Warning! Your Religion May be Bad for your Heart! (and your marriage!)

Illusion im Schnee (Photo credit: Altweibersommer)

Dr. John Gottman, relationship expert, was asked what most marital arguments are about. His answer “nothing”!!! All the conflict, tension, stress, discord and pain was all about nothing! The criticism, condemnation, defensiveness, stonewalling and resultant stress and suffering were all about no-thing. “It” was illusory. The stormy waves arose from a still peaceful ocean and then dissolved back into nothingness which is emptiness that is full of all possibility. Focusing on the waves is missing the ocean of love!!!

Italiano: Istanze psichiche umane: Ego, Es, Super-Ego da Psicopatologia: sinopsi (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I started to play with the word illusory and I heard in my gut “I-loser-y”. Sort of a Jim Carey drawn out “loooser”. Being a loser is not perjorative. It just means you are missing the boat of life focusing on the illusory storm when the ocean of alive being or awareness within in silently waiting your recognition.

Oswald Chambers said “It is the least likely thing that is the peril…if you are not warned, it will trip you up…beware of the undercurrent…keep alert…unguarded strength is double weakness…the bible characters fell on their strong points, never on their weak ones. ‘Kept by the power of God’—that is the only safety.”

The power of being, the deeper awareness, is in the depths of your innermost heart in the silence and stillness of your true nature. The ego is the illusory strong part of your psyche; the loudest, the most distracting, and the thing you are probably most proud of about yourself. “I have a strong work ethic”, “I am successful”, I run 10 miles every day”, I graduated from Harvard”, “I make decisions about millions of dollars” etc. Ego strength is the initial goal of a lot of therapy.

Discussing “issues” or “problems” is the bulk of psychotherapy. The problem is you can “work” on or “fix” or “heal” the ego and its never-ending problems ad nauseum. Working on the problem you will just end up with more illusory problems. It is working on the dream or play instead of waking up to your authentic self and the truth that you are already whole and free on the deeper level of you. It is trying to change the movie that is playing on the screen of awareness when you just have to turn off the movie to find the peace you seek. Put in a new movie, but know it is a movie nonetheless. Enjoy the movie AND know that it is just a movie!!! If you don’t like the movie that is playing, put in a new  movie!

Fighting over no-thing, a figment of the ego mind or false self, a phantom “problem,” is being a loser. Do you want to be a loser or a lover? We are losing the love because we are asleep to the truth, the real Love; the love who we really are and the love who our partner really is. We are fighting about illusory things that the ego or false separate self, the biggest illusion, is telling us are wrong. The illusory self thinks we are bad, unworthy, not good enough, or unloveable resulting from the root of fear and sadness that comes from not living from our true authentic spiritual being. We project the illusion onto our partner or we beat ourself up as we blame ourself. Projected judgment or self-judgment originates in the ego, the illusory self. We begin a relationship with a projected ideal of our spouse (thesis) and when the illusion shatters we begin to project the antithesis of our ideal. Our ego begins to look for all the reasons to reject the person and is essentially rejecting that aspect within ourself.

Ego’s love is a game for fools. An example of ego’s lyrics: “Make love to break love thats all we do; first you love me, then you hate me, its a game for fools”

Illusion - dynamics of static image (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Romantic love is a drug! The chemical cascade lifts us to heaven and we see everything through rose colored glasses. It has been described as “nature’s anesthesia” and the neurochemical blast does indeed alter everything we experience. It is a physical experience and when the chemical, physical reaction wanes, as it is meant to wane, the real, deeper, spiritual level of love is meant to be discovered, uncovered, unfolded, and revealed. Perfect unconditional Love is beyond the physical, beyond the feelings, mind, thoughts, and experiences of the outer worldly self.

The-Trimuph-Of-Divine-Love (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Agape Love is beyond chemically induced physical feelings. Unconditional love is on the spiritual level and cannot be found with the head, mind or intellect. It is found within the deepest, innermost heart. Divine Love has no opposite, no distinctions, no partiality, and no qualifications. Romantic love is the duality that vascillates between love and hate and dissolves in antipathy or indifference. Dying love is an illusion. It never existed in the first place. The love was a projected illusion or concept of your ideal, a phantom of your mind. It was always meant to die so the real unconditional Divine Love, the truth of your real inner nature could arise. Life is not a static thing; it is a ever-unfolding journey of discovery, growth, expansion and revelation of deeper, higher Truth of natural, alive beingness.

