I am not exactly sure where to start on religion, but since I am not aware of the beginnings of it, as there are so many religions, I will approach religion from not were it begun, but from where I am. On many occasions we approach things from a "beginning' or an "end", but rarely from where we are. Where we are is more important because that's the point where al things meet, the "I", the "me". Of course, the "I" is talked in the sense of the totality of what is perceived as "me", including physical, past, environment, conditioning factors such as culture, etc.

Religion, as the dictionary would have it, means relegare, from latin, to re-bind, to re-unite (?) to tie up the "me" to something else. Some people call the something else "GOD", some call it other things, but everybody seems to agree that the something else is an ideal, a perfection that would solve all human problems. Some try to do that by intense practices of some kind, some through belief in something (Christ) or through more advanced (?) ways of self-analysis. There maybe many others. The end result is to have the human undergo a change, in totality, although some others believe that there would be some leftovers from the initial "I" in that transformation. You are the judge of that.

Unfortunately, change means a complete, a totality, not just a redecoration. Most of us want to keep something that is familiar about ourselves, something that would identify us distinctively from others. It seems that we would lose something if otherwise. And so, RELIGIOUS CULTURE was inevitable, a culture that would seek to cultivate the familiar, the known. If at anytime, there was a way of living, diferent from culture, a way of being, some kind of religious insight into life, culture has killed it, swallowed it, destroyed it.

It seems to me, like Dante has put it, that to go into religion would mean to lose first and foremost, hope. In the Divine Comedy, he states "lasciate ogni speranza voi che'ntrate qui" (live all hope behind you that enter here). Yet, hope is one of the most underpinning facts of religion, thus culture (religious culture). Hope, is a promise, almost like saying "I hope that the winter will go away, but I hope that in the back yard I will still have a mound of snow, to remind me of winter". We don't want to see change as a totality, but as a continuation of something with some minor/major redecoration. Yet, religious culture destroys the human being, instilling fear and hopelesness in our minds, threatening our existence and freedom.

I take that the human being, the so-called human soul exists only and lives only in the natural world of beauty. It feeds on beauty. Beauty brings joy, hapiness and harmony. And beauty cannot exist in a culture, because you cannot create or re-create beauty. Beauty exists only where there is complete freedom, complete change, because beauty is new, beauty is born of the ashes, not of something that already exists. That's why change has to be complete, radical. Most important, beauty is not of the realm of senses, although the senses bathe in it. Beauty is something natural, therefore it cannot be created by artificial means, with the help of drugs, etc. One is only in thouch with beauty, one cannot own beauty. To touch beauty, one must see beauty as it is, not through the eyes of an academic, or religious mind. Culture thus destroys the mind that would see beauty, because culture owns the mind, the person, it invades the soul and makes of it a slave.

No one can predict beauty, such as it is claimed in the Bible that no-one would know the Second Coming. To predict something, one must have a previous notion of what it is one predicts, and one tries to re-create in order to predict. No one can claim to know beauty, because no-one can get that close to beauty. As the Bible puts it, if one would see the face of  God, one will die. Perhaps this could be inverted, but let's keep it simple. Simple to say that we betray beauty through the act of posession. We try to hold on to beauty, to re-create it through artistic means. Yet, in the midst of the "blackness, darkness of the soul", beauty pervades. In the midst of hopelesness and dispair, beauty shines. When the struggle is given up and the natural is restored, one finds a sense of austere beauty, of unspeakable beauty, one's mind and senses are numb and all things seem to be foreign to beauty. People that go through that report some kind of loss, but their lives are forever changed. They drop from the mainstream of society and are almost unheard of. They "die".

What does religious culture have to do with it, and where does it fit?

First of all, whatever is re-created, is cultivated. The word "cult" denotes that. No culture can be all-inclusive, because it is limited to what it can and is prepared to accept as part of it. You see divisions in religion, as you see many religions. One said once that every human being has a personal God. Why? Because the understanding is diferent from everybody else's. Culture becomes a fortress in which one lives and derives benefits thereof, but is forever imprisoned by it. Culture dictates the way of life and perception of things, and beauty is killed. There are many kinds of culture, such as work, academic, family, organizational, political, corporate, etc. cultures. Yet, they limit other cultures, because each culture wants to withhold from another, wants to dominate not only it's own contents, but those of others; hence, cultures are mutually exclusive. To belong means to be belonged to; to posess means to be posessed; to own means to be owned; to benefit means to be benefited of.

Cultures are hierarchical, denoting the existence of power. Power, corrupts all beings because it denies freedom and equality. There is a false perception that power can be shared; freedom can be shared, but not power. You share freedom when you set all things free, including yourself. Unconditional love, a term often misused means if you love somebody, do not condition them, do not exercise power over them. Let them be. Yet, because all identities are formed within a culture, they are all mutually exclusive. Being mutually exclusive, we are all separated from one another. We only accept the ones like-minded, the others are perceived as a threat. Thus, we form alliances with the like-minded in the forms of countries, religions, corporations, political parties, etc. We are at war with one another all the time. Yet, the biggest war is within ourselves.

What is then, religion? My understanding is that religion in its natural state tries to unite the division within ourselves, to make us whole. To resolve conflict. There is always a fight within between likes and dislikes, between good and bad. Whence this division? Is this division none other than the internalized culture we grow in? Where do we learn to like and dislike? To posess and be posessed? You know, a funny thing is that if a woman or man is not posessed, they think they are not loved! Gealousy means that we love! What a nice bit of fantasy!. Many children are destroyed in the name of love, moreover in the name of God!. What more can I say? Many people want their spouses to look like somebody else, they have an image of what they want, because they do not see beauty, but want to recreate past experiences from tv., or from real life. To see beauty, is to look at something as it is, regardless of what one wants it to be. But re-creating implies expectation! That is the evil that blinds us to beauty! If something does not turn out the way we expect, it is thus not good! See?

