Real Magic Studies

 BELIEF AND RELIGION  

         I think the subject of beliefs is really pertinent in the world right now and clear understanding of what beliefs are and what they create will help us live by our truth.             
         This is a transcription of a workshop I did many years ago. I intended it as a workshop on Unconditional Love and it segued into a study of belief systems and how destructive they can be. I am offering this segment because it is such a clear laying out of how belief and the interpretive mind works. 

“Just think of all the religions that have come into being through the Law of Definition. Defining paths to God, defining healing systems, defining rituals, defining the right way to believe, defining the wrong way to believe…defining the “dangerous others”.  Each one of these definitions was incorporated into a cultural frame of reference and became a belief system and we now have a world of beliefs at war with other beliefs.  These belief systems are ancient and they are thought forms that haunt our daily reality, right now. A belief system is a very coherent structure, a structure that defines reality and we as a species believe that our beliefs are vitally important realities and that we have to fight to preserve these realities.
          Assume that each religion, as it was defined and came into being, was right for that time, came into being as the next step in evolution, came into revelation in order to kindle a new story and keep the human species moving and evolving toward freedom.  All of these systems became frozen into definitions of reality, certainties protected by the function of the ego—each person’s reality, each families reality, each tribal reality…each church, each country…all these realities have to be firmly fixed in the human psyche and kept from changing and this is what the ego does, this is the purpose of ego. Therefore, as a species, we are fixated on a lot of beliefs that are not even relevant to our species survival anymore, beliefs that have become obsolete and destructive. For example, a militant and judgmental Middle Eastern tribal god evolved to become the Christian One God. This belief has deeply influenced the history of the Western world and created three orthodox religions, Hebrew, Christian, and Islamic.
          Listen as I quote from the Old Testament Bible “The Lord thy God is One God!  The Lord thy God is a jealous God! I will have no other Gods before me…” This definition of God and belief in a One and Only righteous, jealous and angry God, led to the first historically recorded acts of genocide in the name of the Lord.  Scripture translated as God-given permission to kill the unbelievers and convert their land and their gold and enslave those left alive…and to do this in the name of the Lord, in the name of Love; in the name of the Chosen Ones. This belief is warring with other similar beliefs right now –at this moment—in our world.             
         This is still a prevailing belief on the planet—that there is an absolute right way of belief. Each religious group is in possession of it and must convert each “dangerous other” group.  And it had its roots in an economic power struggle, a struggle for resources that is as old as the human fear of lack.  Fear of lack and a belief that your tribe, your family, your people, have been chosen by God for special dispensation, have led to some dangerous conclusions within the human psyche. The Old Testament is just one example of documented evidence of what can come into being through definitions of what and who God is and whose side God is on.”     

Comment:   “Excuse me!  I would like to take exception here!  This sounds racist!  Are you saying that Jews are responsible for bringing genocide and slavery into the world?  Aren’t you the one doing the scapegoating here?!!”

         “No. I’m just using this as an example of a powerful prevailing belief and how destructive it can be.  The Bible is history. And reading the Old Testament is a lot like reading today’s news.  Being in touch with history is an interesting way to observe the evolution of the Western concept of God. Biblical history viewed as world history contains everything we have come to associate with European colonialism, with slavery and war. It doesn’t matter who is doing it to whom—it is the same process.” 

Comment:  “Everything you have come to associate with [colonialism] maybe. But I believe you are Jew-baiting!” 

          (Laughter)  “Goodness!  Okay—you are hearing blame the Jews. I am saying there is no blame—but also, there are no alibis.  No one is to blame and we are each responsible for our own piece. I am talking about the various definitions of Divinity which led to the creation of many, many, particular tribal relationships with Divinity, and the physical realities that those relationships with Divinity have brought into being in different cultures.  I could use just about any major religion on the planet as an example of the conflict that attachment to a belief systems can create.  I use this example because most of us here have been raised within a Western, Christian, patriarchal culture which has been highly influenced by Biblical scripture and by a Hebrew concept of God that is still very powerful.
           I think we have been particularly influenced by the interpretations that have been placed on the myth of Adam and Eve.  That Eve, the original Feminine, was responsible for bringing sin into being gave rise to a concept of the human being, particularly woman, as essentially sinful. That the human being was cursed from the beginning and had to be redeemed by human suffering is pretty much universal to all these religions.
           Spiritual teachers have always, in all cultures, focused on explaining human suffering, defining it as a judgment for some atavistic primal sin.  This is the great ‘why’ in religion. Why does suffering exist?  Well, don’t ask God—ask yourself; and ask your neighbors.
            This idea, that humans are essentially base and sinful was ideal for the emergence of political and religious belief systems based on hierarchy, class structures, the chosen ones vs. the base, sinful ones; the survival of the fittest, and the fittest coming more into being as the wealthiest, the ones who controlled the resources. This class-oriented system gives permission to scapegoating, to racism and sexism and this gave rise to great callousness, an indifference to human suffering, a belief in slavery as not only inevitable but justified by God, in the “haves” as being superior to the “have nots”, in the untouchables being untouchable because they were cursed by God….and guilt and suffering were attached to the conception and birthing of children as a judgment for original sin. These patriarchal interpretations have become deep-seated assumptions in our egoic structure that have led to racial and religious atrocity. Holy war. Is that not a bizarre and utterly sorrowful concept? War is never holy but we do this in our everyday lives, create war and justify it.
            Would you prefer a different example? I could use many. The Hebrew religion, like all spiritual history, is fascinating and beautiful, and the Hebrew wisdom books contain the purest esoteric teachings in the Western world…. and these books are very different from the popular, Biblical scriptures and their translations….
            I am talking about the fact that many destructive aspects of some of the ancient beliefs are still alive and well in our collective, present in our prevailing religious and cultural beliefs, and these beliefs are still at war with each other.
            Do you agree with that? Good. Can you agree that this ancient egoic structure must be transformed within each one of us? Is that something you would choose? Are you willing to make an agreement with me to suspend judgment for the duration of this class and participate in exploring some new perceptions, and some new angles on some old perceptions, without having the burden of believing or disbelieving anything I say?  Yes?” 

Comment: (the same man) “Yes, of course. You are talking about original Sin and the belief that Free Will is considered a sin? This, of course, would allow power to be consolidated by a chosen few.” 

“Yes!  Just imagine that Free Will actually meant free blessing and that blessing is the potential inherent in all of us—that we can and will choose blessing—as a species.  I play with this notion a lot.” 

Comment:  “Yes!  A delightful notion.  Thank you. I apologize for over reacting.” 

“Thank you, that was heart felt. Thank you for providing all of us an opportunity for greater clarification.  We are all trying to think in a new way and sometimes the detachment—or non-attachment in a new thought is interpreted in the old way. If that makes sense?” 

Comment:  “Oh yes, very clear sense once we understand the detachment!  The ego is a tricky critter. I am trying not to feel embarrassed.” 

(At this point I asked the group to answer him and they all said that what happened was wonderful and they learned so much and they thanked him for clarifying the point for all of them.  We told him it was all right to feel embarrassed as long as he didn’t judge himself and feel ashamed!)   

Message to students: Isn’t this wonderful. Can you see that if I had responded to this man from a place of ego, of having to be right, and he responded in kind, we would have gone to war?  I would have immediately felt attacked and tried to defend my position.  Instead I responded from a place of intention—of saying what I intended to convey.  Beyond belief and into truth. This is the key. Live beyond belief and in truth and you will be believable and available to appropriate truth in each moment. Walk in Peace.

Thank you

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