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RELIGION VERSUS SPIRITUALITY

 

 

NO RELIGION

I posted this sometime ago and  read it over again this week end and thought it was so good. So I decided to post it again, there are some errors here, but I do not have the time to correct them now as I am doing some initiations and have to rush off, so please excuse me. I see where some people on Face book and other sites have taken bits and pieces from embracingspirituality and included it on their page with no credit to embracingspirituality or to me Obara Meji, whether it be a quote a paragraph, videos a post or other wise. What they have done is to copy and paste what they find here instead of actually sharing the link therefore sharing the site itself. I want all who are guilty of this to know that Where ever I am not, MY HEAD is, and I am a loving person and this site and the information I share here is not exclusive to you, but is for all to enjoy, also why would you not want the site to grow, yet yoy people, blog or email me silently for help. If you understand the role of my HEAD, my Ori, and how it function in my life, then you will understand the wisdom behind what I am saying, and stop this foolishness, and also many times people experience certain things in life and wonder where did it all come from, they have forgotten their own mis-deeds that they are paying for selfish or wicked deeds they done t people perhaps unknown to the person but witnessed by their heads!(WISDOM!! TAKE HEED) walk good and be careful!

Yesterday someone suggested that I write this post, and I decided that I would tackle it today, as usual I write from my own experiences, my thoughts and reflections, as oppose to the writings and teachings of others. Try as I might, while I may agree with another persons writings or teachings, I do have my own opinions and I believe that they are valid and worth sharing. I am not looking for persons to agree with me, as a matter of fact I welcome a good opposition if one choose to and it makes sense, not everyone who choose to oppose an argument do so from a place of intellect or just a good clean argument, some do so just because, however if one chooses to argue a point,  It may go into a debate which stimulates the mind almost in an orgasmic way, and also in a way which hopefully we all  may learn from, as I am forever learning. It is a thirst which seems unquenchable to me, I thirst for knowledge, I do not know enough! I thought this to be a touchy subject, but I threw caution to the wind, which I seemingly love to do and went for it, so here goes!

I was born into Christianity, growing up I had no choice but to go to church. My mother and father never once went with us nor did I ever see them go on their own, but we were forced to go or else no Sunday dinner. I attended St Stevens Presbyterian church off Cross Roads in Kingston Jamaica. This was a solemn kind of church where no one shouted or got into the spirit , no unknown tongue were spoken or clapping for that matter. Here people spoke in low hushed tones and the children were told to shush ever so often, other than when we were outside playing London Bridge is falling down, or Old Mac, Donald had a farm, or there’s a brown girl in the ring after Sunday school, were we able to have fun on the grounds of the church.

Hell and damnation was my fear, as a child when I would hear the preachers preach this, although, again at this particular Church the pastor never broke a sweat, he was always cool and preached in a somber tone, I guess what I am trying not to say is Boring. My mother would speak of the rapture in fear, and that in turn would make us the children fearful, and it seemed as if most who believed or practiced Christianity had one fear after the other. The Church seemed to believe that it had to drive fear into the believers in order to keep them in line. As I grew up and began to take a curious look at life and at religion, which by the way I was most interested in, I realized that the World Bosses (Not Kartel), Presidents, movers and shakers, big money makers, had a way to run the world, to keep its citizens in check or in line and it was the same way the church performed. Rule the mass through fear! Brilliant! A parent has a child and is stern with that child does not have to hit the child to straighten him up, the parent just has to give a “Look”, and the child, through Fear, behaves.

