503 thoughts on “Religion & Religious Re-Defined ”

1. A beautiful sharing Matts, ‘we are here to connect with people, to learn how to live side by side, and to help each other to evolve when we might be stuck in old patterns.’

2. Matts thank you for writing this blog as by re reading your words again today I have come to an understanding about myself. It feels as though the reason I withdrew from life into my own ‘little’ world was because what I saw, felt and experienced as a child, was loveless and did not stack up to what I knew God to be. Rather than just observing and staying with what I knew to be the truth in my heart. I withdrew from the world and took my love of all things universal with me and hid it all away in an attempt to protect what I knew to be true.
   What has been shown to me by the Benhayon family is that the multi dimensional love of the universe doesn’t need protection as nothing can in truth harm it. We get caught out in the many lies that we are fed, all of which are fed to take us all away from the absolute truth of the universal love we all come from.

3. In reading this blog I got to feel how the many different religions have suffocated us so that we have lost the true sense of what religion means and have accepted much less. As you have correctly said Matts
   “Anyone can make their own interpretation of these words and if one definition is accepted by many, then it becomes the accepted norm, even though it might not be the true version.”

4. Thanks Matts, the true meaning and experience of religion is very simple, it’s right there inside of ourselves. When we bastardise any word, and in this case religion, one of the things that happens is complications are brought in, and we see that in man made religion where even the connection to God is very convoluted, conditional, and in many cases supposedly needs a middle man.

5. Letting people in, or being able to be intimate with others, is one and the same, and when we add Appreciation as we can not have one without other (Appreciation / Intimacy) then we start to understand the Joy that we have in our lives because we have to have Joy in our lives before we can have Appreciation.

6. I love this ‘If we look at the origins of the word Religion for example – its actual and original meaning – it shows us that it means to Re-turn, Re-unite, Re-bond and Re-kindle a connection with a flame that is burning equally inside every person on this planet.’ That sounds like true religion to me ✨

7. Matts it was perfect timing for me to read this today, it’s very true, we need to be out in the world and having new experiences, meeting people and learning to let them in by being our full selves, imperfections and all, “By contrast, living isolated gives us free rein to do the same old, over and over.”

   1. Melinda Knights I’m so sick of the same old, over and over, way of life. It stinks of the rottenness of the repetitious behaviour that keeps us stuck in the rut of repeating the same life over and over again. I guess we all have to get to a point in life where we say enough is enough, I’m done with this. When we can finally admit that this current way of life that we are all living actually doesn’t work has never worked. Then we can turn again back to God and retrace our footsteps back to the only way that not only works but is all that matters.

      1. Yes, stop burying our heads in the sand pretending everything is fine here on earth, ‘When we can finally admit that this current way of life that we are all living actually doesn’t work has never worked.’

8. Learning that religion is what we actually do out of church – it is the quality of connection with everyone and everything in how we live our everyday graces us with the understanding that religion is all about our quality of livingness and loving all equally.

   1. I agree Suse. In my opinion Religion has nothing to do with the church. I feel they have high-jacked the word along with many other words such as God. I realised I had an issue with the word God and again in my opinion, it has been so badly misused that it can put people off when the word God is used. I wonder if that is a deliberate ploy so that we do not reconnect with the true meaning of the word God.

   2. Religion is simply, ‘it is the quality of connection with everyone and everything in how we live our everyday’.

9. Matts I loved something that I resonated with your sharing and that you were to ‘keep letting people in’ and that is so true for me too. Who would have thought that being religious is to open yourself to others. This is the state of affairs playing out in our world, one religion is reluctant to let another in. It only takes one to make a difference and slowly others will follow and there is a history of one person making a difference – Robin Hood comes to my mind right now and there are many others including Jesus, Buddha, Gandhi etc – it only takes one to make a difference.

   1. Shushila, I agree with you I never considered being religious is to open yourself up to others to be transparent in everything you do. But it makes sense because if we are transparent then no one can be blindsided by a lie because it would be immediately seen and felt for what it was, a lie. I immediately think of Serge Benhayon he is so transparent it is like looking into a clear crystal glass, he doesn’t hold one ounce of a lie in his body. There are not many of us that can match this level of transparency.

   2. And that ‘one’ can be each and everyONE of us, ‘It only takes one to make a difference and slowly others will follow and there is a history of one person making a difference’.

10. Religion, love, God – when truth in those words are lost and has no true resonance whatsoever when they are uttered, it is hard to connect with what they are actually representing and our relationship with those words will purely be based on the bastardised version. This is something I didn’t consider until I came to know Serge Benhayon and what he presents that how corrupt our world has become as a result of the bastardisation of words.

11. If you feel you have been criticised a lot, it can be tricky to let go of the need to look like you have everything sorted, I have found a great freedom, in not needing to get it right…. we miss out on the learnings when we make it about appearances and not truth. I feel that by connecting more with my body and being aware of how I feel, this honesty has supported a shift in responsibility, this responsibility an active and very alive foundation of how I have a relationship with religion and am in essence living that religiously.

    1. As someone who was criticised continually, I recognise the pattern of trying to get everything perfect, such a draining of our energy, and never truly healing; definitely letting go required of false paradigms.

12. “we are here to connect with people, to learn how to live side by side, and to help each other to evolve when we might be stuck in old patterns.” Yes we are Matts, and it is so good to be reminded of this especially when we are feeling challenged by another. There is always something for us both to learn from any interaction.

    1. We offer one another so much in our relationships, however seemingly short or long….we are here to learn from one another. How precious that if we get stuck we can turn to another and essentially find a key to unlock clarity.

13. When we surrender the judgement that keeps us divided from each other, we begin to feel the depth of our interconnectedness, an eternal bond of love that is the very breath of the God that breathes us.

    1. As you say Liane when we look behind the judgement we hold everyone in, we will find the depth of our interconnectedness with the multi dimensional universe we all come from and will return back to. The judgement is smoke and mirrors in an attempt to distract us from our multidimensional selves.

14. In terms of the word, the bit that always has me catching my breath is just that simple ‘Re’ part…. we are coming back to something that we already know, that is already inside us. We don’t have to perform, work hard, have others tell us what to do. Its a birthright for everyone.

15. Both my previous partner and current partner have struggled with the word Religion and God. Its kind of a trauma they’ve carried or a belief from parents to children and have found the whole thing distasteful. I’ve often heard them say ‘we were made to do this or made to dress like this or behave in this manner’ and so forth.

    It seems people are ‘made’ to be in a particular way in the name of God or Religion and its a no wonder these two people and no doubt many others have these issues – being made to do something they didn’t want to do or felt true for them.

    Letting people in and letting people see who you truly are is one way to true religion. Each one of us will have something to add that makes us all equal which will lead to true religion. True religion is within us all.

    1. I have also had my barriers and hurts around the word, largely I understand now, from the misuse of the word in society, where organisations and people, use the word, but do not live it. Religion is to be lived, not theorised about or thrown at others in righteousness, domination or with missionary zeal. Living Religiously for me is simple; to actively return with practice to who we are in full, through energetic responsibility and being honest. Love felt in these choices. I love this spherical, expanding, spiralling nature of gentle, steady return.

16. “I realised this when I started to let people in – when I stopped being so stubbornly protective and allowed people to see a little more of me” – is a biggie for me too and definitely not perfect at. I feel I have come a long way and to think 10 years ago I hardly knew anyone in Sydney and now I know so many people is through this connection of letting people see who I truely am, imperfect but willing to give it ago.

    1. Beautiful Shushila, you are amazing at letting people in.

17. There are many words we’ve abandoned and religion is one of them. When we do we leave it to others to define it and do not address the hurt we feel and then bring the truth of what we know. To take those steps back is amazing and to feel each and everyone of us has the power to do that, and as more of us do, we begin to see more clearly a lived truth in life.

18. “the accepted norm,” it is often the case that it is the accepted norm to misinterpret the true meaning of many things.

19. Our livingness speaks volumes, no empty words just truth being lived in a consistent and steady way.

20. I love how you write about rekindling your relationship with religion, it makes sense that the fire never truly went out, it just needs re-igniting.

21. Feeling the love and warmth you felt on the inside and noting that any of the church activities did not feel like that, in fact, quite the opposite was a great way of exposing that the church was loveless and you therefore did not get caught in the consciousness like so many of us did.

22. The outside world provides us with all kind of situations we are totally entitled to react to and stay in that reaction forever. The problem with reaction is that it cuts our ability to connect to truth. This makes very hard to be aware of those situations in which we are reacting to something that is not true but promoted as such. In those situations, what are you really rejecting? Are you making a true choice?

23. Words affect us way more than we think they do. We can either avoid or get involved in something that is deeply harming for us just through not feeling the energy behind words.

24. Sounds like the most important things in life deliberately are not shared:
    ‘I never heard that the connection with God was inside of me and that I didn’t have to go to a building to have a connection with him daily. I wasn’t told that it happens just by the way I am with myself and others. What I also didn’t know, nor was told, was that when I have this connection it’s not for me to hold on to and keep to myself, but the whole idea is to share it with other people and to interact from this place.’
    Because yes, life it about getting out of here and going back to where we come from, united as one.

25. There are only so many fillers and distractions you can use to avoid the fact that you are living isolated, which is the opposite of the brotherhood we naturally are pulled to live. Dropping perfection is a fantastic way to let people see the real you, drop the facades and let people love you.

26. Reconnecting to the true meaning of religion is to reconnect to love.

    1. I love that! Truth is love, so we need a lot of true meanings of words back and the word ‘love’ is one of them.

27. Saying yes to more commitment in life is deeply joyful, our whole being expands, we are much more than we have imagined ourselves to be.

    1. If we accept that God is already inside us, it does not allow us to be small, or insignificant. We equally have a divine spark and that needs to be expressed.

28. “Anyone can make their own interpretation of these words and if one definition is accepted by many, then it becomes the accepted norm, even though it might not be the true version.” – This phenomenon is so interesting to me, in that just because a large group of people have bought into a particular belief system it then makes it that much easier for others to adopt that system as being the truth, based merely on the shear numbers of people ‘on board’ and thus creating a false sense of ‘normal’. But history shows time and time again just how wrong the majority has been in the face of even just one man’s wisdom (i.e.. Copernicus saying that the Earth is NOT at the center of the Universe). The best modern example of this for me would be Serge Benhayon and the teachings of Universal Medicine.

29. Throughout the ages there has been a scepticism towards religion which dismisses the experience of the person and holds the only truth as that which can be physically proven. And it is interesting to consider this, because more often the religious might of the organised or controlled religions takes centre stage as being all mighty and powerful. But the reality is there is also another stream of conscious thought that runs through our history, and that is the dismissive nature of scepticism which does not value the religious experience of the person, an experience which can be outside of the conventional norm of what religion is considered to be, but yet still quintessentially at the heart of that person and their understanding of what God is and why they are here. So a sceptic might say that a person’s religious experience is invalid because either it is not of the set dictations of a certain religious order, or because it is in connection to what is not seen. In my view however, it is the sceptic who wins naught, as the religious person is at least open to the possibility of there being more to life, of there being other forces and sources, and to building a relationship with God.

    1. Hi Shami, I don’t know a whole lot about the so called “skeptics” but to me it feels like those that call themselves that is just afraid of there actually being more to life than meets the eye so they rely on “hard facts” when these facts are just controlled facts. And this is not the way to go forward if what we are looking for is the truth, the whole truth.

30. ‘And perhaps the reason my joy is flowing is because I have re-connected with our true purpose on earth – to return to where we are from originally, re-united and re-bound together’ Beautiful Matts, true joy!

31. The true power of words is in our Livingness of it.

32. Instead of holding onto and honouring what we know to be true of a word and what it represents, we tend to get hurt and put off by the misuse of words. I wonder if that word drift would happen if those of us who know the true meaning hold steady with it, regardless of what society is telling us. Unfortunately those who know the true meaning are often children, who want to be loved and included and feel they have to leave their knowing of truth to fit in with the world adults present to them.

33. There is a great beauty in the true meaning of religion and I appreciate the way that Serge Benhayon has presented it so clearly and simply. There are many awful things done in the so-called name of religion, but to me they do not own the true essence of that word and are just false imposters.

34. Letting people in is religion as it is all about connection!

35. People have an issue with the word religion because it has been wielded as a weapon to fear for centuries.

36. A gorgeous sharing of the reality how we live with the words and how we react to the bastardization more than the word in itself.. When we start to realize this, we bring greater power to our movements — and so our words.

37. I was put off religion because of how people behaved, in church they seemed nice people yet outside of church they were very different. I am now rekindling my connection with God, because I now know he is always with me everyday in everything I do.

38. “I have never considered myself a religious person… ” – me neither Matts until i became aware of what being religious meant thanks to Universal Medicine … and also as per your own understanding too in that ‘being religious’ is just being truly loving from a genuinely (self) connected place knowing we are all one, unified, equal.

39. Like many other words, the word ‘love’ has been bastardised to mean emotion, meeting each other’s needs, comfort etc. If we change the meanings of words we start to live a lie that then makes it very difficult to address. It is far better to admit the lie and live that then to deny that there is a lie in the first place.

    1. Yes this is true, the more honest we become as we strip back the layers the closer to God we become and naturally more religious.

40. If words are meant to be a representation of the activity of life, then the word religion does need to be astutely examined, because these days what is deemed as religious activity has many far reaching and different strands, some of which could be said to actually be causing a lot of harm to other people. In my view, there can be no religion in harmful behaviours, because for myself, I feel that religion is a word that represents the activity of divinity in life, a oneness or a wholeness that holds us all and that we are a part of just as much as it is a part of us. So therefore there can be no separation in true religion, there can be only the passage towards unity, a learning of our value and worth through the acts of understanding the stupendous divinity that is you and me and everyone on this planet.

41. ‘I’m opening the tap of joy flowing in my life again.’ True Matts that’s what I experience too, the more I let people in and choose to connect from my essence there is such a spunk and joy to be felt in my body, a clear message that we are meant to be together.

    1. Opening to more joy in our life is great, along with letting people in more, ‘when I started to let people in – when I stopped being so stubbornly protective and allowed people to see a little more of me. I allowed for people to see that I’m not perfect, something I have put a lot of effort into, wanting people to think that I’m perfect and have everything worked out.’ I am continuing to renounce that one, perfectionism etc., as it too was part of my life.

42. The word Religion has to be one of the worlds most bastardised words. Mention the word religion and you can feel the instant reaction in someones body. But underneath the reaction is a sadness. A sadness for knowing more but not feeling able to make the choice to know more. When one understands the true meaning of what religion means, it brings an exquisiteness to everything we do in our day. For the quality we are in our everyday is religion. Every moment is an opportunity for us to re-connect and deepen and know God more, know who we are more.

43. We’re not here to do it alone, and yet the cult of individuality is very strong in the world … and actually it’s when we work and be together that the magic, the joy is there. And I love that final line, we’re to … ‘return to where we are from originally, re-united and re-bound together.’

44. Just pondering on meaning of words and how they change over time and with that we lose connection to what they truly mean. The word religion is definitely one of those words that brings up a lot for most of us. But what is it bringing up? Do we inherently know the truth of what it means and we can clearly feel that how we have chosen to live is completely the opposite to its true meaning. Sometimes words or phrases change so that we distance ourselves from the meaning. Other times as in the case of religion the meaning itself has changed. So I know when I thought about religion I would think of a brand or a type of religion or someone that had a belief in God and the different ways people approach worship and also the the rules to live by. But there is so much richness not only to the word, when we understand its true meaning and then re-learning to live this. It brings back religion to every tiny moment and movement in our everyday.

45. Yes we are religious by nature and letting people in is also natural to us, as is religion. Perhaps it all comes just from one and the same. But if this is true why are we not living it, why have we collectively chosen to live as separate individuals on this planet earth instead?

46. Being religious is a natural way of living and in truth a way of living we all deeply love and cherish but have only forgotten.

47. It is totally natural for us to be open and loving with others, as the more we live this way the more we are in connection with the all.

48. It is only until we know joy, stillness and true purpose in life that we know we have connected to that which is our natural right or religious way of being, for otherwise, we live life being incarcerated by something that sounds good but it is far from the truth of we are all come from.

    1. Living with joy, and love, ‘ the reason my joy is flowing is because I have re-connected with our true purpose on earth – to return to where we are from originally, re-united and re-bound together.’

49. “….perhaps the reason my joy is flowing is because I have re-connected with our true purpose on earth – to return to where we are from originally, re-united and re-bound together.” Beautiful Matts. Letting people in and allowing love out – and in again – is a key to reconnecting deeper with ourselves – and with everyone.

