L
Lunitik
Guest
I am curious to see how many see any place for this in religion?
Have you ever pondered from where this fear comes, what you have re-associated with God? The fear is naught but that of death in a new guise, but curiosity about death is how religion has arisen in the first place!
There is a story about how Maharshi Ramana realized the self, it is said that around the age of 10 his grandmother died. They were very close, and he was struck not with grief but with curiosity about what has happened to her. He has seen at the funeral home that she was completely still, nothing in her was moving at all, so when he got to his room he emulated her. He did not move for hours and hours, then suddenly it happened.
It is beautiful, but is how man has probably actually encountered enlightenment in the first place. He has seen much death around him, wondering why it has happened, what has happened. He has become curious, one of the many human strengths, so he has investigated to see. From this, eventually many scriptures arose, but all point at that death which introduces you to the deathless. In this, of course, I say there is no need for God at all, no intervention is needed at all... yet I do not deny God.
Every scripture talks of that one which cannot die, always the central point is oneness in some aspect. That, for me, is God, yet it is impossible to fear it, for it is the most powerful love and bliss this life has to offer. Of course, when you give laws, you have to instill fear that they will be obeyed, but this is not the point of religion at all - it is only a way to keep the community in line.
When you know you are the deathless, how can there be fear? All fear is rooted in death, you have transcended it. At the same time, you have transcended birth - life as you know it now - so there is no more desire for that either. This is the intention of the concept of reincarnation, that even if you escape by suicide you will return, even if you just wait for death to take you still you must come back and suffer again. It is to create an urgency to get out of the wheel of samsara, now even existence and non-existence has been transcended.
For me, to base belief in fear misses the entire point of religion, for religion is reward for the victor of death - Mahavir means just this, the great victor. The point is to overcome fear, for now you know what you are, and that cannot die - that is eternal life, it is infinite being. You are the very essence of life, manifesting to experience itself. You are the energy pulsating through all things, you only have to raise this energy as much as you possibly can, then surrender to the tsunami of self which rushes towards you.
Have you ever pondered from where this fear comes, what you have re-associated with God? The fear is naught but that of death in a new guise, but curiosity about death is how religion has arisen in the first place!
There is a story about how Maharshi Ramana realized the self, it is said that around the age of 10 his grandmother died. They were very close, and he was struck not with grief but with curiosity about what has happened to her. He has seen at the funeral home that she was completely still, nothing in her was moving at all, so when he got to his room he emulated her. He did not move for hours and hours, then suddenly it happened.
It is beautiful, but is how man has probably actually encountered enlightenment in the first place. He has seen much death around him, wondering why it has happened, what has happened. He has become curious, one of the many human strengths, so he has investigated to see. From this, eventually many scriptures arose, but all point at that death which introduces you to the deathless. In this, of course, I say there is no need for God at all, no intervention is needed at all... yet I do not deny God.
Every scripture talks of that one which cannot die, always the central point is oneness in some aspect. That, for me, is God, yet it is impossible to fear it, for it is the most powerful love and bliss this life has to offer. Of course, when you give laws, you have to instill fear that they will be obeyed, but this is not the point of religion at all - it is only a way to keep the community in line.
When you know you are the deathless, how can there be fear? All fear is rooted in death, you have transcended it. At the same time, you have transcended birth - life as you know it now - so there is no more desire for that either. This is the intention of the concept of reincarnation, that even if you escape by suicide you will return, even if you just wait for death to take you still you must come back and suffer again. It is to create an urgency to get out of the wheel of samsara, now even existence and non-existence has been transcended.
For me, to base belief in fear misses the entire point of religion, for religion is reward for the victor of death - Mahavir means just this, the great victor. The point is to overcome fear, for now you know what you are, and that cannot die - that is eternal life, it is infinite being. You are the very essence of life, manifesting to experience itself. You are the energy pulsating through all things, you only have to raise this energy as much as you possibly can, then surrender to the tsunami of self which rushes towards you.
