“… The only true liberty is in the service of that which is beyond all limits, beyond all definitions, beyond all human appreciation: that which is All, and which therefore is no limited or individual thing: The All is no-thing, for if it were to be a single thing separated from all other things, it would not be All….” ~ Thomas Merton
In Part 3 Hans addressed “In what way can people come to the realization of their oneness with the Absolute?” … (scroll to bottom of post for links to Parts 1 & 2) so now we move on to …
The meaning of religion
Although the term religion refers to ‘re-connect’ (Latin re-ligare, like Sanskrit Yoga, to join, to yoke), long ago the dualistic religions (Christianity and Islam) made religion something one has to believe in.
This dis-connection from the Absolute (Reality) is of an ‘importance beyond our comprehension’, as said before. It has resulted in world wars, terror, abuse of our planet etc. (by complete loss of knowledge of non-duality).
The most important thing that matters in religion should be: how can I come to understand life and my place in it?
In experiencing the right answers (such as: life is an expression of the Absolute and becoming my Self gives peace of mind, happiness) people find wisdom and the possibility to express the Absolute in the world (or in symbolic, religious terms: to live in accordance with the will of God).
Obviously religion does not give the right, understandable answers anymore. It is not belief (hope) that we need, it is understanding that we highly need.
In my book ‘Initiation into Reality’ I made some suggestions for each of the great world religions on how they could make their ‘inner treasures’ more accessible to people of our time (see Epilogue).
Obviously I have no illusions that my suggestions will ‘change the world’, but what I do know is that if (western) religion is not able to integrate true spirituality in their message, it will fade out eventually.
Looking forward
In my opinion it is very sad that religion seems to have lost the knowledge about ‘God’. On the other hand, we see that spirituality is developing more and more outside the religious institutions.
How re-ligious (uniting) is this spirituality actually? Hard to say, but fortunately the spiritual quest is still relevant. Could it be possible that one day religion and spirituality will merge?
I hope this will be the case, not in the last place because of the world religions´ ‘infrastructure’ (as a means to spread the redeeming message of non-duality).
In relation to this I would make an urgent appeal to all spiritual people: “Please contemplate the ancient message of non-duality and see how you can serve ‘that which sustains life…..”
This concludes the 4-part series on Nonduality and it’s value for the world.
We are again honored to share Hans Meijer’s guest post series. Hans is the author of the book Initiation into Reality – available for purchase on Amazon. For more on Hans’ work, please visit his website Initiation into Reality. This guest post series is authored by (& copyright of) Hans Meijer
Hans will be available for any Q&A and will also address any comments from the visitors/readers.
The text content of this series (without all the images here) was previously published (as a single post) in Science and Nonduality and Awaken.
Click here for Part 1 and Part 2 and Part 3.
Quote: Excerpt from “Choosing to Love the World: On Contemplation” by Thomas Merton
Post Images: All images are edited (dimension & logo inserted): 1) Silhouette, Woman.Beyond Faith, by geralt, Public Domain. 2) Initiation Into Reality (book cover image). 3) Duality, by Yiannis Theologos Michellis, CC BY-SA 2.0
Featured Image: Silhouette, Woman.Beyond Faith, by geralt, Public Domain.