There is a problem of division and weakness that I am going to explore. We will do this together. The problem is that of creating division and confusion within one's mind by the way of lies and dishonesty. Here is how it works.

Normally, when a mind is whole, it is strong, it knows what is true (as a fact). Perhaps a little more explanation. If I am angry, I must aknowledge that as a fact. There is no division between me and anger, anger is a fact. I I say "I am not angry, I must not be angry" and try to behave in the opposite, the mind gets confused. It will probably ask: "are you angry, or are you happy?". In trying to believe it is happy, there appear to be two facts: anger and happiness. Two facts can't be true if one is imaginary. Some people try to maintain a relationship by denying facts, by trying to sweep them under the carpet, as it were. What happens is that another reality is created, and there is conflict in the mind. The mind tries to resolve the conflict by thought. But it is thought that invented the false reality to start with, and so thought tries to solve the dilema by virtue of consequences. Thus, reality is doubted, questioned and ignored. What we have is a weakening of the mind, because every lie creates an opposing force to reality. Such people are confused, lack initiative and direction. Their direction is consequential, produced by thought rather than facts.

Lies means there must be more lies to cover for the initial ones, until one loses touch with one's self, with the true emotions, feelings and resolves. One starts to look for answers in religion, in books, in philosophy. One becomes weak because one can nol longer deal with reality, one tries to find refuge in the false. If one cannot face facts, one loses touch with responsability, everything one touches turns to error, because it's not based on facts. then one asks: "Why is it that everything I do turns to dust?". Because it is built on sand, on dust, on the false. And the more people deal with the false, the weaker they become, their reality is false, they can no longer make the distinction between the real and the false. And society is full of that. Politicians, businessman, etc. Perhaps that's why the Christians say that one must suffer for the sake of Truth. To eliminate the false and the weakness. A strong mind can move "mountains", barriers, where a weak mind creates mountains, barriers.

Let's take relationship, for example. I maintain that if two people lie to each other, not only they are irresponsible, but the very lies make a gap between the two. The more lies, the bigger the gap, and they end up being strangers. On the other hand, the more honest two people are, the more close and responsible they are. They will come to a stage where words are not needed to be said, they can read each others mind, because they are one mind, their minds become one, there is nothing to divide them. Perhaps that's what the Bible say when they talk about marriage made in heaven. The two minds become one. Such people are strong and nothing can divide them. Evil is the false, evil divides, and you understand now why.

Many religions divide the man, and then try to unite. The Truth can never be united with the false. The false must be eliminated by living the Truth, admitting error and correcting it, rather than worshipping it. Many people profit by lying, by telling falsities. But it is said: "What is the use of owning the whole world if one stands to lose one's soul?". Means, to be divided. To be a stranger to one's self, confused and a prey to anyone. How many gullible people in this world! They believe lies because the seed of reality has died within their minds. And to be honest, one can lose much, in terms of material things. But one gains immense strength by telling the truth, by being honest. One becomes unmovable and nothing can change one's reality, there is no fear within one, because doubt and confusion creates fear. Many people go to psychologist or psychiatrist because of that. New Age self-help books are full of strange rituals and stuff, but people seem to be lost, they have this look about them of being lost, like there is no one home. They hurt within, they are weak and manipulated, but go on chasing this evil thing called "HOPE". There is no hope.

Hope is for the weak and confused, not for the strong and whole. If one knows one's self as factual, not as an imaginary thing (having a self image), then one does not have to live up to anything. Life becomes much more simple, one does not need coping mechanisms (lies, imaginary outcomes, etc.). Even if one starves, one will always abide in reality, because reality will reveal the direction of things. One lives in a dimension of certainty because the facts point to more facts. One will undoubtly become whole and immortal, in the sense that reality never dies, but falsity will come to an end. An image will change, will end, but reality will take men to heights never experienced, because it will set them free from confusion, from fear. But some people are affraid of not being affraid. They are affraid of freedom, of their own strength and courage. They are affraid of change, of looking reality in the eyes, so they take the easy road of falsity, where they are dying, they are prisoners within the fortress of the False. They feel safe, because they hide. No one can see them, but neither can they themselves.

They lose self-awareness, they lose touch with emotions, feelings, and invent imaginary ones. They behave as expected not as factual. The expectation is created as a result of thinking, rather than facing the fact. The should and shoul not becomes their way of behaving, instead of being spontaneous as a result of factual representation. They are lonely, because they live alongside the false, affraid of their own lies and falsities. They invent beautiful but empty words, words that have no strength and satiety, words that hold no substance. They act from fear rather than from peacefulness. They are never at peace because the false and the real are always at war. They are followers instead of leaders, they want to treat a path where one has been before, because they feel safe. They are concerned so much with safety that the insurance companies are making a killing, and so religion, which sells false hope. They become gamblers and speculators, rather than honest and awake human beings, they sell even their own brothers, which to them are strangers, by the virtue of the distance that falsity creates. They live in tribes, such as relidious tribes, corporate tribes, clubs, political tribes, driven by fear and self interest, instead of universal unity and compassion. To be compassionate, one must touch another, and be touched by another. But divided, how can they be touched?

Think on these things, and do not stop here. Go forward, and remove the false, at whatever cost, become whole, strong and courageous, because courage is a result of truthfulness and honesty. If one has no fear, if one faces all facts, if one does not hide, one has courage. Courage is not invented, but is a fact. "Go and sin no more!".