50. Any discussion about how we can re-unite with one another is a winner with me; any opportunity to arrest conflict and support collaboration needs our attention.

    1. I agree with you Matilda, and your comment is exactly what I needed to read this morning. As when we feel the devastation the disconnection brings, not only to us but too to our families and societies, it is worth while to bring our attention to any opportunity to arrest conflict and separation, instead of trying to fix things functionally.

51. True religion is a full body expression and one that allows us to see that every move, breath and word we speak can hold a living connection to God. Showing the quality in which we express holds the true sense of what a religious movement is and that it is available to us everyday if we so choose, is a far cry from what I used to see religion and God as but now it is because before religion was something I believed to be something outside of me and hard to grasp and now I see the beauty of religion is how we live making it accessible for all.

52. I can so relate to abandoning something when I feel as though its purity is lost or damaged. I hadn’t seen it like this before, but that is actually giving that very treasure over to the untruth, and I am giving my power away.

53. The things that we associate with certain words; images, things we’ve been told and experiences of the way other people have used that word can all add up to what we define as being the meaning of something and that can be very off-putting, such as with religion. But in this case there is underneath a word here that has a very beautiful root meaning and one that has been obscured by it’s mis-use over time. It’s truly enriching to be brought back to being aware of what this word originally meant and to consider afresh what this can mean to us in our daily living.

54. Growing up religion felt completely empty to me and void of both truth and love. I definitely feel you have a valid point with regards to this ‘Could that be why so many people have issues with the word God and the word Religion? Because when we see and hear people use these words, we feel they are not truly representing what they are talking about.’ I know this was the case for me, in fact I would even go as far to say that I was embarrassed to say the word God feeling that I was stupid or a bit of a wuss/whimp. I love the true meaning of Religion you have expressed here ‘it means to Re-turn, Re-unite, Re-bond and Re-kindle a connection with a flame that is burning equally inside every person on this planet.’ Now that feels true to me ✨

    1. The true meaning of religion is very beautiful, https://www.unimedliving.com/unimedpedia/word-index/unimedpedia-religion.html

55. Spot on Matts, we react to words such as God and Love because there are many who use these words without living the true expression of them. To live the truth of these words is very powerful, you only have to watch how the movements of the Benhayon family to feel how deeply inspiring this is.

    1. True, it’s all in the emanation of who we allow ourselves to be.

56. Pingback: Marking Religion – The Truth about Universal Medicine

57. Imagine trying to capture the sun, sub-divide the air or cut up water into separate pieces. This is how crazy it is to think you can keep Love for just some selected people. Feelings don’t work this way but emanate out for everyone to receive. What you show here Matts is that whether we choose individualism or recognise we are part of a bigger whole, is a big deal.

58. This is a really beautiful blog, Matts. It takes me to the point I most need and want to deep in now, which is letting go any idea of perfection and letting people come into my life. It’s true that only when we share openly who we are, we find the purpose of religion, which is re-unite us with all.

    1. You know, isn’t that why we have so much division in the world? We fight being together, we fight the very one thing we need to “get” as a human race. One example in 2017 is Catalonia in Spain wanting to become their own state, independent from Spain. We might herald this for whatever reason, we might muster up, but it’s still a step in the completely wrong direction, coming from a reaction that we need to – I don’t know – become “our own”. We tend to be afraid of letting people in and we can see this at a personal level, but it is also there between nations. It’s just the macro reflecting the micro.

59. How amazing that in every moment we are supported by God, and every movement of struggle and angst comes from the fact that we subscribe to pictures about how life should be and position ourselves to that, rather than simply move in the grace of that natural impulse in our bodies.

    1. Putting out ideals and images of how life should be can be quite limiting and harmful, why not allow life to flow and be impulsed by something Divine.

60. I too am ‘opening the tap of joy flowing in my life again’ and it is awesome. From entering the world a bundle of joy to completely shutting down and avoiding people never mind letting them in to many moments of enjoying being with people and letting them see me for who I am has been a miracle but a miracle well worth bringing into my life. And the amazing thing is it doesn’t stop here…

61. It’s a great point that we can react to practices that we can see are not true and in that reaction throw out the baby with the bathwater so to speak – by abandoning words like religion when there is a true way of being religious it’s just that there are many harming practices that falsely make claims to it as well…

    1. Seeing though the misinterpretations of words to their true meaning is very inspiring and brings us home to the essence and truth of words and our purpose on earth.

62. When people would ask if I was religious I would scoff and say no way. To now feel and know that to be religious is to live and express in a way that supports who you are and then holds all equally within this quality, feels amazing and that no one is seen as being more or less as all are apart of the whole feels light years away from what I felt religion really was. Thank you Matts.

    1. What a blessing to have the truth in words shared with us, supporting us to let go of what is not true.

63. If I’m honest I’ve held a similar opinion of people who say they are religious, thinking they are blind followers, puppets, not very bright – judging them horribly. Yet we all have the same questions, the same underlying feeling that there is something more which we know for certain. A relationship with God is utterly essential to understanding and deepening that feeling.

64. When our life has true purpose we just naturally are religious.

65. There is something that cannot be discarded. The person who observes religious people and religious places and who do not feel any true in any of what he/she is observing and therefore decide not to subscribe to religion and even less to be religious. Although may not subscribe to these words, it has to be said, that by doing we say yes to the reduction of the religious field to something it is not. So, it is an acceptance to play in a field that is not true, not different from the one usually offered by any mainstream religion even if the person says no to them.

66. It sure is worth returning to the true origins of language and their full universal meaning – it is through this, that we reignite our knowing and the science we have thus lived.

67. This raised such a great point that to live isolated allows us to continue in our old ways whether they support us or not, it shows how shutting ourselves off from life and people does not evolve us.

68. Lovely Matts, there is no greater way to be religious than to let people in. And let’s scrap all we have been told about religion and start again, then we need never be burdened by all the false associations that draw us away from what being religious really means.

69. And then there is the consideration of the word love… I used to sit in the church week after week listening to people droning on about love… It was fossilized dead and empty… Whereas the love of God is so extraordinarily vibrant that it pulses through your body and wakes up every cell.

    1. And it’s simple.I really need to get that one. So often I go into serious mode and then I can all of a sudden catch myself feeling low because I’m not allowing myself to just be me. Thanks for the reminder cjames2012!

70. When what being religious truly is felt and known, the travesty that is todays definition is fully revealed

71. “And perhaps the reason my joy is flowing is because I have re-connected with our true purpose on earth – to return to where we are from originally, re-united and re-bound together.” I felt the joy yesterday as I connected for a brief moment with someone at the Shopping Centre, I walked away with a smile on my face and a joy in my heart, we are truly so deeply connected by divine love. Thank you Matts for sharing.

72. I have reacted to these words “God” and “Religion” my whole life. I have no real reason for a life of reacting to them. I was not raised Religious but the few experiences I did have, I was like you, in the sense that the actions and words didn’t match and therefore these words felt false to me. I still do react, I can’t lie but this blog I have no reaction to, in fact, I really enjoyed your honest and simple experience. It was a real life and tangible experience that you have had with Religion and it’s almost impossible to react when something is written in this unimposing way.

73. It is perhaps so easy to assume that what we see with our eyes is what is really happening. But the truth is, that no matter what mainstream organised religion a person may belong to, the fact that any one person has a desire to be religious is a beautiful thing.

74. The joy that overflows is from uniting with ourselves once again, and the reflection it brings from the outside of others coming close, confirms this joy within. It is very worth it to redefine words in life according to what the heart knows to be true. Be our own authority in this regard, claim that our bodies always feel truth, and live that in our lives. What we have redefined, we can simply live, even though there may not be much resonance in the beginning, but that will not be long. As the reflection offered allows everyone else to feel what they also know too, they may either accept or react, but nonetheless, the reflection and inspiration has been received.

75. I agree Matts, we have tainted words such as God and religion with of our own fears and insecurities only to result into something further away from the truth and our connection from soul.

76. When the meaning of words becomes an interpretation instead of a consistent and reliable common understanding we actually don´t know what we are talking about, there is no common truth we can build on and truly meet and connect or not even accurately express what we feel and know. Somehow getting back to the true meaning of words is like learning not a new but the ‘one’ language we all know to be true – true by the resonance of truth in our bodies.

77. Beautiful blog to read and be inspired by Matts. I love the message you have presented, that being, if we truly connect to ourselves and one another then we feel and see God in ourselves and in another;
    “Re-turn, Re-unite, Re-bond and Re-kindle a connection with a flame that is burning equally inside every person on this planet”.

78. Religion, rebinding, reconnection with all….”So my way forward from here, with my re-kindled understanding of what religion and being religious means, will be to keep letting people in.” In this rebinding we build a relationship with everyone equally, knowing we are part of the whole. I love that this is part of my life; how can we ever fall into the trap of loneliness or isolation, we are always with the ALL and we are here to live this and connect with everyone.

79. I tried to be religious when I was younger – but it felt so fake, like I was talking myself into believing something. I was desperate to know there was more to life than I could see – but found nothing in religion to mirror the feeling of expansive intelligence I knew was there. Thank God for the teachings of Universal Medicine – now, I can say I am religious, meaning I am living in a way to return to my Soul.

80. Without being dogmatic we can claim words back for their true meaning…we often do not realise that words are so often bastardised “This in itself is very sad because then we let the words be free prey, so to speak.” We can claim them back through how we live, so when we speak the words they have the authority of a lived knowing of them, to this I say yes to Religion, God and Love and I do not hold back this truth in how I live.

81. It is true anyone can say the words love, God or truth but what is the energetic integrity expressed in these words and what is the person living? For example recently it was reported in Italy that police bust into an orgy where there were drugs; this was held in the apartment of a priest who serves as secretary to the cardinal so it is no wonder you or many others have felt or feel this: ‘The reason for this was that what I saw on the outside, as in people talking about God, Religion and Love, didn’t match what I knew to be the truth of those words’. Because we can feel the what people are saying and what people are living are many times two entirely different things. Love that you are letting people in and inviting people over for dinner 💕

82. “I never heard that the connection with God was inside of me and that I didn’t have to go to a building to have a connection with him daily.” – How truly freeing it is to recognise that our connection with God is not assigned to any building or monument, ritual or blessing from another but something that is innate within each of us, an immanent presence.

83. Letting people in allows us to feel God within ourselves, for how can we know God if we are refusing his own reflection that is offered through others in our everyday lives.

84. Great what you share about connection being for all. The message I was picking up from the church and from other religions as I was growing up was that connection to God for them was something not only outside of you but also not for us all, only for a select few “holy ones”… this is total separation if you ask me and not how God would hold His children which is all of us.

    1. Yes it shows how far away the false ones can make us waver away from the truth but as always we will be sling shot right back to the love we are from sooner or later.

    2. Yes, we have been completely lied to Joshua, ‘I never heard that the connection with God was inside of me and that I didn’t have to go to a building to have a connection with him daily’.

85. I simply love that the very basis of a re-turn or a re-connect means that we were once a part of a whole, and that must mean that it is both natural and irresistible to find our way back home.

86. It must have been very confusing as a child Matts to feel the church activities you were involved in as ‘cold and loveless’ not containing the ‘love and warmth’ that you felt inside you.

    1. It sure was. But the great thing was that I held onto my love and saw the outer version as the odd one out.

87. It is the distaste for the words we develop from people moving differently than we know the word actually stands for and this bastardisation leads the way for interpretation and the endless discussions that are the result of that. Actually, all from avoiding to connect to one another as when we do what you can see when major disasters are taking place and we come jointly together to help those who are in a need. Then there is no issue about religion, race, culture or political colour anymore, we all work jointly together as one, united as one. Could it be that it is that power that we then live is that which we avoid the most in our hanging on to our commonly shared version of the word religion?

88. When I was young I never really understood religion for what society posed it as and really struggled to see the joy in it because churches always felt very heavy and sad to me even as a little girl. To now know that true religion is a re-connection to our inner heart and is then reflected by our way of living every day with truth, love and care, brings a deeper understanding of life and how we in turn live, express and learn constantly and that is an awesome religious way I thoroughly enjoy sharing.

89. Wow Matts I never really considered that abandoning a word because I feel the way it is being used is not true is abandoning part of me…I can see this is giving away my power to the ‘word’, which is perhaps being used empty of love, rather than holding the word in the truly loving form it originates from and that is abandoning that part of me and all I originate from!

90. I can see the true joy letting people in brings, and feel it when I allow myself. It is a truly beautiful thing to excercise, it is our true nature to be with people and in connection all the time. It is religion that brings us this in the true sense of the world. We all know it from young, and are destined to return.

91. “Anyone can make their own interpretation of these words and if one definition is accepted by many, then it becomes the accepted norm, even though it might not be the true version.” This is so very true Matts and when you look around you can see how often this has happened. Religion is of course the obvious one and until recently I used to recoil from the word as I didn’t feel any love in it at all so I struggled to understand why, all around me, so many put their whole lives and the lives of their families into what they believed was a religious way of life.

92. “…what I saw on the outside, as in people talking about God, Religion and Love, didn’t match what I knew to be the truth of those words. So you could easily say that I felt hurt by people misusing these words…” Yes, there can be a discrepancy in hearing the ‘talk’ and feeling the quality of that same ‘talk’ … sometimes it matches and sometimes it doesn’t. Serge Benhayon is one man that absolutely expresses the love and quality in his presentations and the way live. He and Universal Medicine absolutely walk the talk.

    1. And that discrepancy that we sense Johanne, between what we feel and see can be both very confusing and disconcerting – but when we read between the lines and recognise the discrepancy for what it is, it allows us to bring understanding to perhaps why it is occurring.

93. In your blog matts you expand on what you feel religion means. I can relate to what you have said here “It shows us what it means to Re turn, Re-unite Re-bond and Re-Kindle a connection with as flame that is burning equally inside of every person on this Planet.”

94. Matts, this makes sense and is very lovely; ‘And perhaps the reason my joy is flowing is because I have re-connected with our true purpose on earth – to return to where we are from originally, re-united and re-bound together.’ I can feel from what you are sharing that life is about people and connecting with people, I have been enjoying letting people in recently too and I love this, I can feel how I no longer hold the judgements about people that I used to and this allows me to connect and enjoy being with people.

95. There is nothing more beautiful than to feel how deeply religious we all are (in the true meaning of that word) if we are close to our essence. There is nothing more beautiful than feeling that we walk with God. Being religious is pretty delicious.

96. I am finding the more we accept ourselves and the divine within, the more we are able to connect to others and learn from our own movements and expression everyday. Religion is living and breathing within and then outwardly expressed from our quality of movements thereafter.

97. ‘…we are here to connect to people…’ and that this is founded on our connection ourselves. This brings me a sense of purpose and responsibility that supports my care of myself as the foundation and quality that I then bring to all my relationships.

98. It’s interesting how being religious can be considered synonymous with being weak minded and pathetic. I must admit that I have also thought this of some people who follow a religion. Despite gaping flaws in their religion they seem to swallow it whole. This can only happen when religion is made to be about beliefs and faith. My religion ‘The Way of the Livingness’ consistently asks me to know for myself, to check in with if something feels true or not. It is through this unwavering knowing that I have tried and tested that I have come to know myself as religious.

99. Being disillusioned by religion as you were sees many of us seeking out a religion that is true, and many of us have been on this journey. We have taken part in services and rituals around the world only to discover that nothing out there is it. There are religions that speak of the kingdom of God being inside us but the organised systems of religions do not encourage this nor do they seem to be able to show us the way to truly feel it in our bodies; it mainly stays as an idea or concept, and if we do feel it how do we know it is true? It is only through getting to know about energy and discerning for ourselves that we eventually get to feel what is true or not. Serge Benhayon was the first person I met who could really communicate the science of energy and through practices like the Gentle Breath Meditation and Esoteric Yoga I began to feel for myself what being truly connected, as in the origin of the word religion, really is.

100. People like you, that publicly write like this make me smile, you are brave and strong, you are willing to put yourself out there for all to see, it makes me smile inside and lets me know that I can if you can, thank you.

101. ‘Unfortunately this happens way too often. We create a distaste for words and practices that we feel are not honoured for what they truly mean, and in reaction we abandon them, which can also mean we abandon a part of ourselves as we are intertwined with the true meaning of many of these words, such as God, Love, Truth, and Religion.’

