The Suppression of Spirituality

What is spirituality? Going within yourself and finding yourself in my opinion, the spirit lies within so the only way to truly be spiritual is by going within yourself and trying to understand your own nature which in itself is to seek the nature of God. God's spirit is within every one of us and is working through us, it is the passive force that allows your body to have life and for you to have thoughts and experiences.

Let's go ahead and wash any notion away that I'm speaking of any religious god that is an anthropomorphization, that is not the God that I'm speaking of. The God I'm speaking of is what you are experiencing at this very moment, life itself.

God is light, you see light and it is what lets you know you have life within you. Religion and other things have hijacked the concept of God and spirituality and have turned it into a character that sits high on a cloud and who judges people, this is not the true God, those gods are impostor gods that are created by those in power in order to keep people from seeking true spirituality. Religion gives you an answer instead of letting you seek it out for yourself, it has hijacked spirituality and turned it into rituals and blood offerings, very carnal (non-spiritual) activities.

The true church is the world around you, it is what you learn from. Mother Earth is our teacher but we as a species do not hear her for the most part. We have been deafened to her teachings, we destroy her for profit and do not care about the consequences of our actions. The church down the street with its steeple is a false church that teaches you to look outward for salvation and God, not inwards. In fact, seeking inwards for God is probably the most heretical thing you could do, this is because they do not want people looking within and finding their true essence.

Once one finds their true essence and being they realize that we are all the same and that hurting another is only to hurt oneself as well. Instead of teaching people the truth, that God is within everything including us, they teach that God is somewhere 'out there' and that you are unworthy of his salvation in some cases. God is not 'out there', God is 'in here', within the experience you are living right now. You are God's image and in God's image we are created. The world around you, a.k.a. the 'church', is within the image you see and it is full of light, God's light.

Spirituality is treating everyone equally and being kind and humble, those qualities are very uncommon in today's world, just look at the news and the people arguing back and forth everywhere about politics or cops or bathrooms or whatever. Today's world is more divided than ever and that is because spirituality has been suppressed and we have been made addicted to the world and its many pleasures. Spirituality is not in being materialistic, in fact it is quite the opposite, and much of today's world is materialistic and self-centered. Look at the chaos of Black Friday and the super-materialistic Christmas.

We have been taught to value things like money, cars, clothes, TV's, computers, phones, etc. instead of valuing what truly matters, the part of us that goes on after our bodies and all those material things rot away. Spirituality is not a ritual or holiday, spirituality is a way of life that is humble, caring, passionate, devoted, loving, helpful, etc., not in religious idols and Sunday school.

Spirituality has been hijacked by religious institutions and suppressed by modern society in my opinion and our corrupt world is proof of that. Thanks for reading.

Praise Bob!

a reply to: LumenImagoDei

SnF And so where do you put Jesus Christ in all of this? I ask
because he is a huge factor in all that you speak of here.

a reply to: LumenImagoDei

Religion and other things have hijacked the concept of God and spirituality and have turned it into a character that sits high on a cloud and who judges people, this is not the true God, those gods are impostor gods that are created by those in power in order to keep people from seeking true spirituality.

Those that stand at the very door to salvation and turn seekers away.

Just believe you are saved, they say.

a reply to: randyvs

What Jesus represents and what he taught while alive I value greatly. Though I do not believe Jesus was anymore God than the rest of us, I do believe he is one of the best examples of how we should lead our lives and we should listen to what he had to say while here.

a reply to: LumenImagoDei

I myself just know this one truth. That even if I had the want/desire
or perceived good personal reasons to reject him. I one hundred
percent couldn't do it. Not with out lying to myself exponentially.
If for no other reason than his name. Two thousand + years after his
death. And not one person alive right now can deny, his name is the
most powerful name in the universe.

a reply to: LumenImagoDei

This reads very much like some of Gerald Brosseau Gardners words. Though, he'd not say God, he would feminize it or make it plural.

a reply to: LumenImagoDei

Your words in the op sound like something Jesus would say, look within and you shall find

Very well written - SnF

a reply to: LumenImagoDei

Well said. I agree with everything you wrote.

a reply to: randyvs

SnF And so where do you put Jesus Christ in all of this?

