What does the term “religion” mean to most of us? I would bet it means an institutionalized belief system that we believe in or not believe in. Thus, if you were to ask me about my religion, I would bet you would expect me to say I am “Catholic” or “Protestant” or “Atheist,” or “Jew”.
I am none of these. Indeed, I refuse to categorize either you or I. I am nothing, or no-thing, and thus embrace all.
Yet, in conventional thinking, we define our religion as an institutionalized belief system. Religion is a noun; an institution.
Is it really? Does it have to be that way? Indeed, I refuse to put myself into any institutionalized box. This is the problem with modern day human beings. We put ourselves into categorical boxes then, when we die, we tend to put ourselves into boxes called coffins which are set in a grave containing a metallic vault to keep you from dissolving into the Earth.
Can you be cremated and have your ashes flung throughout the cosmos. Become it all, get out of corporatized box!
There is a lot of talk of late by people like Charles Eisenstein about the need to foster a more verb based language. What do these people mean by this?
By verb based language they are talking process oriented more so than thing. I and you are not things….we are happenings!
I’ve heard a lot of women say of a man, “he treats me like an object!” Geeze, how alienating. Mm, is being treated like an object akin to feeling alienated? That’s the problem with a noun based language. It’s demeaning. It divides us into an “I and Thou” rather than uniting us into a “We.”
The Earth is a System, you see. Its a verb more so than a noun. Yet, we treat Her like a noun. Ever hear a woman say that a man treats her like an object? It makes her feel used and abused, doesn’t it? This is how Nature feels. Can you feel the horrid depression of Nature or Gaia (Earth) in this picture?
It is said that we project ourselves onto the world. What does this say about us?
Can you see how important this is? Its the same with a man who feels like an object in his workplace. What meaning does he have in such a place. If he understood himself as a verb acting in relationship to pretty much everything else, would he continue to feel alienated? How do we foster a sense of belonging? Its not going to happen with the current systems we have. We are going to need to change the system ourselves and not look towards the system changing.
Mm, there was a psychologist, the name is escaping me. It wasn’t Maslow. Oh, well, it’ll come to me and I’ll edit it in. At any rate, this psychologist talked about how alienation is such a problem in our culture. Introspect for a moment. Do you ever feel like you don’t belong? Or, do you know people who appear to feel as if they don’t belong?
The very foundations of how we see life, which is noun or “object” based is alienating. By reclaiming the more ancient way of “verbalizing” language, perhaps we can reconnect and experience a deep sense of belonging?
Thus we return to Religion. Religion is a verb and not a noun. True religion is not an institution. It is cuddling with your daughter.As such, the epistemological roots of religion is the French Religere, literally meaning to connect! Cuddling is religion!
Wow!
Religion in its ground is a verb more so than a noun! To say I am “Catholic”, “Protestant”, “Jew”, “Hindu” or “Buddhist” is to foster a sense of alienation. It also fosters conflict by having the different philosophies that are inherent to the various sects. I am right, you are wrong is not the way towards peace. Duality, the pitting of this and that, are the primordial sins of humankind. Its expression of its self is what has us with high extinction rates. It is also behind our being ruled by sociopathic regimes we call corporations. Who controls the government?
But, we can change things. You, the reader and I the writer are connecting right now!
Do we truly need to be aliens on an alien planet?
Who is this planet and this universe if not Nature? And who is Nature if not our Essence? And who is our Essence if not our Self? Mm, in Hindu God is named Brahmin, the Self. In Hebrew, the name is Yahweh or I AM. Who is I AM if not Nature?
Mother Nature and Father God are one!
Is it that simple?
Lover’s Prayer
1998
I attended the Church of my selection
To discuss the national election.
Every attendant there dressed
In his Sunday vest
Responding to another church bell
I heard myself condemned to hell
Even though I was appropriately dressed
In my Sunday best
Whether I turn to the East or the West
I must worship at my Culture’s behest
Learning to accept as blessed
Whatever she deems as best
I no longer attend any Church
Mosques, Ashrams and Temples I leave in the lurch.
I dance naked beneath the stars up above
With Psyche and her own true Love
Do not stifle me with your ego’s threats!
Let my dance be a passionate treat
Eros lights a fire ‘neath my rounded ass
That I may conceive my life’s true task
Envision This! Media 