Words are meager resonances in life that usually pass unnoticed. Exceptions are when they are declared truth. The resultant reverberations can echo and thud.

I noticed a subtle tremor of uneasiness on Alice’s face as I said my closing words. She quickly recovered, produced an acute smile, and mentioned once, and then again, how attractive my perennial flowers were.

“Is that a crown of thorns blooming?” she asked as she and her mother slowly turned and descended the steps, as if engaged in a pleasurable garden stroll.

“Could be. I don’t pay attention to names.”

I loved flowers and was indifferent to what anyone called them. Names become imprints. Imprints leave impressions. Impressions are not a real thing. Flowers are real, do not find themselves to be inadequate, and do not have any desire to be someplace else.

But, yes, I did understand. When I looked into their eyes I saw their religious Truth. What is this truth? The factuality of the motivations and feelings you perceive to be realistic. If you think my definition to be dismissive or simplistic, come up with your own meaning. How would you define religious truth? This thinking is worth the effort.

Alice seemed nice, I thought. She was nice. Too bad religion came between us. Religion does this—come between people.

Organized faith can also come between a person and the true self of that person.

For people struggling with what is perceived as the ultimate problems of human life, being loyal to an explicit set of beliefs helps them cope. Most people need solid answers to hang on to. However, we know that humans can—and do—attribute meaning to anything. With various levels of awe and mystery thrown in, heritage, history, heroes, the unconscious, obstacles, illness, fate, and fortune—you name it—have all been used to provide a sought-after understanding of who we are and have all been used to find meaning—significances—in life.

I wondered if my visitors felt a disappointment from this visitation or had their “righteousness” only been bolstered by the apostolic encounter? Had the trueness of their perceived “Truth” been reinforced by this experience of a well mannered, but still true rejection? Perhaps. Were they aware of the truth that all members of proselytizing “Truths” feel the very same righteousness? Again, perhaps.

Still I admired their audacity and perseverance. I had no experience in door-to-door sales—except selling chocolate bars in Catholic grade school to raise money for the missions.

As the morning shadows yielded to the rising sun, I looked through my oval window and watched my departing visitors—Faith colder, Alice with youthful spiritual hunger—as they got into their car. They drove away slowly, turning their heads and surveying the residential landscape as if on an inspection patrol.

Here is where we live. Now is what time it is. The hands on the clock of life always point to now. Nobody alive knows his or her destiny. Destiny isn’t meant to be known.

I saw nothing except the way things really are.

In spiritual living, fixating on what you want and evading what you dread does not result in spiritual progress or self-liberation. These desires supply a comforting way to reconcile good and evil and provide a unifying social experience with the like-minded. Religious designs can be compelling structures.

I liked my visitors. I felt cared for by these people. I did not feel cared for by their God. If their God so loved the world, would he annihilate it?

Standing still in the reverent sun, I moved on from my religious encounter to a moment of spiritual recognition: enlightenment is everywhere, in everyone, and all have an inner capacity to access it and respond to it. It begins with a quest for being without seeking answers. Life does not need a remedy.

What would I resurrect with the remainder of this day? I had a choice in the matter. I rolled up the sleeves of my shirt as I let my mind sing my childhood song’s now remembered, pleading last refrain, “Please don’t take my sunshine away.”

Spirituality is about the possibilities of happiness found in reality.  Religion is about postulated happiness after you are a fatality. 

Spirituality leans toward life. Religion leans toward death.

 

 

“Everyone believes very easily what they fear or desire.”

— Jean De La Fontaine (1621–1695)