When we are not expressing life in the present moment, when we are not being in response to life, it means that we are choosing to react to the regret, shame and guilt of our imagined past. Those memories are being created in the Now because there is no such thing as a “past,” there is only the unconsciously chosen or consciously chosen “present.” Or, many of us choose to imagine and react to a present-moment created future with anxiety about what will probably never happen. These behaviors are clearly not a satisfactory way to spend our time.
Using our mind in this same way, we imagine and create a non-existent god. Our fear-driven behavior called shadow projection causes us to create an anthropomorphic image of our false self. Looking at the image being mirrored back to us, we see a god that looks exactly like us if we only had the awareness to see it.
Unless we can consciously realize this transcendent truth, we have condemned ourselves to remain in a vivid nightmare alienated from our true nature, our True self—asleep and inured to life. Life is passing us by.
Because we have failed to intuit the true nature of what Creation is and our role in it, we will continue to see both our faith and our God become a fading mirage. “In America today Christianity is highly visible in public life but marginal or of no consequence in a great many individual lives. For the first time in our history it is possible to speak of Christianity matter-of-factly as one religion among many; for the first time it is possible to leave it out of the conversation altogether.”
In his article in The New York Times Book Review, Paul Elie is lamenting the disappearance of religion in western fiction. It could be argued that the disappearance of a delusional religious faith is a natural consequence of an awakening humanity. The fiction of the irreligious James Joyce had humanity residing in hell. If humanity is to awaken from its “Joycean” nightmare it will have to set aside the religious institutions and beliefs that grew out of P-B.
We will have to accept the responsibility for creating our own reality as the only “Creator” in the universe. Then when we create our own hell by living in the past or the future we have the option of awakening to heaven on earth here and now. Then we will realize that hell is created when nobody shows up (when we don’t live in the present moment). The disappearance of religion and the old god and the passing of “fictional” delusions are nothing we should lament.
Our false selves are easily mesmerized by the elaborate narrative surrounding the world’s religions. The faithful have to live a life of unconscious and sometimes even conscious denial of their doubt. That doubt and the feigned devotion of the faithful can go on for a very long time even among those we would least suspect.
The institution of religion had its origin in P-B and evolved within that narrative and is, therefore, inadequate in its support of anyone seeking a paradigm shift. For example, Teresa of Calcutta is a modern icon of compassion due to her service to the sick and dying people that she brought in to her clinics to receive healing and comfort. Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light is a book of correspondence between Teresa and her confessors and superiors over 66 years. The Reverend Brian Kolodiejchuk, the compiler and editor of the book, reveals that in the last 50 years of her life, Teresa felt no presence of God. Teresa’s letters reveal that she lived in a state of deep spiritual pain. At one point she admits she doubts the existence of heaven and even of God. Her public demeanor gave no sign of her spiritual plight; her smile, she said, is “a mask or cloak that covers everything.”
What would a more accurate identity look like if we could see ourselves in an undistorted mirror? In truth, we have emerged from the field of Creation, an Implicate Order of infinite possibilities, as an expression of creative energy. We would see ourselves as nothing but energy and in religious terms as nothing but God. We are God or Creation “expressing.” We are God “choosing.” We are God “creating.” Indeed, there is nothing that is not God, therefore, we are God. How could it be otherwise?
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References and notes are available for this essay.
Find a much more in-depth discussion in books by Roy Charles Henry:
Who Am I? The Second Great Question Concerning the Nature of Reality
Where Am I? The First Great Question Concerning the Nature of Reality
Simple Reality: The Key to Serenity and Survival
