Religion v. Spirituality?

Recently I have had several discussions with people regarding things of a higher, more noble plane. Discussions should always strive to make us, and those around us better. They should never diminish us or others in any way. Gratefully, I have been blessed to be with good people who seek, as do I, for further light and knowledge throughout our sojourn here on earth.

In our discussions, my mind has often turned toward religion and spirituality. I am tempted to use religion v. spirituality but that is not the way it should be and not the way it always is. Unfortunately, religion today is viewed by many people as something that in fact impedes spiritual growth. Why is that? It is my belief that it is because the religions they have experienced have in fact done just that, kept them from true spiritual enlightenment and living.

Just to be sure that we all are on the same page, religion for me is a certain set of beliefs and/or rituals followed and practiced, typically by a group of people. Spirituality is the growth of the soul in personal understanding about who we are, where we came from & where we are going as well as those virtues that refine and eventually perfect a being through light, knowledge and spirit.

Religion - true religion - with all of its guidelines, teachings and ordinances should be a tool in the hands of God to provide direction, experiences and opportunities for spiritual enlightenment and therefore spiritual growth and development.

God, our Heavenly Father, loves all of His children and desires that we gain the same spiritual plane that He now stands upon. Hence, He has shared His works and words to spiritual men and women through the ages in an effort to answer their earnest quest for spiritual growth and satisfaction.

I know there is a God and I believe that He has inspired the founders of all of the great religions and made them instruments in His hands to do more than just enlighten themselves, but to bring their whole society to a higher plane.

When religion, in my opinion, becomes the hands of men rather than the hands of God it ceases to have that same spiritual power that it once did. People come to eat at the table, but they leave still hungry. At what point does it become the hands of men? I feel that religion of any kind ceases to edify when it closes the mind and creates enmity between mankind. At that point it can no longer provide the spiritual development that it promises because true spirituality embraces all truth and light as well as love and equality among all men.

People are hungry and can you blame them? The great religions are also the icons of the great divide among men and ideas. Those very tools that were intended to provide spiritual growth for their followers have in fact lead them on for so long only doing the motions - telling the stories of the great prophets but failing to write new chapters. I believe that God can and does still speak with us today and that we can hear Him if we will tap into His spirit.

We can turn it around - I believe in a better tomorrow. I only believe it will come though as enmity dies and minds and hearts open to the Spirit of Truth and Enlightenment. Let us all seek for true religion and for sincere spirituality.

The Lesson of the Knights Templar

Nearly a thousand years ago in a time of a religious crusade was formed out of the ranks of knights on the site of the then destroyed King Solomon's temple, a religious order known as the Knights of the Temple. It was on that site that Abraham was to have offered Isaac as an offering to the Lord. It was on that site that David received a revelation from God that there His house was to be built. It was on that site that three different times a temple would be built - first by Solomon, then by Zerubbabel and finally by King Herod - for the offering of sacrifices to the Lord. It was on that site that Jesus Christ would teach his people and declare first that his Father's house and then later that His house was a house of prayer. It was on that site that Mohammad made his final ascent on the ladder leading to heaven. It was a site of great spiritual meaning to many people.

These Knights of the Temple - or the Knights Templar - would protect Christian pilgrims on their way to worship the Lord their God from the west as they traveled east. They lived the highest standards of morality and gave their lives in defense of their faith and religion. For several hundred years this Order existed and protected the Christian pilgrims until the Holy land was lost and due to jealousy on the part of King Phillip of France and Pope Clement V, these Knights of the Temple were simultaneously arrested in a single day and tortured by the inquisition to force their confessions of heresy, homosexuality and blasphemy against Christ and His church. They were burned and abused in the most terrible forms known to man.

However, the Templars in England were given three months to go underground while their French Brothers were being tortured for crimes they had never committed. The inquisition was sent to England to arrest the Templars there - but only two were found - one of whom escaped.

Where did they go?

It is believed by many and there is credible evidence to support that these knights and clerics of the Order of the Knights of the Temple formed together a secret society for their mutual protection. This society is now known as the Free and Accepted Masons. For Hundreds of years this society existed and grew without the knowledge of society. Its tenants were the Fatherhood of God, the Brotherhood of Man and the Immortality of the Soul. It took within its body all who were free and who accepted these beliefs - men of all religions. They were encouraged to perform their religious duties but membership in a particular church was not required - only a belief in God. The templars had tasted the fruits of religious bigotry and betrayal and made it a central tenant to never pass on those fruits to others.

More than 700 years has passed since the Inquisition put an end to that order but the same enmity and hatred that ran in the hearts of those men then, sadly still resides in the hearts of many today. And in that 700 years that site - the site where the templars were formed - has become a hotbed of religious hatred and bigotry. That site of spiritual meaning is now a site and symbol of the great mental divide of ignorance and enmity and therefore of the weakness among men. A site that should bring all of God's children together in strength and brotherhood is instead the site of fractured hearts and a divided race.

The Muslims guard the Dome of the Rock with machine guns. The Jews worship below at the wailing wall - all that is left of the great temple. The Christians have no place to worship their Savior. There, on a hill the space of just a few acres is represented the great religious tectonic movements in today's society. The plates are moving and the damage is huge. The death toll from religious strife between our three faiths numbers in the thousands every year. The level of religious hatred and intolerance is at an all time high. The sadness and loneliness of the widows and orphans of those left in the wake of this religious strife is eternal. Their wounds can never be healed.

It would seem like there would be no more better of a time than now for there to be an order of the Knights of the Temple, built on the principles of religious tolerance and the tenants of the Fatherhood of God, the Brotherhood of Man and the Immortality of the Soul to find a way for the safe travel of religious pilgrims of all faiths and creeds on their way to the Holy Land.

Let us be that Order - let us be the guardians of the temple - the temple of God - and respect the ways and beliefs of all who worship there and encourage them in their religious duties.

It seems so counter to our Heavenly Father's will and character that He would ever wish the sword to be raised against a brother. It is time for us to find a way to peace. Perhaps it was Gandhi who said it best, "There is no way to peace. Peace is the way."

I for one commit to peace.