     This paragraph really sums up a lot about our reactions to the long-term misuse of words. Over the years Religion is the word that I have held the most issue with. The way we – as a society- have used Religion against all its known and true principles made me want nothing to do with it. We fight in the name of it, hide, try to look good, cover things up, exploit others and use God as a threat to control the flock. So I have stayed away from any organised Religion my whole life but what if something came along that did in fact honour what I felt true Religion to be? Then what? Do I stay away because I don’t want to be considered apart of a minority Religion? Because people might not understand that it is different? Or do I honour the fact that I know exactly what this word means and if I do, then the world will, eventually. To me it means we are all the same, no matter our beliefs or culture or skin colour, that we all come from love and that the reason we find it so tricky to live that is because we have two parts we are made up of currently, a spirit and a soul. The spirit wants to burry itself in comfort and pain, hurt – with no regard for the body it is in and the Soul is forever drawn to evolve out of this mess we have created and return to the wholeness it came from, it knows that the key lies in the body it inhabits. I am not going to walk away just because of a long term misuse of a word I hold dear, thank you for reminding me of this.

102. Religion is a profoundly beautiful word and being religious is the experience of living religion, making it our every day and every moment. It is part of who we are whether we acknowledge it or not. But we can live in resistance to this, I know that I certainly have, especially when I thought that it was about whether I had a belief in God or not. But what I am re-learning is that religion has nothing to do with a belief, it’s about what we live and what we know. I know that when I look into somebody else’s eyes I see way more than a physical being sitting in front of me, that there is a universe of wisdom within; I know that heaven sends me messages all the time in the most ordinary of moments – people I meet, animals I see; I know what I feel when I am connected to my soul, there is no pain and suffering there, just an exquisiteness that is equally shared by all others. To me this is the experience of God and I am re-learning that I can live in a way, with how I move, to remain connected to this throughout my day. The even more beautiful thing is that I am not perfect in this at all and how I am with myself when I make a mistake is full of tremendous care, which I also take into the world with me. How I am with myself is how I am with other. This is deeply religious.

103. I love the true meaning of the word Religion -when discovering this truth I could feel an absolute yes from with-in to saying I’m willing to commit to being religious. These are the qualities that feel true for me to live and if this is the word that describes this then this is the word. Buying in to others definitions no matter how mis-directed and mis-conducted the actions have been it doesn’t give them authority of the truth. They use to say the world was flat and it was a criminal offence to declare you didn’t agree. Come to think of it I’m pretty sure it was the same ‘group of people’ behind both mis-representations.

104. I am becoming ever more aware of the responsibility we have to speak up about all that is not true in this world – otherwise all that is not true will continue to flourish and the evil feed upon itself and prey upon those who have yet to see the game is all its many guises. Only through truly seeing the evil is it possible to regain the freedom of the truth.

105. Matts what you have shared is amazing as I also feel that the more I open up to people the more I can read situations and so this is developing a transparency in me so that I am no longer hiding who I am. Being open and transparent is so empowering that it is simple to claim who I am as a Son of God.

     1. Being transparent with others is key Greg to a deeper connection to ourselves and others.

        1. So true Anna, this is so simple as is all the Esoteric.

106. A beautiful way to define religion, Matts is to let people in. Often in society and organized religions we think we let people in but in truth we tolerate people. Letting people is to not judge people concerning their choices but hold them as equal.

107. It can be very judging to say that a person is not religious because they are not displaying what you know or understand religion to be. After all, isn’t that how many wars have started? The reality is of that which lives inside the hearts of each and every person and for some this may be considered religious and therefore seek a place where this connection and sense of divinity can be expressed. The point is that we cannot ever judge each other because no one will ever know the depths of the love and connection that another person has within their inner heart as this is a very personal experience.

108. Now that Religion has been re-defined, or rather religion has been restored its original true understanding, there will be those who have previously discerned or been hurt by the falseness and abuse of what has been on offer until now, who may find a true resonance with the teachings of Serge Benhayon, Universal Medicine and the lineage of the Ageless Wisdom.

109. Too few of us are prepared to question the status quo, be it the religious status quo, or the status quo of society. In many ways this is understandable, for we all want to belong. It is natural to do so. But what we don’t ask enough is – what is it that I am wanting to belong to? And if I am saying yes to something, what am I saying no to? For there is always a choice in life, and quite often the tragedy is that we do not think that there is a choice.

110. I had never pondered that I had also cringed at the words of religion and God could have ben from the reaction of the falsity behind the use of the words. When a religion packages those false beliefs and expects to swallow them as true, it always left a bitter taste. When re-introduced to the original meanings of the words, they resonated in the body with truth. The reconnection just feels like we are whole and complete again.

111. Matts this is beautiful what you are sharing – for we do have a greater purpose here on earth – life is not about just getting a job, getting married, having kids etc etc. It is about connection and this begins with re-deveolping our relationship with ourselves, and hence as this deepens we cannot deny that this then is a relationship with a very divine part of ourselves – our Soul, our connection and bridge to God.

112. I’m coming more and more lightly and joyfully into the full claiming of living a religious life. When the true meaning of the word religion is understood, would I have any other interest or intention to myself or another human being that is anything less than the love of God?

113. Matt’s I love how you talk about choosing isolation or sharing oneself with others. I’m so glad I’m much more accepting of myself that I share more of me with others, willing to have those parts I thought were me (but actually aren’t) exposed so I can let go of them and share even more of who I am and so on. 🙂

114. Part of our beautiful relationship with others is our ability to connect and show our all, vulnerable and raw. Its gorgeous to feel the loving surrender that is there as we show our all.

115. The word ‘Religion’ until now has been horribly tarnished by the so-called proponents for religion who are in fact supporting institutions that are rife with corruption, power, sexual and other abuse, control and supremacy. Little wonder that your average common sense person and clear seeing child would run a mile from it… but what if this was a deliberate ploy to keep humanity away from the truth of religion and that its beauty lives untarnished and pure within each and every person…

116. “For what is the best thing to assist you grow and evolve if not having people around you that can remind you if you’ve slipped away from being your natural loving self, the very quality that is godly within us all?” That’s very beautiful and true, even though it can create tension or discomfort at times in the end it is very beautiful to be around people and reminded of the divinity that is inside us.

117. We are all religious to something and sometimes many things. Choosing and discerning what that is, has been the path of learning for me. Learning how to discern what I will and will not give my power to has been a real eye opener.

118. It’s ironic to consider that many seek “joy” from things that actually keep them isolated and separated. I have done this for many years of my life. I would seek a form of “joy” in checking out with food, watching movies, indulging in my studies to name a few. This was not true joy, it was a form of comfort that falls far short of the true joy that can be had with others when you let them into your heart.

119. I understood Religion to mean a ‘Way of life’ and The Way of The Livingness offers a way of living in such detail that I hadn’t appreciated before. It’s not about committing no sins of worshipping a God, but about everything in our lives, how we eat, how we sleep, how we relate to everyone around us, even how we think. But nothing is prescriptive, it is all for us to feel for ourselves, to discover within.

120. It is amazing that most of us have reacted to such words as religion, religious and God when we were young. It shows how even as early as that we have a sense of the true meaning of these words so that we can tell when there is a lack of sincerity.

121. True Matts, the most common meaning of the word religion is so way off its true meaning, that it asks us to live everything that we are not and convinces us it is right and proper to do so. However, right and proper have no place in the truth of knowing, connecting to and living our essence, to the best of our ability.

122. The word religion gets soiled by people who claim to be religious but don’t actually live it. This can be true of any of us who know better but choose otherwise. We all have a responsibility to represent true religion in our way of life.

     1. I feel it gets more than soiled, it gets trashed. By the way, most people swear it to be true but in no way do they live any of the truths that can be found in modern religious texts hence the trashing by some religions towards anyone who is not of their faith. If it was lived the world would be a much more harmonious place and so true religion is a way of life that when lived is seen for the truth it brings.

123. Thank you Matts for reminding us all on the original and in my opinion the true meaning of the word religion and therefore showing us that we do not have to throw ‘the baby out with the bath-water!’

124. When I heard the true origin of the words religion and religious I found them so easy to embrace, for there is no stigma or separation in the true meaning of these words, the opposite in fact with no divisions, no judgement, all equal and unified in our essence of true love and I now am totally at ease in claiming that I am religious, because as you so beautifully express Matts, I also “have re-connected with our true purpose on earth – to return to where we are from originally, re-united and re-bound together.”

125. Thank you Matts I also felt I ‘wanting people to think that I’m perfect and have everything worked out’ so that I was almost kingly over all I surveyed, which never served me or anyone else. As I become more transparent in the way I live this has a simple flow so that I am becoming a humble religious soul who is exploring the truth about life to the best of my ability.
     For more on transparency go to;
     http://www.unimedliving.com/search?keyword=TRANSPARENCY

126. The Way of The Livingness is my religion….how great it feels to be able to say those words without flinching at the word religion. This is because I know that religion doesn’t come from a church, pulpit, or a person in strange robes, but from within me, my connection to my inner heart and so, to God.

     1. It does feel great to say those words and to have a relationship with religion that is free from all the ideals that organised religions impose on you. I am coming back to a way of living and being in relationship with God, life, people and the universe that is sacred to me and so natural.

127. The love affair of coming back to true religion in connection and with the all the Universe and God as one is beautiful and so warm and knowing from inside as apposed to the cold emptiness ,lovelessness and cruelty of the imposed dogma I grew up with from a young age at boarding school and the hardening , repression and lack of worth from this . Being religious I now know is the living way of love with all and joy and simplicity being myself and something I am growing and coming back to every day. Thank you for this beautiful sharing Matts.

128. I remember too when I was young that when learning someone was religious what I felt was a massive shockwave, and the way I saw that person was different, much like if someone got in trouble or told a lie – feeling these things were all in a great magnitude but as we grow up this level of sensitivity is reduced, whereas it is a great asset.

129. It’s funny, today one of the most used words in the world must be ‘connection’. It’s plastered all over those massive billboards you see for new internet and mobile phone deals. It seems we are all looking for connection more and more. But aside from whether you can quickly access Facebook on your phone, there is something more to this connection thing. Your words remind me Matts that there is a way to write and speak, where what you share comes from a feeling in your body – they actually work together in a complementary way. And when you share like that the words carry the feeling of what you are speaking about and are not just empty characters standing lonely on a page. Just writing this has made me aware that there is a way I can type every word with all of me, or just rush through them quickly to the end. When we express with quality of care, the words naturally communicate their true meaning.

130. I loved to hear one of your ways of coming back to living religiously (in connection) was by having people over for dinner while dropping the need to be perfect. This is inspiring….

     1. Connecting with people over dinner is so much fun and when this happens at our home the conversations are generally religious based.

     2. Yes I could easily write a blog about that, perfection and my re-definition of what that word mean to me now compared to before.

        1. wow that would be both powerful and appreciated, thanks Matts.

131. It is bemusing that religion is considered to be the antithesis of intelligence, and no doubt it can be, when bastardised – especially if one makes religion a pure tenet of faith, rather than one of exploration and pondering. For true religion requires one to assess by way of their livingness whether the tenets they hypothesise to be true are actually true, or not. And this is not so easy a task as it might seem. For example, let us take the hypothesis that removing dairy and gluten from one’s diet actually brings one closer to God. Many people do such a thing, and feel no such connection.

     However, they will say they feel clearer, and have more energy, although not register perhaps what that indeed means. And I will say the reason they do not register that they are closer to divinity as a result is they have an image in their head about what divinity actually is and what it actually feels like, and so they do not understand the signs that actually lead back to our understanding of God.

     The truth is, clarity and vitality are two signposts along the way that we need to learn to recognise as very important ones. Why are they signposts? Because the greater overriding hypothesis that I suggest one explores is that the reason we do not know God is not because he does not exist, but because we have dulled our senses to the point where can not feel divinity as a living truth. And thus, eating heavy foods, and numbing agents such as alcohol and coffee guarantee we cannot feel such a thing.

     Without establishing that platform first and foremost, one cannot test the next hypothesis, which is to suggest that God’s light, known as fire, can energetically be felt. For without first building a body that can be energetically aware (which requires vitality and clarity), one cannot put that hypothesis to the test.

     And there you have it – a snippet of the science also known as The Way of The Livingness.

132. I do look forward to the day I can claim that I am deeply religious without an ounce of contraction.

133. In letting ourselves out and others in, we are practising our true purpose: working, living, learning and growing with each other… ultimately returning to unity.

134. The reinterpretation of words to turn them into something they are not takes away from us all an opportunity to experience the truth in life.

135. “If we look at the origins of the word Religion for example – its actual and original meaning – it shows us that it means to Re-turn, Re-unite, Re-bond and Re-kindle a connection with a flame that is burning equally inside every person on this planet.”

     I cannot tire of reading this as it who I am – the return to essence, equal and connected to all humanity and God. I have denied this natural return in a myriad of ways all of which felt pointless and empty no matter what the superficial momentary buzz was. Why continue the resistance? But simply surrender to who I truly am – with my body appreciating this more than anything.

136. “…Re-turn, Re-unite, Re-bond and Re-kindle a connection with a flame that is burning equally inside every person on this planet.” How far removed has the word religion come from its true and divine meaning? It is worth pondering on how many other words in our vocabulary and how they are used today and in what context, are from the truth of their original meanings.

137. Serge Benhayon returns truth and livingness into words the Religion and God. We are the Universal Love they hold.

138. Religion to me is to connect to that grander whole we are part of, that is to connect to the plan that is there for the universe to grow and expand. To understand and accept that I and all people with me are part of that makes life purposeful again, as it is not to extend or better our lives here on earth, as this is only a side track we are taking away from that bigger plan of which this experiment of humans life actually was not part of.

139. Being connected with my body for me is religion and truly being in love with myself opens me up towards other people.

140. Religion begins with us reconnecting to ourselves and in that connection we can know ourselves not as the illusion of the individual but know ourselves and thus live as an integral and equal part of the all.

141. So many people outright reject religion because of the intentional bastardisation of its true meaning – but at the same time most feel a deep longing for a connection to something the recognise deep down is true and which they see glimpses of it in this world, but find its understanding just beyond their reach to grasp. What if true religion was simply the steps back into feeling, embracing, unfolding and ultimately living this truth in every moment.

     1. I love a juicy ‘what if’ question… and this one simply invites me to explore what opens up when I feel, embrace and live in connection with my body and its direct line to God.

142. Thinking of my own experiences of organised religion and the feelings it gave me of either elation or dread, and then eventually dryness, lack of joy and love, and boredom, and how the energy in my body becomes sluggish when I remember, then contrasting that with how I feel when I surrender to my body and allow the natural rhythm of my gentle breath, feel a pulsing and flow, come to a deep Stillness within, and every cell is vibrating, a warmth arises and expands me, then I know I have found my own way to God by reconnecting to myself. I feel alive and ready to take that out into the world and share with others, not as a missionary, but through living what I feel, living God you could say. This feels ancient and ageless, and there is joy in the returning.

143. My relationship with religion deepens endlessly when I simply surrender into my relationship with God; one that I have known all my life but been wayward with as I tried to shoe horn it into one of the religions and/or social frameworks that I encountered in the world. I never found a match, well, that is until I started working with The Way of The Livingness.

144. What a great understanding of why religion and religious words, that we all know but don’t feel true to this inner knowing, affects us all and hence the mix up of religion and the seeking or mistrust we have. A beautiful reuniting of truth for us to be lived naturally being all the love we know and are.

145. ‘Unfortunately this happens way too often. We create a distaste for words and practices that we feel are not honoured for what they truly mean, and in reaction we abandon them…’This reminds me of food poisoning – we will not want to eat that type of food again even though it was not the food itself but bacteria introduced to it that gave us the poisoning.

146. I too have never considered myself religious but from reading this and observing true religion in action I am re-uniting with what religion is and am inspired to re-ignite this return within myself and live it naturally in everyday life.

147. The very belief that God is outside of us is in itself a form of irresponsibility as it allows us to see ourselves as small and in many ways powerless to what happens in life when we are in fact equal and very much just as influential on life on earth as God Himself

148. “For what is the best thing to assist you grow and evolve if not having people around you that can remind you if you’ve slipped away from being your natural loving self, the very quality that is godly within us all.”
     A sentence that makes sense, as deep down all we want is to live harmoniously with others. Why then do we attempt this by trying to fit into society instead of being our own selves and bringing this to society. There is much to consider here the former is about being needing to be accepted. The later is, accepting self and sharing this freely.

149. Everyday I love the word religion more, religion is just you in life loving being who you are and loving all the people you share your life with – it’s so simple.

     1. So simple, so sweet and so inspiring…

150. Whilst I shunned religion for much of my life part of me wanted to be religious. As a child I remember wanting to go to Sunday school to see what they were learning about. I read Buddhist texts trying to find the key that would make everything make sense. But I never got far. The religions I explored put me off very quickly. Whilst parts of them felt true, the whole package felt quite yuck. When I came to Universal Medicine it was an entire package that felt whole, complete and all encompassing of anything and everything. I had found religion and not a modified and bastardised version.

