RELIGIOUS BELIEFS
Dr
Sukhraj S Dhillon, PhD
Cary, NC 27511, USA
The real aim of a religion is spirituality,
which is the final product!
When religion is used as a shield to protect our insecurities,
then it becomes a religious war!
People in the world fall
in 7 types of religious beliefs that can be grouped in 3 categories:
a. Dangerously religious which follow religion of:
1. Ignorance (fanatics)
2. Fear (don’ts)
3. Greed (dos)
b. Scientific or scholarly which follow religion of:
4. Intellect (scientific dissection)
c. Spiritually Religious, which follow religion of:
5. Ultimate truth (sat)
6. Consciousness (chit)
7. Bliss (anand)
Religious belief is a complex phenomenon.
To understand the complexity we will go over all 7 types individually, though
there may be overlap and no person is purely of one type or another.
1. The first type is ignorance oriented. Because people cannot tolerate their own ignorance, they hide it behind their ego. Their belief system functions to protect their ego. The very orientation is in ignorance. Religion is supposed to be light. Religion is understanding and awareness. Religion is authenticity. The major part of humanity remains in the first type of religion. It is simply to avoid the reality and to avoid the gap that one feels in one's own being and to avoid the black hole of ignorance.
The people of the first type of religion are fanatics. They cannot
tolerate the fact that other religions can exist in the world. They think that
their religion is the religion, because they are afraid of losing their faith
in that religion. If there is another
religion, they will become suspicious and doubt will arise. Then they will lose certainty of their own
religion. To gain certainty, they become very fanatic. They cannot read other's scriptures. They cannot listen to other aspects of
truth. They cannot be tolerant to other
revelations of God. Their revelation is
the only revelation and their prophet is the only prophet. Everything else is absolutely false. These people talk in terms of absolute. A man of understanding is always
relative. These people have done great
harm to religion. Because of these
people religious wars start. Remember
not to be a victim of this first type of religion. Almost 90% of humanity is touched by this
first type of religion which is in no way better than non-religion. It may be
even worse than non-religion, because a non-religious person is not a
fanatic. A non-religious person is more
open, ready to listen, ready to talk about things, ready to discuss, ready to
seek and inquire. But the first type of
religious person is not even ready to listen.
These dangerous people exist everywhere. They exist among Hindus,
Buddhists, Christians, Muslims, Sikhs and all religions of the world. Everybody must be aware and not get caught up
in this cycle. Only then one can rise to a higher type of religion.
The problem with this first type of
religion is that we are always almost brought up in it. We are conditioned in it and it becomes
almost normal. This conditioning can
become so deeply ingrained that we forget that it is a conditioning, and that
we must rise above it. A Palmist was
telling a man his future through palmistry.
He said you will be poor and miserable until you are 60. Then what, asked the man
hopefully. By that time, said
Palmist, you will be used to it. That is
the problem. One can become used to
certain conditioning and one can start thinking as if it is one's nature and it
is the truth. Therefore, one has to be
very alert and watchful to fend this lowest possibility in oneself and not to get
caught into it. Often, we work hard in
improving our life but we continue to practice this first type of
religion. The first type of religion
should not be called religion because it is religion in name only. If one continuously works on oneself with the
wrong attitude, the person's nature starts yielding and one starts functioning
the way he wants to function. This habit
can become second nature. Unfortunately,
sometimes it becomes first nature. A
nature is completely forgotten.
The characteristic of the first sort of
religion is imitation. It insists on
imitation. Imitate Buddha, imitate
Christ, imitate Mahavir, but imitate and imitate
somebody. Don't be yourself, be somebody
else. If you are very stubborn, you can
force yourself to be somebody else. You
will never be somebody else because deep down this is impossible. You will
remain yourself. You might force yourself so much that you almost start looking
like somebody else. Each man is born
with a unique individuality and each man has a destiny of his own. If we try to become a Buddha, we may become
an imitation Buddha. We may look like
Buddha, we may walk like Buddha, we may talk like Buddha, but we will
miss. We will miss all that life was ready
to deliver to us. Because it happens only once. In the
nature of things, God is so creative, that you cannot find another human being,
who will resemble exactly you (Of course, identical twins are exception). Man
is not a mechanism. It is not like similar cars coming from assembly line. Man
is a soul and is
individual. Don’t imitate anybody, otherwise, you will
be a victim of the first kind of religion which is not religion at all.
