Holmes Every Path Leads Homes

Opening to Your Spiritual Journey
1. Auflage 2014
ISBN: 978-0-9898681-1-2
Verlag: Religious Recovery Press
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 119 Seiten

'Every Path Leads Home: Opening to Your Spiritual Journey' is a book about discovering the unity of faiths and the similarities in religions. It's a book about what it means to be spiritual versus religious, and what it means to explore a variety of religious beliefs and then to open to the spiritual journey that works best for each individual. 'Every Path Leads Home' helps us heal from the hurts, disappointments, and abuses we may have received by religious institutions or religious individuals, and it also introduces a 13-step program called Religious Recovery that provides healing in a non-professional self-help environment. 'Every Path' honors all paths to The Divine, and allows us to open ourselves to our own spiritual journey, with or without the aid of religion. For everyone who views themselves as spiritual, but not religious, this book honors your journey.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Holmes, Wayne

Leseproben

Chapter 1 Religious Differences “Like the bee, gathering honey from different flowers, the wise man accepts the essence of different scriptures and sees only the good in all religions.” –Srimad Bhagavatam spiritual text of Hinduism Toxic Religion “There’s only one way to God—and it’s my way!” Every time I hear that claim—in one form or another—the muscles in my stomach tighten, my jaw clenches, and I go on the defensive. Who do the people making this claim think they are? I was attending the funeral of a close friend when one of her relatives approached me. After introducing ourselves I said, “I’m sorry for your loss. She said thanks, and then asked if I followed the news. Hesitantly I said, “Not too much.” Embarrassed by the admission, I feebly added that my wife did, and she kept me informed. “Would you like to know what’s going on?” she asked. The reaction I described above happened again: stomach muscles tightened, jaw clenched, and I prepared for an attack. Something out of the ordinary was going on. Her serious expression boded evil, doom, and gloom. Not knowing what to say next, I asked her to explain. “I’ll show you,” she said. She walked to her car, retrieved some papers, and handed them to me. “Read this,” she said. I didn’t want them. I had come to mourn my friend, and I didn’t want whatever propaganda she was proffering. But, thinking my refusal would seem unkind, I took the material. As she released the papers she added, “This will explain everything.” “Thanks,” I said. She nodded and walked away. What is this? I thought to myself. Did this woman come to grieve the death of a relative or to hand out tracts? Later I took time to glance through her information, and it was worse than I expected. The flyer condemned our country for having lost its Christian heritage and the United Nations as ungodly. It condemned other religious belief systems and predicted the end of the world because the rest of the world didn’t believe in her professed form of religion. Of all days to be approached by a religious enthusiast, a day of mourning is one of the worst. Having the papers near me made me nervous and uncomfortable. The scent of evil associated itself with the documents, and I wanted nothing to do with the condemnations they preached. Frankly, I was angry. In its purest form religion yields happiness, purpose, love, and serenity. How many religious people do you know who demonstrate those qualities? Speaking about one form of religion, Christianity, I heard someone once say, “The problem with Christians is that I’ve never met one,” which sounds similar to what Gandhi once said: “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” In its toxic form religion produces followers who are judgmental, angry, hateful, fanatical, and miserable. They make the people around them uncomfortable with their smug attitude that says, “I know the answers, and if you’ll listen and believe as I believe, you can have them too.” I’ve met my share of toxic Christian believers. But Christians don’t have a monopoly on toxic religion. Muslims have followers who believe their faith is the only way home—to Allah. Some insist that Buddha and the path to enlightenment is the only road home—to Nirvana. I’ve been there. I’ve been that kind of believer. I once believed that my form of religious Christian faith was the only right path, the only road home to heaven. That only those who believed in Jesus and followed the “Romans Road to Salvation” 1 or “The Four Spiritual Laws” 2 would be swept away into a heaven paved with streets of gold. I taught, preached, and tried to convert people to my way of thinking. Truth is, it wasn’t my way of thinking, but only the doctrine handed down to me by other well-meaning people. Based on my Christian beliefs, religious zeal was logical and mandatory. The logic went like this: God is love. We are to love everyone. God