151. Trying to put out a facade or picture that we’re perfect is like building a barrier between us and other people, and to think that we need to be ‘perfect’ is such a damaging belief in my experience! What we can be is truly willing to learn from our mistakes/ choices and be ok with others seeing all of us…

152. I recently attended a church funeral. The actual church proceedings were what they were and fell flat in comparison to the beautiful speeches and heartfelt sharings. This again confirmed that first and foremost we congregate because we love being with and feel safe around others.

153. Indeed, Matts. Once we accept that we are merely returning to a grandness we all innately are, everything we do is religious and very joyful.

154. The religion that has been shown to me from childhood bears no resemblance to what I now understand religion to be. The understanding I now have of religion is uplifting, encouraging, confirming and embracing. The old held none of those qualities. That in itself tells us significant changes in the world are needed.

155. This is very important, what you are sharing about inviting other into your life to truly see you in all your imperfections. It does sound simple but if we look deeply into how much we allow this, it can be quite revealing, I know this blog has made me reflected on how much I am inviting people into my life.

156. It is fascinating quite how many words we have bad or ill meanings associated with because of past experiences. I know I can be the same with places and people out of fear of it happening again. The problem I find is that by holding onto the past we do not allow the beauty and magic of what is before us to come out in all it’s glory – effectively we are condemning 1st rather than presenting love 1st. And when we judge 1st we generally get to see what we want to see, or what suits the picture we have created rather than what is actually before us and so miss out.

157. Letting people in is a process which is not always easy as it brings up own issues, but it is worth it.

158. I remember the same growing up how religion made me feel sick. All the representations of it were not what I knew inside. When I met Serge Benhayon and listened to his presentation my whole body tingled. Before this, I did not have a relationship with my body or myself that was based on love. My reconnection was rebirthed and my relationship with me began. It is steady and not failing me like everything else had.

159. Entertaining words, corrupting words, misinterpreting, and in doing this we miss out on how words are to be felt first from the vibration they come with. We can all feel when some one is speaking in anger this is so simple. Feeling the true vibration that words come with is something that is so needed and the way this is done is so simple when we become religious or re-connect to our inner-most so that we use more of our sixth sense or clairsentience. This then become something that we will always continue to build so our clairsentience (our ability to read energy) is developed a part of our Livingness.
     For more on CLAIRSENTIENCE go to;
     http://www.unimedliving.com/search?keyword=clairsentience

160. How do you describe the experience of truth, an experience that is not dependant on particular thoughts? What would be the appropriate word?

161. Religion is a way of living, that is in connection to ourselves and others showing who we truly are without showing a picture of what is going well or what is not.

162. Matts, I love that you have brought religion back to its most simple and foundational elements, our connection to divinity and evolution…and that you have developed this connection through such simple steps.

     1. Yes. Bringing religion back to every day life and the quality and integrity with which we live in every moment. This makes much more sense than the confinement of religion to a building or particular time of the day/week.

163. Beautiful Matts – it becomes ever clearer that the more we open up to the love that is our innate and natural true way, no trying needed, that the more we can see and know the love that is in all, just blocked by the walls of the prisons of our own making.

164. “…..over the years I came to feel an aversion to heavenly and true words such as religion, love, god, and being religious”
     Matts i recently attended a voice workshop and i found it fascinating how hard it was to bring a steady sound to words like love and heart, what an amazing exercise to re-bind to their true lived vibration.

     1. So true Lucindag, getting the true vibration of words is something that is a work in progress for me on my path of re-binding. Each word I speak has to felt by me for it is so simple when re-connected so that I can feel the energetic truth of words.

165. ‘I’ve felt what I know is true and that is to let people in again and let them see who I truly am. With that it also feels like I’m opening the tap of joy flowing in my life again.’ very beautiful Matts . Opening up and letting Love in.

166. We can feel in our body if words are expressing what is actually communicated or not. The mind at times might be fooled by words but the body feels the presence and quality of the one talking even before the words are spoken hence we can recognize how much the language of words matches the language of the body. Only question, do we trust our feeling enough to not be fooled by the mind?

167. I love this call to responsibility about not abandoning words just because they have been mis-represented by many for so long. The fact that it is, in fact, our responsibility to hold true to the sacredness of words and in so doing turn the tide on the misinterpretations and deviation from truth.

168. I would agree that I had an idea of organized religion from what I had seen in the world and therefore I discounted the word completely. What a blessing that I am able to reconnect back to it knowing it’s true meaning now.

169. In learning that religion is a deep connection to self, and a claiming of that connection in every interaction without holding back, religion becomes natural and without effort – a constant confirmation of what can be felt from the body that goes with you everywhere – no study or rules needed, just a simple way of living that allows you to feel what is there in each moment to respond to.

     1. Yes, it is simply a way of being, one that is often easier.

170. Religion in truth is the simplest thing in the world – and the purest. It is who we are, where we come from and where we are going to, in communion with all of humanity in the absolute knowing that they are our brothers.

     1. And when we feel this purity it’s natural to embrace true religion.

171. ‘These may seem like little things, but for me they have been very powerful in getting to know the true meaning of life – that we are here to connect with people, to learn how to live side by side, and to help each other to evolve when we might be stuck in old patterns’. It is so easy to stay isolated in our own little world and to be comfortable but as you have shared Matts – it is about evolving, it is about letting people in, it is about community.

172. What a touching blog sharing the truth about religion and its origin of re connection and it is so relatable too. Could it be we have been tricked by the religious dogmas out there in the world and the separation and isolation as a result. I love your sharing and understanding now ” I’m opening the tap of joy flowing in my life again. And perhaps the reason my joy is flowing is because I have re-connected with our true purpose on earth – to return to where we are from originally, re-united and re-bound together.” This is beautiful and feels so true and real.

173. “Anyone can make their own interpretation of these words and if one definition is accepted by many, then it becomes the accepted norm, even though it might not be the true version.” This is such a superb example of how we follow like sheep as opposed to stopping, discerning and calling out a lie when it manifests, so that we never allow the meaning and use of words to be warped in the way we have. It is so important to hold fast to the true meaning of Religion, it is a word that when applied in its purest form, that without exception unites us all with one another, with God and the vastly beautiful Universe we live in.

174. Appreciating others when they have called out a behaviour of mine that has not been loving I have often found difficult in my past. I found it very exposing and would immediately react but this way of being simply capped my growth. Sometimes I can still find it uncomfortable but I pause and do not respond in a reactive manner like I used to. I can feel what is being offered to me and although I may not appreciate it at the time it is not long before I can reflect and surrender to that which I am to learn so that I can express more love in my life. We can learn so much from others and they can from us when we are open and willing to express, listen, observe and feel what is being said.

175. It is only in the past two or three years that I have felt truly ok to say I am a religious person and this is because I have reconnected with the true meaning of the word religion once again. I have always felt that I have religious beliefs but that there was tension in fully accepting ‘being religious’. I now understand that this was because I was aware of the disharmony between the way the word was used and the truth I felt within. With the word ‘religion’ being reclaimed by Serge Benhayon in its true energetic meaning, this tension has abated and I now feel one with it again.

176. How absolutely simple is the origin of the word religion – to re-connect, re-kindle what is with-in us all equally. The fact that the opposite of this is lived in the name of religion offers a huge insight into the true power that is available through each and everyone of us. The interesting question is why has the word religion been so misrepresented and manipulated? Why have we allowed ourselves to be so miss-guided by others?

     1. Yes, the dichotomy between the word and how it is lived is quite strange. It is as if the word ‘large’ now means ‘small’.

177. When we get to feel a lived sense of being religious we start realizing the enormity of what we have left behind and are going to live once again – a love affair with the universe.

     1. Alex your words melt my heart today as I read them, divine and beautiful to say the very least. Being religious is nothing new, in fact in truth, it is as old as the stars I feel.

178. ‘As a matter of fact, my overall feeling with any of the church activities I was involved in back then was that they felt very cold and loveless and did not contain the love and warmth I felt inside of me.’ Interesting how many of us who have been involved with, or are involved with the church have felt this and yet have not actively acknowledged it. It never occurred to me to question what I was feeling given that I felt it was probably me at fault (interesting how the teachings of the church allow someone to feel this as their truth), and yet when I began to understand the teachings of the Way of the Livingness I learned to trust what I was feeling and to express the truth of it. Not only do I learn and expand as a consequence of this but so do those I express that truth too..

179. Interpretation of words and the common understanding of words, largely serves to keep us stuck in our patterns and behaviours.

180. Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that I would ever say this but I absolutely love using the words God and religion and that is because I am actively in love with them both.

     1. This has brought a bi smile to my body Alexis. I am loving my deepening of appreciation and allowing for the word religion and it’s true meaning. The allowing of my full-blossoming of my re-connection with God is very much underway and I wouldn’t have it any other way again. Thank you for offering a deeper awareness to the lightness and joy that comes with these re-connections – adding the perfume to the blossoms.

181. I feel that throughout my life I have re-acted against people who have claimed themselves to be religious as it feels that we have lost the true understanding of the meaning of the word. I felt that people were claiming themselves to be superior in some way and maybe this was more about my misunderstanding of the word than what they were expressing. Now that I have come to a truer understanding of the word I can feel the full beauty of being religious and embrace it into my life.

182. Expressing how I feel openly and honestly can feel a little uncomfortable and raw but I am realising that I would much rather be honest in how I am feeling and say it as it is than try to pretend and cover things up. As you say Matts, and I would agree, it is impossible to hide no matter how much I attempt to do so; in fact, it is becoming more difficult to keep things away from another the more I see and feel that people can feel and do know.

183. I remember a conversation with a fellow student while I was at University about God and being religious. Until now I always judged myself for the way I actually spoke to her: dismissive, arrogant, hard, imposing, non-connected. Today I choose to simply be honest about it all and felt how I actually felt. Even though I chose all these protective behaviours. I’m not those behaviours. It was lovely to feel how I was able to come back and feel how different I would have talked about this God and religion now. With a warmth and love that I wouldn’t be able to connect to back then. For me a great example that I am able to feel (and heal) the past, simply by allowing myself to feel and follow my body.

184. It makes such a difference when we allow ourselves to be seen as not perfect, when we let go of the image, the exacting standards we set ourselves but can never attain. Accepting ourselves ‘warts and all’ as we are, wherever we are at makes for a more relaxing way to be. Not to say we stay stuck and don’t evolve, but that we don’t try to be ahead of where we actually are.

185. “We create a distaste for words and practices that we feel are not honoured for what they truly mean.” And so begins the journey of reclaiming the true meaning and purpose of Religion, so that we restore our love for this most essential of human practices, the worship of God within us all, within our daily life and with one another in complete grace.

186. God and religion for me is a way of living where you are open to yourself and to people and let them in. I observe that often I do not even let myself in. There is an arrogance that I could do better, it is orientated towards making efforts in order to get the best results instead of just being present and letting people in.

187. What jumps out at me is the fact that we are always religious, especially those who reject what is considered “religious” in favour of what they call “science”. I’ve noticed that as they were so hurt by “institutional religion” and have sought solitude in science there is the possibility to become fanatical with your own “non belief” and completely against everyone else. What humanity miss out on is the love, connection, equality and truth that we could otherwise be living if the fanatical non-religion was not the reaction, the chosen route for many of us.

188. Today after attending a Universal Medicine Way of The Livingness sermon and forum web broadcast I really got the importance of how claiming the true word religion and what is means to me is. As others have shared here in this discussion religion is about love, relationships and people its truth has been completely bastardised over the years … it is time to claim the truth of this back now.

     1. Totally agree Vicky. How many people know the true meaning of the word religion ? Many people seem embarrassed about any association with religion and even proud that they do not subscribe to one. Let’s take it back to it’s original meaning and see how we get on and let’s not be shy about sharing how we feel.

189. It’s no surprises that many people react to the word religion, given what we see in the media, the wars between people because of varying beliefs in God. It hurts seeing such behaviour so blaming something (and the obvious thing here is religion) would seem like a reasonable thing to do. But rather than blaming or putting two and two together and reaching six, I haven’t heard anyone ask, until Serge Benhayon, are we off track? Have we removed ourselves from what religion is truly about? Have we really pondered on the meaning of what religion means? One of the blessings of The Way of the Livingness is that in community I have been able to unpack what has come up for me through what I believed religion was and my relationship with God. One if the things that rings true for me is that of sameness. There are no differences between anyone. We are equal in the eyes of God, no matter where we live, what we look like and no matter our beliefs. We all walk the same path to knowing God. God is always and holds us in love without judgement. Through living life on this planet with each other our job is to learn to be this way with each other or is it more the case, unlearn all the ways we have learned that are unloving?

190. I now understand this too Matts, that religion in the true sense is alive and well. It is in our every breath while we are in these bodies, but ultimately we will be able to return to where we are from originally, re-united and re-bound together.

191. I love how much the topic of religion is getting brought up and discussed, it is amazing to get such a fresh yet ancient insight into this word that seems to have so many layers.

192. Being religious is a pure Joy! No better feeling than connecting to ones own divinity.

     1. Yup, I agree. It is the refreshing familiarity of re-claiming an ancient knowing and the truth and quality of a word.

193. Re-ligion as a re-connection resonates deeply with me. Up until this week I almost felt ashamed that I care deeply about people. As if this was something to hide, at least not show in full. Now I’m starting to see and feel that I’m actually proud on my own love and care for people. That there’s nothing more than I actually want: loving and caring deeply for people. And this will forever grow, as it has grown over the years. Giving myself permission to feel the ‘burning flame’ inside is the first choice I am to make.

194. The simple fact that 2 or more people can talk about one and the same thing, ie the same word to describe what they are conferring about, but nevertheless not having the same understanding or definition of what that same word means, exposes not diversity but the absence of a one-unified truth. Such one-unified truth can only come from a livingness that then brings forth a word not just describing but expressing the lived knowing.

195. How refreshing is that, to completely turn around the connotations of traditional religion and know that all we need to be religious, is to be ourselves

196. Matts I like what you have shared here with us
     “Anyone can make their own interpretation of these words and if one definition is accepted by many, then it becomes the accepted norm, even though it might not be the true version. Could that be why so many people have issues with the word God and the word Religion? Because when we see and hear people use these words, we feel they are not truly representing what they are talking about.”
     I feel you make a valid reasoning here, I feel that we all have a sense of God and what that means to us, however main stream religions have reinterpreted the meaning of the word God and picked the word apart to suit their own needs to such an extent that it does not bare any resemblance to the feeling we naturally have in our hearts.

197. ‘We create a distaste for words and practices that we feel are not honoured for what they truly mean, and in reaction we abandon them, which can also mean we abandon a part of ourselves as we are intertwined with the true meaning of many of these words, such as God, Love, Truth, and Religion.’ This is a super powerful sentence which reveals just how the bastardisation of language can have such a profound effect on our relationship with the truth of who we are and how we choose to live.

198. ‘By contrast, living isolated gives us free rein to do the same old, over and over. Quite boring, if you ask me.’ All relationships offer enormous growth, especially the ones that challenge us.

199. Everything we do and say in life seems to me to be about an ‘outer’ life, that surrounds us, unfairly affects us, but continually propels us to seek ‘success’ or salvation. Whichever way you look at it, we seem to be seeking something outside of ourselves. This is why I absolutely Love the new understanding of Religion you share Matts, because it is founded on us REturning to REmember that the REality in everything is it comes down to us and our REsponsibility and willingness REconnect to the Love in us. Anything away from this is a wild goose chase where we are lost.

200. It’s so true how we can be repulsed from a word through reacting to someone or a groups interpretation of that word and what they say it means or justifies in their behaviour. But I love how you show here we don’t need to necessarily tar or taint a word just because it is perhaps mis-used by one or many and so rather than living from a reaction to how others present their interpretations we can be free to truly investigate what a word has meant through the ages and what it may actually mean to us in truth.

201. Religion is about love and love is about people. It seems quite simple.

202. Reading your blog Matts I was reminded of the absurdity of having one place to go to eg a church, temple or synagogue to feel close to God. When we feel that connection to God from within us we never again have to travel somewhere to be with God. No more setting time aside each week for our appointment with God because he is always there for us simply to connect with through our inner heart.

203. Like you I was taught that ‘God was something ‘out there’ and something to worship’ and something to be afraid of, to be good for otherwise we’d be punished and go to Hell. Such a clever way to keep people suppressed when the truth is that we are part of God, all of us equally, including the priest. We are, in truth, magnificent beings who made a choice to be less and are now repeating lessons until we complete our learning and return to our true origins. No good or bad, no guilt, no judgment, just around and around until we get it and then we help the Universe expand. My religious upbringing was never connected to the Universe.

