Some Crud

There are certainly other things that are important, but in my experience, these four things (listen, learn, let go and live) take care of clearing the bulk of the crud.  In listening and letting go, I have found the first thing I had to listen to and let go of was that GOD was static, or dead.  In the ‘60’s there was a lot about “God is Dead” It never seemed to me that God was Dead, it just seemed that people had stopped believing. Why had they stopped Believing? Religion could be dead to me a lot faster than God.  In fact religion seemed dead.  No change in thinking, no change in growth, stagnant like an old mud puddle. 2000 year old myths and stories telling us we were essentially no good.   How could that be considered alive? 

 When we grow up we learn to reject myths and embrace the reality.  We believed in Santa, the tooth fairy, the Easter Bunny, all kinds of things, but then we grew up and were told the truth.  Why is it that in religion we are never told the truth?  The myths continue to hold us in their sway.  We quit seeking and just accept what we are told, even when it makes no sense.

 So much of what we are told makes no sense, and yet we hold on to it so very tightly, afraid to change, afraid to question, afraid of the truth.  How much easier it is to believe the myth and go on living the way we always have.  It is like a child closing its eyes and believing the world has gone away, or that no one can see them.  In our myths we can live the way we want, good or bad, because the end, or hell, or death and judgment are seemingly so far away.  We live fearing, but not really believing in our myths.  If we really believed what we have been taught, or that we would go to hell if we do wrong, we would not do wrong!  Some part of us knows that religion is myth.  But we refuse to put those teachings away as we did Santa and all the rest.

 Now I am not saying that God is a myth, Jesus is a myth, or Allah, Mohammed, or any other name for a deity.  I whole heartily believe in a deity and I call him God, Spirit, Presence, and Divine.  I am saying we need to learn the truth, let go of the myths and find a real living God.  Get rid of the crud in our hearts and minds, and connect with the real Power in the universe.  Grow up, let go and live.

 When we found out Santa wasn’t real, in a sense there was some pain in that knowledge in letting go an old friend.   How much more fear in letting go our religious myths and making them reality instead of myth.  It scares us silly.  But even though we gave up the myth of Santa, we still believe in the spirit of St. Nick.  As a child, even though Santa is mostly a good thing to us, it is still a fear-based concept. If we aren’t good, punishment will follow.  Coal instead of presents.  Switches instead of goodies.  We grew up, let go the myth and it became about goodwill and caring and fun instead of punishment.

 Religion brings the same things. Comfort, yet punishment hanging over our heads.  Why not let go of the myth and feel the reality of the Spirit of the Divine?  Let go and find out.  The Spirit of God, the Bible and all the trappings of Christianity will not suffer in letting go of the myths, in clearing out the crud and making the mud puddle of religion a well spring of life.

 Unfortunately, we are guided by religious leaders, most with their own agendas, using archaic texts meant to scare and coerce people into living the way certain human factions want us to live, instead of the living Spirit of the Divine.  That’s where you let go the myth and plunge into the reality. 

 Let go the notion that the great religious texts of old, The Bible, Torah, Qur'ân, or whatever, are the only words of GOD.  GOD did not stop speaking to us and teaching us after these were written.  They are all great guides, but GOD is alive and teaching in every experience we have, in books, movies, other people, religions and more.  GOD is limitless and infinite.  In everything he can teach.  Through all of us he can and does continue to send us His guidance. 

 It isn’t very easy.  Letting go of thousands of years of teaching and beliefs.  Daunting prospect if you ask me, but the great thing is it once you start, it kinda rolls along on its own.  Like letting go the belief in Santa and believing in the spirit of what he represents.  It’s just growth.

 While we are thinking of Christmas, let's look at the Christmas story and the bible.  I grew up believing Christ was born in a manger because Mary and Joseph had to travel there for a census and couldn’t find another place , that shepherds and Wise Men were in attendance, there was a huge star, and then they all went home and he grew up to be a carpenter and taught in the temples and became the Son of God.

 When I tried to read the story in the Bible, I got confused because there were two different stories that had been combined into one to make the Christmas story we all know.  At first I decided that it was just the same story with differing viewpoints, but as I looked closer, they were completely different.  Very little was the same.

 Let’s look at some of the differences:

 Matthew 1:18 - The Angel visit Joseph when she is 6 months pregnant.  He calls off the engagement. 

Luke 1:26 - The angel visits Mary before she gets pregnant. But Elizabeth is there and she is 6 months pregnant.  The engagement still seems to be on.

Matthew 2:1 - Mary and Joseph live in Bethlehem apparently, no mention made of any travel or staying anywhere other than where they were. 

Luke 2:4,5 - Lived in Nazareth, traveled to Bethlehem for a census, no room in the inn.

Matthew 2:11 - Born in a house.

Luke 2:7 - Born in a Manger

Matthew 2:1-11 - The Birth announced by a Star in the east.  Wise men seeing the star followed it to Jerusalem asking where the King was.  Herod hearing this asked the Wisemen to let him know where the King was on their way back.  They continued to follow the star until thy came upon the child and worshipped him.

