"Organised religions are a huge obstacle to spirituality." Discuss.

[jeremy67]

In my view, yes.

Religion confines, controls and dictates what people should think and how they should act. It does not encourage free thought, free expression and the exploration of the self necessary to begin understanding the spirit.

I was nominally brought up a christian, but it always seemed to me that the Church was more interested in ritual, form and maintaining the status quo than in spiritual matters. I now suspect that what we know as christianity today is a movement that began by following Jesus' teachings but was hijacked by people who wanted to accumulate power and wealth, while subduing the masses into the bargain.

What a crying shame...

Love and Light,
Jeremy

Yeh, it always puzzled me that if god is love then why don't priests stop talking about god and start just loving, as we all know from this forum talking about love only leads to arguments anyway.

[peteyzen]

Great question Jeremy.
I would say this, yes we all know of the negative aspects of relligion, wars, control,, abuse, sectarianism, and on and on. However, and I`m speaking as a non religious person here, its different strokes for different folks. None of us, or at best very very few can honestly say we know exactly how it is.

We all follow a path which gives us answers that suit our opinions at any one time. For many people the religions suit them both culturally and spiritually and once in them a devout practitioner can grow.
All the relligions use the same basic toools, prayer, meditation, and or the eastern ones mantra also. Belief in a God or the potential of oneself is a paramount tool in progress.
I suppose what I`m saying is that for most people, religion is all they have spiritually speaking, and if their effort is strong and their heart pure, then they will progress, often faster than people outside of a relligion who have no discipline, and no structure to their practice or more importantly no real guide.

So don`t dismiss it, just don`t accept the knobs within the religion, the power seekers, money makers and manipulators, who spoil religion for the real searchers.
Hugs and light

It's an interesting question to explore:

But what is classed as an 'organised religion'. Western Christian churches initially spring to mind, as does Judaism and Islam, but what of Buddhism and Hinduism are they not also made up of religious organisations? - and yet spirituality borrows heavily from both Hindu and Buddhist texts and teachings, so without them it simply wouldn't exist in it's current state. The Sufi mysticism of Islam also has had a massive impact on what we now think of as modern spirituality - so many past organisations have played a role, albeit in subtle and background ways.

Is organised religion the problem inherently, or is it a case of some current and historical forms of organised religion being a problem because the organisational side has been mis-used by power hungry leaders. Would it not be possible to create a very positive spiritual effect through an organised structure as well?

Gouranga

Das

[peteyzen]

Originally Posted by DASA

Would it not be possible to create a very positive spiritual effect through an organised structure as well?

Das

I think it would be dasa, depending on who was in charge, thats the problem with these things, people control religion, even ideology changes depending upon the incumbent leaders point of view,, where as the truth is the truth because it isn`t human.
With each new leader , sadly , change will inevitably take place, small chamges at the start and eventually, inevitably, dilution occurs. Thats why avatars keep coming back to get us back on track again.
Did I mention avatars before!!!!!?????
Oh my God I`ve become an Avatar bore.......

I'm an avator, and so's my son.....my wife is but she won't admit it and you are but you forgot.

[peteyzen]

Did I though?????

Originally Posted by peteyzen

I think it would be dasa, depending on who was in charge

I think you hit the nail on the head there Pete - unless the person in charge is a 'lead by pure spiritual example' kind of soul then it would never work. But if they were then it could work beautifully, as I've seen happening in a number of places on my travels. Probably you'd have to be somewhat 'compatible' with the person in charge as well to a certain extent - it's a two way thing I think.

Gouranga,

Das

Hi Peteyzen,

are you saying you are an avator then?

[peteyzen]

No, Mart me old cocker
Wish i was tho
Apparantly we are all god tho, so does that mean we all have the potential to eventually become avatars?