     1. I had a very similar upbringing and belief as you Carmel- taught that God was outside of ourselves and to get close to him we had to go to church, receive communion, “be good”, so I was forever giving my power away to others, never felt good enough and my every action felt judged . How far from the truth is it, now that I am reconnected to the truth deep within my inner heart.

204. Your experience and sharing of how you allowed the outside to erode heavenly words is, when I reflect on it, very similar to mine. There was a truth about a word that I felt but then the story, the pictures and the way people (adults at the time) used that word did not match what I felt it to be. This led to real confusion but also a huge level of self doubt and the start of my refusal to trust myself or what I felt. Having claimed that back today it’s so incredible the difference I feel in my body and the strength I feel to walk in my truth, my power.

205. “If we look at the origins of the word Religion for example – its actual and original meaning – it shows us that it means to Re-turn, Re-unite, Re-bond and Re-kindle a connection with a flame that is burning equally inside every person on this planet.” How far we have strayed from this original meaning, but what a joy to be reclaiming it once more in all the fullness of its true meaning.

206. Because of the bastardization of words we are robbed of something that belongs to the core of our being and with that to ‘save’ mankind. With saving I mean to save the people from the waywardness we are living in our nowadays world, where we are driven by outer ideas, thoughts and ideals, but never from the heart, that place where God resides. Religion is, in fact, a way of being with oneself that connects to that grander order we are all part of and also all have a sense of as that is why we all like to be part of something, something that gives a true reason for our existence. We all have that inner knowing that there must be something more, but because we have been robbed of the words that can give us access to this knowing we are living in the dark and actually have no idea where to go which can be seen in the waywardness of our current societies.

207. Matts you wrote: “Because when we see and hear people use these words (religion, god, love, truth . . .), we feel they are not truly representing what they are talking about.” That is really an eye opening way to look at why people are reacting to these words. I did not have a problem with the word religion but I had one with the word love and it took me a while to understand that I did not have a problem with the world love but how most people are living love hence that they are not truly representing what they are talking about and so diminishing what love truly is.

208. This is our responsibility as humanity…”… to connect with people, to learn how to live side by side, and to help each other to evolve when we might be stuck in old patterns…”ultimately, to return to true brotherhood.

209. I wonder if we feel hurt by people misusing these words, or if in truth we are hurt by our own misuse of them.

210. Letting people see you, to get to know you with all the imperfections and to feel your connection to God, is a perfect way to develop our religion. This is especially important for those of us who connect to God by nature and in quiet isolation. We need to include in that relationship all people, as we are all sons of God.

211. I love the word religion and didn’t think I reacted to it – but there is part of me that still does. I almost apologise for being religious, like I’m being judged.

212. Our bodies seem to remember past experiences with words. It’s like when we have an unpleasant experience with a person, we sometimes years later react when we hear that name again, even if it’s a different person. The same seems to happen with our experiences associated with words. Religion is rightly one of those words, as most of us have an experience of religion as children that is in conflict with the knowing we have of religion – our natural relationship with God.

213. Reading this I noticed I’ve also been in reaction to the word heavenly. What is it I’m reacting to? I’ve never liked how people use it as a place only certain people get to in accordance to arbitrary and convenient ‘laws’ whilst discounting universal laws and true responsibility. It’s interesting that my reactions, when I am honest and aware of them, point me to looking beneath them and uncovering a greater awareness of what I do know to be true but have chosen to ignore.

214. Cold and loveless is such a distinct way to describe some of the religious activities available today. But let us never forget that it is not the people who are cold and loveless, but the practises that have been ordained as sacred when in fact they can lack the true warmth and true love of the soul.

215. It is interesting when we reject religion in its true form we in effect reject people too. When we are truly religious it is impossible to exclude, reject or shut people out. Living in true religion is always about brotherhood.

216. We come to define words by their association and not by their meaning. This has quite a big impact, as in the case of religion and God. We shun religion and have an issue with God because of what we associate them not because of their true meaning.

217. I love this – religion means to reconnect and as a result you are welcoming in people and deepening relationships – it just makes so much sense and I also feel the truth of this in my body and he simplicity. No one organization can own true religion if it is about relationships.

218. Really enjoyed your candidness here Matts and the beauty of finding your way with religion, God and love. Your understanding that it’s not about being perfect, good or even pious, but being you, warts and all in relationship with others. If I wasn’t living in a different country I’d invite you to dinner or invite myself to dinner at your place :-).

219. To realise and know that God is not separate from me, that I can build an intimate relationship with God, was a game changer that turned my relationship with religion right around. I can say I am a religious person knowing that it does not involve any doctrine or organised interpretations of teachings, but is a deeply personal relationship in development.

220. Acknowledging that our relationship with God; with the Universe is in every detail, every movement, every exchange brings us to appreciate the interconnectedness that underpins all life. Responsibility has here been redefined, its a lightness that can be claimed, lived, expressed and supported through a religious way.

221. Religion is a matter of how one lives, and expresses their essence with all and through all mediums.

     1. It sure is and it is not about going to a building, confessing your sins, or anything like that rather celebrating and appreciating the love that we all are equally so. And simply by living the love we are, we inspire and show others they too are the same love they just have put other things in the way, just like we have.

     2. I agree and it is also how much truth we live in our life.

222. ‘And perhaps the reason my joy is flowing is because I have re-connected with our true purpose on earth – to return to where we are from originally, re-united and re-bound together.’ Everything is much more enjoyable when we work together.

223. God is certainly portrayed as external to us and separate, deliberately so… and yet such is the way in which all of life is portrayed – revolving around us, occurring to us or from us as separate and distinct when all the while, all of life is fluid, indivisible and one, explicably connected.

224. It well worth returning to the true origins of language and their full universal meaning – for in this, we reignite our knowing and the science we have thus lived.

     1. Deborah that’s such a powerful word that you have used “‘reignite’ our knowing” and what it also demonstrates to me is how, when we use words incorrectly, we douse our own flames.

225. Of course I am religious. The fact is that there is a thing called life force, or consciousness, and rather than deny its existence, perhaps the intelligent thing to do would be to study it. Now we may not exactly have the tools to put it to the test yet, but that should not prevent us from at the very least hypothesising about what creates it. And in that exploration, it would be wise to say we should leave no stone unturned. And so whilst I would agree that faith is a ridiculous notion that serves nobody, it is equally ludicrous to simply ridicule a religious hypothesis simply because it has yet to be proven. In today’s society, there seems to be two competing philosophies of thought. One that says we should not act upon or give anything credence that has not yet been irrefutably proven beyond doubt, and those who say we should be open to and accepting of all possibilities until experience proves otherwise. I tend to venture towards the latter, and as a result of that exploration and at the end of the day I have found myself leaning towards The Way of The Livingness as the religion that I can say with all reason makes the most sense, and appears by all accounts to fit into what I have observed of life. Certainly, as I have put its living principles to the test by the way I live, I have only found confirmation, and an increased clarity with which I have been able to dissect life in all its nuances.

     1. Very well said Adam. I too have found the same confirmation and clarity with regards to life since living The Way of The Livingness. Without a doubt everything makes sense to me and this is the closest connection I have felt with God and with people, claiming that I am religious.

226. ’We create a distaste for words and practices that we feel are not honoured for what they truly mean, and in reaction we abandon them’ – Sadly most people are not aware of the true meaning of religion, hence turn away because they are in reaction to the way the common world religions are practised, understandably so.

227. There is such a huge difference between paying ‘lip service’ to the words and living their real meaning.

228. I agree it is sad that words have become ‘free prey’ in our world. This is possibly the greatest source of separation between men. Learning to reconnect with the true energetic meaning of words is a great joy in my experience, bring clarity back to clear away a self-created fog that confuses and divides mankind.

229. This brought me to a stop to pause and consider what is written here. It’s quite shocking to feel the truth energetically of abandoning the true use of words = abandoning part of ourselves. There is a strong sense of sadness and feeling lesser – a fullness and quality is definitely missing when not living the word in action (movement).
     “We create a distaste for words and practices that we feel are not honoured for what they truly mean, and in reaction we abandon them, which can also mean we abandon a part of ourselves as we are intertwined with the true meaning of many of these words, such as God, Love, Truth, and Religion”.

230. It’s interesting that we have more people living on their own than ever before and also a huge rise in ill health, depression, crime and depravity where what was considered immoral and unethical a few years ago is now a lot of peoples normal.

231. ‘…living isolated gives us free rein to do the same old, over and over…’ Great observation Matts. We can see this dynamic play out very obviously in older people in particular when we observe that they are ‘set in their ways’ – stubbornly resistant to change and avoiding seeing in others that might be something more or another way. Of course younger people do this too, but in the elderly we see it writ large, a lifetime of isolation reflected in their very physicality. But it was there energetically first of all.

232. It is blowing me away that opening our hearts to each other seems to be something to approach with a fresh awareness and understanding so that we choose to live with everyone in loving harmony. That humanity’s thoughts and actions produce the opposite of love and harmony is very distressing but one to aware of and not hide from so we can choose what is true in our hearts and not what is fed to our heads.

233. The fact that we can react when we sense something is being spoken about but not lived shows that we definitely do know the truth of all things – beyond doubt.

234. Thank you Matts for your blog. Having a Religion when I was small then losing it in my early 20 left a huge hole in my life. I went on a search to find something to fill the empty space and it wasn’t until I connected to Serge Benhayon and his presentations of The Way of The Livingness that I knew that I had come home to the truth.

235. Yesterday I felt how I am used to feeling that I have to be quick when I connect to people, support people. I suddenly realized how these moments of togetherness don’t have to be quick. I can just be me, they don’t go away and I do not have to be afraid (anymore). True religion is constant. And it starts with being in relationship with myself. As much as possible.

236. It seems all to often we can follow the consensus of a meaning of a word without considering if the word has been misinterpreted along the way to suite an authoritarian control. The words associated with religion absolutely seem to be subject to this. It is time we discern for ourselves our relationship with God and not be dictated to by any other.

237. Letting people in is an important part of living religiously; after all, everyone is a reflection of the same divinity that we are and God is not found in isolation but in brotherhood.

238. Perfect timing for me Matts, all you have shared is all I have been impulsed to do lately, let people in, it was a beautiful confirmation. Our way to re-connect is to connect. If we are not offered reflections, we are missing a part of God for he is reflected in all of us.

239. You raise such a key point here Matts (many, in fact…). When we abandon the true meaning of a word, or we give up on the deep knowing within of all that God is, that Love and Religion are, for example, it is our collective apathy that then allows such bastardisations of the word to take place. And as we’ve seen, this not only ‘takes place’, but then can root itself so deeply in misrepresentations of Religion, for example, that the reflections we witness in our human activity in representation of the word become completely dominated by the falsity.
     If we lived in honour of what the word means, such extremes would simply not be able to be. And so it is deeply beautiful that such a personal relationship with Religion, for example, as you’ve shared here Matts, is once again explored… that it may be truly lived, and others may receive a reflection of truth that may indeed resonate with an inner knowing that has long been buried, in the face of all that has been done supposedly in His name.

240. I find it ironic how true religion is all about people yet religion today has been one of the greatest pillars of separation in humanity. Just look at how many have been killed, tortured and maimed in the so called name of God.

241. The Heavens and all the stars in the sky are resounding with joy every time any one of us makes another step on the path of return back to true brotherhood and union
     “And perhaps the reason my joy is flowing is because I have re-connected with our true purpose on earth – to return to where we are from originally, re-united and re-bound together”.

242. Religion has become something that is now normal in my life and the connection to God has always been there. it was me who strayed. As you have shared Matts it is now up to me to open up and allow everyone else to be felt in the same loving energy that I am held in by God.

243. A lot of people, if not most, see God as something outside themselves – when all of the time, connection with God is simply a matter of connection with ourselves.

244. When I look back on my childhood and how we were imposed upon as children to receive RE (Religious Education) whether we wanted it or not, it felt an imposition to me as it felt that the doctrines being taught were actually imprisoning. I felt it locked down my ability to think for my self and encourages a dulling down into a ‘sheep’ like mentality.

245. Hearing, knowing or even being open to the possibility that every quality we have truly craved – love, truth, joy, stillness.. all live within us – is enough to initiate a greater depth in how we approach each day.

246. Reading this again I realise that the reason for me reacting was in a big way my own stepping away from what I knew to be true. Sure I reacted to people being loveless but I could have held onto my own preciousness and who am I, why blame other people for choosing what they choose? I feel I’m ready to reclaim my truth, not pandering to that which I find to not be true. I find it easy sometimes to back away from expressing what I know is true out of comforting people from not hearing the truth. No more of that.

247. It’s interesting to feel how I used to have more of an issue with the word religion than religious.

248. “with my re-kindled understanding of what religion and being religious means, will be to keep letting people in.” Matts the universality of this is amazing, it shows and confirms just what religion is and how it does not matter who you are or where you are from, it’s all about letting each other in and being open and transparent with all. No protection, no hiding but claiming the amazingness of ourselves and seeing that equally in all others.

249. Yes, it is very important to acknowledge that it is me or we who have abandoned the truth, by reacting to the world’s misuse of these words, rather than holding steady and living the loving truth we know them to be.

250. ‘Being religious! How pathetic was that!’ Reading these words I can really feel the hurt behind the reaction. When we are very small being religious is a very natural way of living. Growing up and taking on board the bastardisation of this word through the teachings that organised religion promotes takes us far away from the truth we know; we stop trusting in the love we know. This hurts deeply and the walls go up. The problem then is that we start to live in denial of what we know because we have shut it down!

251. “… that we are here to connect with people, to learn how to live side by side, and to help each other to evolve when we might be stuck in old patterns.” True religion automatically brings us back to people, brotherhood and evolution. When we have re-connected to our inner flame, it becomes a matter of course to support others to know that they can re-kindle their connection too and so enable us all to move beyond the diminishing attitudes and beliefs we have ensconced ourselves in, to know once more our true glory and expression.

252. Attempting to be perfect is like covering cracks in the wall of an old house, they never stay hidden! The cracks in our veneer are the most interesting bits! When we add real religion all that is felt and seen is the real us!

253. Just as we have allowed words to become bastardised, so can we choose to restore their true meaning, which is what makes blogs such as this so evolutionary; exposing the lies and misrepresentations that we have accepted for many, many years and bringing back the truth to humanity. In this case the true meaning of religion, which is so far from what has been accepted for way too long.

254. ‘this strong reaction came from me observing people who claimed to be religious, but for me I could neither see nor feel that there was anything truly religious in what they were doing, which to me meant that there was no true love present’ well said, Matts. This goes for everything in life, we can feel when someone is talking from their livingness, meaning they have embodied what they are talking about and they choose to live it each and every day, versus not living what you preach, leaving your words empty and hard to even listen to.

255. These words Matts – the true definition of religion ‘means to Re-turn, Re-unite, Re-bond and Re-kindle a connection ‘ are something that needs to actually be widely spoken about, for these words alone expose the rot of many organised religions and the constrictions they place on people. Society has blinded themselves from even knowing or questioning what the true definition of religion actually is and has just accepted how they see it falsely being played out as some sort of definition. Thank you for this amazing blog.

256. Religion is deeply connected with love, so the definition of love, knowing what love is, is absolutely vital.

     1. Very spot on. It’s the core.

257. Understanding the true meaning of the word religion helps us to see the truth of what has played out – that the word has been so bastardised in its use that it causes separation and dis-connection, which is exactly the opposite of it’s true intention, which is to re-connect.

258. There was a time where I would not speak about God, mention His name because of the context with religious fervour, uprising, revolt and the disagreement it stirred in people who believed their god was the true god by virtue of their faith. It was because back then I really didn’t know, or rather, have God confirmed to me as I grew up (in catholic schools).. it was only for those who led devout, chaste lives, like priests or nuns, not myself. God is religion, and religion is connection to the divine; to heaven and to earth as one. The interconnectivity of us all is true religion, and so these days to speak of God, whether by name or by nature, is an every day conversation that is such a joy.

259. I love the reminder here Matts, ‘it happens just by the way I am with myself and others’, that there’s nothing special or exclusive about true religion and being religious, it’s in all of us, and it’s that connection back to that spark within and living that in the world with ourselves and others.

260. Wonderful to read how you apply what you are learning in life, with yourself and with others. It feels a little like coming home and living what you have always known.

     1. Religion is in everything we do and in the way we are with ourselves and others from our heart – this makes complete sense and feels very practical and encompassing of all equally at the same time.

     2. Thank you Lucy that is exactly how I feel. It’s a bit like coming out of the shadows. I’m not out yet but on my way. Ridding myself of beliefs of how I should be, how much of myself I can be.

