Religion and spirituality are primarily about death: where do you "go" after death; what is "heaven" like and how do you get "there;" how does "reincarnation" work; and many other fear-based "after-life" questions. God, one name for this great and present Intelligence and Power, this Essence of infinite creation, is discussed relative to your real physical existence, usually only in the context of how God can help you get more stuff, or how He can at least help you preserve, improve, or heal the stuff you now have.
Religions teach or imply the general idea that "heaven is better," yet they cry or moan to God for Him to preserve or improve their physical existence and circumstantial life. Few people see the irony. Either God is about death, or He is about life: which is it? If He is about death, then stop being a hypocrite and quit praying for His help with your health or your other problems. If He is about life, then get on with living in the real world, and find this Living Way, if you are so inclined. If you believe that death is better, then stop trying to stay healthy, and stop trying to fulfill all your other real-world needs or wants. If life is better, then discover this Living Way, His Living Way. Decide. Use your reason and intelligence, and decide. Decide either way, and stand strong in your conviction, and do not be a hypocrite. Look beyond the fear.
If the "after-life" and "heaven" are better, then why were you Created here? What is the reason for your existence here, and for this wonderful and infinite creation in which you live, if not for life? Why do you exist here, and why does everything that sustains your life and well-being already exist here, if indeed "heaven" or some other "after-life" is better? (The differences between the mere idea of a reason or purpose for existing, and your real present possibilities within existence, are addressed in other parts of my writing.)
If you choose to believe in some form of an after-life, whether as a heaven or reincarnation or some other idea, then perhaps you would also ask yourself these and similar questions: How does it help me now? How does the idea of an after-life make my real and present life any better? How does it help relieve the suffering, pain, turmoil, struggles, confusion, and problems that I am enduring every day?
If you want to go a little further in your deliberation, you could also ask: Is the hope for a better life, after death, all there is to life? Is death, is the ending of my existence, the epitome of my existence? If so, then why was I born alive, here on Earth, and what is all this about? What good is existence if death and an after-life are better? Am I willing to live with nothing more than the idea that my "life" will be better after death?
However, if you seek the guidance of the few true Incarnations who have lived, Jesus was clear when He said:
1. "God is not the God of the dead, but of the living." (Matthew 22:32)
2. "He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living: ye therefore do greatly err." (Mark 12:27)
3. "For he is not a God of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto him." (Luke 20:38.)
4. "If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water." (John 4:10)
Buddha likewise made numerous references to life, a way of living, the stream of life, or the Living Way. He also attempted to help His followers not be concerned about "reincarnation," but to seek the Overcoming of suffering here and now, while alive. It is very difficult to help uproot deeply-held beliefs in the natural mind, without them clearly and deeply understanding the very process of belief (as being no more than imagination assumed to be real), as opposed to knowledge based on real experience, or as opposed to simply "not knowing" (which is an arena for learning about that which is real or possible to be real).
This organization is dedicated to the experiential reality and truth of life. We do not offer yet another belief-system, or a re-make of the same old tired and empty religious and spiritual beliefs that have greatly harmed humanity for thousands of years. Most people simply want their current beliefs and practices validated, but this is not the place for them, and most will go away and never look back. Most people are not serious investigators, are not serious students of life, but like to believe that they already have life and death "figured-out," or at least "know" as much as they want to know. Most people would rather live in the subjective world of fluff, and ignore the difficult reality and truth about themselves and the whole of life. Religions and spiritual paths are popular because they cater to the weaknesses and insanity in humanity, and merely give people that which they want. They are "big business" by design. If religion and spiritual paths were only about life, and did not offer the false-hope of an after-life, they either would not exist, or at least would be very small and inconsequential, and would have no substantial sway over humanity as they do today.
This organization, however, does not compromise reality and its truth for any reason, and is dedicated to the Living Way. The one Higher Life we teach is a real Living Way. It is not based in mere belief and imagination, which are synonymous, and it involves and affects every aspect of the being and life, both within and without. That is extremely good news for the serious Spiritual seeker and student of life, for he is someone who wants real change and improvement, here and now, and who understands the fallacy and emptiness of living by mere belief and wishful-thinking, and who refuses to remain hidden off in his mind where he can create his own safe "reality." He wants the only Something that is better. He wants the only Living Way that is of and to this Higher Life. By Grace, he is beginning to understand how genuine goodness and the Higher Life can be realized, and can be a real Living Way of life, here and now.