Religion and Spirituality are interconnected, often times it is religion which leads one to Spirituality, as in the case with me, but while Religion binds, Spirituality frees you, it does not have the constraints of the Church, the Mosque, the Synagogue or other religious houses. With Spirituality you are not  bound to any set of dogmas or doctrines. Spirituality comes from within, at times it may come with having the famous ‘Aha’ moment, when something awakens you to YOU, and all your possibilities, self realization. It maybe while your are speaking to someone, or a visit to a metaphysical book shop, or reading a book, or watching a documentary, getting consultation from a Spiritualist, or even a dream or vision. Then you begin to search for things you believe you ought to know but do not. For some people when enlightenment comes they embrace it, for others they fear disappointing their parents, partners, religious teachers et al, because once they become aware and have decided to Embrace their Spirituality, once they are fully awake, their is no turning back, which means moving away from what they have been brought up or taught to believe, It can be jarring admittedly. A promising youth decides to leave school and becomes a Rastaman,  he begins to wear all white as it suggests peace to him, he cut off eating meat, becomes celibate and go to live up in the hills where he feels he is one with nature, he is called mad and his parents cry for him, not realizing that he has become fully awake and has decided to free himself from all that is expected of him and just be him!

People who awake are severely mis-understood. All that they have learned from the Bible, the Koran and the Torah is revealed to them as man made tales, or fictions to say the least. When this happened to me my spirit spoke to me and said “regardless of  what is written in these books, lies, tales, metaphors or whatever, they still speak of and acknowledge the Creator, and it matters not what they call him, once he is mentioned or referred to in any text, there he is present for all to know, this is what has sustained these words and preaching  in the minds of those asleep, fear not because they are still being fed!” I am mindful however that the description of the creator ad him, is for us humans to easier understand what is too complex for our minds. God has no gender.

In other words, It matters not the route you take to find God, as long as you find him and acknowledge his existence. With Spirituality it is realized that the worship of God as is done within religion is not needed. I know, I know, but breathe as I explain. It is not necessary to worship Our creator in the manner of how it is done in the churches and other religions. All that is needed is that we KNOW, that God exists! When we pray it is acknowledgement of the creator and worship within itself. God has no human emotion attached to it, so it does not need our adoration or worship, only our acknowledgement, which we must, because we are indeed fragments of  this great Creator, fragments of the All, and to denounce it, is to denounce ourselves.  In Abrahamic religions the existence and nature of God is all important, while In the Buddhist and Hindu religion, God exists, but the importance of praise and worship is not is not placed upon its existence. When I realized this at first it frightened me because I was taught that to denounce God was blaspheme and that I would suffer in hell, with burning flames consuming me, and the Devil jooking (stabbing) me with pitch forks, just the thought alone was torture, plus mi skin saff and cannot tek licks much less juks from pitch forks, meaning my body could not take such torture. But (yes I can begin a sentence with but, this is a blog after all) when I took a closer examination of the teachings of Buddha and of the Hindus I realized that they did not denounce the existence of God. They acknowledged him but placed no importance on the worship of him because he, #1- is unknowable, 2- is within us as we are apart of him, 3-  we have other things to learn while here on earth which would free us from our physical constraints and elevate us into becoming  light beings therefore affording us the ability to evolve within the time and space continuum and as such we would be able to assist others who are shrouded in darkness, of these things we must remain focused. This is what I came away with when I studied these teachings and It made sense to me and so I sought more and found teachings like these:

The greatest achievement is selflessness.
The greatest worth is self-mastery.
The greatest quality is seeking to serve others.
The greatest precept is continual awareness.
The greatest medicine is the emptiness of everything.
The greatest action is not conforming with the world’s ways.
The greatest magic is transmuting the passions.
The greatest generosity is non-attachment.
The greatest goodness is a peaceful mind.
The greatest patience is humility.
The greatest effort is not concerned with results.
The greatest meditation is a mind that lets go.
The greatest wisdom is seeing through appearances.

I began to delve deeper into the teaching of all things as it relates to Creation, Humans Beings, Deities, Nature, God, all things which I knew resonated with me and from within me. I Embraced my Spirituality and I was free. Hell existed no more and so the fear of this dreaded place flew away, the fear of Death flew right away along with it, the rapture, well that became  all BS to me as well as all that I had learned and feared while growing up took a jolly leap from a very high mountain. However Jesus stayed with me, I placed no importance on whether he was real or not, I did not care about that, I still do not. The benevolence of the character was what appealed to me. The nature of this being, so kind and loving and caring made me fall in love with it as I believed that this should be the nature of all humans, all beings, this is impossible I know, but this Jesus character appealed to me, and so did Buddha when I found him and so did Krishna, and Mirtha, Indra and Orunmila. Yet I urged myself on, Opening up myself to learn more and I did and I am still learning.

