Religious evolution: a short manifesto

Christianity:  “The kingdom of heaven is within you” (from the words of Jesus)

Islam:  “Those who know themselves know their Lord”

Judaism:  “He is in all, and all is in Him”

Confucianism: “Those who know their own nature, know heaven.

 ”Taoism:  “In the depths of the soul, one sees the Divine, the One

”Buddhism:  “Look within, you are the Buddha”

Hinduism:  “Atman [individual consciousness] and Brahman [universal consciousness] are one”

from the Shaman’s Journey:  Supernatural or Natural by Ede Frecska M.D. (printed in Inner Paths to Outer Space)

So many people can become fixated on the differences within religions, and I can understand why. Some of the main religions teach there can be only one path, and only one God, and that anyone worshipping a different path is ultimately misguided.  Oh, and that might mean that they up off to a rather hot destination when their end is nigh.  People are judged not for their good deeds, but rather, which religious box they have happened to tick.  And religious people are arguing for their very sense of purpose, for the ultimate truth, the heart of all existence everywhere.  If you have been brought up your entire life to believe only one truth, it becomes very hard to accept anything else.

The tragedy is perhaps that while people are busy arguing over who is right, and incorporating their arguments into their egos, they can forget the essence of the spiritual messages that cross all religions.  The messages are simplicity itself, with love at the heart of them all. Love, unity, laughter, compassion, gratitude, humbleness are words that immediately spring to mind. And a deeper connection can be found only by going within, by deepening our spiritual journey. The spiritual path can sometimes seem a lonely one.  Going within is a job that requires nothing outside of yourself and only you can get you there.  Yet anyone who has been on a spiritual path for a time will tell you the rewards far outweigh anything previously encountered.

Religion can be incorporated into peoples' lives for many different reasons and we are very much fallible creatures.  To believe in a God, or an afterlife, these are huge concepts.  We're going to want to protect deep beliefs such as these as much as possible, and if our beliefs are very narrow, fear-based, or very deeply ingrained, the idea of allowing a little flexibility into the equation can be damn near impossible.  And that is perhaps a real tragedy if people are unable to see anything beyond the confines of their beliefs.  Their restrictions can lead to a life perhaps lived akin to the people in Plato's Allegory of the Cave, seeing the shadows of people cast against the wall of the cave and believing that world to be the ultimate reality.

Some people want to wear their religions like a badge, quote a little from the Bible, attend Church and yet, even whilst acknowledging the beauty of their belief system, they may be unable to allow that beauty to do its transformational work on them.  In this way, they are perhaps still more concerned with status.  They are less self-aware than they need to be in order to develop.  But haven't we all been a little guilty of this?  I remember when I used to go to Buddhist meditation while simultaneously thinking myself just a little 'cool' for being there.  The ego can be slippery and elusive!  We can't eradicate it but we do need to be aware of it.  Because religious beliefs can be so powerful, it is often hard for people to disentangle their beliefs from their true identity.  We all want to be right.  And if we believe there can ultimately be only one path, everyone else potentially threatens our position.  And some religious teaching can be a little like brainwashing.  There is simply very little room for ambiguity, for allowing other religious to co-exist, peacefully, alongside. 

This all might be OK, if say, there were only several thousand people on this planet.  But we currently stand at just over 7 billion people.  And there are some pretty urgent issues that need our full attention.