The serious student of life requires reality, and the corresponding truth of himself and the whole of existence. He or she is not interested in mere belief, which is nothing but imagination, and is also, by the way, not akin to Faith as I define it. He is, therefore, not interested in an "after-life:" he does not deny or minimize his own living physical existence, and he realizes that this is his life, here and now, and he wants it to be better, much better. He is beginning to understand his real and greatest possibility. He then looks around, and observes the masses as they look forward to an imaginary better day "later-on," and as they drift along waiting and planning for death, and doing little more than finding amusements and gathering unto themselves, during the brief meantime before the void takes it all away. He who dies with the most stuff and the best pleasures, wins the game, while those who remain fight over his stuff; and on and on.
The Higher Life involves and affects every aspect of the physical and subtle being and life, both within and without. The Living Way is not about death, and is not about only the mind, and is not about "only" anything else, but involves the entire being and life, and is about their real transformation, here and now. Religion and spirituality are largely about empty beliefs; but belief is mainly about finding safety in mere ideas, finding comfort inside the subjective world of fantasy, but the price is very, very high: the continuation of limitation and suffering, and a wasted life, wasted because of the great opportunity that was forfeited for the smallness, darkness, and temporariness of the egoic existence.
The fantasies of religion and spirituality, among other negative effects, cause the mind to lose touch with the brevity of one's real personal existence, and to thereby lose the urgency needed for real Spiritual Growth here and now. The idea of death, in the rare moments that it is deeply considered, is usually viewed as very distant and a "possibility," and is often not allowed to profoundly touch the mind as an impending event and the inevitable final moment of life. Even death fifty years in the future is "impending" relative to the vast expanse of eternity. But, you are not guaranteed even tomorrow, much less fifty more years.
Hope for a better future, arises from suffering in the present moment. If there were no suffering, or no sense of deprivation, then the need for hope would not exist. People indeed have hope because of present suffering, but religion and spirituality provide only false-hope for humanity, which is a moral crime, yet the masses are willing victims: they willingly lie down on the altar of death, not wanting to believe death to be real and final. The reality and truth of himself and existence is too frightening and difficult for the average person to confront, much less accept, therefore the illusions and delusions provided by religion and spirituality, and by a culture of political- and spiritual-correctness, are usually well-received. But, it is in confronting reality within and without, and the truth it reveals, that the serious student of life can realize true Spiritual Growth and the Higher Life. Then, he can enter the stream of life, and can discover this one Living Way.
Hope is the desire for a better future, and the belief or knoweldge that it can be so, and is compelled by suffering or deprivation in the present. Hope that can bear real and substantial fruit, lies in the reality within and without, not in the emptiness of belief, imagination, and wishful-thinking. Hope with realism and thus power, lies in the here and now, and for the here and now of your life, not in some nebulous future, "after" this, your only life, is over. Hope with courage and purpose lies not in the weakness of the imagination, but in the conceptual knowledge of this Living Way based on the real experience to which the Teaching of Life is pointing, and in the profound sense of direction that only Grace-Given intuitive understanding can offer. You can begin to conceptually and intuitively understand the Higher Life, today, now, and then it will deepen and become more pervasive over time, as you devote and surrender yourself to this Living Way. Hope becomes converted by experience and reason. Hope becomes converted by experience and reason, into the power of knowledge, certainty, and overwhelming Faith in the Living God and in His Living Way.
You cannot force God and His Living Way into a mold. You cannot create Him and His Way in your own image, and according to your own fears, ideas, preferences, and desires. God will not surrender to you, but will Lift you Up, will Lift you unto and into Him and His Living Way, if you deeply and passionately invite and allow it to be so. Exceed the masses; exceed religion and spirituality; exceed death, and live. Invite and allow the Living Way, today, now, here and now.
If you feel moved to further consider the Living Way, if you know that there must be something better than the empty fluff and messages of death found in religion and spirituality, then I invite you to consider the many, many pages of writing that are freely offered here on this website. More will be periodically added.
I love you.