It is something that fascinates me. I spend hours researching it, reading about it, and trying to find more information in order to verify what I have been told. And yet it still eludes me at times, until I find it once again, and my heart is finally settled. What is it?
The Truth. The truth to it all.
I watch on the news how we as humans are tearing each other apart over Religion. How we suicide bomb one another, fly planes into buildings. How evangelists go to poor countries to seduce the needy with goods, so long as they give their loyalty to their particular faith. I see flat out wars fought, and lives ruined simply due to the fact that Person A is not of the religion as Person B.
There have been several great humans who, throughout time, have taught a very vital secret, something that I feel we humans have forgotten in our rabid lusts over religious power. It is a message that came from Buddha, the "enlightened one" who began a campaign to simplify the vast twists and turn s of his native Hinduism. It came from Confucius, who gave a simple list of virtues and codes to live by. And it even came from Jesus of Nazareth, a kind carpenter from Bethlehem, who gave the Jews, and even the occupying Romans, lessons in this most vital of truths.
That Love is the key. That Love, pure, selfless Love, is the key to Heaven.
In the teachings of both Buddha and Jesus, we see a complex system of man-made religion. The Buddha's Hinduism stressed doing good to build up Karma, and that unless they did so, they would endure endless lives on Earth. Jesus ran into hypocrites, who performed good deeds only to make themselves look good in the public eye.
Yet both of these prime examples, though there are many more, taught that such rules are needless and simply waste our time. They taught that it was through Love, and not the religious beliefs and working thereof, that we are able to build Heaven.
Sadly, some followers, or should I say, many, have taken many of their simple teachings out of context. Jesus gave a simple message to "Love your neighbor as you love yourself", and Paul twisted it into a "believe in Jesus" only, if you want to get to Heaven, completely undermining his so-called savior's teachings. It is a mad power grab, one that anyone who tries to fanatically hold to is participating in.
Fundamentalism, especially religious, is a breeding ground for Hate. It is a virtual excuse to hate. And therefore, we know that any religion that tries to claim itself as the only true religion proves by that statement that it cannot be so.
Because the Creator is Love, pure unselfish love. There is none of this "judgement" that fundamentalists so fanatically scream for. TO Judge would defy love, for Love has no room for such a thing.
The belief that there is a divine judgement comes from, after observation, due to the human elements that we force onto the Divine. We as humans feel that there needs to be some sort of Divine punishment by an outside force for those we believe need it. It is because we as humans are placing "human" things upon something that is far beyond "human".
Love is the very incarnation of our Creator/s, and we ourselves have this love. It is tempered with our darker side, but the challenge is fighting out the darkness within us and find that divine spark within us, the one we bring out everytime we perform a deed of selflessness. If we are doing good for the desire of looking good and reaching Heaven, then why would we deserve it? But the one who does god because it is the right thing to do is bringing out that shred of the Divine within, and forges Heaven more and more with each selfless act he/she does.
Which is ironic in a way, because it means that a loving atheist will be at peace long before a hateful believer. Because Jesus stated that one must also love their creator with all their heart. Yet when one claims that Atheists do not love due to their non-belief, I find it ironic. Because when one gives Love to another human, or even animal, one is giving love to the Creator itself, because the Creator and it's creations cannot be separate. The Divine lives within Life itself, and Love is it's incarnation.
And so it is Love that heals. It is Love that "saves". It is Love that enables us to grow to Heaven. "God is Love", as the saying goes, and he that lives in Love, lives in God, and God in him. It is the Love within us that counts, not race, creed, religion, or dogma.
Love...is the key.
The Truth. The truth to it all.
I watch on the news how we as humans are tearing each other apart over Religion. How we suicide bomb one another, fly planes into buildings. How evangelists go to poor countries to seduce the needy with goods, so long as they give their loyalty to their particular faith. I see flat out wars fought, and lives ruined simply due to the fact that Person A is not of the religion as Person B.
There have been several great humans who, throughout time, have taught a very vital secret, something that I feel we humans have forgotten in our rabid lusts over religious power. It is a message that came from Buddha, the "enlightened one" who began a campaign to simplify the vast twists and turn s of his native Hinduism. It came from Confucius, who gave a simple list of virtues and codes to live by. And it even came from Jesus of Nazareth, a kind carpenter from Bethlehem, who gave the Jews, and even the occupying Romans, lessons in this most vital of truths.
That Love is the key. That Love, pure, selfless Love, is the key to Heaven.
In the teachings of both Buddha and Jesus, we see a complex system of man-made religion. The Buddha's Hinduism stressed doing good to build up Karma, and that unless they did so, they would endure endless lives on Earth. Jesus ran into hypocrites, who performed good deeds only to make themselves look good in the public eye.
Yet both of these prime examples, though there are many more, taught that such rules are needless and simply waste our time. They taught that it was through Love, and not the religious beliefs and working thereof, that we are able to build Heaven.
Sadly, some followers, or should I say, many, have taken many of their simple teachings out of context. Jesus gave a simple message to "Love your neighbor as you love yourself", and Paul twisted it into a "believe in Jesus" only, if you want to get to Heaven, completely undermining his so-called savior's teachings. It is a mad power grab, one that anyone who tries to fanatically hold to is participating in.
Fundamentalism, especially religious, is a breeding ground for Hate. It is a virtual excuse to hate. And therefore, we know that any religion that tries to claim itself as the only true religion proves by that statement that it cannot be so.
Because the Creator is Love, pure unselfish love. There is none of this "judgement" that fundamentalists so fanatically scream for. TO Judge would defy love, for Love has no room for such a thing.
The belief that there is a divine judgement comes from, after observation, due to the human elements that we force onto the Divine. We as humans feel that there needs to be some sort of Divine punishment by an outside force for those we believe need it. It is because we as humans are placing "human" things upon something that is far beyond "human".
Love is the very incarnation of our Creator/s, and we ourselves have this love. It is tempered with our darker side, but the challenge is fighting out the darkness within us and find that divine spark within us, the one we bring out everytime we perform a deed of selflessness. If we are doing good for the desire of looking good and reaching Heaven, then why would we deserve it? But the one who does god because it is the right thing to do is bringing out that shred of the Divine within, and forges Heaven more and more with each selfless act he/she does.
Which is ironic in a way, because it means that a loving atheist will be at peace long before a hateful believer. Because Jesus stated that one must also love their creator with all their heart. Yet when one claims that Atheists do not love due to their non-belief, I find it ironic. Because when one gives Love to another human, or even animal, one is giving love to the Creator itself, because the Creator and it's creations cannot be separate. The Divine lives within Life itself, and Love is it's incarnation.
And so it is Love that heals. It is Love that "saves". It is Love that enables us to grow to Heaven. "God is Love", as the saying goes, and he that lives in Love, lives in God, and God in him. It is the Love within us that counts, not race, creed, religion, or dogma.
Love...is the key.