Just before I came to America, I stopped going to church, I would tell my mother that I was going, but I would go to my friends house in stead. We would have youth fellowship on Wednesdays at the church which I would not attend, and for that I gave no excuse I just did not attend, after about a month two church brothers came looking for me at my home, aiming to bring me back, it worked, I went back, mainly because I had a secret crush on Chubby one of the two who came looking for me, the KC (Kingston College tie, was very capturing during those times, ah did like off Chubby bad and the feeling was mutual lol). Looking back I cannot find the reason why I stopped, it may have been that I wanted a break from going to church or these church meetings, keep in mind that I had no choice. In this I was born, and drummed into my head was that you never questioned the bible and you never walked away from the church. In this post, I refer the most to Christianity because that is the religion which I was born into, but as religions goes I speak on all.

With religion, the freedom to access your true self and connect it with nature is completely lost. It maybe suggested within its texts, as the character Jesus is always in nature, whether walking on water in a boat or praying in the mountains, (sound like Babalawo work to mi) but again it is open for interpretation. The bible wielding Pastors believe it is their job and duty to save souls, and missionaries have done more damage that Hitler did to the Jews in my opinion. Religion, other than imprisoning the mind, is suppose to preach peace and love, yet they all fight against each other. Muslims do not like Christians and Christians do not like Muslims and they all hate the Jews, and together they fire bun those who have stepped away from their theologies and frightening doctrines of hell and damnation, do I dare laugh?  Where is the Love? Where Is the peace? Where is the Unity? Where? The Good book teaches it but the interpreters of the Book are something else, words cannot explain them. Who remembers this quote “Christians I like your Christ but I do not like you Christians” ! A blogger once emailed me and told me never to quote Mahatma Gandhi again because he was racist, and he may have very well been, but what he said here I totally agree with. My argument today is not to shadow anyone’s belief, but to look at these two subjects keenly and with open eyes and see which one I am most comfortably with. Of Religion and Spirituality, persons may say they are one in the same, and while I agree to some degree, I must say that of the latter serves the greater good of self and of man kind, where it allows one  the freedom to explore all and everything spiritual and of the Universe and things which defies logic, it stretches the limitations of the human mind, allowing us to see beyond THE WORD as Christians call it, and not to conform just because.  The former restricts, divide and imprison the mind. With religion I find there is no love, no peace no unity, it may preach such likes, but where in the world does it show it?, Even within its own there is a division, the Seven Day Adventist and Jehovah’s witnesses says their way is the best way and Catholicism rebukes them all and the Pope believes he is Christ incarnate while driving around in a bullet proofed vehicle, While Muslims continues to bomb the world and the Jews believes that THEY, are the chosen ones, while continuing to bomb and kill the Palestinians, could this be love as Bob Marley asks?, I think not.

Below is an Interesting article I found on the internet I share with you, please enjoy!

Tí ewé gbígbẹ bá bọ́ lára igi, ó ńkọ́ ewé tútù lọ́gbọ́n ni. /
A dry leaf that falls off a tree serves as a lesson to the fresh ones. Yoruba Proverb! 

[Be perceptive; learn from the experiences of others]

All religions are valid as long as it teaches peace and love…Obara Meji!

It has become quite popular in recent years to distinguish between spirituality and religion

It’s true that there are valid distinctions between the two, but there are also a number of problematic distinctions which often and unnecessarily divide the two fields of thought.

One principal problem with attempts to separate religion from spirituality is that the former is saddled with everything negative while the latter is exalted with everything positive.


It is important to note the fact that many of the negative things which people attribute to religions are features of some forms of some religions (usually Judaism, Christianity, and Islam), but not of other religions (like Taoism or Buddhism).


Religion is spiritual and spirituality can also be considered religious. One tends to be more personal and private while the other tends to incorporate public rituals and organized doctrines.