Luke 2:8-20 - Birth announced by shepherds.  Shepherds in the fields visited by an angel who gave them glad tidings of his birth, and then a multitude of angels appeared. After the angels left, the shepherds found him lying in a manger, and then thy left to spread the news.

Matthew 1:18 – Angel appeared to Joseph and told them to flee to Egypt as Herod was hunting for the child.  Herod then killed all children under two in Bethlehem and surrounding areas.  After Herod’s death an angel appeared telling Joseph to return to Israel, but being afraid of Herod’s son, he went to Nazareth in Galilee instead. 
Luke 2:21-21 – Eight days after his birth, they left Bethlehem to travel to Jerusalem for his circumcision

 Now those are some big differences. 

 A friend of mine, with whom I discussed a lot of religion, is studying to become a minister.  He is a straight up fundamentalist.  He believes the bible should be taken word for word.  I asked him how it can be word for word when there are two different accounts of just this one story.  There wasn’t much answer as like so many of us, the story we are told is what we believe, not the reality that there were two versions. 

 My purpose in looking at these two differing versions is not to tear down the bible or dispute the importance of Jesus’ birth, but to show how myth works particularly in relation to the Christian religion. 

 There were two stories from two men, written long after anyone was around to have seen or even noticed the birth of a baby who at that point would have been just an ordinary baby to most.  They wrote the stories with a spirit of wonder and love about Jesus, trying to fit his birth into the prophecies written thousands of years earlier.  Who knows if some parts are true or not, we will never really know, and we needn’t care, but the point is that we need to let go of the myth that the bible is factual and grow into the reality that it has a spirit which gives us hope and peace.

 There are hundreds of inconsistencies and differing views of other story, particularly the gospels, but it doesn’t in any way take away from what the Bible intended to show.  The Spirit has lasted millennia, though the words and books and meanings have been changed, inserted and deleted. 

 That is what clearing the crud does.  It takes inconsistencies and untruths and myths and gives you a higher cleaner, clearer perception.  The Bible is a beautiful book, as is the Qu’ran, the Tao, the Hindu Vedas and Sutras, the Buddhist Suttas, and all the writings revered as guides in the world.  But they are just words, Divinely inspired maybe, but words written and read through our own filters and perceptions.  When you look beyond the words, the myths, then you see the reality and the wonder.

 Just to set the record straight, the word GOD is generic to me.  It isn't a Christian thing, though I got my first notions from the Christian church.  It doesn't mean male or female, it isn't about any of my personal conceptions or pre-conceptions.  I firmly believe every single individual has their own religion and their own concept of their GOD.  God is a word I use to identify Creation, Higher Being, Nature, Spirituality, Possibility, and Love.  ALL things and ALL possibilities.  NO limitations.  God is limitless.  So whatever it is that inspires you, fills you, or whoever you pray to, whatever you believe, to me they are all the same, and I will take the liberty of using the word GOD to identify the unidentifiable.  GOD means what it does to me, and I can only suppose that you have faith in what you believe.  This is not a religious text; it is merely my thoughts about unclogging your heart and filling it with something greater, whatever you believe that to be. Throughout this writing there will be references to many religions and philosophies and their works. The thing is, you need to open up and realize we are all the same, we all want the same, we just get there by different paths sometimes.

 Back to GOD being limitless.  A lot of our problems with a higher power of being come from the fact that we are finite.  We think finitely, live finitely, our world is finite.  We have trouble truly understanding and encompassing the idea of the infinite.  Think back in school when you first learned that the universe is infinite.  Could you get your mind around that idea as a child?  Can you get it to work for you any better now?  If I sit back and truly think on it, I still cannot conceive of the universe as never-ending.  My mind comes up to some kind of end eventually.  I cannot understand that there is no beginning and no end.  We all have different ways of thinking and dealing with it, or simply disregarding it.

 The same goes for your Source.  We have real difficulty in dealing with the fact that there is no beginning and no end.  Source has no limits, knows everything, is capable of everything and anything.  So in our finite minds, we limit GOD/Source horribly.  Many so-called religious people believe that only a certain kind of person merits God's love.  Wars are fought to bring one persons' or nations' view of GOD to others.  People hate others in the name of GOD.  People decide what GOD can and cannot do.  Differing religious viewpoints have caused huge events in history. The United States was founded on and because of differing religious views.  We all know about Hitler's condemnation and treatment of Jews, the Klan's acts against the black community, and hatred of anyone different than themselves. Most of us perceive this as wrong.  But think, have you never judged another and condemned someone because of his or her religion or lifestyle? And if not vocally, at least internally thought that they were not good, or Ggodly, or sometimes not even to be tolerated.  What is the difference?  Is your GOD unable to love everyone?  Do you put down other religions or beliefs?  Is GOD so small he can only be worshipped one way?  Let go the finite, the perceptions of God, and it's a cinch you will find out ways to expand your mind and find a way for more love to reside in you.

 I am not saying get rid of churches, synagogues, temples, and other places of worship.  I am not saying you need to let go of the Bible and all the other religious works.  I am saying you need to find a new way of seeing and feeling and letting the Divine work in your life. 

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