Your comprehensions skills are obviously lacking - as you missed this

turned it into rituals and blood offerings, very carnal (non-spiritual) activities.

or you're attempting a deliberate derailment. There are other religious threads you can play in...go away

S & F Op thanks

a reply to: randyvs

Two thousand + years after his death. And not one person alive right now can deny, his name is the most powerful name in the universe.

I can deny him because like you said he is dead!

a reply to: randyvs

You know I deny that. Proof or it did not happen

a reply to: TheConstruKctionofLight

...go away

And miss your next tremendous contribution to a thread on ATS?

People.... please don't derail this thread

This comes directly from your local Village Idiot.... another well know name in the Universe!

I think humanity needed to go through certain karma, or rather different individuals who may have incarnated from animals or lower level human and needed to go through religious dogmas. Learning time from religious and even economic suppression is over and humans are becoming more spiritual, no matter what, and even free economically, as just one example here, ______beforeitsnews/economics-and-politics/2016/10/how-do-we-know-for-sure-capitalism-will-be-finished-2488493.html

There has been though spiritual human beings also before, but always minority, now spiritual development commonly is exaggerating. Religions will die eventually. First Islam (although it might first increase its control on western countries for some years or even decades), then other religions will follow.

a reply to: LumenImagoDei

“Spirituality” is a tricky word…

The Spiritually Awakened claim to be "Spiritual"…Religious folk also believe they are "Spiritual" or lead spiritual lives…and even Atheists use the term Spiritual to describe how in their lives they feel a connection to others and nature etc….And I guess in one sense it’s all the same thing, but just coming from differing degrees of knowledge and experience…

The funny thing is, is that the real spiritual truth is encoded into the different scriptures from different faiths. It’s only difficult to see because it’s shrouded in literalism, Doctrines and Dogma; The same truth is also hidden in Songs, Poetry, Movies, Shakespeare's writings, Masonic drawings and artwork etc…

It’s literally all around us everywhere…just waiting to become known…One example being the story of the Prodigal son, where the Son seeks truth because of the trials and tribulations in his life and then comes back to his Fathers house. The whole story being symbolic of him returning the truth of the Father within himself, which is where salvation is to be found. There are many more examples of this hidden coded truth out there.

On the one hand the truth is secretly out there in encoded form, but because of Religion it has become clouded, distorted and suppressed but only to those not seeking it out. Problem is, too many are just accepting truth instead of seeking and knowing truth…It’s in this way that God is playing an elaborate game of hide and seek with itself as described by Alan Watts…

The strange aspect to all this, is that it’s the negative aspects of Religion which is the “School master” which teaches and helps one find the truth but only if one is truly seeking and not just accepting the Dogma etc… It’s a similar parallel to the duality learned in the Garden of Eden parable. The darkness helps you too see the light, and in that respect the darkness was good for you…it’s only the staying in darkness which is what is evil or bad etc…

So in one respect Religion is keeping people suppressed but at the same time it’s acting as a guide to truth, as it has universal spiritual truth encoded into it…

I often think what the world would be like if we removed all religions, and people were taught the real spiritual truth from day one, i.e. from the time they are very young etc…But then I realised that the real spiritual can’t be taught, it can only be experienced and then become known through ones own inner journey and seeking.

One can be guided into it, if one is lucky enough to find the right guide…but even then the seeker may not listen to the guide, and even if they do they might not get it, or continue to seek out truth etc…The guide can open the door, but only the seeker can walk through it…

What is needed is a permanently available guide that helps one find and seek truth, depending on how far a person is willing to go to seek it etc…something written and permanent…This is essentially what we have right now with the many religions we have today …Although I will admit that this is not ideal, as many religions have indeed become corrupted…

Nice OP, very well written…S+F…


- JC

a reply to: Joecroft

Yes, the truth is encoded within many popular stories and myths. Once you seek and find God you can then relate those spiritual stories and myths to aspects of yourself and the world around you.

Thanks.