The lines between one and the other may often not be clear or distinct depending on the interpretation.


Consider these definitions:

  • Religion is an institution established by man for various reasons. Exert control, instill morality, stroke egos, or whatever it does. Organized, structured religions all but remove god from the equation. You confess your sins to a clergy member, go to elaborate churches to worship, told what to pray and when to pray it. All those factors remove you from god.
  • Spirituality is born in a person and develops in the person. It may be kick started by a religion, or it may be kick started by a revelation. Spirituality extends to all facets of a person’s life. Spirituality is chosen while religion is often times forced. Being spiritual to me is more important and better than being religious.
  • True spirituality is something that is found deep within oneself. It is your way of loving, accepting and relating to the world and people around you. It cannot be found in a church or by believing in a certain way.

Consider the following in favor of the spiritual path:

  • There is not one religion, but hundreds
  • There is only one type of spirituality
  • Religion is for those who want to continue rituals and the formality
  • Spirituality is for those who want to reach the Spiritual Ascent without dogmas
  • Religion is for those who are asleep
  • Spirituality is for those who are awake
  • Religion is for those that require guidance from others
  • Spirituality is for those that lend ears to their inner voice
  • Religion has a dogmatic and unquestionable assembly of rules that need to be followed without question
  • Spirituality invites you to reason it all, to question it all and to decide your actions and assume the consequences
  • Religion threatens and terrifies
  • Spirituality gives you inner peace
  • Religion speaks of sin and of fault
  • Spirituality encourages “living in the present” and not to feel remorse for which has already passed – Lift your spirit and learn from errors
  • Religion represses humanity, and returns us to a false paradigm
  • Spirituality transcends it all and makes you true to yourself
  • Religion is instilled from childhood, like the soup you do not you want to take
  • Spirituality is the food that you you seek, that satisfies you and is pleasant to the senses
  • Religion is not God
  • Spirituality is infinite consciousness and all that is – It is God
  • Religion invents
  • Spirituality discovers
  • Religion does not investigate and does not question
  • Spirituality questions everything
  • Religion is based on humanity, an organization with rules
  • Spirituality is DIVINE, WITHOUT rules
  • Religion is cause for division
  • Spirituality is cause for union
  • Religion seeks you so that you create
  • Spirituality causes you to seek
  • Religion continues the teachings of a sacred book
  • Spirituality seeks the sacredness in all the books
  • Religion is fed fear
  • Spirituality is fed confidence
  • Religion lives you in your thoughts
  • Spirituality lives in your conscience
  • Religion is in charge of the “to do”
  • Spirituality is in charge of the “to BE”
  • Religion is a dialectic
  • Spirituality is logic
  • Religion feeds the ego
  • Spirituality makes you transcend
  • Religion makes you renounce yourself to the world
  • Spirituality makes you live with God, not to renounce him
  • Religion is adoration
  • Spirituality is meditation
  • Religion is to continue adapting to the psychology of a template
  • Spirituality is individuality.
  • Religion dreams of glory and paradise
  • Spirituality makes you live it here and now
  • Religion lives in the past and in the future
  • Spirituality lives in the present, in the here and now
  • Religion lives in the confinement of your memory
  • Spirituality is LIBERTY in AWARENESS.
  • Religion believes in the eternal life
  • Spirituality makes you conscious of all that is
  • Religion gives you promises for the after-life
  • Spirituality gives you the light to find God in your inner self, in this life, in the present, in the here and the now…

May peace, happiness and universal love continue growing in your heart.

You are All That Is.

 

Ẹni a fẹ́ la mọ̀, a ò mọ ẹni tó fẹ́’ni. /
You do know who you love; but you can’t be certain of who really loves you……Yoruba Proverb!

[Be perceptive; appearance is not all there is]

Everything comes when it must, and everything happens for a reason, do not hurry your life, what is destined for you, cannot escape you, just keep the faith, be patient and be prayerful, filled with compassion, kindness and respect for all, let these qualities be among your name, God will fill in the rest…..Obara Meji!

