RELIGION AND MYSTICISM
Why not just "Religion" as the title of this page? Because "Religion", in most people's minds, limits us to talking about the major established religions - Christianity, Islam, Hinduism etc. - and leaves out the many other ways of thinking that are also within the scope of what we want to discuss.
William James talked of an "oceanic feeling" as the basis of religious experience.
This is a feeling of peace and joy, of oneness with the universe, of freedom from fear, of inexpressible beauty and love.
This feeling is - in my view - what religion is all about.
You could say that there are two aspects to religion - there is this oceanic, all-encompassing experience which exalts and ennobles us.
On the other hand, there is also an aspect of religion which degrades us.
Let me make myself clear.
Every person's religion is good for them if it makes them a better person - if it makes them happier and kinder.
If something claims to be a religion has the following characteristics, it does not make us better human beings:
1) The "religion" tells you that it is the only truth and that anyone who believes otherwise is evil and that God will punish them horribly, while God rewards you with everything you could dream of.
2) It tells you that the most important thing is following minute rules about how you dress, what you eat, how you pray, where you pray and when etc., and that this is more important than kindness and love.
3) It tells you that you must avoid and despise others who don't believe what you do and even kill them.
4) And so on - you get the picture.
This is something else than religion - it is a kind of exclusive, self-centred paranoia - the mental state of very insecure people who have to convince themselves that they alone are right because deep down they have no confidence and are full of fear. It makes you feel you are right because those other bastards are wrong. In this it is just like nationalism and racism.
This has been called the horizontal aspect of religion - it can only feel it is worth something if something else is worthless.
Enough for now.
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SOME RANDOM THOUGHTS ABOUT RELIGION
Religion always involves something you believe and something you do.
Example: A Jew believes that God exists, that He created the World and that He revealed a Book to his followers that contains Absolute Truth.
He believes that this book tells him that he should perform certain actions: prayers, restrictions to his diet (only Kosher food permitted), and various rituals.
It also forbids him from performing certain other actions.
It tells him that the world will come to an end and God will judge his actions and send him to a place of eternal horrendous suffering if he has not followed God's instructions. If he has followed God's instructions he will be sent to a blissful place forever.
Example: A Christian believes that the same God exists, that He created the World and that He revealed a Book to his followers that contains Absolute Truth.
He believes that this book tells him that he should perform certain actions: prayers, restrictions to his diet (less than the Jews these days, but Lent fasts and meatless fridays used to be practised, and cannibalism is still forbidden), and various rituals.
It also forbids him from performing certain other actions.
It tells him that the world will come to an end and God will judge his actions and send him to a place of eternal horrendous suffering if he has not followed God's instructions. If he has followed God's instructions he will be sent to a blissful place forever.
Example: A Muslim believes that the same God exists, that He created the World and that He revealed a Book to his followers that contains Absolute Truth.
He believes that this book tells him that he should perform certain actions: prayers, restrictions to his diet (Hallal), and various rituals.
It also forbids him from performing certain other actions.
It tells him that the world will come to an end and God will judge his actions and send him to a place of eternal horrendous suffering if he has not followed God's instructions. If he has followed God's instructions he will be sent to a blissful place forever.
(Note that the creator is in all these cases a "He", though this is a bit difficult to get one's mind around - what is maleness on a cosmic scale? Is this defined by sexual organs? If so, why? If not, by what other definition? Some aspects of religious belief present logical problems to the rational mind.)
Also note how curiously alike are the expressions in all the pictures. They don't look happy either.
All these religions are collectively called "Religions of the Book" - as opposed to the other religions which they call "pagan", and which are different from them in several ways. All of these religions despise the pagans as worshippers of idols, or worshippers of Satan or, possibly even worse, as worshippers of a female god rather than a male god.
More on this subject later.
Please note that all three of these religions have been killing, torturing and general been horrible to each other; except for the Jews, for the last 2000 years, who have been powerless until recently and have been persecuted by the other two, particularly the Christians.
The Christian God is described as the Prince of Peace and Gentle Jesus; the same God, called Allah by the Muslims, is continually called "The Merciful, the Compassionate".
This does not seem to have influenced the behaviour of God's worshippers towards each other to any noticeable degree.
ARE WE AGAINST RELIGION THEN?
No, as Narayana Guru said, "If your religion makes you a better person, then it is a good religion for you".
Also, we should point out that it is not just the prophetic religions - Jews, Christians and Muslims that have been like this: Hindu Nationalism persecuting Muslims and Christians; Buddhist Nationalists in Myanmar persecuting Muslims; and so it goes on. No religion is guiltless.
Also, no religion is necessarily to blame; I have personally met kind, generous, noble and saintly members of all the religions I have mentioned, as well as among people of no religious faith whatsoever.
WHERE DOES THE FAULT LIE THEN?
1) Religions are not necessarily responsible for their followers. There are psychopaths, bigots and just plain nasty people in all walks of life and in all religions or ideologies.
2) There is a Muslim saying that "The Quran is a great ocean and each man can hook the fish he want in it". This probably applies to all religious traditions.
A Christian could say that Jesus told his disciples to arm themselves with swords in the Garden of Gethsemane, and therefore physical violence is justified in the propagation of Christianity. Muslims could do the same with the Quran, as we have heard so often from bigots, both Muslim and anti-Muslim. In Judaism could fish around in the many wars of the Israelites. Hindus in Rama and the wars of the Pandavas, etc. etc.
Admittedly, with Buddhism it gets pretty difficult to justify violence, but they have managed to do it in Myanmar. How clever we humans are when we want to justify our vile deeds!