Religion versus Spirituality...

SPIRITUALITY SAYS THAT GOD IS WITHIN EACH OF US
AND WE DON'T NEED ANYONE ELSE TO MAKE
THAT DIVINE CONNECTION FOR US

RELIGION SAYS THAT WE ARE SEPARATED FROM GOD
AND THAT WE NEED "THEM" TO MAKE THE
DIVINE CONNECTION FOR US

SPIRITUALITY SAYS THAT WE ARE FREE TO MAKE CHOICES
ON OUR OWN AND THAT WE MUST TAKE PERSONAL
RESPONSIBILITY FOR OUR ACTIONS

RELIGION SAYS WE MUST MAKE THEIR
CHOICES AND ACT THEIR WAY

THE THEME OF SPIRITUALITY IS
UNCONDITIONAL LOVE

THE THEME OF RELIGION IS FEAR AND GUILT

SPIRITUALITY DOES NOT REQUIRE US
TO MAKE DONATIONS

RELIGION HAS BECOME BIG BUSINESS

SPIRITUALITY SAYS THERE IS NO HELL, NO
JUDGMENT, NO ANGRY GOD... THAT WE
ARE LOVED UNCONDITIONALLY

RELIGION SAYS THERE IS A HELL, GOD GETS ANGRY
AND JUDGES US... THEREFORE, WE ARE NOT
LOVED UNCONDITIONALLY

SPIRITUALITY SAYS WE ARE FREE TO
CHOOSE OUR OWN PATH TO GOD

RELIGION COMMANDS US TO DO IT THEIR WAY

SPIRITUALITY SAYS WE GO TO GOD
TO LIGHTEN OUR BURDEN

RELIGION HAS TAUGHT US TO FEAR THEIR GOD

SPIRITUALITY SAYS WE SHOULD NOT BE ASHAMED
OF OUR SEXUALITY... THAT IT SHOULD BE A
SACRED CELEBRATION OF LOVE

RELIGION HAS TAUGHT US TO FEEL ASHAMED,
GUILTY AND DIRTY ABOUT OUR SEXUALITY

SPIRITUALITY TEACHES US TO
HONOR AND RESPECT MOTHER EARTH

RELIGION HAS TOLD US TO "BE THOU FRUITFUL,
MULTIPLY AND SUBDUE THE EARTH"

I REPEAT... "SUBDUE THE EARTH"

I SUSPECT JESUS AND BUDDHA WOULD
HAVE SAID SOMETHING LIKE...

"ACT RESPONSIBLY,
HONOR EARTH MOTHER
AND ALWAYS GIVE HER YOUR LOVE"

SPIRITUALITY ASKS THAT WE HAVE CHILDREN IN A
RESPONSIBLE WAY THAT IS CONSISTENT
WITH MOTHER EARTH'S RESOURCES

RELIGION SAYS THAT BIRTH CONTROL IS UNNATURAL,
A SIN, AND THAT WE CAN GO TO HELL FOR
PRACTICING IT. ARE THEY AFRAID
OF LOSING DUES-PAYING MEMBERS?

SPIRITUALITY REMINDS US THAT WE
ARE ONE WITH GOD AND ONE
WITH EACH OTHER

RELIGION TEACHES DISUNITY AND SEPARATION,
WHICH IS THE OPPOSITE OF GOD

SPIRITUALITY TELLS US THAT GOD IS WITHIN

RELIGION SAYS HE IS IN HEAVEN AND THAT
THEY ARE THE ONLY INTERMEDIARIES FOR US

SPIRITUALITY SAYS WE ARE BORN
IN INNOCENCE AND PURITY

RELIGION SAYS WE ARE BORN WITH SIN

SPIRITUALITY TEACHES THAT WE ARE ON A LONG
SPIRITUAL ADVENTURE AND JOURNEY,
WHICH WILL ULTIMATELY END BY
REUNITING WITH OUR SOURCE

