“DD” The Way
(The Tao Te Ching) In bygone days men of wisdom honored the Way by declaring that it could be found by all who seek it.
Christianity, growing up, was a religion for me where the Christ held my gaze, but the dogma threw nothing but shade on my soul. I had questions about life and death, God and Jesus, the reason we’re all here and what happens when we die, amongst many other deeper questions about existence, not unlike many of you reading this. However, the religion always came up short because I associated the religion as God, not as that which came forth from ultimate truth.
Part of the issues I had with Christianity early on was the incessant preaching and belief systems about how separated we all are from God. And that God, because of this separation, would condemn us forever from being created if we chose not to accept his Son as our Lord and savior. The logic of this never held water for me. The fear mongering of this never held weight in my mind as truth. Because these elements of the faith permeate the religion far and wide, I’m sure many of you reading this have had the same issues with the faith if you’re totally honest.
How could an all knowing, perfectly loving, everywhere present creator, who gave life to our lungs, who knows what we’ll do before we do it, judge us for not choosing something that God knew we’d either choose or not before ever coming into existence?
It was in the question above that I found a schism which grew in depth as I pleaded with God to answer it for me. More accurately, I pleaded with a limited religion to answer it for me -- always to come up empty when answers fell short of even the most basic logic.
The truth I found, as others have before me, is not that we’re eternally separated from God, but are in fact God, regardless of our ability to see that at any point in time. Because we are all creations of the Almighty, anyone who searches for a true connection to the Almighty will find it. I had to surrender over every aspect of being human to find myself faced with the need to surrender over religion ever delivering me face-to-face with my creator. In this surrender process, an absolute terror arose that heresy was my result when letting go of religion as being my pathway to God. At the end of the surrender process, you too will be asked to let go of religion as God. Religion is not God. Religion points you towards God.
Like religion, guilt and shame are belief systems we give attachment to, consciously and subconsciously, mostly through never letting go of either as worthy aspects of being human. Shame and guilt are just feelings and emotions which arose within as what you think you are when they arise because you never stopped to seek God through them and allow the Way to take you past your attachment to them.
The Way can be found by all who seek it. The Way is not hidden within religion, religion is but a mile-marker on the pathway to God. Christ is not Christianity. God is not religion. Those of you who seek the Way must know this for your journey ahead.