From “Rays of the Same Light,” by J. Donald Walters:
“One who accepts sincerely does so in order to become changed, to grow spiritually, and not to parade before the world his outward affiliation with this religion or with that.”
The Father, Son, and Holy Ghost (or Divine Mother), are all aspects of our same one being. But saying this, and realizing it are two different things.
I believe that by training our heart’s love, and our deepest thought to remain fixed on God through regular deep meditation, and by living as if we are only channels for the Divine will, we can overcome the limitations of our own false self image. As we loosen the hold of old thoughts and habits, which cause us to relate to life and people as anything but God, we experience greater freedom ourselves.
Don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater!
Buddha, Jesus, Krishna, Moses, Muhammad, are crucified every day by many of their own followers, and the institutions created by them.
Worshiping God is not self-deprecation; it’s a way of training us to accept our own greater reality as one with all. I don’t mean to worship a religion, or institution that claims to speak in the name of this master or that. These are only human expressions based on whomever they view as the source of their inspiration. Strive to see God in all things. God is the sea, and people, circumstances, and things are only waves on its surface.
Why reinvent the wheel?
Learning is not achieved only through the intellect. It’s important to put yourself in the vibration of those who manifest the qualities you wish to develop in yourself. Immerse yourself in the vibration of the spiritual master you feel drawn toward and those living representatives of your teaching that manifest the qualities you desire for yourself.
Read and meditate on their words, poems, and music. Live as if they are right with you all the time. Commune with followers of your teaching and work with them to share inspiration with all. This is all to help you attune your consciousness with the ray of grace that comes through your path.
Be true to yourself.
Blindly following a path or its teachers is not the way to salvation. Even within our teaching (once we find it) we must listen to our own intuition and only embrace what feels right in our own heart of hearts. Deep inside of you and beneath the turbulence of emotional feeling is your intuitive sense of what is right and true. NEVER go against this. Any teacher, institution, or counselor that asks you to go against what you feel is right, has crossed a boundary that raises a big warning flag.
Don’t expect humans to be perfect. You must never give your own free will away to human followers of even what feels to be the truest teaching. They have egos too, and again, they should never ask this of you.
But strive to give your will to God directly. God speaks softly in the heart. And serving God through the institution where He comes to you most clearly may be a very good thing, but never let the importance of “the work” replace God’s voice and His Joy in your own heart.
God can speak to us through all people and any situation. Developing our intuitive feeling through meditation will greatly help us know what is true, and what is not, in all situations.
Mistakes are required for learning.
Don’t be afraid of making lots of mistakes. Just try your very best, to do what is right for all concerned. Learn from it, let it go and try again. Repeat daily. :-)