 

This is an optical illusion in which a static image appears to be moving due to the cognitive effects of interacting color contrasts and shape position. Español: Ilusión óptica donde la imagen estática pareciera moverse debido a los efectos cognitivos producidos por los contrastes de colores y la posición de las formas. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Warning! The ego is illusory! You are not your body, your emotions, your feelings, your physical chemical or neurochemical reactions, your beliefs, your mind, your thoughts, or your illusory problems. You are created in the image and likeness of God. You are a whole, free, unlimited, infinite spirit who is embodied in a body temple vehicle to experience the full continuum of life. You are awareness itself, beingness, natural, simple awareness of awareness itself! You are alive presence, open, free, unchanging aliveness. “I am that I am” is the name of God that God gave Moses. We are all “I ams” or “I am that” or “I am not that”. In the stillness we can wake up to the direct realization of natural being-ness, is-ness, or such-ness. Effortless effort, wu wei, is effortless grace, ease, or flow, where doing arises spontaneously out of still, silent, empty/full beingness. Experience, sensation, feeling, images or thoughts arise out of nothingness and dissolve back into nothingness. The no-thingness is full of divine potential and unlimited possibilities of God’s Presence.

Illusory contours in a shape of a star, styled after the Kanizsa triangle. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Warning! Religion, not all but possibly a major portion, has been taken over by the illusory ego, the false wounded survival part of the psyche and may be harmful to your health, especially the health of your heart! Religion is meant to be the vehicle for the soul to reconnect or reunite with the Spirit of God. Religion is supposed to be the ligare that reconnects, not the false religion that separates or divides. The problem is the Living Spirit of God, the true Power and Presence of God, Awareness itself, has been lost, removed, ignored, feared, avoided, repressed, and cut from a large amount of religions. The formless, still, silent, empty fullness of the alive Presence of the Source of God is ignored or unknown to many.

The personal form is worshiped while the greater Source, the infinite well of unlimited, infinite, eternal Awareness, Presence, Beingness, and Divine Love is removed. God is placed in a box and exclusive rights to the box are created. The box is given theology, rituals, creeds, dogmas, doctrines, laws, rules, accepted language and anyone that veers from the box is ostracized, ignored, accused of being of the devil, silenced, mocked, judged, condemned, resented, treated with suspicion and not accepted or welcomed in the exclusive box.

Tibetan endless knot Nederlands: Tibetaanse Oneindige knoop (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I see the bible as the epic journey of each soul to be reunited with the One Beloved Creator, the Source of God, the Spirit to our spirit. The archetypal, mythic, symbolic, allegoric, metaphoric journey is meant to awaken your soul to remember the truth. The journey of the soul within unties the knot that the ego has tangled, unfolding into a perfect, unending circle. We return to the beginning but know it again for the first time as TS Eliot said. The metaphoric story of the bible contains hidden codes to trigger the heart to awaken, remember, and return our soul to the Beloved Creator, our first Love, the Love of our life, the one our soul loves, the Lover of our soul, the Spirit to our spirit, the Bridegroom to our bride, the missing piece and our true spiritual self. Ah, the Real Love story heals the heart of humans and religion!

Soul in Love (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The progression of the soul goes through three epochs, ages, developmental stages, spiritual levels, or eras. The first epoch was the journey described in the old testament focusing on the law. God was separate from humans and only a few could go up the mountain to speak to God, and no one could touch or see God face to face or they would die. God was obscured by clouds or pillars of fire and smoke. The holy of holies was hidden from all but the few who were deemed worthy to enter and then only enter through mega-rules.

The description of building a temple and 613 laws and the good/bad, right/wrong passages make my head hurt! The focus in the Moses era was on physical laws. Humans were ruled by an external locus of control, laws, rules, doctrines, dogma, theology, creeds, and commandments. The focus was on an outer imposed set of laws, right/wrong, good/bad, or black/white morality that was imposed from without. Can you see the effect of the old testament epoch in your own life or beliefs?

The Spinning Dancer appears to move both clockwise and counter-clockwise (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Jesus taught that the law-driven, external locus of control commandments were meant to fail. Failure was meant to make us wake up and say this is not working! Despite following all these rules, and doing what society said I should do: go to college, get married, have kids, a dog, a house, make alot of money, etc., I am still unhappy or unsatisfied. Despite following religious rules, family rules, societal rules, government rules, etc., nothing provides lasting satisfaction or fulfillment. The ego says, “Is this all there is?” The spirit says “of course not, you are pretending to be something that you are not. You are living an illusory dream of lack and limitation and struggle when you could just wake up, go deeper within and find the pot of gold and the promised land of milk and honey in your true awareness and inner natural beingness”!

We were all meant to discover for ourselves that being guided by an external set of rules, is the true source of bondage and oppression in the world, resulting in great suffering. While there have been many external oppressors, the inner oppressor, our old epoch thoughts, beliefs and inner rules, are the things that are keeping us in the prison of our own mind. The laws of the old era are not meant to work in the next. The discomfort is meant to motivate us to seek something more, move from head to heart, move from external to internal and move to the next stage of soul growth!!!