So how to go forward?  We need to pare things down to basics.  To being Humanists first and foremost, being kind to fellow humans and animals and our planet which lovingly sustains us.  And being kind for its own sake, not for an imagined reward in a life hereafter, not for fear that a God might strike us down.  We need to develop an attitude of compassion and kindness.  Blind faith needs striking off the list.   We should be able to test our faith by allowing ourselves to have our own religious experiences, whether through meditation, prayer, fasting, walking in nature or just being kind to someone.  We need to allow everyone else their own beliefs, providing those beliefs do not harm any other lifeforms.  Co-existence simply has to be the way forward.  Life on this planet is starting to feel a bit crowded, and we need to collectively turn our attention towards more urgent questions, such as the problem of mankind's impact on this world.  We can't do that so effectively if we are too busy fighting to protect our beliefs.  We are currently having a pretty devastating impact on this planet -- it's huge.  From the threats to coral reefs, the amount of rubbish we produce, to GM crops or the amount of trees we needlessly chop down.  We often don't want to acknowledge the mess we're creating, and we can find all sorts of ways to distract ourselves, from fighting about pointless things, to going on a consumerist binge through vast, soulless, shopping malls.  Our ability to walk through life, blinkered to all the terrible things that are currently going on, shouldn't be underestimated.  But we all need to participate more in the care of this world.  Turning a blind eye simply isn't going to work as a long-term strategy.  We're threatening our own survival as a species through our current actions.

Initially, for all those who are spiritual or religious, we need to allow ourselves space to worship, to feel reverence, but to back off and allow others to feel perfectly entitled to the same whether for 'our' religion, or a differing one without feeling the need to become self-righteous (or to relegate their belief system as being 'less').  Respect for other religions is key.

We need to be able to let go and allow gentle scrutiny to replace blind faith; and allow ourselves to be able to laugh at our indignant and childlike, egos.  The more self-awareness we bring into the whole affair, the more we develop understanding and compassion for ourselves and others.  I imagine the most judgemental people are the ones who practise the least self-awareness and humility. 

Ultimately, perhaps, we also need to lighten up.  We can take ourselves so very seriously. How would we act if we truly knew the heart of all life was love and joy, that we are truly all One consciousness experiencing itself subjectively (as Bill Hicks used to say!), and that God is perhaps being revealed at all times through endless acts of creation.  And,that at any minute if we stop and listen for just a second, we might hear the song of God, softly woven into the fabric of the universe -- just waiting for us to notice.   

Vipassana meditation retreat: is it for you?

One Buddhist retreat that I've been thinking about going on is the Vipassana (or insight) meditation retreat, as taught by S. N. Goenke (http://www.dhamma.org/) and I’ve been doing some reading on the web to explore the ideas behind this further.  If you are curious and are thinking of going on this retreat, an interesting discussion can be found here along with a link to a pdf critique of the discipline.  A more recent article can be found in the Guardian which also looks at this from a practical point of view, the amount of sitting for such long periods can cause huge discomfort!

The insight meditation technique is but one shard of Buddhist thinking, and it's pretty gruelling, with up to 11 hours per day spent in meditation.  Amongst other issues, the critique I linked to above, looks at ways this technique might even perhaps cause ‘disassociative disorder’ (in which people can feel entirely removed from themselves, as though they’re watching themselves without any emotional attachment).  People with known mental issues are discouraged from going on this type of retreat.

Dukkha and hacking the operating system
I think we all have our own internal directives, and we each have our unique spiritual journey.  What troubles me about something like this is that it appears to perhaps strip away the uniqueness of the individual, and strips man down to machine.  We ‘hack the operating system’ as someone said in an article relating to Steve Jobs and his commitment to Zen Buddhism (article in Shambala Sun) and that’s fine as far as it goes.  But man is not machine.  Being aware of ourselves on a greater level is of course a good thing. Buddhism seems to want to stress that life is suffering or ‘dukkha’ (which is apparently more like an analogy of a wobbly wheel on a car than the ‘life is suffering’ analogy we are more used to hearing.  Bringing awareness into our everyday lives on a greater level means we are more free in how we respond to events, and bring a greater sense of personal responsibility into our lives.  And that is a wonderful tool in a world where chaos and anger seem to spill out all over the place.  Being able to step back and choose your reaction is an excellent tool that more people should have.


