[Please note: The “journey” to Realization has seven, clear-cut steps that must be taken in an exact order. The third step requires that persons first play a religious role or a spiritual role. Both must be transcended to continue, but either (or both) can serve as a step; however, it is far easier to move beyond a spiritual persona than a religious persona.]
F.: The pointer was offered earlier that, prior to Realization, religion was (as the social critic said) my refuge, used by a person that had failed to pay what he owed. Religion was a way of distracting myself from who I really was, namely, a thief. It has also allowed millions and trillions of others to distract themselves in their relative existence from seeing what they are by way of encouraging denial, thus contributing to the suffering of persons dealing with them in this existence.
Religion’s offer of “re-purification-granted-on-request” provided only short respites from the nagging sensation of being a thief who was hiding behind a religious cloak. While trapped in the roles and in the lies of being pure and not having to repay debts owed, suffering and misery were intermingled with occasional days of relief as religion offered an assurance that responsibility had ended with a prayer. For some who are prone to believing lies, they can take themselves to be so religious and so pure that they—like sociopaths—care not a whit about harms done because they claim they have been “forgiven by the only One Who matters…God.” A minister told me I did not need to repay funds owed. A woman was told by a second pastor that she could leave her husband of twenty years, destroy her home and family, take more than half of all he had earned, and the pastor would allow her to remarry a different man in his church. Another member who had embezzled $25,000 from a company was told by a third pastor that God had forgiven him, so no effort was ever made to return the stolen funds. Is it understood that none of those relative world examples are personal attacks? They are not even persona attacks since that which is not real cannot be attacked. The body-mind-personality triad can only be understood to be a collection of false images. Some might wish or hope or desire that the persons of the earth could all Realize and remove the relative existence suffering generated by "the godly," but that shall never happen. Realization comes to few, and even then, only to one at a time.
Religion’s offer of “re-purification-granted-on-request” provided only short respites from the nagging sensation of being a thief who was hiding behind a religious cloak. While trapped in the roles and in the lies of being pure and not having to repay debts owed, suffering and misery were intermingled with occasional days of relief as religion offered an assurance that responsibility had ended with a prayer. For some who are prone to believing lies, they can take themselves to be so religious and so pure that they—like sociopaths—care not a whit about harms done because they claim they have been “forgiven by the only One Who matters…God.” A minister told me I did not need to repay funds owed. A woman was told by a second pastor that she could leave her husband of twenty years, destroy her home and family, take more than half of all he had earned, and the pastor would allow her to remarry a different man in his church. Another member who had embezzled $25,000 from a company was told by a third pastor that God had forgiven him, so no effort was ever made to return the stolen funds. Is it understood that none of those relative world examples are personal attacks? They are not even persona attacks since that which is not real cannot be attacked. The body-mind-personality triad can only be understood to be a collection of false images. Some might wish or hope or desire that the persons of the earth could all Realize and remove the relative existence suffering generated by "the godly," but that shall never happen. Realization comes to few, and even then, only to one at a time.
In the end, I saw those in charge of the refuge for what they were: self-serving personas who wanted a percentage of money for themselves rather than encouraging that it be returned to those it belonged to. When those roles were abandoned after seeing their contradictions and hypocrisy, then the original debtors were contacted and arrangements were made to repay the debt. Self would never have been found had the religious persona fixated in the refuge that was distracting me from seeing who I really was and that was “preventing me from seeing Who/What I AM.” Can you understand why the True Self of Stage Six of "the journey to Realization" could never have been found if the Stage Three religious and spiritual personas had not been transitioned? Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued]
