Religion...

I'm really not going to comment on religion in general for I am far from a judge of what others choose to believe or not believe in.

What I would like to do instead is relate a true experience I've had with the subject of spirituality and the human race in general.

Back in the early seventies, I like a lot of other people my age were searching for some kind of meaning in life other than what we were told by society in general, which seemed at the time to be rather boring and tame, to say the least. We all felt that there was more to life than just working for the man, barely making it until you got old and tired, then retiring to the rocking chair until you died. There had to be more to this miracle we call life.

My roommate at the time and I started examining various Eastern Religions, such as Zen, Buddhism and anything else we could get our hands on to read. We naturally got into meditation also, which we used to try and clear our minds of all the clutter running around in there. Anyone who has practiced Meditation soon finds out how crazy, out of control, blabber mouth and goofy our brains are every minute of every day. If you sit down in a quiet place and listen to your mind blab on and on, you will be amazed at how out of control it is. It's amazing we can get anything at all done with this maniac going on in the background. The purpose of meditation is simple really. It's to try and stop the monster, even for just a few seconds of peace.

So, we would turn off the lights and meditate for a while then quietly talk about some of the things we were studying in the books we were reading about life from the Eastern way of looking at things. Then one day others heard about our little meetings and would ask to join in. It was a great time for all but soon more and more would show up.

Well, one day it hit me that we could probably start charging admission to our sessions and for some reason it started scaring me to death. The idea that all these people were starting to see my roommate and I as some kind of spiritual teachers and would gladly give us money to "advance the word", was completely spooky to us. It became apparent to us that we could easily start a "church" and rake in the dough like all those "preachers" on TV do. Yelling, screaming, laying on of healing hands like some kind of heaven sent saviors. We then decided to close the doors on our "Church" and we told all those folks to go get a life and start thinking for themselves.

Well to this day, I remember those times with trepidation and disappointment in the human race for being so easily led by anyone with a gleam in their eye and displaying extreme confidence as if they know the hidden truths of life that the common man does not. Give them enough money and they will lead the heathens to heaven. Scary to say the least......

To this day, the only thing of value I've brought with me is the knowledge and practice of spending some time in silence and piece once in a while and how much good that does one. The rest of the blather, philosophies and nonsense made up by man, I can certainly do without.