sent his son to die for our sins. Jesus did that on the cross. We must accept Jesus as our savior. If we refuse, then we lose eternal life with God, and are condemned to an eternity in hell. If we buy into that belief system, then love demands we do our utmost to save the world by converting everyone outside our little group of co-religionists to our own set of religious beliefs and doctrines. I bought into that, and spent a short time going door-to-door trying to spread salvation. One of my not-the-best-witness experiences came when I knocked on the screen door of an older gentleman. As I peered into the house through the screen door, a man—who looked as if he didn’t want to be bothered—descended from the second floor as I gathered my courage. “Can I help you?” he asked from the other side of the screen door. I was on a mission—a mission to save his soul. “If you were to die tonight, do you know where you’d spend eternity?” I’m not much of a mind reader, but even a novice could see he didn’t want to be bothered. He frowned, turned without comment, and proceeded back up the stairs. Angry that I could be dismissed without so much as a word, I yelled through the screen door, “You can know for certain where you’ll spend eternity if you acknowledge you’re a sinner, confess your sins, ask Jesus to forgive you, and invite him into your heart!” There, I got all four points in, even though he didn’t hear anything past the first two, I thought. But, I was angry. Furious, in fact. Why? I wondered. It shouldn’t be like this. I was only trying to help him. Young and stupid, I didn’t understand that his rejection had hit me personally, as if he were not only rejecting my words, but everything I believed in and stood for. I had come to rescue him—well, not me personally, but Jesus. I was upset. When he refused my offer of eternal life in the name of my religion, I became the persecutor and eventually I took on the victim role. I’ve come to understand a different way. The Buddha said, “When the student is ready, the teacher [or master] will appear.” The man wasn’t ready to hear my words. Or maybe he had heard the same rhetoric before and had made a decision. Who was I to force my religion upon him or anyone? Who says that Christianity is the right religion—or the only road home? We’ve come a long way from the example of the followers of Jesus who told the disciples to go into the world and make disciples—not Christians, but disciples. Strong-arm, guilt-ridden tactics were never commanded, hinted at, or implied. Jesus had a spirituality that was contagious. He never had to advertise to draw a crowd. No Facebook page, no social networking. The same was true with the early followers. They caught the essence of spirituality and it intimidated the religious rulers, threatening their beliefs, social status, and perhaps most importantly, their income. The early followers didn’t canvas neighborhoods door-to-door promoting their new “religion.” They lived in peace and harmony, endeavoring to reproduce in their lives what they learned from their teacher. They followed the essence of what the Buddha taught: when the student is ready, the connection between student and teacher will happen. There was so much religious and political fear and hatred of the new thought system that safety became a priority. To openly profess their beliefs often landed Jesus’ followers in jail. For some it cost them their lives. Spirituality has at times offended the established norms. The religious rulers during the time of Jesus railed against him and plotted his demise. Martin Luther King, Jr. preached a gospel of love and acceptance—and his appeal was met with hatred, bigotry, violence, and his assassination. Dr. King was a Southern Baptist minister and his message of unconditional love and acceptance of all races, creeds, and colors was a spiritual theme for all people and for all religious traditions. Often those who practice nonviolent forms of protest are subjected to violent forms of treatment, even by religious groups who profess love, forgiveness, and tolerance. Right vs. Wrong: In my attempts to gain converts, the basic problem was right vs. wrong. I was right, and those who did not believe as I did were wrong. There was no room in my religious world for gray areas. My door-to-door attempts to evangelize the world failed miserably. Taking a cue from one of those obnoxious evangelical tracts you sometimes find left in the buildings of highway rest areas and in public restrooms, I began by asking the question, “If you died today, do you know where you would spend eternity?” Talk about a rude way to be greeted on a Saturday morning! It doesn’t get much more offensive than that. Today, I look back over my youthful naiveté with mild amusement. Perhaps, I sound critical of my fundamentalist religious background. However, over the years I’ve come to accept and appreciate many aspects of the things I learned. The fundamentalists differ little from other religions in that they mean well but often allow man-made...