A few years ago, a person in my life told me that although she cared about me, she knew with certainty that if I didn’t repent and accept Jesus Christ as my savior, I was going to burn in hell. I had actually been raised a Christian, so as a child I had believed this to be true. But by the time I had become a young adult, I had become disenchanted with Christianity and religion in general. The idea of being judged for not being a Christian did not sit well with me, and I replied in a not-so-Christlike manner.
Years later, I was having a conversation with the same individual and she again brought up religious concepts that I found annoying, if not offensive. She claimed that there were demons, and that the demons were influencing people to sin. So in effect, it was fault of the demons that was “leading people astray” and would cause people to go to hell.
Initially I did not appreciate the conversation; however, suddenly I realized something that really surprised me. She and I actually believed the exact same things. It was just that she was using different words.
For example, when she talked about demons, I realized that she was talking about the negative ego. She was simply making the negative ego into a thing separate from the self. And when she talked about hell, I started to realize that this is simply the self-created psychological hell we put ourselves into when we follow our egos. When we accept Christ, we our accepting our oneness with the universe and embodying ourselves with universal love for all beings.
Religion and Dualism
Throughout history, great spiritual teachers have preached concepts of universal love, compassion, and the importance of placing spirituality before materialism. The basis for these teachings was that everything was one, and everything was God. However, the concept of oneness is not something that can easily be understood for practical reasons. Concepts are based on thoughts, which are analyzed by the ego. And the ego, by definition, is that which separates us from each other, and from God.
Note then that the non-dualistic teachings of the spiritual teachers lose their meaning when processed through the dualistic lens of the ego. And that is exactly what has happened with Christianity: the non-dualistic spiritual teachings of Jesus have been distorted into dualistic religious doctrine.
For example: when Jesus preached: “Love thy neighbor as thyself”, he wasn’t talking about the Golden Rule. He was actually saying “Love your neighbor because he is you”. Another classic example of adding a dualistic slant to Jesus’ teachings is the story of the young, rich man. According to the Bible, a rich man came to Jesus and asked to be his follower. Jesus told him that he must first give away all his possessions. Hearing this, the rich man became disappointed and left.
This story has led to confusion about whether one can be both “righteous” and wealthy and the same time. Some people use this as evidence that “money is evil”. This can also lead to inner conflict in both religious and spiritual people who outwardly feel that material wealth is OK, but subconsciously block themselves from abundance due to hidden negative beliefs about the evils of money.
If we were to take the story of the rich man from a non-dualistic perception, things would make more sense. (And people in general would view wealth in a less-dysfunctional fashion.) What Jesus was actually doing was trying to teach the rich man about abundance and attachment. Jesus knew that the rich man’s attachment to wealth was blocking his spiritual progress. Generally speaking, no matter what we have at any one time, we are always eternally wealthy and blessed because we are all a part of the whole. From the ego’s perspective, Jesus was asking the young man to make a huge sacrifice. But from a spiritual perspective, there was no sacrifice to make: Jesus was instead simply encouraging the man to expand his concept of self.
Once again, this is not a concept that the ego can easily grasp. So it would have taken a leap of faith for the rich man to part from his wealth. But in doing so, he would have been signaling his desire to learn the truth. I.e. that since we are all one, we are all bountiful all the time from the perspective of the unified soul. His inability to want to see this truth prevented him from “following Jesus”. In other words, his love for his personal self prevented him from being able to love others “as himself”.
Spirituality vs. Religion
Religion in general seems to have done humanity a disservice by indoctrinating dualistic concepts. For instance, to believe that God is separate from ourselves dis-empowers us. Instead of learning that we can reach God through our own inner guidance, we are told we must seek God through the hierarchy of an established church.
Religion therefore is often used as a tool for control, which is not something that has been kept a secret. For centuries, the leader of the Catholic Church ruled significant parts of Europe based solely on the established belief that the church was an individual’s only connection to God.
Concepts such as the idea that God is separate, that men our sinners, and that we will be judged are all ideas based on fear. Concepts based on fear originate from the ego; they are based on that which separates us from God. Also note that while this article focuses on Christianity, all major religious view God as separate from man, and are therefore dualistic in nature.
Spirituality, on the other hand, is based on unity and love. How can there not be love for others when you see others as a part of yourself? And how could you fear God if you were aware that you are a part of God?
This is not to say that religion itself is “evil”, nor is there any judgement of those who are religious. On the contrary, each one of us is on a path to re-establishing a connection back to our Creator, from whom we have split ourselves (according to the ego’s perception). It is unimportant the path that we choose, or the beliefs that we have chosen, because eventually all paths will lead back to God. But it is possible that some “unnecessary” pain could be avoided by consciously choosing a path of love and unity.