RELIGION SAYS WE'VE GOT ONE LIFE TO GET IT
ALL RIGHT AND THERE IS NOTHING BUT
HEAVEN OR HELL AFTER THAT

SPIRITUALITY SAYS WE ARE FREE TO EXPRESS

RELIGION GAVE US THE DREADED INQUISITION

SPIRITUALITY TEACHES
UNCONDITIONAL LOVE FOR ALL

RELIGION GAVE US THE CRUSADES IN WHICH
MILLIONS WERE KILLED AND PERSECUTED
IN THE NAME OF GOD

SPIRITUALITY TEACHES THAT WE SHOULD LOVE
ONE ANOTHER UNCONDITIONALLY AND
ALWAYS HONOR THE RIGHTS
AND CHOICES OF OTHERS

RELIGION TREATED NATIVE AMERICANS, THE MAYANS
AND OTHER INDIGENOUS CULTURES AS SAVAGE
PRIMITIVES WHO MUST BE SAVED

SPIRITUALITY TEACHES PEACE AND HARMONY

RELIGION HAS CAUSED MORE WARS
AND MORE KILLING THAN
ANY OTHER REASON

SPIRITUALITY SAYS RESPECT
ALL LIVING THINGS

I NEVER ONCE HEARD ANY RELIGION ASK THAT WE STOP
SLAUGHTERING MILLIONS OF TREES EVERY
YEAR FOR CHRIST'S BIRTHDAY

SPIRITUALITY TEACHES US TO HAVE
FAITH IN OURSELVES

RELIGION TEACHES US TO HAVE FAITH IN THEM

SPIRITUALITY SAYS WE HAVE ALL THE ANSWERS...
THAT WE CAN FIND THEM BY GOING WITHIN

RELIGION TEACHES US THAT IT HAS ALL THE
ANSWERS AND ONLY ITS ANSWERS
ARE THE RIGHT ONES

SPIRITUALITY TEACHES US TO SEARCH FOR THE
UNIVERSAL TRUTHS AND OUR HEARTS WILL
TELL US WHEN WE HAVE FOUND THEM

RELIGION TEACHES WE HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO
ACCEPT THEIR VERSION OF THE TRUTH

I think of myself, basically, as a teacher and a counselor. So,
lessons such as these are not meant to be literary masterpieces. I am
not concerned with being lofty and profound, but in dealing with
those day-to-day problems, for which people are seeking help and
healing.

In these essays, I am not presenting a new religion, startling and
shocking as some of the concepts may be. I am dealing with a
technique for the application of fundamental Spiritual Laws,
discovered and demonstrated by Jesus and many other great mystic
teachers—the thread of Truth, the fundamental concepts that enable
any individual, practically and creatively, to release his or her
own "Imprisoned Splendor." I have been dealing with these insights
for many years. I have given thousands upon thousands of talks. Yet,
all of these millions upon millions of words can be synthesized into
just a few sentences. It is humbling to admit that a lifetime of
teaching can be summed up "in a nutshell"…but I think it can. So, I
would like to give that kind of a summation, just three simple things—
three simple fundamentals of this New Insight In Truth.

First: "The Omnipresence of God" – Someone once said, "If you aren't
as close to God as you once were, don't make the mistake about which
one of you has moved." We sometimes act as if God were lost, and that
our efforts in spiritual unfoldment are to find God. This attitude
must be changed! God is not lost! It is simply that we must find
ourselves…take stock of ourselves. When we do, we find that we enter
a right relationship with things…and God is that relationship. We
find that God is the Wisdom of our mind, the Life of our body, the
Substance of our affairs. We will know that there are no God-empty
spots in our life—that the Presence of God is present, not absent.
Much that we have engaged in, which we have called, "The Practice of
the Presence," has really been a practice of the absence of God,
because it has been a prayer or affirmation or some kind of devotion
that is based upon trying to reach out to God "out there somewhere."
There are no God-empty spots, and where you are God is…vitally
completely and fully. So, religion is not simply a "one day a week"
activity, but an every day process of relating ourselves dynamically
with the God-Activity that is in everything and that radiates in and
through ourselves.

It is amazing how far we have strayed from Jesus' pure concept of
God, when he said, "The Father within knoweth what things ye have
need of, before you ask him," [Matt. 6:8] and, "It is the Father's
good pleasure to give you the Kingdom." [Luke 12:32] How could we
have missed this? In his Sermon on Mars Hill, the Apostle Paul refers
to the omnipresence of God in words that should be re-emphasized in
every Christian church in the world: "The God who made the world and
everything in it, being Lord of Heaven and earth, does not live in
shrines made by man, nor is He served by human hands, as though He
needed anything, since He Himself gives to all men life and breath
and everything.…Yet He is not far from each one of us, for `in Him we
live and move and have our being.'" [Acts 17:24-28, RSV] "In Him we
live and move and have our being." We live in the Presence…we live in
God. It is the milieu of our life. We can't get out of it. There is
nowhere to go to find God. Just "Be still, and know that I AM God."
[Psalm 46:10] Be still and let the Divine Flow manifest in you and
through you. This is "The Omnipresence of God."

Second: "The Divinity of Man" – Quite often, I am criticized for
saying that Jesus is not Divine. Actually, I am not saying that Jesus
is not Divine, but I insist that all persons are Divine. Jesus made
the discovery of the Divinity of man. He proved and demonstrated it
in his own fulfillment. But the discovery was of the potential of all
human beings. He said of you and me: "…the works that I do shall he
[you] do also; and greater works than these shall he [you] do…."
[John 14: 12] So you see, when we talk about this idea that we have a
Divine Potential within us, this does not give less reverence to
Jesus, it gives more. Jesus is the "way shower," the savior, in that
he has revealed the Divine Potential of humankind. He showed us what
we can all do. He showed us that each of us can go farther, can reach
higher, can unfold tremendous potentialities that are within us, and
that we can do it because he did it, and we can do it as he did it,
if we have the faith that he had. This begs a lot of questions, but
it simply indicates that life is a process of growth toward the
fulfillment of that Divine Potential.