Optical illusion: The two orange circles are the same size. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

External locus of control is oppressing, enslaving, and leaves us in bondage. The ego is the judge, oppressor and jailer. The purpose of externally imposed laws was that they were destined to be BROKEN. If you have anger or resentment in your heart you have committed murder; if you lust after another man or woman you have committed adultery; if you covet something another has you have committed theft, etc. We have all committed every sin on the books, and broken every commandment in some form or another! Morality imposed by the head or intellect on the physical level was supposed to FAIL! We were never meant to have a physical level or intellect level god made of wood, stone, metal or canvas. The false god is a physical level god. The physical god is man-made from the ego who imposes morality, rules, dogma and doctrine to control the weak, limited, lacking, sinful, unworthy ego.

Two silhouette profiles or a white vase? (an optical illusion) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The idol that the ego in Christianity is worshiping is the idol of Jesus who is a physical man, hanging on a wooden crucifix. The angel of the presence said “Stop seeking the Living among the dead. He is not here, he has risen” (Luke 24:5). Stop worshiping an idol of Jesus and rise in consciousness with Christ. Yeshua said that the true worshipers will worship God as Spirit and Truth; that even the Father seeks to worship the Spirit. The Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God! Yeshua said if you have seen me you have seen my invisible Higher Self which he called the Father. The invisible Spirit of God did the work through the physical vehicle of Jesus’ body. Yeshua said even the Father seeks to worship God as Spirit and Truth. There is a hierarchy on the spiritual level, higher capacity to hold light and energy, greater and greater awareness, but there is only One Spirit and One Source of All. God is beyond any form, experience, image, person, feeling, thought, concept, name or imagination!!!

My Love (Photo credit: Jennuine Captures)

The new testament epoch was the awakening of the truth that LOVE was the solution. Love was made manifest in Yeshua HaMashiach (1 John 4:9).  The holy of holies was found in Yeshua’s heart. The feminine Spirit of God came down to earth and incarnated into a male body to wake humanity up to the truth of the spiritual, inner, true person of the heart. If there is a physical body there is also a spiritual body (1 Corinthians 15:35-53). “I bow my knees before the Father from whom EVERY FAMILY in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his Light she may grant you to be strengthened with might though her Spirit in the inner person” (Ephesians 3:14-17). The “real Jew” is inner and spiritual, not physical and literal (Romans 2:28-29)! We are not meant to label ourselves Jew or Muslim or Christian; that is the literal, physical, egoic level of religion.

Paul pointed out in Romans that the real “Jew” was one inwardly, a matter of the heart, spiritual and not literal. Paul wrote in Galatians that the law was our custodian only UNTIL Christ came…but now that the invisible inner Spirit came, we are no longer under a custodian (not Moses, Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha or Krishna); for in Christ Spirit you are ALL sons of God (remember Jesus was theologized to be the only Son of God)…there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male or female; for you are ALL ONE in Christ Spirit” (Galatians 3:23-29). An intimate personal relationship with the infinite Spirit of God makes you one with Christ and a  son of God!!! The mystery is revealed: the two become one heart, one mind, one spirit, one body!!!! This is the GOOD news!!!!!

Christ Spirit is the vine and we are the branches; we are one living organism. The Gardener is the same for all faiths and religions. For the Zen she creates a minamalist appearance with rocks and bonsai; for the taoist, a balance of the five elements and feng shui; for the Buddhist, prayer flags and prayer wheels and buddha statuary; for the Hindu, ganesha and Ramana; for the Christian, Jesus, St. Francis and a rose garden; for the Muslim, whirling dervishes, Muhammed and mosque. The Higher Reality is awareness of the unity of Spirit in the bond of peace. Division is a virus that destroys the heart and mind from the inside out. Anyone who cannot see the Living One Christ Spirit that flowed, healed, delivered and made whole in the human form Jesus is not seeing rightly. The invisible One Spirit can only be seen by the eyes of the heart!

The song lyrics “back to life, back to reality” is suddenly playing in my head! The reality of higher agape Love as our reality, our life and our true being brings us back to Life and fullness of Life! We end the illusory dream or play and enter spiritual reality. The spiritual reality of wholeness, oneness with the Father, our higher unseen Self, and oneness with the Spirit of God within our body outpictures in physical reality. It is accomplished first in the spiritual realm, filters through the mental realm, then the emotional realm and finally appears incarnated in the physical reality. We have been limiting ourselves to the limited physical realm of the ego without the power, might and creative ability of our spirit! It is like we have been living only half a life. People have died without ever knowing the joy of the truth of their real identity as spirit. We have been living in Plato’s cave seeing shadows on the wall when the full Sun of Presence has been shining behind us all the time. We only have to turn around! We have been blind and ignorant, limited and lacking only because we forgot who we really were. We forgot we were royalty, children of the Light, heirs of all the riches, abundance, wealth, jewels, prosperity, infinity and unlimited possibilities.