2. The second type of religion is fear
oriented. Man is afraid. The world is strange and man wants to be secure and
safe. In childhood, the father and mother protect, but there are millions of children who
never grow beyond their childhood. They remain stuck somewhere and they need
the parents. Hence, God is called Father or Mother. They need a divine father
to protect them. It has nothing to do with spirituality for them. They are not mature enough to be on their
own. They need some security.
They who fear when they ought not to
fear, and fear not when they ought to fear, such men, embracing false
doctrines, enter the evil path.
You may have watched small children
with their teddy bear, blanket or something that has a special significance to
the child. There is a love relationship between the child and his teddy
bear. His teddy bear is unique and irreplaceable. Even if it becomes dirty, the
child continues to carry it. Without
the teddy bear, he cannot go to sleep. Without this teddy bear, he feels
alone. Many children grow physically but they never grow spiritually and
they need the teddy bear throughout their whole life. Stone carved images of
God in the temple to many worshippers are nothing but teddy bears. It is objectively there but not totally
objective because a great deal of subjectivity of the worshipper is subjected
on to it. It functions as a screen. When a Hindu goes to the temple, he sees
something which a person of another religion or faith cannot see. The others can see only a stone statue. He will not feel any reverence arising in
him. However, the Hindu holds tremendous
respect. It is his teddy bear and he
feels very protected.
Whenever the individual is fearful, he
starts to remember God. God in this
situation becomes a byproduct of the fear.
When the person is feeling good, there is no need to bother thinking of
God.
As long as man is in a state of fear
he'll invent God.
--J. Krishnamurti
In conclusion, the second type of
religion is fear oriented. It is almost neurotic, because maturity comes only
when you are alone and one day all of us have to be alone. We have to face the reality as it is. If death is going to happen, it will happen.
The accidents, ill health,
hurricane, earth quakes-- happen at random.
These are not punishment from God.
Helping and sharing misfortunes with each other is the best way to cope up with
misfortunes.
This provides power to our soul.
The fear oriented religion is the religion of don't. Don't do this and don't do
that since fear is negative. This
suggests that religion is in things and avoiding things and closing oneself
will allow one to be safe and secure.
Never taking any risk, never moving in the dangerous path is in fact
preventing us from actual living. God
exists as insecurity, danger and risk.
"Take a chance! All life is a
chance.
The man who goes furthest is generally the one who is willing to do and
dare."
Take risks: If you win, you will be happy; if you lose, you will be wise.
The keyword for the fear oriented
religion is "Hell"
and repression. Don't do this. The
second type of people are always afraid of what to eat
and what not to eat. Whether to love a woman or not. Whether to build or not build a house. In fact, whatever we
repress, we are never free of it. The
more and more we are in its power. If we
repress something, it goes deeper into our subconscious. It reaches into our roots and poisons our
whole being. Deep inside, we will always
carry whatsoever is repressed. We may
follow the religion as a ritual, but it will never become a part of our
heart. Repression is not a way towards
freedom. Repression is worse than
expression. Because
through expression, a person is bound to become open one day or another. But through repression one always remains
obsessed. Only life gives us freedom. A
lived life gives us freedom and although an unlived life remains attractive,
the mind continues to roam around whatever has been repressed. People who live through rituals out of fear
may avoid one thing yet they fall into another because the understanding is not
their own. That’s how cults form. It is
fear oriented. It is the hell they are afraid of. A real religion gives us
fearlessness. If religion causes fear,
it is not really a religion.
“Cause no fear to others and accept
no awe from anyone.”
3. The third type of religion is out
of greed and desire oriented. It is a do
religion. Just as fear oriented is a
religion of don't, this is a do religion.
Just as the fear oriented religion has the keyword "
Hell", the do religion has the keyword "Heaven". Everything is to be done in such a way that
the other world is completely secure and our happiness beyond death is
guaranteed. Do religion or greed
religion is formal, ritualistic, ambitious, and desire oriented. It is full of desires. Although the degree of
denying one's self in this life varies in the Mohammedan, Christian and the
Hindu concept of Heaven, the concept remains intact. These religions promise
providing in Heaven. Mohammedan,
for example, says not to partake of any alcoholic drink but in Heaven rivers
of wine exist. This seems to make no sense.
