I follow no religion but believe very much in the Creator. All of this, the Universe, EVERYTHING, had to come from somewhere. I refuse to believe that the consciousness that looks out thru my eyes, that the thing inside me that craves love and happiness, is a freak accident.

I believe that when God created us, He used a pure and perfect piece of Himself to do it, each of us a spark of pure Light and joy. But this simplicity and purity gets covered up by layer after layer of Ego as we grow and develop. With all good intentions, well, SOME of them with good intentions, society, our parents, our schools, our countries, our social class (friends), and especially our religions, try to fill us with THEIR belief systems, convinced that they are all knowing on all subjects, that they can lead us straight. (Their Egos telling them that they could not possibly be wrong about anything, especially not about religion).

Throughout history, some men have been able to get back to that simple purity, to "go back home". These men, inspired by what they saw inside of themselves, their true nature, tried to teach others how to do the same. After these men left, many of them violently since ignorant man cannot cope with hearing the truth or infuriated that their belief systems were not upheld, the followers of these great men believed that they must try to perpetuate the teaching of the Master, hence, the formations of the religions.

Each religion, or at least the vast majority, believe that theirs is "the only way", that only their scripture is the true Word of God, and their man is the only true Lord; almost all religions are identical this way. If your press them for proof you are told to read their scripture and don't question it; "you have to have faith, you have to believe". Each religion can produce people who have had "visions" while on an emotion high. For me, that is not proof; I am not the one who had the vision, and I do not trust emotional highs which probably are produced by the Ego anyway. And who knows what the original words of these Masters really were, Jesus, Mohamed, Buddha, Krishna, Rama, etc., never spoke a word of English. Also, I do not trust the "inspired" men who translated these scriptures, many of them leaving out entire parts, or adding as they desired (again, THEIR Egos knew what was best for the rest of us, well at least the best for them). The God that I believe in will not send one of His own children to eternal damnation for believing in the wrong thing for 50-60 years.

I believe that it is folly to believe that you are going to go to Heaven when you die if you are not ALREADY experiencing Heaven within. If you take a mean, miserable, person who has lead a "pious" life, dies, and who suddenly finds themselves surrounded by Paradise, they will still be unhappy; your consciousness, the real you, will still be there (unless going to Heaven includes a major personality change). I believe that it is possible to be "in Heaven" while you are alive, and I believe that this is what all the great Masters throughout history tried to teach to people of their time: the Kingdom of Heaven is within; you do not have to wait till you die to get there.

Acadia