Love (Photo credit: praram)

The only problem with religion, marriage, and life is the ego took over control and we began to believe the illusion rather than the truth. The spirit of error took over the teachings of Yeshua and made Jesus into a physical idol instead of the vehicle for the Living Power and Presence of God. Yeshua said that God was greater than him, that he could do nothing on his own authority, that it was the Father who did the work through him and we could all do what he did and even greater things. Yeshua HaMashiach prayed to God. He had to often separate himself from the physical world and go “up the mountain” in consciousness to connect with the Spirit to be renewed, refreshed, revived and strengthened in the Spirit of Truth to again face the illusory delusions of the mass collective conscious and unconscious thought field that was prevalent.

Great monument to love divine Great monument to love divine - words once used to describe St.Mary's cathedral. Looking east along the nave and quite breathtaking Early English gothic architecture. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“Easter is the awakening of divine life in us.  “Christ is risen!” is … the
cry of all the people of God through the centuries who have realized Christ rising in them. … The light of Christ reveals the fact of our abiding union with him and its potential to transform every aspect of our lives. … The resurrection of Jesus is the first day of the New Creation. … It is the decisive moment in human history:  as a result, divine union is now accessible to every human being.” Thomas Keating, The Mystery of Christ

We are now about to enter a brand new epoch. When Yeshua came to earth there was a change of age. Now we are in the in-between space before entering the new era of heaven on earth. In the new epoch that is and is to come, the holy of holies is found within each person’s heart. What is the way to enter the new epoch? Awaken to the truth. Drop from your head to your heart. Reunite with the One. Turn from your head, your externally focused mind to the mind of your heart. Metanoia is to change your mind; change from your intellectual mind to your wisdom heart mind of instant, direct connection with Infinite Divine Intelligence and Presence! Open the eyes of your heart. Get wisdom. Get Spirit. Have a personal, intimate relationship with Christ Spirit and rise in consciousness to where Christ is, in union with the Spirit of God. Purify your mind with the Living Water of Spirit, refine your heart with the fire of Pure Awareness and put on the new garment of the white Light of God!

Related articles

• Is it Imagination or is it Prayer? (newheavenonearth.wordpress.com)
• Is Religion Dangerous? (probings.wordpress.com)
• Who is God [Part 1] by Daniel (izzysagenda.com)
• Ego keeps potential for change out of our consciousness. (prophetic1dotorg.wordpress.com)
• Reality Part 1 (chepalk.wordpress.com)
• Theories-of-Love |If the Buddha Dated| (confederatearticles.wordpress.com)
• Easter, Resurrection and Ascension (newheavenonearth.wordpress.com)
• Controversy Can Reveal Deeper, Higher Truth (newheavenonearth.wordpress.com)
• Locus of Control (English Version) (preconflictcontrol.wordpress.com)
• Hermes (shipwreckedangel.wordpress.com)
• Love Versus True Love (newheavenonearth.wordpress.com)
• The Undoing of Fear (celiaelaine.wordpress.com)
• “Mixed marriages” – How exactly does THAT work?!?! (atinctureofmadness.wordpress.com)
• The New Spirituality (faithcontender.net)
• What’s a Christian to do on the “Day of Silence”? (titussmith.wordpress.com)
• Practical Enlightenment: The aftermath of Kenshō (rahkyt.wordpress.com)
• The Death of the Ego (evolutionarymystic.wordpress.com)
• Twin Souls, Twin Flames and Soul Mates by Harusami (magneticwind.com)
• blind, blind, blind blind blind blind blind (socialethicsoundideasandfreedom.wordpress.com)
• My Illusory Life (jeansica-lieber.com)
• Divine Thinking and Personal Reality, Part 2 (chepalk.wordpress.com)
• Marriage Sins: “Confess, Deny, Minimize, Blame = Deal Breaker” (auroramorealist.wordpress.com)
• Before the illusion dissolves completely, moments of doubt and anxiety may occur – from Saul through John Smallman (jhaines6.wordpress.com)
• EGO (Edge God Out) (bonniedavid.net)
• “Illusions created by dualism” by Jath van der Westhuizen (themysteryofchrist.wordpress.com)
• Dealing with Phenomena (hanumandass.wordpress.com)
• Ego (ishisphere.com)
• Living in love: from the heart. (noahmuller.wordpress.com)
• No One Else Will Do (poetsenvy.wordpress.com)
• Are You Aware of the Ultimate Gardener? Its Not What You Think!!! (newheavenonearth.wordpress.com)