If something is wrong, it is wrong.
How can something wrong become good and right in Heaven? The whole concept is foolish. People do
become religious out of greed. Whatever you accumulate here will be taken away,
so the greedy person wants to accumulate something which cannot be taken away
by death but the accumulating idea, the desire to accumulate is there.
The devotion is for itself; not to
desire heaven or to fear hell.
--Rabia
el-Adawia
Greed, fear, and ignorance are just
on the periphery. These three sorts of
religions are intermixed. You cannot find a person purely of the first type or the second
type or the third type because wherever there is greed, there is fear, and
wherever fear exists, there is greed and wherever greed and fear exist there is
ignorance since one cannot exist without the other. So we are not talking about pure types. We are classifying the types so that we can
gain a better understanding. These three
are the lowest type of religions and they should not be called religion. In new wave of spiritual revolution, those
who make distinction between religion and spirituality feel possessed by such a
religion which focuses primarily on the greed, fear and ignorance it creates.
4. The fourth type is religion of
intellect which consists of logic and calculation. It is a religion of
theologians and scientists. For
theologians, it is a do plus don't religion. It is worldly, materialistic, opportunistic,
intellectual, theoretical, scriptural, traditional. This is the religion of the Pundit, the
learned scholars. This type of religion creates theology. For many of us, it is not really a religion,
but just a very faint photo copy of it. However, all the churches and most
other religious places are based on this type of religion. It provides a good routine and rituals. For example, we go to Gurdwara (Sikh temple),
listen kirtan (hymns), eat
langar (free lunch) and come back without a care for spirituality. When Buddha, Muhammad, Krishna, or Christ
exists in the world, the Pundits, scholars, learned people start creating a
theology, a creed, a church. They are
very successful people. They are very
logical people. They may not give us
God, but they give us great organization.
They give us the Catholic church, the
Protestant church, Unitarian church and so on.
They give us great theologies, cleverness, head-oriented intellect but
this lacks the real spiritual experience.
In this age of science and technology, we cannot ignore scientific
impact on religion. Whether we admit it or not, science and
technology has become a modern day religion, and is perceived as enemy of religion. Today, the risk and damage to
religion is only when scientific logic breaks myths. Tom Harupur (1987) in his book "For Christ's Sake,"
(Beacon Press) states: "Secular humanism is fast becoming the
prevailing religion of the western world. For instance, it is no longer true to
describe either Canada or England as a Christian country, since the vast
majority of their respected populations have no traditional ties with any
religious body. The Church of England
alone has closed over nine hundred churches since 1974. Harpur holds
science and technology responsible for indifference towards the Christian
Faith.”
Not only the western world, but most younger
generation, in this modern era of science and technology, believes secular
humanism as a spiritual and healing force, and religion as a possessive and
destructive force- teaching sin and guilt; and imposing unnecessary rituals.
Science alone cannot provide spiritual experience. It strengthen
our faith by providing eyes, as Einstein said "religion without science is
blind." But as he further says "science without religion is
lame." We need religion for spiritual growth, the real purpose of any
religion.
5.
The fifth, sixth, and the seventh type are the religions where
spirituality is recognized.
The fifth type of religion is based
on intelligence and not on logic. It is based not on intellect but on
intelligence and there is a difference between intellect and intelligence. Intellect is logical. Intelligence is paradoxical. Intellect is analytical and intelligence is synthetical.
Intellect divides and cuts into pieces to understand a thing. Science is based on intellect, division,
analysis. Intelligence joins together,
makes a whole out of parts because the greatest understanding is that the part
exists through the whole not vice versa. The whole is not just a sum of the
parts. It is more than the sum. For example, you have a rose flower. You can go to a scientist. You can ask him that you want to understand a
rose flower. What will he do? Dissect it.
He will separate all the elements that are making it a flower. What you will find is that the flower is
gone. Instead of the flower, there will
be few labeled bottles. The elements
have been separated but one thing is certain. There will not be any bottle
labeled beauty because beauty is not matter and beauty does not belong to
parts. Once you dissect a flower, the
wholeness of the flower is gone. The
beauty is also gone. Beauty belongs to
the whole. It is grace that comes to the
whole. It is more than the sum of the
parts. The moment you dissect a man, the life disappears leaving only a dead
body or a corpse. You will find all the
elements and water content, lungs, heart, kidneys, etc. but life is
missing. The one thing that was most
valuable is not there. The one thing we wanted to really understand is no
longer present.
