If you are newly interested in finding the meaning of life, then the subjects of religion and spirituality need to be understood as well. This primer and introduction is for you. We will go over all the aspects of both subjects because they are intertwined. We will differentiate between the two because they are different. If you understand their difference, then you can see how all this picture fits together if you are beginning spiritual growth in yourself or for your family.
This website is from a New Age view but do not be concerned, we have no agenda, we are a ministry and sell nothing here, nor do we accept donations. We seek to enlighten you so you can make decisions in your best interest. We encourage you to see your world through your own eyes, not ours or anyone else’s, which is one of the seven spiritual birthrights we will introduce you to here.
The first thing to understand is the difference between good and bad people. Life’s conflicts center on the difference between these two camps. Good people, as they grow and mature emotionally will naturally become aware of ethics, morality and the importance of emotionality in other people and things. This is part of their maturing process and is little affected by things introduced to them such as religion, parenting and government controls. They may start out immature and aggressive with an indifference to the welfare of others and social structure around them, but over time this life-damaging behavior will fall away. They will acquire a sensitivity to others and structure and become especially sensitive to the feelings of others. Moreover, they will grow a desire to contribute to others’ emotional welfare and grow a strong desire to contribute to society’s structure. Good people will become aware of what boundaries are and the importance of such things as self-esteem, deep relationships, and healthy pride. As they become complete, they will desire to give to others to make themselves feel even more complete. As they were nurtured, they too will tend to nurture others.
Bad people will not have that tendency towards spirituality. Many will remain distant, hostile and reptilian in nature with no capacity to grow any degree in character. Those people will live all their life in a spiritual desert where only snakes and thorny cacti thrive. They can possess the same mental capacity to learn and communicate and advance in careers as good people but will never understand the capacity to be generous and acquire character, morality or virtue.
Here is where it gets confusing: We naturally assume that only good people go to church and bad people go to bad places like bars and ghettos selling drugs and robbing banks. Good people are attracted to religion because they are nurturers, or they are spiritually needful, and they need nurturing, which is good. Good people create or participate in good nurturing churches, if they are inclined to participate in religious activity. Not all good people are inclined to participate in churches. Church participation is not required to grow character and spirituality in good people, only their inner sense to follow their God given life path already within them. Good people will help you see what is the meaning of life, role modeled in their behavior and attitudes, bad people will deceive you because there is no spirituality within them.
Bad people are attracted to religion also because they are on a power trip. They seek to enslave others into their created ideologies and convince all other people of their permanently inferior state, which they call being lost and in sin. Bad people convince others they need the church to get to God, which is bad. These churches behave like cults whose only purpose is to build up the church, judge the outside world which they teach is vomitous and sinful and the members all try to out righteous each other. Bad people making or running churches only create wasp nests full of stinging wasps. Most churches are bad, controlled powerfully by bad people.
So, what then is spirituality and life’s meaning and how is that different from religion? Religion is simply one culture’s view of spirituality. Many different cultures perceive spirituality differently. Nomadic cultures see spiritual things in nature, structured societies see spiritual things as an order needed to be learned and enforced, much like torturing witches for being heretics. Christian history is full of this. Understanding the difference between spirituality and religion is necessary to finding our personal meaning of life. Religion is when we identify a principle, and add a personality to it, then teach if we worship this personality, we will somehow acquire that principle into our soul.
There will be both good and bad personalities in religion. Religion will then attach a ritual to it to make it official. Moreover, you must then keep adding conditions to your status to keep your salvation. From my decades of study of religious settings, character is no more promoted by religious participation than is found outside of religion in the general population. That is why there are so many religions, because there are so many different cultures’ views of spirituality. Finding the meaning of life is like finding the right size shoes to wear. It does not depend on the right religion; it depends on the right view for the searcher. Which brings up the first of your seven spiritual birthrights, which is seeing things through your own eyes, not someone else’s.
All religion claims to be the sole source of spirituality, and no spirituality will enter Humankind unless religion brings it in. This is a lie to promoted by bad people churches in all religions. There were spiritually complete people before religion was even thought of, and churches in communities were ever formed. The truth is spirituality is a capacity of all good people to serve others which can be encouraged by religion, but religion is not necessary to bring spirituality out in everyone.
That brings up the next obvious big question: If religion, any religion does not bring character into a society and in a community, then from where does character and virtue of personhood enter Humankind? Also, if I cannot trust a church or a religion to guide me in finding the meaning of my life, being who I am supposed to be, then where can I search for this guidance I desperately need? God, His insight, His will and His nurturing comes into Humankind through the common man, and through motherhood, and lastly through our unique individuality. That is spirituality in action, love and compassion coming to you from others, then you give it out to others who need it years later.
God reaches us through the good we receive from our parent figures, real parents or not, from the love, insight and care we receive from another male loving human being. That would be fatherhood or the common man. God reaches us also through feminine nurturing we receive, and that role is motherhood. No certification, academic standing, or religious credentialing are needed, only character and virtue of personhood. Anyone with a loving heart can fill those roles for you in childhood or in our adult life after we are grown. Our life path will have loving nurturing people in all the places we need them when we need them. People who have demonstrated the most character in your life may be in the lowest settings.
Nurturing grows us spiritually. All true nurturing will always point you to the insight already available within and encourage you to act from within. That is what loving mothers, fathers and those acting in those capacities will always emphasize you to do. Seek their advice and look at yourself with the same importance as they see in you. All nurturing will be an encouragement to exercise your seven spiritual birthrights. Your connection to God and your service to God is completely found in your seven spiritual birthrights, along with fellowship with the common man and motherhood.
All this bypasses the institution of religion entirely for most people. However, there will be those who are called into various roles in religion. This is because in exercising their spiritual birthrights they will find that religion is within themselves to do. There are good people that need a religious setting to make them feel more complete, and they can serve others best there. That is as it should be because they looked within finding it, and they were not convinced through fear and guilt to do it by the religion itself. That is a big difference that must be understood, the guidance must have come from within.
Here are the seven birthrights God has given you, the seven tools you own to build your life and in doing so, serve Humankind and God. The meaning of life’s answer is within.
Seeing things through your own eyes, and not someone else’s eyes.
Feeling your own feelings.
Thinking your own thoughts.
Making your own choices.
Then we go even deeper still,
Imagining my own dreams (finding my own talents).
Building with my talents,
Joyously sharing my creation with all Humankind to make it more complete.
There is no general meaning of life that applies to everyone, the meaning of life is always deeply personal, unique and needs to be in your version of it. Look within your heart, for it is there.
Just for the record, this is an emotional and spiritual encouragement ministry. We are selling nothing here and are not at the present time even set up to take donations, and probably never will. Your healed life is our reward enough, and we are very pleased with that. If you want to, please share your strength with others in your future so our nurturing can live on.