Introduction to Buddhism
I read a small introduction to Buddhism by Steven Hagen in which the author focused on the central tenet of Buddhism, that of ‘awareness’, of ‘being awake’.  But it didn’t talk about compassion, about loving kindness, which both play a huge part, too.  Sometimes I feel that the overarching object of Buddhism can be quite selfish, as it is the pursuit of one’s own enlightenment.  (Not so with Mahāyana Buddhism, in which I believe the emphasis is on the delaying of nirvana until all sentient beings become enlightened.)  But where for instance there is great emphasis on obtaining good merit so you can have a good rebirth, surely we should be encouraged to focus on service to others as its own reward? Surely motive plays an important part in our karma?

A toolbox for the mind
Buddhism is often likened to a toolbox for the mind, it’s a psychological religion, and excellent for self-analysis.  In the book I link to above, Steven Hagen effectively argues that the central tenet and the most important, is simply, awareness.  Flooding our lives with awareness we can see how we have been sleepwalking through much of our lives up until this point; we have self-awareness when we better understand our own true motives, and awareness ultimately enables us to live more skillfully.  However, you don't need to be a Buddhist at all to go on a Vipassana retreat, they are designed for everyone no matter what faith (although you are actively discouraged to mix any religious practices whilst on retreat to ensure you get the best benefit from it).

Vipassana
I have been thinking about whether or not to do this retreat now for a year or so, and as I was reading other experiences and thoughts at www.metta.org.uk I was reminded that we often have to just take the plunge and go for things!  Otherwise we will never fully know if it will work for us.  This type of retreat sounds like it can be both an incredibly uncomfortable experience, but also quite beautiful.  But the point of it is that we face both the uncomfortable and the beautiful aspects with the same level of equanimity.  We are not looking to hold out for the joyous experience that might arise nor rush through the unpleasant side of it, but the goal is to be able to face both experiences in the same way.

The retreat then, will be hard work -- you may have feelings that make you go 'wow' but you might not.  You will probably feel uncomfortable, and may find it tricky going at times, emotionally or mentally.  It is likely though that you will come away feeling calmer, and more able to deal with whatever life throws at you.  If you are lucky enough to having any beautiful experiences during this retreat, that's a bonus, but shh, don't make too much of it, because that's not the point!  :)

You don’t have to be a Buddhist, but Buddhist words and scripture will, I believe, be referred to at times.  Nor is this a way to lure people to follow Buddhism. Some people believe this type of retreat to be a bit cultish, but it’s simply one technique to flood you mind and body with the white, crystalline light of awareness. You don't take anything on 'blind faith'.  The 'noble silence' is something that also sounds appealing to me, I find I often take refuge in silence and I enjoy it.  I'm not afraid of a silent world for a couple of weeks; to me, it enhances the idea of the retreat being a sacred time to myself.  I do have some level of trepidation about the level of physical discomfort however!  Still, I hope to be able to do this, perhaps later in the year.

I’d say if you want to try this meditation then go for it, but be prepared for the level of work and concentration involved.  Perhaps try a silent weekend retreat first as a taster.  The Vipassana method does seem to work very well for many people, and give a greater sense of clarity and focus (this guy is very pro).

Do be aware that you need to be mentally 'fit' to undertake this course.  If you suffer from an existing psychological condition, it is not advised that you undertake this type of retreat.  Equally, if you know of any traumas long-buried, it is probably a good idea to be aware that difficult feelings could well arise during this course.

An alternative retreat could be a Satipanya Buddhist retreat:  retreats devoted to contemplative living and insight meditation in the Mahasi Sayadaw tradition. This centre, above, is based in Wales, and is informally affiliated with a group of meditation centres in Sri Lanka.  They also have links to Gaia House, in Devon.

Centres in the UK
I've listed a few centres below:

Dipa Dhamma in Hereford  (you can read an article in the Independent written by a participant:  The Power of Solitude ) Vipassana courses as taught by S. N. Goenka in the tradition of Sayagi U Ba Khin

Gaia House in Devon

International Meditation Centre UK -- in Wiltshire (based on Vipassana teachings taught by S.N. Goenka in the tradition of Sayagi U Ba Khin)

Satipanya in Wales  (based on the Mahasi Sayadaw tradition from the teachings of Bhanti Bohdidamma)