Every person contains within himself or herself a Spark of
Divinity, "that little Spark of Celestial Fire that a man may
desecrate but never quite lose." [George Washington] The purpose of
life is to express and unfold this God-Self, this Infinite Potential.
The same Potential indwells you that was in Jesus. Remember, the
Apostle Paul says, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ
Jesus." [Philippians 2:5] This is the same idea. The only difference
is how good we are at discovering it, in mastering it, in expressing
it. The difference between you and Jesus is not in the manner of his
birth, but in the quality of his consciousness. The paper that is
used in a fifty-dollar bill is exactly the same as that used in a one-
dollar bill. But a different value has been placed upon them. The
substance is the same, yet no one would say that the one-dollar bill
is as good as the fifty, or that you are as good, in the quality of
your consciousness as Jesus.

Years ago, in the General Electric Company, there was a standing joke
that was played on every new research scientist who joined the staff.
His first assignment was to frost the inside of electric light bulbs.
This was akin to being sent out to find a "shelf-stretcher" or a "sky-
hook" or a "left-handed monkey wrench." Everyone knew this was an
impossible task. So, the joke went on for years and everybody had
many good laughs. But finally, a young fellow came along who was
determined to make good on his first job, and he did it! He actually
developed a process that frosted the bulbs, which made them stronger
by diffusing the light. This process is the basis for all modern
electric lighting, invented by a man who didn't know it could not be
done! That's the great key. That's the idea that Jesus suggests and
demonstrates and fulfills. You can do the impossible! You can do
more, you can have more, you can be more, when you realize that you
are a Child of God, a Spiritual Being, and that you have an Infinite
Potential awaiting releasement. Your role, as Robert Browning would
say, is to "open out a way whence the Imprisoned Splendor may
escape." This is the concept of the Divinity of man.

Third: "The Creative Power of Thought" - Mind is the connecting link
between humans and God. We must let our thoughts express God, rather
than simply expressing reactions to things of the world. Thought
itself is creative, and we become positive, creative, powerful beings
when we think original God-thoughts. Elbert Hubbard [1856-1915,
philosopher, writer, editor, school teacher, and lecturer] once
said, "Man is not what he thinks he is, but what he thinks, he is."
Your life, as you are now expressing it, is the reflection of the
framework of your mind, as formed by your dominant attitudes and
beliefs of consciousness. If you are not satisfied with what you are
experiencing, then you must begin today to rebuild this mental
framework—"…be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind," [Romans
12:2] as Paul said.

When Jesus said, "…be it done for you as you have believed," [Matt.
8:13, RSV] and, "According to your faith be it done unto you," [Matt:
9:29, KJV] actually, he was referring to thinking. "Faith" is another
word for thought. Jesus was saying, "According to your thoughts, be
it done unto you." The thoughts you think actually are the key to
manifesting the conditions of your life. When you think in terms of
the possibilities of life, then the door to success is open. If you
think in terms of self-pity, of injustice, then the door is closed—
but you open it or you close it by the way you think. You can think
yourself into being unhappy or depressed. You can think yourself into
being glad. You can think yourself into being well and prosperous…or
you can think yourself into being sick and poor. You can actually
think yourself into unemployment…or you can think yourself back on to
a good-salaried position again—doing good work with good
compensation. This is a very important thing.

Because we have not recognized the importance of words and thoughts,
we continually and habitually express such thoughts as, "What a
stupid fool I am" or, "Everything I do fails miserably" or, "Oh, I
suppose, once again we're gonna have more of those difficult times."
These are your thoughts, and your thoughts are going to determine the
kind of conditions you experience in your life. Your thoughts set
your own evaluation. In a very real sense, your thoughts determine
what you become and the way others see you, for life is always lived
from within-out. As L.C. Robinson says, "Things may happen around
you, and things may happen to you, but the only things that really
count are the things that happen in you."

So here we are…three aspects of what I call, "The Truth in a
Nutshell": "The Omnipresence of God," "The Divinity of Man," and "The
Creative Power of Thought." I give many, many talks on each and every
one of these subjects, giving them broad expansion. In a sense, this
is what it's all about: "The Truth in a Nutshell."
WHICH ONE FEELS BETTER TO YOU?

SPIRITUALITY OR RELIGION?

GO TO YOUR HEART FOR THE ANSWER
IT WILL NEVER LIE TO YOU
THE REAL GOD MADE IT THAT WAY......................from Enlightenment Chapel