261. Religion in its true sense has a purity that’s unparalleled. It’s the bridge back to the divinity we are. And yet, it has been bastardized to the extent that it is regarded as being the exact opposite and understandably, so many people shun religion and all it represents. This is the real tragedy, because in twisting and bastardiding religion, we have effectively bastardized ourselves – removing the sacred bridge of communion we all naturally have back to the divine origins we come from.

262. It is a shame that we have lost the true understanding of much of the meaning behind words in our language, especially when the truth is always there to be felt, despite the false meanings which have come to be known as that which they are not.

     1. Yes and we live under the blanket of that depression. Maybe that’s why people feel so lost, it’s like a big black cloud over our heads making us not see the sun.

263. Matts – you have revealed how our words get bastardised : “Anyone can make their own interpretation of these words and if one definition is accepted by many, then it becomes the accepted norm, even though it might not be the true version”

264. It’s true. There can be no religion where there is no love.

265. “We create a distaste for words and practices that we feel are not honoured for what they truly mean, and in reaction we abandon them…” – A very deliberate and calculated form of keeping us playing small.

     1. Absolutely deliberate in every aspect to keep us from returning to our true religious way of being – a living science that will expose creation in its entirety.

     2. Extraordinary as it seems we enjoy the complication and entanglements of our hurts and issues, for without these we might have to see that we are all from the one same source.

266. “Anyone can make their own interpretation of these words and if one definition is accepted by many, then it becomes the accepted norm, even though it might not be the true version.” This is exactly how many words have been bastardised over the years, which is a consequence of humanity as a whole not standing up for truth but settling for convenient truths.

267. I have now come to understand what it means to me to be deeply religious, not in any way connected to institutionalised religion, but in a personal and dedicated relationship with God.

     1. Hear Hear Rebecca – I am re-discovering the same thing since re-building ‘a personal and dedicated relationship with God’ through being more aware and in conscious presence in my body.

268. Life is about being together, to support each other in our growth / evolution and to reflect the love when we’ve lost this connection. There’s so much we can learn from each other. But only when we’re together, connecting to each other. I can relate very well to the experience that hiding in our own cave supports us to stay in our comfort and is ‘proving’ to ourselves that we don’t belong. Thank you Matts!

269. Sadly we live in a world where we get more and more dis-connected from ourselves and others, and the most common way to socialise seems to be via technology. This is often a way to hide and consequently a choice to not let people in, which in turn will have a major affect on our health and wellbeing.

     1. Absolutely. Going against our natural flow causes us to get sick. Our body has to then clear the going against the grain of the natural rhythms and cycles we are all part of.

270. Lovely blog Matts. When I was growing up I had trouble with the word Religious when those who held themselves up as being Religious didn’t appear to embody and live in a loving way with those around them – except on Sundays when they were going to church.

     1. And even on the Sundays – there was a piety or falseness, to keep face feeling with it all. What was really exposing, and that I felt every time I went to church growing up, was that it was a cold and isolated feeling until people had to shake hands – then it went back to the separate feel but not as much. If a religion is true then those who come together do so with a fullness and completeness knowing the light they carry and live – then the gathering from beginning to end had a together feeling not separate or isolated.

     2. Sure Peter, I know that too. Although at that time my relationship with religion was not that strong I only knew that there should be something more to life than just that what I lived. I could not add up the way people lived who went to church every Sunday and called themselves religious for that to be that way of living I was looking for.

271. To use the word God openly, freely and with no holding back is a real joy to me.

272. Yes the word religion has been seriously bastardised and leaves a sour taste in many people’s mouths. So, all power to this blog and the many others on this web-site that are redressing the balance and instigating this conversation; re-dressing the balance of what these words mean to us all and our relationship with them. It’s going to be a long journey, but the more open we are then the more the ill choices of the past that have happened under the banner of ‘religion’ can be corrected.

273. Its interesting how in our world, the word ‘religion’ polarises one to recoil or react, but the actual truth of the word when known and understood has the purpose of bringing people together without any drop of internal angst. This one word has manipulated nations, nationalities, cultures and people world wide, and yet the truth of this word is so opposite to the fractures nature it has erroneously created.

274. I love your explanation of why we react to heavenly words like God and religion Matts. This makes absolute sense to me. You remind me not to throw the baby out with the bath water.

275. For me when I was growing up religion was always a bit of a joke. On the few occasions I went to church with my family it was like we all knew the token attendance at church for xmas or easter was not it. We went through the motions of getting dressed up and going yet none of us questioned what it actually meant for us. At that age I didn’t know what religion meant to me and I didn’t understand what going to church meant but I knew it somehow felt like we were pretending to be religious.

276. It’s interesting that Religion is so commonly painted as a ‘solo’ experience and that the highest ‘positions of religious power’ such as nuns and priests etc. are revered for living a life of solitude when Religion is about anything but isolation or living in a way that is separate from human relationships, interaction and living a full life.

277. Thank you for sharing Matts -this really does inspire me and I love how you made simple changes like inviting people for dinner – I see the purpose in that of connecting with others and sharing or experiences – it is so important and so much wisdom can be shared.

278. If religion is to “Re-turn, Re-unite, Re-bond and Re-kindle a connection with a flame that is burning equally inside every person on this planet” then everything, anywhere can be religion.

279. The Way of The Livingness has re-ignited me to my love of religion as it represents true religion in its purest form.

280. There are many ‘good’ people in the world and it is not because they are religious, it is simply because they can feel in their hearts and be able to serve their fellow man with no need for recognition or reward, simply because something needs to be done and they have the resources or the skill.

281. It’s an effective way of trying to sabotage something, to bastardise it’s true meaning, the same as trying to ‘bring someone down’ by trying to tarnish their name. Trying being the operative word as the truth always wins.

282. i love reading people’s experiences of re-defining what religion means for them.

283. When we block our connection to God and think that we have to do it all by ourselves, we do not have the harmonious flow of love fuelling our bodies and soon get burnt out. When I surrender my body and let the love flow through me, everything becomes more joyful and effortless.

284. “… as in people talking about God, Religion and Love, didn’t match what I knew to be the truth of those words.” I too could never reconcile this gap, I never understood the continual reference to scriptures and sermons, as they always felt cold, void of vibrancy and joy. It’s the way we live and relate to one another that brings us back into connection with God inside us. To me true religion is about holding a connection to our inner warmth, appreciating and confirming our selves and one another with our thoughts, intentions and words, moving in grace and loving all of us to the hilt.

285. It’s interesting how we view our own position in regard to the (currently accepted) word ‘religion’… we would either say we are religious, not religious or don’t know if we are religious or not. Yet the fact is we cannot help but be religious – it simply is the relationship one has with oneself and everything else in the world; and that is either a relationship with truth and true love in it, or not. Both ways are relationship and therefore a chosen way – as you put it Matts, my joy has been rediscovering my relationship with it, to “Re-turn, Re-unite, Re-bond and Re-kindle a connection with a flame that is burning equally inside every person.”

286. “We create a distaste for words and practices that we feel are not honoured for what they truly mean, and in reaction we abandon them” I’d not really stopped to consider this in full, I can see some words I would avoid at all costs, others I would ignore but I can see now that in that reaction to them I would walk around a lesser person one that would protect myself from words and things I did not like rather than stand firm in the truth of those words or situations. The importance of not abandoning things and instead re-claiming the truth of them is so key.

287. A lot of people do feel like they have been let down by God or religion and it can feel cold and loveless, but God and true religion has never abandoned us, we have wandered or been lead astray from the true path.

     1. Yes, it could be due to a misunderstanding about God, Love and Free Will and how they are connected.

288. What I find interesting about this blog is how it points out clearly that there are always two interrelated axis to work on: the relationship with God and the relationship with our human brothers and sisters. When we start letting God in we cannot but start letting people in and vice versa.

289. “What sense this makes of the truth and greater purpose to life – to truly connect and return to a one unified way of being with the understanding of we are all in this together and are equally responsible for the thick ‘soup’ of illusion that continues to hold humanity in separateness and individualism.
     These may seem like little things, but for me they have been very powerful in getting to know the true meaning of life – that we are here to connect with people, to learn how to live side by side, and to help each other to evolve when we might be stuck in old patterns.

290. It’s true Matts, I know for me, I have reacted most to words which I know are deeply sacred yet are not used in their true sense – it feels worse than lying yet is largely something we have accepted and allowed. The more we claim back the true meaning of the words and live them the more we will re-establish the foundation that they were given to us with.

291. Religion, as many other words, has lost its true meaning, but so has love been bastardized! Love is something you give, receive, shower it upon someone, withhold, make and deign, the list goes on! When was the last time we were just love? When we feel the love that is within us is when the real magic happens!

292. “So my way forward from here, with my re-kindled understanding of what religion and being religious means, will be to keep letting people in.”
     This is a way of being and living which is true religion in my eyes, as if we let people in there can be no war anymore.

293. It’s true, when we separate ourselves from others we lose that joyous feeling. It makes sense ‘that we are here to connect with people, to learn how to live side by side, and to help each other to evolve when we might be stuck in old patterns.’ This is brotherhood and shows us that we are all part of one big family called humanity.

294. Such an important point you mention, that we do not just abandon words but living aspects of ourselves. It is not that language defines who we are but it can and is misused to make us forget who we are by feeding us back meanings that no longer reflect and confirm the truth within but impose a distorted version that cripples our natural understanding of ourselves.

295. When I was 9 years old and attending preparing classes for sacrament of the holy communion I got to feel my deep love for Jesus, but strangely enough, I couldn´t see or feel that love in anyone around me although they were teaching or claiming to live it. So it was kept a very personal feeling and experience, not being shared until later. Today this love is not focused on Jesus but the divine essence in all of us, God within, in the most simplistic and unpretentious way. Most people will not even clock that I am ‘religious’ although everyone will feel it by my way of being.

296. So much can be written about religion and what it means and from what I am now feeling true religion or re-bind to God. This is a vast topic that needs only a few words and that is to feel the connection for your-self once the ideals and beliefs have been shown for the false lies that they are. It is very simple because the lies have created the ideals around religion.

297. ‘Re-turn, Re-unite, Re-bond and Re-kindle’ back, back, back. The way forwards is back the way we came. We walked away from truth now we have to turn around and go back.

298. I hear so many people talk about religious studies they’ve experienced as lifeless, cold, boring and void of truth and void of God. Imagine if we were taught at school the true meaning of religion? To have open discussions and share our experiences and wisdom, how much more lively, loving and open this would be?

299. Understanding what religion means has changed my life. Like you Matts, I am learning to let people in more and more, and appreciating that it is through our connection with ourselves and with people that we get to experience the magic of God.

300. What stands out in what you’ve shared Matts is the fact the relationship with God you describe and ‘being religious’ starts with something you feel and know inside you. It is from this place you know what is of truth and what isn’t. So you are inherently an equal part of the religious experience. Every organised religion I know has as its starting place an ‘Almighty One’ who you could never stand equal to, the reverence and obedience is to something dictated from a ‘higher power’ to you, the mere mortal. You make a relationship with God and religion something enriching and nourishing in life as a normal, accessible and very liveable thing.

301. Matts what a gorgeous post on Religion, and how you came back to something that felt so inherent in you as a young child… to live it now as an adult, dealing with those words Religion, Love, God. Yes, when we truly open up ourselves, we open up to other people and automatically, instinctively love to share ourselves with others, feeling the togetherness of oneness and sameness.

302. ‘…when I have this connection it’s not for me to hold on to and keep to myself…’ Though from young we’re told to share but rarely is this practised. One only has to witness the panic buys when there are rumours of a bread or fuel shortage to know we are conditioned to believing in scarcity. So when we come across something amazing I know I’ve had the urge to hold on and try and cosset it, mentally work out how it happened so I can recreate the magic formula. But what if it’s a case of letting go of protection and just allowing this love to come through me. I have the choice to either let it drip through or open my heart wide so the love can flow unimpeded for everyone.

303. You’ve given a stunning definition to religion, meaning to ‘Re-turn, Re-unite, Re-bond and Re-kindle a connection with a flame that is burning equally inside every person on this planet’. What you’ve captured here is that religion is actually something very alive, powerful and universal – like a flickering flame – rather than a cold set of rules or a dead burden.

     1. Religion is the very life of life.

304. I love the simplicity in focusing on just letting people in more and more, and can feel the surrendering in this.

305. Religion is about a connection with our greater divinity knowing the love that we all are and thus in connection with everyone. It is beautiful to feel that developing relationships with others brings a deeper sense of what religion truly is.

306. Thank you Matts, I enjoyed reading your honest journey with religion and what it means for you. I appreciated this line “By contrast, living isolated gives us free rein to do the same old, over and over.” A lot of growth is on offer when we spend time with people, there are many different reflections and a greater breadth of wisdom to learn from. Isolation is a great recipe for stagnation.

307. I could never understand how we had giant religious monuments taking up vast amounts of land, claiming to be there for humanity, whilst there is a lack of quality affordable homes leaving people to live on the street. It just never added up.

308. I love your honesty in this blog Matts. To me, it feels very humble, yet very powerful to allow yourself to let people in again. As men, we’re extremely protective most of the time. To be honest and having the guts to drop the guard and start letting people in is inspiring to me and allowing me to be confirmed in what I also know; that life is about people!

309. It is true that we can ridicule something we don’t understand – not a loving choice and therefore one that closes off our hearts. Religion is a key word offering true understanding and equalness for us all to live with open hearts.

310. I too was very similar – I did not consider myself religion is because there was no group or activity I felt I belonged too. I saw religion as separate and something people are or are not. And so I decided to not get involved at all.

311. When first attending Universal Medicine presentations and workshops I would react and physically squirm when the words ‘religion’ and ‘God’ were mentioned, but with a new understanding of what it truly means to be religious these uncomfortable feelings have gone, and gradually religion is becoming a way of life, a way of living in the world, and God has become a loving presence within and around me… so very different from the all judging, separate, bearded old man, out of reach to most!

312. “We create a distaste for words and practices that we feel are not honoured for what they truly mean, and in reaction we abandon them…” This is indeed common – it may not always be a conscious decision to reject those words but it reveals how much we do truly know within, and how much we feel what is going on around us all of the time.

313. Whatever our persuasion in regards to religion, the very act of letting people into our lives, sharing our thoughts and our feelings is in itself a beautiful way to be. Though I must admit not one I find easy, but to consider that opening up as being religious makes much more sense to me than any worship in a church or reading from a script.

314. It’s true Matts, that we can’t really hide even if we isolate ourselves, for people see through us, and yet how lovely it is to share ourselves with others and not have to present a perfect picture to the world, which is what I’ve tried to do for a long time. It’s such an effort to keep it up and it makes us so separate when really we long to connect with others, and when we do let people in we open ‘the tap of joy’ which was only closed off because we shut ourselves down.

315. The re-uniting you speak of brings a sense of hope and purpose and I have never felt with religion. It goes to show how a word like religion can be taken away from what it actually offers, and instead turned into something almost the opposite.

316. Matts, I can very much relate to the dis-illusion about religion and God, so far from what I now know true religion to be – simply a re-connection to myself and hence everyone else naturally so.

317. I can see how there was a big aversion and reaction to religion as I always felt there was a disempowerment going on by appealing to something outside of oneself… it was not until I understood the true meaning of ‘religion’ as being to ‘re-connect’ or ‘re-turn’ and recognising that this was to something (love) within myself , my body, that I didn’t have that type of reaction to the word religion’ or ‘religious’.It has become more like empowerment understanding the truth of this word.

318. If we ever feel that a word is no longer used or represents what it truly means – that the love or integrity or responsibility that should come with it is no longer present, then it is our responsibility to live the truth of the word, to show the world what it means to honour its origins and the responsibility of using it and making sure that our way of life matches up with its meaning.

319. I remember going to churches when I was young and wanting to leave as soon as I entered, they were cold heavy places that had a peculiar smell and I always felt uncomfortable being there. If Churches really were a house of God would he want them to be such an uninviting and austere place? I learnt to associate the word religion with the Church and the uncomfortable feeling I got in these places. Now I know that religion is so much more than a building or a book or a priest that I have re-acquainted myself with the word through The Way of The Livingness and have no problem in saying it or talking about it.

     1. So true. Ridiculous how far from God these spaces can feel. An exposure of the gigantic lie so many of us have fallen for and enabled. Is it possible that cold and heaviness that you felt in churches is what many of us feel inside ourselves? We are all craving that true connection.

        1. Or is it that we are led to believe that these are the feeling we should have to be connected to God, when in fact it is the complete opposite, and as I child I could feel this so preferred not to be there.

