milch cow

“Religion, the great milch cow, has given many kicks; but never mind–it also gives a great deal of milk.  The milkman does not mind the kick of the cow if it gives much milk.” –Sw. Vivekananda

Browsing the web in the last six months, it is plain that religion is under attack.  I think that attack, well deserved, is a defense and not an offense.  The state of religion in my country (US) is a head shaker to say the least.  In the rest of the world?  Laughable as the fighting continues.  So what is my post about?  It is about why I would still be interested in religion while so many good arguments exist for its abolition.

My spiritual life feeds me in way that no other food can.  My ruminations on love, my inspiration to a higher ideal, my quest to manifest pure love have been so fulfilling, so challenging and so promising that I could not simply throw them away in the face of other failures.  You see, religion has nothing to do with institutions, archaic systems of thought or ignorance in the face of startling discoveries.  True religion stretches the mind to be as open as it can be.  True religion strives to learn right lessons from experience…the only teacher.  True religion is to identify readily the love that exists in every person and to call it out…to inspire it.  It changes the world not by changing others, but by changing the practitioner.  It is not enacted through laws…civil or spiritual; it is not contained in buildings or belief systems; it is not carried by institutions or books.  It is self contained within everything.  It has always existed, depends on nothing and is always aware.  Dust off the mind and see it.  Let go of the ego and be it.  Until then don’t dare to teach it. We are all universally seeking one thing in this big house and all of us are looking in different places with different means to find it.  We are calling it many things.  It is the house itself we are seeking and when we realize we are all in it the fun will begin.