The Lens of Divinity...

 Continuing from the premise I established yesterday, the human mind perceives the outer world through lenses of perception that tint the actual reality we are experiencing with diluted theories that can lead us astray in many ways.

Religion is such a lens of perception. It's also a rather dangerous one. In my experience, religion is what opened my eyes to a quicker way of remembering the divine. And that's really what I want to talk about mainly in today's posting. DIVINITY.

I may end up stating that divinity is also created by a lens. But for the most part of my experience, becoming able to recognize divinity in the world is one of the most tantamount achievements we as humans can attain. I need to be wary of causing a sense of separation to be construed. That those who practice religion do not necessarily experience the divine. This is possible, and not a hard or fast rule at all. 

So basically, the material of religion, the bibles, the Sistine Chapels, the prayers, and the lives of the saints, these are the type of items that our eyes use to bring concepts about God and divinity into our minds. Divinity, in my understanding, is the essence of what God is. Peel back the layers of the description given to us by religion, and if you are adamant enough in your desire to see and experience God, divinity is the essence, the juice, what you see behind Oz's curtain... the raw material of what we are taught is that makes up God. 

But religion is not the only access point. The other main doorway to experiencing the divine is nature. Through powerful experiences spent in the wilderness, an individual can be overwhelmed by the unbelievable complexity and beauty of nature and come to a point of admission that there must be a powerful intelligence so great to be able to manifest such physical creations. Nature, as a gateway to the divine, cares nothing about religious affiliation. 

The difference between the unreligious and those that discover the divine via religious teaching is noticeable but very thin. If anything, those that find the divine via religion may be more prone to getting caught up in the rigamarole of being weighed down by the tenets of religion that led them to the divine. Whereas the nature-lover can look at nature in its face and not have anything but nature itself to thank for getting them to this point. 

I feel though that those that have studied, or had religious experiences to meet the divine will have a deeper understanding and appreciation of just how complex the divine is. They may also be more prone to take deliberate actions to interact with the divine in places and situations that are not empowered by experiences in raw nature.

This is the main point I am trying to express. In the world today, there is a lens in use called spirituality. People that are spiritual reject religion as their means of finding answers for themselves in this world. Spirituality is called, "God minus religion". In my estimation, spirituality is thin and shallow because it's possible to have religious-type experiences without interacting with the divine. It's almost like some types of artificial religious experiences can be manufactured through hyper-motivated calisthenics and from doing mental gymnastics types of meditations. 

My aim is to not say that these practices are wrong. There are more avenues available for individuals to discover the divine in the world now than there ever have been before. Everyone is at the level of development that they are, that's the important thing to understand. 

If anything, these thoughts and ideas I'm expressing here are leading me to think that being obsessed with interacting with the Divine could also be a mind trap. For me to say that, potentially, my experiences are more valid than someone else's is missing the point. Divinity is inherent in all experiences. Always. 

So yeah, I'm glad I thought this out loud here... I think I understand a little bit better! Thanks for listening!