        2. Certainly fear and guilt are two major weapons in the arsenal of many religions. Both of which would be enhanced by cold, austere, spooky and imposing churches and cathedrals.

320. It is interesting to see just how much the bastardised version of the word ‘religion’ has been used as a tool to separate, divide, crush, torture, control, maim and numb people when absolutely none of that belongs in the realm of true religion or of God.. this is why so many are against religion – and is it because they actually do feel and know there is a truth they are part of – and none of this is found in what religion purports to be.

     1. Not only are we part of truth, we are truth, truth is actually who we are, which is why we know when something comes from truth or not.

321. We are so sensitive to feeling judged to the point where you have shared that we give up on a truth we have felt to avoid being ridiculed.

322. I remember growing up and hearing a lot about Religion, God and Love, but when I looked around at how people behaved, I was never able to join the dots in any way. Since I came across Universal Medicine and the presentations of Serge Benhayon I’ve started to see as you beautifully say Matts, these concepts begin and end with me, and the smallest gesture, of openess, appreciation and thoughtfulness I choose to let be. In anything we can do – we can magnify and amplify what we know to be true – this is true religion to me.

323. This is gorgeous Matts – “And perhaps the reason my joy is flowing is because I have re-connected with our true purpose on earth – to return to where we are from originally, re-united and re-bound together.”. Life today is far from heaven on earth and perhaps our quest to make our lives here work, we are missing the point.

324. We are put off by the lie and in reaction we no longer feel the undeniable truth. “We create a distaste for words and practices that we feel are not honoured for what they truly mean, and in reaction we abandon them, which can also mean we abandon a part of ourselves as we are intertwined with the true meaning of many of these words, such as God, Love, Truth, and Religion.”

325. Religion would look very different if it was measured by love, how much understanding, compassion, allowing of others and acceptance of everyone was in it was out measure of how religious we are. That would be transformative as to how we viewed the word and what we accept and consider religion to be.

326. Thank you Matts, I love what you present here about religion and what it originally and truly means. And it got me thinking how odd in a way it is that we need to re-unite (which by all means I agree we do) when we can’t ever not be in connection with everyone else, as in all we do affects everyone and everything, it’s just whether we chose to make our actions about the all or not.

327. The reinterpretation of words has a huge impact on people’s lives. My experience of the messages of the church as a young man were that there was very much something wrong with me that I needed to be sorry for and to repent – basically for my whole life. What I see now is that this was a reflection of a much earlier event, when I felt I was not accepted and loved for who I truly am and my subsequent choice to reject myself on this basis and instead seek the approval of others. However, there is not enough approval in the world to heal the rejection of myself and so it is not a true answer. What is needed is to choose to return to the truth of the being I am, before my choice to reject myself and ‘re-unite’ with that ‘flame that is burning equally within us all’. How much harm is caused by the reinterpretation of words and by the rejection of our true selves?

328. Simply beautiful Matts, how life can be about letting people in again. Thankyou.

329. So many different religions posing to give us the one that is true is very confusing to most people and actually serves to keep us away from what we feel to be our truth. Religion can also be a very ‘loaded’ word, depending on our previous experiences and false indoctrinations, so we retreat further away. Redefining it as a reconnection and a return to God makes so much more sense Matts, it is a great starting point.

330. This is beautiful Matts. To live in isolation does not serve anyone. To open to others and let them in reminds us that we are all connected, and untaps the joy and the love that is available when we connect.

331. ‘what is the best thing to assist you grow and evolve if not having people around you that can remind you if you’ve slipped away from being your natural loving self, the very quality that is godly within us all?’ – love this reminder Matt. This is true support, being there for each other with an open and honest heart, and it starts with the relationship that we have with our selves first.

332. I used to get so emotional about the word religion, go all stiff and protected in my body, indeed righteous…I am relearning and embodying the true meaning of religion and a religious life, I now have nothing to prove, it is the quality I live in /with this speaks for itself.

333. I remember not enjoying Sunday school as a child because it seemed pointless, however I remember we used to sing a song about having a flame inside and shining it out to the world. In the midst of what felt loveless was something joyfully true, and I remember singing it with all my heart.

334. Living isolated gives us free rein to do the same old, over and over. Yes I recognise this, I lived alone for several good years by choice feeling I woud be ‘safe’, but what I was doing was shutting people out and keeping them at a distance and staying in protection….. But last year I felt vey strongly I could no longer stay in comfort and in isolation, so I moved back to Scotland and I now live with a gorgeous family which is so much more supportive with lots of reflection and lots of confirmation, it was the best move for me to continue growing and evolving in terms of ‘letting people in’ and sharing more of myself and all I bring.

335. “I never heard that the connection with God was inside of me and that I didn’t have to go to a building to have a connection with him daily.” Exactly. I was also led astray here. I was directed to look outwardly at the “good” people doing their daily, “good” deeds and follow their example. Now, thanks to Universal Medicine I have strengthened my muscle of discernment and haven’t we needed it where the church and its version of “religion” is concerned?!

336. “We create a distaste for words and practices that we feel are not honoured for what they truly mean, and in reaction we abandon them, which can also mean we abandon a part of ourselves as we are intertwined with the true meaning of many of these words, such as God, Love, Truth, and Religion.” I feel this can also be true concerning our attitude towards people and systems as well. We abandon them because they are not as we would have them. This makes me ponder if maybe we ‘throw the baby out with the bathwater’. Maybe there’s more for us to do here if we feel we know a truer way. We cannot keep running away. We need to walk amongst it all and be the reflection of the love that we feel is missing.

337. There is so much in this blog, such a joy to read how you have worked through the layers of falseness around the word religion and come back to your own truth that you knew as a child and then to share it with us all. So much humbleness, honesty and clarity, and a very beautiful blog to read and re-read.

338. Hearing the true and original meaning of religion completely changed my perception, understanding and appreciation of religion and what it means to be religious.

339. Growing up I struggled with being told how to behave, which was supposed to be religious, when I observed all the adults around me behaving in the same way I was told not to. It never made sense to me. When I started to attend The Way of The Livingness events the first thing I noticed over time was that the presenters lived what they taught. Now this made sense and here were true role models that I could be inspired by.

340. Is boring safe? Sitting in a dark cupboard is safe but is it a way to live? Why were we given our senses to feel and express if not to evolve? Have we just tweaked words over time, so many times from their original meaning, that they have been lost completely or fully bastardised? When we learn the original meaning of words like religion… they just feel true in our body!

341. Better late than never! And awesome that you found your way through connection – through your sharing of your own experience you’ll be able to offer others the opportunity to evolve.

342. Lovely words, Matts. I can relate to a lot of what you write. When I look back at my upbringing in the deeply religious south of the US, I followed Christianity out of duty, not true belief. And I don’t think I’m alone in this – people may choose to override what they truly feel because a certain way of life is ‘the way it is’ or the way that the family has been for generations. But this never felt true to me – yet it is a series of tales that people follow without question.

343. “We create a distaste for words and practices that we feel are not honoured for what they truly mean, and in reaction we abandon them,” We seem to abandon them more easily than we choose to claim them for their true worth and meaning. Knowing now what the words ‘religion’ and ‘love’ truly mean has restored within me my innate connection to God and a deep, joyful purpose to life as a consequence. We have a huge responsibility to cherish our words and their meanings, because everyone suffers when through our laziness and disregard, we allow them to become bastardised, because as history clearly shows, it erodes the fabric and quality of our lives.

344. There is a deep resonance in the body when words convey their true meaning as a lived way. There is an acceptance and openness felt in my body rather than a resistance and tension to the re-interpreted (bastardised) use of the word Religion.
     “If we look at the origins of the word Religion for example – its actual and original meaning – it shows us that it means to Re-turn, Re-unite, Re-bond and Re-kindle a connection with a flame that is burning equally inside every person on this planet”.

345. It is interesting to observe how when we feel hurt by the misuse of words and expressions, we can either choose to react or choose to understand more deeply why we feel hurt. I notice when I try to cover up the fact I am hurt this leads to a reaction almost instantly. Staying open and allowing myself to feel what it is that I am feeling and seek understanding is way more supportive and evolving than choosing to react and shut people out.

346. ‘So my way forward from here, with my re-kindled understanding of what religion and being religious means, will be to keep letting people in.’ I love this, it means opening up our hearts to all of humanity, not just those nearest and dearest. Every single human being matters, regardless of status, rich or poor, man or woman, every single one of us. We are all here together as one, regardless of what we believe.

347. By allowing the meaning of words to be mutilated we have mutilated the meaning of life, so much so that it now bears little resemblance to its original and true nature.

     1. And it seems the misinterpretation of the word religion has been one way to drive the pull away from the true meaning of life and how to live with everyone in harmony.

348. Religion is a return to our heart’s connection and from here we open up to others in the process. Being religious is a living expression of our hearts movement and one that can be shared with all. Thank you Matts.

349. This theme of letting people in seems to be coming up a lot for me lately. I agree that keeping people at an arm’s length is such a comfort and in fact anti-evolutionary. I can try setting myself up in circumstances where it seems like there’s no space for socializing or just connecting with others, but the thing is we are never without other people, and it is now making me wonder how I hold myself on a bus, as I walk down the street/corridor at work passing many people – it’s all in my movement. I will observe myself a bit closer today.

350. I agree that people are meant to be together all the time, and this conclusion I have come to also because of choosing to live isolated for too long, and it eventually took an enormous re-correction period to come back to this Livingness, but it is one that is so very worthwhile.
     I also feel the deep harm that we put out by shutting out words such as religion when feeling the definition is not used in its truth. Shutting out anything in the world is rejecting a part of ourselves and keeping the world as it is. Only by our Livingness of what is true and not in reaction, will we begin to bring back truth in the world.

351. I was put off institutionalised religion because what people said and how they behaved didn’t match up. Coming to the Ageless Wisdom teachings I saw and felt the integrity of one man, Serge Benhayon, who enabled me to return to true religion. The brotherhood that can be felt with a group of people with one purpose, to return to soul, is awe-inspiring.

352. This evening I was feeling how much I still react to what I grew up believing religion to be and how this holds me back from living with true religion on a daily basis.

353. Letting people in is such a beautiful way to open our hearts and bodies back up to living the brotherhood and oneness we know in every atom of our being is our true and naturally religious way to live.

354. Beautiful joy Matts, showing us exactly that true religion comes with the absoluteness of love and that love is always present when there is true religion and the other way around. Meaning that much of the religions, words and how it has been used, also known as institutionalised religion – is actually not a true form of love, as it is often absent – and often feels cold and harsh – would be the answer if you would ask a child.. and we all know that is some way or the other. Love is love and if there is no love there is no truth and where there is no truth there is no religion – no rebind, no rekindle, nothing together in brotherhood or connection. It is only the absence of that. It might sound straightforward, and I guess it is, but there is no purpose in holding the curtains up if the strings that are there are connected to hold no true, steady or integer ground.

355. I remember being at a hospital with nuns working there. My impression was of efficiency and care but I could not feel love.

356. It is truly a joy to remember we are from the stars, that we are made up of the same divine harmonious stuff and there is a natural intelligence innately within.

357. Religion, so very worth to explore what it truly is and what it is for us.

358. As a child I was made to go to church, week in and week out and although there was plenty of really good people there all the time, something never felt right to me also. I would see some of them, head down eyes closed on their knees praying, looking very holy, only to see them behave totally different when out of reach of the church. Thanks for writing this Matts, it is a good reminder that we do have to get out and meet people and live as best as we can true religion.

359. Reading what you share Matts is offering me the understanding that often we aren’t confirmed from outside what we know is true from ourselves on the inside. In fact people go to quite a bit of trouble sometimes to steer us into the direction that everything we are and know comes from instruction from another source. Meeting Serge Benhayon has lovingly turned all that thinking and belief on its head and offers everyone equally the awareness that it all comes from with-in our inner-hearts.

360. Matts what you have shared makes so much sense, not only that but it feels clean and true. In sharing how it is for you, you have shared how it is for us all. There is so much power in the process that you have shared. Connect to self, share from own truth, connect to others, remind others of their truth. Powerful, powerful stuff, keep it coming.

361. Matts, I love how you have talked about religion being about letting people in – we have learned to manage in this world by carrying a shield in effect to protect ourselves but in the process when we have this barrier up, we cannot let the world see us for who we are and nor can we let the world into our hearts to be loved for who they are. I can feel this shield in others – it is like when they hold you at a distance, and this might seem ‘normal’ for most people, but when you meet a child or someone who dares walk around with no shield on, you really get to feel the difference! It is like you are family to them, like you matter as if you were their daughter or son, like you are being held so tenderly but with out even the physical touch necessarily being there! One such person whom I first felt this with is Serge Benhayon. And the same experience of openness or ‘shutness’ can be said for myself, as there are times I have been more aware of being open to people and welcoming them in my heart, connecting with them and letting myself feel them because I have allowed myself to connect deeply with me first! A great reminder Matts for me of how important it is to keep our connection kindled and firing away! Thank you!

362. What an amazing blog with lots of revelations. Until today I had never realised I’d actually felt hurt by people miss using the words God, religion and love. Could it be that I actually have a very strong sense of the truth of these words? No longer do I need to hide this behind my hurts or reaction to them.

363. We are born as One, from the body of our Father that we call ‘God’ or ‘the Universe’. Yet we have crafted a way of living here on Earth that has seen us live in total isolation from each other and in separation to our true selves and thus the divinity we each in essence are. True religion does not shy away from letting us know this truth and that no matter what colour our skin or where we are born, we are each the many Sons of God, equal in the light and love that pulses within our physical form. True religion contains no doctrines that keep us bound by the illusion we are somehow either greater or lesser than another. There are no favourites in the Kingdom of Heaven, only those who have returned to the truth of who they are and thus are willing to walk Thy Father’s light in full so as to reawaken those still lost in slumber.

364. Living isolated gives us free rein to do the same old, over and over. This is so true Matts, and I have always loved having people over, but for a long period of my life, I lived on my own and kept everything hidden behind the front door and in that, the old cycle I was living in, continued on as no one was there to call it out. For a couple of years, I had flat mates and that was great, as it brought up heaps and I could no longer hide. Being with people is really important for us, even if it is just for work or out in the community. We all have so much that we can share and inspire each other with.

365. Yeah, it makes sense when we talk about being religious actually meaning reconnecting to ourselves and others. The bastardisation of religion also got me growing up and I spent decades wanting nothing to do with it. And isolating ourselves never works…I’ve definitely given that a go too…only to realise that I’m doing the very opposite of what I actually want.

366. When we start to reconnect and see the Godliness in each and every person on this planet it is very difficult to deny the truth about religion.

     1. Absolutely Rachael, when God is seen everywhere and in everything then we understand that life IS religion and religion is life.

     2. Beautifully expressed Rachael, this is so so true. Being religious is actually very simple and deeply loving.

367. We often can be good at letting love out, but it is quite interesting to look at how we are at letting love in. I think as a human race we are not very adept at it and it is up to each and every one of us to practice letting love in. Invite people over for dinner, share a smile in the park, let someone support you when you are going through something…..there are many ways for us to practice letting ourselves be loved.

     1. I love what you share Sarah, and do recognise this pattern of finding it easy to let love out but not so good at receiving love….but as you highlight, there are many ways to practice letting ourselves be loved and I am going to have some fun with that…..

     2. Matts, I love how you have exposed how divisive ‘organised religions’ are in the way they all compete to be recognised as ‘the one’. In truth, they all miss the mark, as you have shared, religion is inside each and every one of us and it’s up to us to choose our own path back home, there is no right or wrong way. Any path that leads us home to re-kindle the flame that burns inside is religion.

     3. Sarah that is a great point, so many times I speak with people who say its so hard to let oneself be loved, be appreciated. But if we don’t let love in how can we truly let love out in full? I love your practical examples of how everyday actions can let love in and out.

368. “I never heard that the connection with God was inside of me and that I didn’t have to go to a building to have a connection with him daily. I wasn’t told that it happens just by the way I am with myself and others.” Once we realise this, and come to understand it and live it – life changes… life becomes simpler and way more loving and joyful.

369. Your blog has many links to Unimedpedia – http://www.unimedliving.com/unimedpedia which is a great resource to show us how we have been harmed by the bastardisation of word. It provides energetically true definitions, audio and quote in relation to the meaning of religion, God and many other words. One of those words is EVIL – anything that keeps us away from our Soul – our true inner self. As religion is about reconnecting to who we truly are, to reinterpret this word is pure evil.

370. You share that your way forward will be to “keep letting people in” – I discovered that one of the best ways to let people in is to let myself out.

371. Religion as we have known it has caused much damage to the world – both in those who have followed it and in those who have reacted to this non-true version of something that lies at the heart of us all naturally.