All religions are valid as long as it teaches peace and love….Obara Meji

There are no disappointments in life, only lessons learned!….Obara Meji

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Zoe
Blogger
Zoe
7 years ago

That reference you made got a laugh out of me, i’m seventh day Adventist and catholics are basically regarded as the anti-christ with the way the church views them. The thing that always bothered me about SDA, was when some of the youth would claim our religion is the absolute truth and insult older religions but ours is less than 200 years old..the truth has only been around for 200 years then? As to why all the Abraham religions never get along never made any sense and still doesn’t. We’re supposed to follow jewish laws yet we pick and choose… Read more »

Lover of light
7 years ago

Obara I am so grateful for this post. I finally understand myself and the reasons why I am the way I am. I remember as a child growing up my adopted parents were catholics so I was use to going to mass. All I could remember saying to myself back then as young as i was “them people yah wicked ‘ I was very quiet as a kid so most of the times adults don’t pay me any attention, so they would talk anything around me believing I was hearing them. I was very observant and my ears heard everything.… Read more »

Olufunlola
Blogger
Olufunlola
7 years ago

Thanks for fleshing out the different elements of religion and spirituality with a fine tooth comb. Your article shed clarity which has helped paint a better picture in my mind to help sum up the difference. I’m on a journey of discovery and awakening. Thanks Oluko Obara Meji

Cami
8 years ago

Both 00:39 and 00:42 posts addresses Zulu’s post.

Zulupickney
8 years ago

greetings to all and a special one to my teach Obara,, I learned that in this life each and every one of us has to find our own spiritual journey and I sure did, now to share my awakening story lol, my awakening came to me right in a one Sunday church service d pastor said something metaphysical and for some reason it resonate with me even though I knew nothing about metaphysics at the time, how as a unawakened person I new something was up the moment the pastor said that we knew and we said yes to come… Read more »

Cami
8 years ago
Reply to  Zulupickney

Ase

Cami
8 years ago
Reply to  Zulupickney

You know they can’t teach nothing but lies because that’s all they have to pass on. I love telling people to seek and find knowledge for themselves, but once church get a hold of the weak minds they will not seek out anything but that of the church sermons.

Zulupickney
8 years ago

firstly let me greet all of you with love and light and a humble heart, My Teach Obara I must confess that I have been using your proverbs but I never forget to put your name down below. I really should have asked you first but I give you your credt mums.. now I shall finish reading this post…

KB
Blogger
KB
8 years ago
Reply to  Zulupickney

Love and light Zulupickney good night

KB
Blogger
KB
8 years ago

Afternoon Obara all ES family so many definitions of spirituality and religion.
Spirituality gives you the light to find God in your inner self, in this life, in the present, in the here and the now…
I dont know why parents make the kids go church while they dont attend services lol my parent did the same

Yw
Blogger
Yw
8 years ago
Reply to  KB

Kia-B?? Mi ah guh come back jus’ fi si if dis is true…

KB
Blogger
KB
8 years ago
Reply to  Yw

Howdy YW nice to see yu. Come back you hear lol

Zulupickney
8 years ago
Reply to  KB

yes KB to go to wa boring catholic church every Sunday in a mi hot lol and my mother never ever come with me one Sunday is just the culture in Ja I guess…

Yw
Blogger
Yw
8 years ago

Greetings, Greetings Obara Meji and the ES crew. “…while Religion binds, Spirituality frees you…” that is exactly it. We are born as spiritual beings but become indoctrinated in how to “live” as we get older. To me, religion is different from spirituality in that religion is mixed with politics, while spirituality is not. Politics is a thing of this material plane and spirituality is a thing of the immaterial. In other words, religion is the flawed because it is an attempt to mix too incompatible systems.

Ebony
Blogger
8 years ago

Good day bloggers; what a coincidence you posted this today; my daughter and I had this same discussion yesterday :). God has no religion!! He needs none! Obara, one of the points in the article you posted says “Spirituality is logic” I agree with this 100%. So if I were to apply some logic in figuring out why God has no religion, I could say that since religion is a belief system based on faith, the God consciousnesses can’t be religious because he/she/it would already know that he/she/it exists and wouldn’t need to rely on faith 🙂

Cami
8 years ago

Religion is nothing but subjugation, for which the supreme being is use as a tool to enforce elite agendas.

