
Without the knowing of God in my life everyday I feel a sense of giving up and what is the point of all of this. Yet as soon as I reconnect to the knowing that I am, as we all are, Sons of God then I get a renewed sense of purpose and zest for life.
All our often we blame God for our own choices.
I know I certainly have tried to blame God and pretty much everybody else for what I have effectively chosen. The problem with this is nothing changes and things actually get worse. No one can ever make us do anything the question is how willing are we to be honest with the choices we have made because only then does true healing begin.
And get mad at him for not fixing things!
Which is then the prefect excuse to turn our back on him – and ourselves.
And also blame him when whatever has happened we actually did it to ourselves and thus it’s our own responsibility to clear it away.
God cops it! Yet his love is unconditional and he is always there waiting for our return.