Growing up I have felt a lot of different things in the mainstream institutionalised religions of today – Christianity, Catholicism, Buddhism, Islam, Judaism etc. – like the energies and emotions in their buildings, the temperature, the colors, the people, the furniture, which all made me feel quite small and insignificant at that time. When I saw the other people in these religious places, they were seemingly not noticing these things, even though they were so obvious to me. This made me feel like what I felt was not true and confirmed the feelings of being small and alone.
I had the most physical experience with Catholic churches, attending funerals or visiting them whilst being on holiday, and these are some of those things I remember clearly:
• They always felt cold
• They always felt very big and imposing
• The colors were often dark and grey
• The seats would be very hard and uncomfortable
• The place felt sad and heavy
• I did not like the music – the big church organs especially were very imposing and would make me feel sad
• The priest would say very complicated words.
I know now I came to associate the word religion with these experiences of coldness, hardness, piety, contraction, hard work and most of all, feeling unworthy and guilty.
It wasn’t until I listened to a presentation by Serge Benhayon about the religion called The Way of The Livingness that I felt that there was another and true meaning for the word religion. What I formerly took on as religion was not true religion at all.
What I felt when attending these presentations by Serge Benhayon was totally different from my experiences with the Catholic churches.
I observed and felt:
• A warmth in the room physically, but also energetically
• Openness
• Joyfulness
• Simplicity
• Love and care
• Responsibility
• Equality between the presenters and the audience
• Integrity lived in every moment of the day
• Seeing the importance of everything
• A feeling of not being judged and of being equal with everyone in the room – basically a feeling of coming home to myself and my whole family.
I am slowly coming to the understanding that God is in everything, yes in us too, and not above us judging, as I felt from my experiences as a child. I especially see and feel God in nature and the beautiful messages I receive. Now these messages are not letters as such but things like a beautiful leaf just landing before my feet, finding a tiny feather on my shirt, the sun making beautiful patterns and rays of light in the sky, a certain animal crossing my path just when I needed to see it and so on. I can also see God in my eyes when I look in the mirror and other people’s eyes when I meet them because, if I am honest, such beauty can only be divine.
True religion is about reconnecting with our essence, which is pure and divine. Then all the activities which re-connect us to this essence are religious. So this means that many things in our life can be religious and that these activities are not restricted to being in a church or praying.
For me, going for a walk can be religious when I am connecting more with myself, my essence and the beauty around me. Exercise for instance, is a way to connect to my body, to feel my body and how I feel at this time. Am I tired? Do I feel vitality? Do I feel how gorgeous I am? These honest questions support my connection with myself so for me, this is religion. Also a simple loving ritual and a rhythm I have developed that supports a lasting connection with myself, such as lighting a candle in the evening and some incense before going to bed so I can wind down for a goodnight’s sleep, is being religious. And I could go on…
This is what God feels like to me and it makes it clear to me that the mainstream institutionalised religions as mentioned above are not true religion as they did not support me to live in a truthful way with integrity – simply walking my talk, even when nobody is watching – nor did these mainstream religions support me to connect to myself and what I know is truth, love and joy. The only true religion I have found that offers this is The Way of The Livingness.
To me this shows that we should always discern if a word like religion or God is used and lived in its true meaning, or if it has been reinterpreted over time.
So, how does God feel to you?
By Lieke Campbell, Belgium
Further Reading:
Are We All Born Religious?
God. It’s a Science
Living a Religious Life & The Way of The Livingness
The Truth about Universal Medicine 
Living in the Joy of who we are is so much a part of the Livingness and has nothing to do with emotional type of happiness but rather a deep connection to our inner-heart or Soul, which are one and the same.
Lieke I could really see the difference between the Catholic religion and The Way of the Livingness from your two dot point lists, and how the Catholic religion ‘gives’ you religion and The Way of the Livingness helps you to reconnect to your soul so you can live religion. Equality is also a huge difference – everyone an equal Son of God in The Way of the Livingness. Truly so much to appreciate, thank you for highlighting all the wonderful points about The Way of the Livingness.
Equality is a welcome part of The Way of The Livingness, we are all equal sons of God, ‘ Equality between the presenters and the audience’.
I am rediscovering the importance of everything we do, no matter how small or insignificant it seems. Because every moment is precious and should be honoured, nothing is too small, actually everything becomes a joy because there is so much to extract from the day.
‘I am slowly coming to the understanding that God is in everything, yes in us too, ‘ I love this. We can never remove ourselves from God, only shut down this awareness. Of all those times when I felt despair and called out to Him, all I needed to do was feel within to the love that is there always.
Enjoying the magic of God brings even the most mundane activities alive in our day to day life.
This is very true when we make every move a relationship with God then we see the vast magic that surrounds us.
Yes, the magic of God brings a joy to our lives.
Walking into a room at Universal Medicine workshops and presentations I feel greeted by an openness, joyfulness, playfulness and sincerity that is both heartwarming and confirming.
To know that God is around us in everything was hard to fathom at the beginning until I too met Serge Benhayon. Everything has a language and is constantly communicating to us. If we just listen to the cry of a newborn, to the leaf of a tree as it falls on your footpath, to the rain as it pours.
