All religion and philosophy has as its impetus the longing of the human being to know and to understand and to feel fully alive. It is mankind’s wondering in the face of the great mystery of existence, being. Any useful religion or philosophy is a means for piercing the mystery, a way to answer the perennial questions of existence: Who am I? What am I? What was I before birth and after death? What is God/Truth/Reality and what is my relation to it? Not to give the individual the answer, but to equip the individual for the journey by which they may discover reality/truth for themselves.
Answering these fundamental questions is the one thing that truly matters, the one thing which can solve the problems of the individual and by extension the world. Yet, paradoxically, is also that which is most ignored, dismissed as forever unknowable, given lazy intellectual answers, or else made into a matter of belief and faith.
The daily life of the individual today is characterized by ceaseless doing, ceaseless thinking, continuously being lost in the world. As a result that which truly matters, and the only thing which can bring true happiness, purpose, and fulfillment to life is lost.
In today’s world the individual does not know where to look for guidance as to their deep driving questions. Philosophy is hyper-rational, the domain of intellectuals whose minds think cleverness is intelligence. Religion is dead or else dying, serving only to appeal to those who have no need for truth, only comforting illusions. New Age spirituality is pre-rational mumbo jumbo, infantile fantasy. However. shining at the heart of the heart of all religions is the teachings of ordinary human beings who found God/Truth/Reality, and who then devoted their lives to helping others know themselves.
Religion and Philosophy: Inseparable
Religion and Philosophy cannot be separated. They are both the search for truth, meaning, and answers to the fundamental questions of existence. An imbalance on the side of either philosophy(mind, thought, intellect, reason,objective knowledge), or religion(heart,intuition, feelings, subjective experience) leads to illusion and delusion.
It is clear that humanity has recently entered a totally new epoch in our evolution as a species. The old myths and religions are dying out and losing their relevance, leaving nothing to answer and deal with the fundamental human questions: Who am I? What does it mean to live and what does it mean to die? where did I come from? What is my relation to others, to the earth, to the universe, and to God? With the irrelevance and even hindrance of organized religion and without a modern mythology
The individual human today is characterized by a lack of true meaning and purpose in their life. A lack of an experience of the mystery and beauty of existence and life. Religion, in the true and only sense of the word, is the binding back of humans to their source of being. The root of today’s problems are fundamentally a spiritual problem. There is a spiritual void in modern man, modern man is in search of the soul, or rather modern man has lost touch with his soul and therefore substitutes all kinds of distractions in order to cover up this void within.
Humans throughout history have felt the need to know if there is something truly sacred, something beyond thought. Something eternal and deathless. Humans have created and perpetuated intricate belief structures in order to explain that which can not be explained, but can only be directly experienced by the individual who has made him or herself worthy of illumination.
Science explains only the surface manifestation of phenomena, and philosophy and religion in the usual sense of the words, are wholly inadequate in explaining the true nature of reality. This is necessarily the case because Truth is not a fixed point, something that can be contained in books and words. It can only be attained by the individual who has freed themselves from all dependance on another’s authority, by one who has discovered the truth within themselves.
The pursuit of truth takes the individual through all means of acquiring knowledge and understanding, but ultimately it becomes apparent that the only place to know the real, lasting truth is in examination and awareness of your own self.
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