“Here’s what I think in a single sentence: I think that the real religion is about the understanding that if we can only still our egos for a few seconds, we might have a chance of experiencing something that is divine in nature. But in order to do that, we have to slice away at our egos and try to get them down to a manageable size, and then still work some practiced light meditation. So real religion is about reducing our egos, whereas all the churches are interested in is egotistical activities, like getting as many members and raising as much money and becoming as important and high-profile and influential as possible. All of which are egotistical attitudes. So how can you have an egotistical organization trying to teach a non-egotistical ideal? It makes no sense, unless you regard religion as crowd control. What I think most organized religion—simply crowd control.”
John Cleese, from his interview in The Onion
Archive for the 'religion' Category
In Eckhart Tolle’s book entitled: A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose, it says the following about Spirituality and Religion:
What is the role of the established religions in the arising of the new consciousness? Many people are already aware of the difference between spirituality and religion. They realize that having a belief system–a set of thoughts that you regard as the absolute truth-does not make you spiritual no matter what the nature of those beliefs is. In fact, the more you make your thoughts (beliefs) into your identity, the more cut off you are from the spiritual dimension within yourself. Many “religious” people are stuck at that level. They equate truth with thought, and as they are completely identified with thought (their mind), they claim to be in sole possession of the truth in an unconscious attempt to protect their identity. They don’t realize the limitations of thought. Unless you believe (think) exactly as they do, you are wrong in their eyes, and in the not-too distant past, they would have felt justified in killing you for that. And some still do, even now. Continue reading ‘Eckhart Tolle on Spirituality and Religion’
This isn’t a Mormon-specific post, but I thought y’all might be interested in this post from my more academic blog. It describes research a colleague and I did that found people who were exposed to religious words, either by sorting them in a “scrambled sentence” task (akin to an anagram) or by flashing the words briefly on a screen (so that they were perceived subliminally), were less likely to cheat subsequently.
Now, back to your regularly-scheduled Mo discussions….
“The daily wars that occur within our thoughts and within our families have everything to do with the wars fought between peoples and nations throughout the world. The conviction that we know the truth and that those who do not share our beliefs are wrong has caused a lot of harm. When we believe something to be the absolute truth, we have become caught in our own views. If we believe, for instance, that Buddhism is the only way to happiness, we may be practicing a kind of violence by discriminating against and excluding those who follow other spiritual paths.
When we are caught in our views, we are not seeing and understanding in accord with reality. Being caught in our views can be very dangerous and block the opportunity for us to gain a deeper wisdom.”
From Creating True Peace, by Thich Nhat Hanh (Pages 11-12)
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