Where
is that fragileness? Where is that
aliveness, that throb of life? When it
was in the rose flower, it was totally in a different arrangement and life was
present. It was full of presence. Life
was there beating in its heart. Taken
out, the part is there, but we cannot say the part is the same. It cannot be because the part exists in the
whole. Intellect dissects and analyzes
and is the instrument of science.
Intelligence is the instrument of religion. It joins together, hence the
science of spirituality we can call Yoga.
Yoga means the methodology to join.
Yoga means to put things
together. God is the greatest totality
meaning all things together and in great harmony. God is universal totality. God is a presence. This presence exists when the total is
functioning in harmony. The trees and
the birds and the earth and the stars and the moon and the river and the
mountains and sand and the ocean all combine together. This togetherness is
God, the ultimate truth (sat). If we dissect, we will never find
God. If we dissect a man, we cannot find
the presence that was making him alive. If we dissect the world, we cannot find
presence that is God. Intelligence is
the method to join things together.
Intelligence is very synthetical. Intelligence always looks for a higher whole,
because the meaning is always in the higher whole. Intelligence always looks for something
higher in which the lower is dissolved and functions as a part, functions as a
note in the harmony of the whole and the function gives its own contribution to
the orchestra of the whole but is not separate from it. Intelligence moves upwards
, intellect moves downwards.
Intellect goes to the cause. Please follow it because this point is delicate(-more philosophical than cut and dry
explanation). Intellect goes to the
cause whereas intelligence goes to the goal.
Intellect reduces everything to the lowest denominator. Intellect reduces everything to the
lowest. Ask intellect, what is lotus and
it will explain it is just an illusion and the reality is the earth, the mud.
Because lotus comes out of mud and again falls back into the mud. From intellects point, the mud is real and
lotus is an illusion. Mud remains, lotus
comes and goes. Ask intelligence what is mud and intelligence will say it is
the potentiality of being a lotus. The
mud is used and millions of lotuses flower.
Intelligence goes to the higher and higher and the whole effort is to
reach the ultimate, the pinnacle of existence.
The world
is nothing but mind-
All things are only of one mind-A Universal Mind.
God is the communion of all, the
greatest family of all. We should disappear
in the whole. We should be so absorbed in the whole, that
we remain individual but we become a part of the greater unity. Like individual waves become part of the
great ocean. Meaning arises immediately
whenever we become a part of the greater unity.
When a poet writes a poem, meaning arises. Because the poet is not alone, he has created
something. When a dancer dances, meaning
arises. When a mother gives birth to a
child, meaning arises. Left alone, cut
from everything else, isolated like an island, we are meaningless. Join together, we are meaningful. The bigger the whole, the bigger is the
meaning. That is why God is the largest,
conceivable whole and without God we cannot attain to the highest meaning.
God is not a person. God is not sitting somewhere. Those ideas are just without sense. God is the total presence of existence, the
very ground of being. God exists wherever
there is union. Wherever there is a Yoga, God comes into existence. We are walking alone, God is fast asleep.
Then suddenly we see someone and we smile, God is awakened. The other has come in. Our smile is not isolated. It is a bridge. We have thrown a bridge towards the other,
the other has also smiled, there has been a
response. Between both arises a connection that we can
call God, a little throb. When we come
to the tree, sit by the side of the tree, completely oblivious to the existence
of the tree, God is fast asleep. Suddenly
we look at the tree and there is a surge of feeling for the tree, then God has
arisen. We are driving on the highway,
God is asleep. We are attracted to the
beauty of mountains and rivers surrounding the highway, God
is awake. Wherever there is love,
GOD IS. Wherever there is response, GOD
IS. God is the space which exists
wherever union exists. That is why we
say, love is the purest possibility of God because it is the subtlest union of
energy. If we forget God, love will do. Never forget love, because God alone will not
do. Intelligence is discrimination and
understanding. Truth, "Sat"
is the key word. The man who moves
through intelligence moves towards "Sat" or the truth.
So Faith, Hope and Love abide; but
the greatest of these is Love.
--1
Corinthians 13
6. Next to intelligence is the sixth
type of religion. we
can call it the religion of meditation.
