Brian’s Reflection: Thursday, March 19, 2009

What do sad people have in common?
It seems they have all built a shrine to the past.
And go there and do a strange wail and Worship.
What is the beginning of Happiness?
It is to stop being so religious like this.

- Hafiz c. 1350


There is one thing I absolutely believe about a relationship with “God”. You have to change. That is one of the essentials. Building shrines to the past is not “of God”. Read any “holy scripture”. If you find any that says that you must never change and must live in the past, let me know.

But there are always some - individuals, religions - who believe in shrines to the past, in strange wailings. They often lay claim to “orthodoxy”, which is very often a euphemism for “dead”, or “controlling”. It’s when I hear words like “the spirit will lead you into all truth” that I know that the path is “of God”. When I find religions defending the status quo, or opposing their own basic principles of justice or love or respect for the god-image in every human being in order to bolster their own power (condoms anyone??), I know something has gone awry.

God does indeed want us to “happy”. To be happy, we need to evolve, change. So, if you want to be happy, “stop being so religious” in ways that stunt your spiritual growth.

(Hafiz was a poet and teacher who memorized the whole of the Qu’ran. The “orthodox” clerics refused to allow him to have a Muslim burial. You get my point.)

Brian+