Category: RELIGION

The Body is a Temple for the Soul

There was a time in my life when I was hugely arrogant and this largely came from my misplaced identification with my body and the lives I knew I had lived earlier before coming into this one.

Why do I say misplaced? Because I was in the illusion of an image – a conditioned picture, laid down by false information, giving way to certain ideals of how a man’s body ought to be; the utterly belying and beguiling warrior consciousness so to speak. Continue reading “The Body is a Temple for the Soul” →

What do Religion and God Truly Feel Like?

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. Continue reading “What do Religion and God Truly Feel Like?” →

Living a Religious Life & The Way of The Livingness

As a child I was brought up in the Anglican religion. My mother was quite ‘religious’ – she prayed a lot and went to church whenever she could. We lived in the country and it was not easy for her to get to church. I was sent to an Anglican Girls Grammar School but the religion taught there was so ‘dead’: it was simply a set of rules of things one should not do, some moral values which were worth living by, but that was all.

Although I believed that Jesus had told his disciples to be loving there did not seem to be love anywhere, just fear that one would not be ‘good’ enough. Church services were something we had to attend and I cannot remember one ‘sermon’ inspiring me in any way. I do remember the gossip after the service, which was all about what ‘Mrs So-and-So’ was wearing, or some scandal or other; I could feel this was all very unloving. Continue reading “Living a Religious Life & The Way of The Livingness” →

The Way of the Livingness – What it is and What it Means to Me

Today I feel anxious because I had sugar. It sucks because the days before I hadn’t, and I felt awesome; my body felt warm, at ease with myself and others as I had learned to live with the awesome realisation that I am responsible for my choices and have come to the understanding of how those choices impact on how I feel in my life, in my body, and with others. This realisation had allowed a strength and dedication to life that fed the purpose of why I am on this planet. Continue reading “The Way of the Livingness – What it is and What it Means to Me” →

Breaking up with Organised Religion 

Weekly church, regular confession, fasting at lent, praying for forgiveness and generally trying to be a good person dominated my religious life from when I was old enough to understand it until organised religion and I broke up when I was 35. The break-up wasn’t long and drawn out; in fact it was short, fast and relatively painless for me.

If you had asked me when I was in the thick of my regular organised religious practices if I would let it go, I wouldn’t have believed you, as I have always known there was God and I was taught throughout my childhood that God equated to religion and church.  Continue reading “Breaking up with Organised Religion “ →

Religion & Religious Re-Defined 

The last couple of weeks I’ve been reminded once again about the true meaning of the words Religion and Religious. Quite often these words conjure up a lot of thoughts and images for us, but I’d like to share how I’ve come to view the meaning of these words in a different light.

I have never considered myself a religious person, at least not in the most common meaning of that word, as in being a follower of one of the main religions. In fact when my sister and I were little and she said that she was religious, I reacted quite strongly. I questioned her and I also ridiculed her for it. I even felt a bit appalled by her saying such a thing. Being religious! How pathetic was that! Hard words, but that is how I felt at the time. Looking back, I feel 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.    Continue reading “Religion & Religious Re-Defined “ →