Everything is God – are we willing to see this?
God is in everything, in everyone, ‘I am slowly coming to the understanding that God is in everything, yes in us too’. Beautiful.
I too had those experiences with the religion I was brought up with, and other spiritual avenues that I found after all those years of exploring, being told I had to and listening and feeling what they presented, none of it felt true and I certainly didn’t feel alive and open in my body. How you have expressed The Way of The Livingness as a religion, I too have felt and know the truth of what it is, the principles it stands on and Ageless Wisdom that it connects deeply with. All this is now what I can say with confidence and without any hesitation whatsoever, is my religion too. From my early years and experience of other religions, I didn’t want to associate or consider another one, but The Way of The Livingness is like no other religion, it represents what true religion is and equal expression of the unity with God in and through us, all equally so.
“To me this shows that we should always discern if a word like religion or God is used and lived in its true meaning, or if it has been reinterpreted over time” – a great point. Look what has happened to us when we bend truth to fit around the reinterpreted definition of words. Just even the simple fact that we have ended up accepting a place that is supposed to connect us with God to be cold and uncomfortable, that’s like… why, how?
Thank you Lieke, I love the simplicity you have applied to finding out what is true and what is not about religion, that is if it does not have love, warmth, simplicity etc in it then it is not true religion.
Absolutely makes sense, ‘ if it does not have love, warmth, simplicity etc in it then it is not true religion.’
Coming to understand that God is in everything means that I can explore the magic of what I might consider to be bad or difficult stuff. Knowing God is in everything keeps me open to learning.
When we are taught that we have God living inside of us all the time, that He can be connected to instantly, and that can be a very normal every day relationship… then we get to feel the bigness inside of us, that is inside all of us.
I love that word ‘bigness’ it is playful and very accessible as is God.
To me also religion in truth encompasses every aspect and relationship in life and never is it confined to just a certain area or moment.
It feels like coming home and being settled and knowing that where ever I am, I am not alone, when I choose to live from the stillness within.
‘True religion is about reconnecting with our essence, which is pure and divine. Then all the activities which re-connect us to this essence are religious.’ Beautifully said Lieke, in true religion we feel the equality between us and the immense love we are all truly from.
The kingdom of God is within us, in every other human being and nature.
A great question to ask, what does God truly feel like and what does religion truly feel like? At a time when it can be very easy to be confused due to the large number of different claims of ‘versions’ of religions, its certainly been a breath of fresh air to be supported to re-connect to that inner knowing that I have, and explore just how deeply religious Living from this is.
This is it, it is in the Living, the talking, the theorising the proclaiming is not it, it is in how we live.
“I can also see God in my eyes when I look in the mirror and other people’s eyes when I meet them because, if I am honest, such beauty can only be divine” – I could not agree with you more. When I have looked into peoples eyes, past the hurts, emotions etc, the eyes of God are truely there and have always been there.
Yes profound and divine to look into someones eyes past the habits of life times and feel and know their essence.
As I was reading this blog, I pondered on my up brining in Hinduism, yes there were some great beliefs and acceptance around karma and reincarnation, karma only being under the benevolence of good only, in other words if you were ‘good’ in this life it will pay off in the next.
The more profound memory that I felt to share was the memory of my visits to the temple, they were cold, the floors were cold and hard and only the elderly or disabled were allowed to sit on a chair and we were placed lower than any statues of God or deities and the room was consumed with strong smelling incense sticks.
There was no oneness, women and children on one side and men on the other side – we were separated.
When ever I entered a temple I always felt small and a criminal, that I had done wrong, the priest was superior and free of wrong doing than me. It was interesting times.
Since meeting Serge Benhayon and The Way of The Livingness I feel I have discovered my true religion, a religion that has no boundaries, no separation just simply that we are from one place and that is God and I love it.
There is a contrast of what Religion and God felt to me most of my life to how it feels now. The warmth, love and holding I feel from my religion (The Way of the Livingness) is a far cry from the cold, hard, unloving environment I was brought up around as a child. I now know that this wasn’t true religion at all, and my inner knowing of this spoke volumes as a child.
Gorgeous for you to feel how God is in everything. This shows how we are so connected all of the time and it is about us allowing this through us. We constantly have an inner knowing and connection that we can know and feel and relate to if we so choose.
God is right there, in the detail… all we need is to have our eyes open.
There are some who would say, that the solemn atmosphere of a church or a cathedral is due to the respect inherent in the place for God. That it is the right way to worship him, with a solemn attitude. And yet, there is literally no joy or playfulness in this what-so-ever. And so, if joy is the natural state of child, why would we create solemnity? Surely this just takes all the fun out of life? And why would we need to feel sad in order to love God? Surely it would be through our playfulness, or love and joy that we can appreciate him the most? When I am sad, God is not with me and I feel very much alone, even though I know that he loves me.
Yes there are so many things in life we have accepted but actually don’t make sense. Why would relating God be so solemn and strict? Whilst joy is more our natural state.