372. Very spot on Matts. We react to things that are not true in the world and recoil, retreat and protect ourself instead of seeing it as an invitation to express more of what we feel is true.

373. “I allowed for people to see that I’m not perfect, something I have put a lot of effort into, wanting people to think that I’m perfect and have everything worked out. ”
     This is such a common trap, that I have submitted to almost all of my life and it really needs some practice to come out of by letting people see who I truly am and share me with them, like inviting someone for dinner as you have shared is a great start, but then not just small talking but really going for the real connection with each other.

374. When we go in reaction to the word God, or the idea or concept of Him, we deny ourself something deep within ourselves, a love so profound and beholding that we will miss thereafter and will forever seek.

375. I LOVE this blog Matts. We are not designed to be on our own at all, but with people all of the time. Life is totally about people! So it makes so much sense that Religion is also about people also. And that being a one unified way together. I have made many decisions in my own life that were essentially allowing me to hide away from people instead of embracing them and believe you me, the body naturally does not want to make such decisions especially when it results in isolation and individuality.

376. This resonated with me so clearly Matts, … “…that we are here to connect with people, to learn how to live side by side, and to help each other to evolve when we might be stuck in old patterns…” Isolating ourselves from the world just doesn’t work. It is innately natural to have a sense of community amongst each one another.

377. When I was younger anyone who was deemed religious was held up higher than others mainly because of what was seen as their sacrifice and dedication and that they had received a “calling” from God. The sadness for me in this is that somehow there was a separation, an us and them that occurred. It seems the opposite of what Matt has shared here, about letting people in, We are all connected not one person is closer to God than another. How strongly we feel our connection is a result of how much we live and appreciate that connection.

     1. The (true) definitions of religion and God mean it’s impossible to be separatist, competitive or judgmental – for it is equal for all.

378. Oh I know that “I’ve been living isolated for quite some time and when you do that, you will eventually feel that something is missing.” And we are able to live isolated within a group or in a family, so that it may not look like – but you can’t run away from the feeling. We are all missing God/the connection to ourselves and our divinity. But it is not God who left us – we brought this separation in, created it. And so we can let go of it as well and return = become truly religious again. Re-Connected.

379. Great blog and insightful observations for us to reflect on.
     Why is it that we abandon so readily the truth we know and feel when it is at odds with the definitions and adopted practices around us rather than holding firm to what we know is true, no matter what and allowing the false to stand out a mile for the imposter it is?

380. Reading this felt so relevant to my life recently! I too have started to open up to letting people see more of who I truly am, which opens up to them exploring who they truly are as well. This is clashing against the years (also lives) of keeping myself isolated and away from other people, this choice to turn away feels like it is coming from a hurt and not who I truly am. The more I let people in the more joy I experience and the more it hurts to keep people out and myself locked away!

381. A great article and one I will be returning to. I was talking to a group the other day and this subject came up. One of the men said when people ask him does he believe in God he says no. A hush came over the group and then he said why would I play that game with people who ask questions in that way. I follow it with I don’t believe in God, I know him. We all laughed and it was a light but strong way to deal with what is the modern day question of God and religion. I don’t like to get stuck on this like this with people because all I see are walls coming up. I know what I know, God, I am in no doubt and religion is simply everything I am. I can speak freely about either and equally live that freedom in every step. There is a lot of time and money wasted around what these are or aren’t to certain sections of the world. I don’t own them but at the same time within me I do.

382. There has been much reaction to the words religion, religious and God and I know I have avoided voicing these words or participating in conversation that contain these words because to the judgement that was there. It also feels a little like I was unsure of what they meant and so did not feel solid enough in my understanding to claim what they offered. All of this was the case just as you have shared Matts – the meanings have been twisted and manipulated in a way that is harmful and abusive of humanity. Serge Benhayon and the Ageless Wisdom have changed this and I now to claim my place in this beautiful way of living and celebrate it everyday.

383. Letting people in, connecting, truly listening etc.. allows whatever is there to be healed to heal. Everyone receives the benefits of healing.

     1. The benefits of healing are not confined to two or three people, the benefits are far reaching, far further even than we are able to fathom. How beautiful is that?

384. “And perhaps the reason my joy is flowing is because I have re-connected with our true purpose on earth – to return to where we are from originally, re-united and re-bound together.” . . . yes Matts there is nothing quite like having true purpose to get you living fully.

385. As a child I never really understood how a church could be seen to be ‘more’ of a place of God than other places. To me God was everywhere and so it didn’t make sense to have a belief that to go to church was a way to connect to God.

386. The word Religion has certainly been bastardised so that when we hear religion mentioned we seem to shy away from it. My approach to Religion has come the full circle through meeting Serge Benhayon and his presentations of The Way of The Livingness! This is the true Religion we have been looking for where God is shown to be our Father who is not only loving of each of us but we are equal Sons in Brotherhood with all.

387. Your sharing here Matts reminds me of when I was young and observing people I knew attending religious gatherings. It seemed odd to me that they just seemed to go and nod and agree, without feeling the truth for themselves. We can be relieved by the idea that someone else will tell us ‘how it is’ – like a messiah or leader of sorts. What I have come to understand since that time, is that this is something that can happen for me – all the time unless I am connected and in touch with my beautiful body. From here I have instant access to the wisest Bible you could ever read.

388. It makes sense that perhaps the reason why most people can’t stand the word religion is because they know what they see in the world portrayed as “religion” is not it. If you take religion for what it was intended to mean, rekindling a flame within, then what could there be to dislike or react to about that?

389. The redefinition of Religion or should I say the true definition of religion is sorely needed in a world that is racked with separation, and the personal and global consequences of it. True religion is the way back to being as one.

390. ‘if one definition is accepted by many, then it becomes the accepted norm, even though it might not be the true version.’ This is great to call out and discuss because how much have we accepted in the world (and continue to do so) that is not true.

     1. We have accepted what is not true en masse, a few of us are now returning to what is true and by doing so we provide a bolt hold for others to also return to truth.

     2. I remember as a child or youth many times how people in authority spoke what felt like absolute nonsense and I stayed silent as I knew there would be a heavy backlash. It happens even today – at a presentation somebody presented an interesting, non-intuitive fact. That ‘fact’ felt wrong to me and I queried it and the response by the presenter was quite interesting – he got angry and gave the impression that I was being frivolous while at the same time adding a further fact that made it clear that the initial, interesting fact was wrong. Life can be quite absurd at times.

     3. Absolutely Vicky and Matts. It’s how we have come so far from our naturally religious way of being. The perceived ‘norm’ is not normal at all – just a definition of what the majority do. To live a normal life is to live from our essence with simplicity, joy and love and in connection to and with all around us. Religiously, in other words.

     4. Yes and do we ever question the status quo or do we simply continue to blindly accept what is not working in the world with the belief that it’s normal.

391. I love this: being religious is about connecting with people, truly, fully and in so doing, supporting us all to evolve back to the divinity we are. How complicated have we made something that is actually so simple and beautiful!?!

     1. Hear hear, Katerina. What would life be like if we lived in solitude. Connecting to others is a full time hobby of mine! 😜

392. “And perhaps the reason my joy is flowing is because I have re-connected with our true purpose on earth – to return to where we are from originally, re-united and re-bound together.” So true Matts Josefsson, true religion is not only about uniting to God within us, but uniting all of us with all of us, a revelation for these hermits like you and me who have sought isolation as a sanctuary from the bastardisation of religion and true brotherhood. The more we re-connect to our inner flame, the innate and natural warmth of God, the easier it is to allow others to see all of who we are and to appreciate the joy that arises when we unreservedly share our warmth with others.

393. I remember being taken by my mother as a young child to a Catholic school which was attached to a convent and I met the Nuns and they terrified me in their black and white long robes. I absolutely hated the smell and the feel of the school and my mother thankfully never took me back there. Looking back I understand that I was reacting strongly to something that didn’t feel right to me and the nuns were cold and hard as nails, there was certainly no true love in their bodies and they couldn’t hide this from me. Most religions I have come across feel cold, hard and dead. To me religion is alive and all around us, because God is all around us in the very air we breathe, and in everything we do and touch, we cannot contain God and the moment we do we have lost the connection to his sacredness.

394. As you clearly share, Matts, it is so true that misinterpretations of words have become truths and in doing so not just the meaning of the word has been bastardised but the actual lived expression of its meaning has become something false and in many cases harmful and abusive.

395. Matts, I feel the reflection of joy from the way you write about the true purpose of religion being to come together to reunite/re-connect by letting people in and returning to where we are originally from. I went to a convent boarding school and experienced the emptiness of the religion we were taught and it has been joyful for me too to discover that there is a true religion which tells us that we don’t need to go anywhere, that our true connection to God lies within us and waits patiently while we return to what we already know.

396. I too had moved away from making life about people, I made it about getting by and about the functionality of life but with the exception of a few I avoided being with people. This has totally changed and through the teachings of Universal Medicine and The Way of The Livingness, I now know that life is about people first and foremost and returning to a religion where no one is excluded.

397. Matts, I was the same in that I would view with suspicion the words and activity around ‘religion, love, god, and being religious’, yet now I find these the most beautiful words as I have come to renounce what was not true about them, and experienced and claimed what does feel absolutely true.

398. It is a beautiful point you make Matts that it is when we let love in that we are able to see that love isn’t ours to hold onto but to share, show and reflect to others. We walk around with layers of protection which keep us separated, isolated and withdrawn from others, I know this because I have done it too. It has taken time to peel away the layers of protection and open myself up to loving me and allowing myself to be loved and in doing so have felt how this love is not for me but for all.

399. Matts, this is very beautiful to read, ‘that we are here to connect with people, to learn how to live side by side, and to help each other to evolve when we might be stuck in old patterns.’ I love how you shared about inviting people round for dinner and that you are enjoy connecting with people, I can feel how this is what life is about and you inspire me to do the same, rather than keep people at a distance and being isolated, thank you.

400. I went to church when I was a child and I know I felt the incongruence between what was being said and how people actually lived. Today I understand that young children have a strong connection to their innate sense of what is true and maybe we would be wise to nurture this in them rather than dismiss them as ‘too young to understand’ – or something of that ilk. Sadly it seems we are rather too willing to shut down their wisdom in favour of conditioning them to be a good human being. I wonder how a child would grow if their innateness was honoured instead.

     1. It’s wonderful that we have people like Matts writing articles like this one and a host of people like yourselves connecting and commenting – thus there is a growing group of people who do see that there is a different way to live and thus, raise our children.

401. There are many great points you make here, Matts. In the past I too have isolated myself in protection, judging the world and the lack of truth I felt. But of course this makes us the same as everyone else, carving out a lesser version of life where there is no love or connection. I agree completely that our evolutionary growth is in developing true relationship.

402. ‘ We create a distaste for words and practices that we feel are not honoured for what they truly mean, and in reaction we abandon them, which can also mean we abandon a part of ourselves as we are intertwined with the true meaning of many of these words, such as God, Love, Truth, and Religion.’ We seem to have lost the celebration in words and use them devoid of their original meaning. Before this loss of celebration however came a lesser lived quality and so the words were diminished too. Beginning to use these words again with a true lived quality behind them supports trust in them again.

403. Great to feel how you are re-imprinting the meaning of religion and being religious and how your choice to let people see who you truly are is ‘opening the tap of joy flowing in my life again.’

404. A gorgeous blog Matts. I love that letting in and loving people is your true religion.

405. To be religious is to live a cardio-centered way of life, to so live according to the dictates of one’s true inner heart, and use that as the ultimate gauge by which one views life. Does this mean that we no longer use reason, or think about things? No, but it does mean that we ensure by the formation of such a relationship that our thoughts do not lead us astray from what we know deeply to be true. There is a movement of thought that suggests that true intelligence must be devoid of feeling, that discussions of morality and human nature only corrupt our ability to understand and observe life with clarity. But I would venture to disagree. A highly intelligent human being is neither wise or unwise. They are simply highly intelligent, and as such able to use their intelligence for “good” or for “evil.” True wisdom can only, therefore, be obtained when the heart and mind come together in union and as one.

     1. Wise words Adam, shared from the heart of someone who has learned to live in a way that allows the heart and the mind to come together in a union that is truly supportive of self and all. If we use just the mind, it certainly can lead us astray and this is pure intelligence. Wisdom as you have shared it the recipe that unites the knowledge of the mind with the intelligence of the heart through which we connect to the intelligence of the universe itself – and the lived expression of this then becomes true Wisdom.

     2. Thank you Adam for this wise reminder – whole body intelligence is the way to re-connect to our divinity within.
        “True wisdom can only, therefore, be obtained when the heart and mind come together in union and as one”.

406. Our true purpose on earth is to evolve.

407. It can be very easy in western economies to live cocooned and separate lives. The number of single person households is increasing- something you don’t find in many less affluent economies where people still live communally. In the UK , “There were 7,067,000 one person households in the 2011 Census – 12.8 per cent of the household population’ (i) This is huge, and I am a member of this group. Remembering also we can live in family units and still be separate from each other and the whole. True religion invites us to connect with people and communities, beyond the superficial, and not just those we know and feel comfortable with, but with every one. Equally, it offers shared living as an alternative to living singly. We are part of a universal family which goes way beyond biology.
     (i) Office of National Statistics.

408. “I have re-connected with our true purpose on earth – to return to where we are from originally, re-united and re-bound together” Thank you Matts for inviting us all in to share a religious way of life.

409. I had worked with a person that was over religious – if that is a phrase. Reading his Bible at lunch was a daily ritual. He was an unordained deacon of his church. He was a carpenter by trade. But, he had cracks in his belief armour. There were many times he ‘cherry picked’ beliefs that supported just him above all others; I would call him out on these discrepancies and he was never without a justification of his actions. There was also a staunch belief that anything other then his church and their beliefs was evil! As you have shown, in all the true origins of religion God has never been any place other than inside of us, all equally. People that attempt to put God into our hearts would be out of work if we just accepted the truth there is only one God and has always been within!

410. Matts, a beautiful tender sharing of your unfolding self, opening to the divinity within It feels like a homecoming when we’re one with our own divinity,; we come out of our closets and open ourselves to all of human life.

411. Only when we embrace the true meaning of the word religion, being religious is and feels expansive.

412. How different it would be if children were naturally confirmed for the amazing beings they are, there would be far less issues with God!

413. I fully agree with you Matts, there is only one purpose to life and that is to return to where we are from and to live that loving connection from within with everybody we are with. That to me is religion, the religion of life and that is there for us all to reconnect to which one day will make us all heartfelt connected once again.

     1. Well said Nico. It’s taken me many years of being a Christian, asking questions, rejecting religion and god, and being an atheist before I found the true definition and what you so beautifully describe above. Given my hang-ups on the words religion and god, I’m admittedly still working on it, but what I know for certain is the definition of (true) religion.

        1. With the bastardization of the word religion we have not only bereft ourselves from the natural connection we can have with our Soul and through that with Godl, but we have also made life so much harder than it should have been.

414. Matts like you I never considered myself religious yet today I see how much of life and the magic of God and the Universe I tried to cut myself off from by denying I was religious or in religion. The reason was that I was brought up and told was religion was not true religion and so I would constantly react to that word. Today my religion is my greatest strength.

415. This is something that has put a lot of people off religion – its institutionalised versions to be more precise: people saying one thing and blatantly doing the opposite, people not walking their talk in other words. And especially as children, we can acutely sense the dishonesty in that and we react.

416. As a young child I knew without a doubt that I was religious but like you, the activities of the religious group I was born into felt totally weird and seemed very foreign to the love that I felt inside of me. I remember knowing God in nature and I loved to play in the woods where God felt very present and alive. Attending church, however, was a different story where I could not feel any joy in the priest who simply spoke about things that he clearly did not live himself. Everyone seem to pretend that it was okay to listen to someone who did not know what they were talking about because it was not their lived experience, but they all went along with it. What was always obvious was the relief in everyone after it was over and they went out to chat with each other about things that mattered to them. What I have come to know is that religion has nothing to do with organized religion. It has everything to do with knowing that we are the Son of God, equally so and that when we live true to that knowing our whole way of life changes to allow that divine essence to be expressed on earth.

417. ‘For what is the best thing to assist you grow and evolve if not having people around you that can remind you if you’ve slipped away from being your natural loving self, the very quality that is godly within us all?’ After leaving a long term marriage, I lived on my own for five years and occasionally had people to stay, which was lovely, and I learned a lot from their reflections. More recently I had 7 months staying with two other women and learned heaps about myself and how I express including how my expression affects others, which has stood me in good stead for a relationship that I am now in, which is reflecting back even more closely all my old patterns of behaviour.

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