NuNu
Blogger
NuNu
8 years ago

I love this one, ” True spirituality is something that is found deep . It is your way of loving, accepting and relating to the world and people around you. It cannot be found in a church or by believing in a certain way.”

Cami
8 years ago
Reply to  NuNu

I don’t thinks it’s really deep, but simply inner. For me spirituality is my inner being that isn’t influence by any outside factors no matter what.

Yw
Blogger
Yw
8 years ago
Reply to  Cami

Boom Bang!! Don’t mek things cloud yuh intuition. You are your own divinity and while it is good to listen, hear, discuss, observe, and learn it is important to trust your own inner voice(s) because that is what spirituality really is – at least to me….I hope….heehee.
Now when we can share without condemnation, then we can say that we are truly communicating…

Yw
Blogger
Yw
8 years ago
Reply to  NuNu

Nuns??? wait…is a dream dis….can’t be…suddenly “Creamy corner” run through my mind…..Big up Newns and hang on to the detention slips.

Cami
8 years ago
Reply to  Yw

lol, or Buckingham, dwln

Cami
8 years ago

O, I see where you wrote about awaking and being misunderstood. For me some people awakening comes with some level of eccentricity that is questionable.

NuNu
Blogger
NuNu
8 years ago
Reply to  Cami

Afternoon all, Caroline British and Cami yailings to you both

Cami
8 years ago
Reply to  NuNu

Hey NuNu ((muah)) yu have day off?

Yw
Blogger
Yw
8 years ago
Reply to  Cami

I think that it is the direction that they want to take it, Cams…

Cami
8 years ago
Reply to  Yw

True. But often times the direction can be a bit on the insane side.

Yw
Blogger
Yw
8 years ago
Reply to  Yw

I agree but insane because they focus on the external before the internal. When we get access to a thing before we have worked on our self, the result can be overwhelming and destructive. Again, (general question to all) if you had the power to _____ , what would you do with it?….

Cami
8 years ago

Happy Monday and new week to all.

Obara, love and light. I’m certain that you’ll be exhausted this week since you’re doing initiations. gwan do yu thing.

Yw
Blogger
Yw
8 years ago
Reply to  Cami

Rahtid, mi feel like mi ah play “I spy”. Switch it round and yuh get I am C. Long time….come mek mi hol’ yuh hand. heehee

Cami
8 years ago
Reply to  Yw

Yo Bro. I said I would come back to this post to hail you up. Well away from my moodiness I am good.

I GOT A JOB!!!!! HEYYYY ME!

It’s not the greatest but it’s a job, lol.

Here’s the joke…I was so happy to get the job that I reported to work when in fact I don’t start until next week Friday! lolollllllllllllll HR failed to send me a task sheet, and true to self I reported to work!

Yw
Blogger
Yw
8 years ago
Reply to  Yw

Absolutely fabulous!!!! I am happy that you are happy…truly. You already know it is just a stepping stone…the wheel is turning and movement is what is important…..What a ting: too early pon di work but VERY late to come (reference to me waiting for you to post from other discussion – tricky language….meanings and intent, heehee). Love and light to you, my sister.

Cami
8 years ago
Reply to  Yw

THANKS, Bro!. The wheel is turning. Ase

Notice I’m a night bird, but I’ll try to do early hours when you and others are around. Mood improving so It’s possible, lol. Again, thanks. Wishing you, Ty and the boys a great week. Ase

CarolineBritish
Blogger
CarolineBritish
8 years ago

Hi Obara Meji!

On the occasions I have shared a post from this site I have included a link to this blog or simply written “via Obara Meji” because people already know to associate this name with this site. I felt it important to clarify this. I can think of one post where I did not (the one about dimensions) and for that, I apologise. You are on my friends list so it’s not as if I didn’t think you would never see it (^_^). Thank you.

CarolineBritish

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