Meditation is awareness and spontaneity.
It is radical, revolutionary, and individual. The key word is "Chit" or
consciousness. Intelligence is still the
highest form of intellect. Intelligence
is the purest form of intellect. The
ladder is the same where intellect is going downwards on this ladder and
intelligence is going upwards. The
ladder is the same. In meditation, the
ladder is thrown. Now neither upwards
nor downwards movement exists on this ladder. A drowning into
oneself, a sinking in. Intellect
is other oriented, intelligence is also other oriented. Intellect cuts the other, intelligence joins
the other. Both are other oriented. In this sixth type of religion, that of
meditation or "Chit", one simply moves into oneself. All directions are dropped. All dimensions are dropped. One simply tries to be oneself. One simply tries just to be. That is where the "Zen" exists in
the sixth type of religion. The very
word "Zen" means "Dhayana"
or meditation.
7. Then comes
the seventh and the highest type of religion.
The religion of ecstasy or "Samadhi"
or “Gyan”. Just as the fifth type has the keyword "Sat"
or truth and the sixth type has the keyword "Chit" or
consciousness, the seventh type, the highest has "Anand"
or Bliss and Ecstasy. The keyword is "Sach
da Nand" or truth, consciousness, and
ecstasy. A person can be meditative and
can become very silent and miss bliss because meditation can make you silent
and absolutely still. However, unless dance happens in it, something is
missing. Peace is good and peace is very
beautiful. There is something lacking in it and that something is bliss. When
peace starts dancing, it is bliss. When peace becomes active and overflowing,
it is bliss. When bliss is enclosed in a
seed, it is peace. Not only when the seed has sprouted, but the tree has
bloomed and flowered then it is Samadhi.
It is also called awakening of soul by opening up a special given extra
sense. Remember this special sense can
open only if the conscious mind is quieted down completely. This is achievable through daily practice. In the presence of conscious busy mind, the
extra sense to receive bliss is fast asleep.
Highest type of religion of peace has to dance, and silence has to sing
and unless your innermost realization becomes a laughter,
something is still lacking. Something
must still be done.
These
seven types of religious beliefs show us how religions and concept of God can
either be misrepresented or it can be used to reach the higher level of
consciousness to add extra dimension to every day
life.
In science and technology, we describe
everything by a measurement, weight or number.
We cannot define the concept of God or spirituality by these
parameters. Science, technology, and
reasoning have given us technical knowledge and success, and are the spice of
the modern world. But these cannot
provide “meaningful wholesome life,” which is essential for peaceful, healthy
living. We don't know how to achieve a
tranquil or peaceful state of mind. So
we turn to modern-day drugs, psychologists, and psychiatrists to get our mind
under control. Many people would still
like to use religion and God to live a meaningful life. But they cannot picture a heavenly body in
the sky helping us achieve tranquility. So they become confused.
Although we have explored the space, we
have analyzed moon rocks, we have launched space ships to the planets and
deeper space, we have found no heavenly body that controls the actions on this
earth or controls our
mind. It is
the heavenly state
of our mind on this earth, where ideas and spirit exist, controls our
actions and is God. So in modern world of
science and technology, we may not picture God as a heavenly body but we have
to be in a heavenly or Godly state of mind with awakened spirit for peaceful
mental health. The various religions may
differ in describing the image of God but the concept and message is always the
same. When our state of mind is lovable,
clean, honest, intelligent, without fear, without enmity, without anger,
without attachment, without ego, and without greed-- we will feel unbelievable comfort and
happiness-- a form of bliss or anand. With time we will be so addicted to this
state that whenever we move away we will feel pain and sorrow.
No matter what religion or image of God we believe in-- the prayer has to get through our mind which is the ultimate source of spiritual power. When any religious fanatic attempts to hijack our religion, we must strive towards a careful, reasoned, democratic, humanistic and secular future.
Courtesy: This article is taken from a recent
book manuscript: "SCIENCE, RELIGION & SPIRITUALITY" by Dr. S.S.
Dhillon"
Other Suggested Readings:
"A TREASURE OF GREAT SPIRITUAL STORIES"
"FAITH AND REASON: In Search of God"
Please send your Suggestions and Information to be
added to the site
dr. s. dhillon <drdln@dpcpress.com>
