Your religion or mine?

In life, we experience many things. Life offers us a great variety of opportunities and whether we grab them or not, nothing ever really stays the same. One opportunity leads to another just like one choice leads to another. We’re permanently living the consequences of our choices, constantly learning and constantly changing.

Our thoughts and our viewpoints change over time. We get a different perspective of certain things and gain a new understanding. Eventually, there is a change in our emotional state and our beliefs. We evolve. We grow. Most people don't allow themselves to change. They keep experiencing the same old problems, patterns, issues, responses, reactions, and hold the same old grudges. They reason: “I was born like this; I will die like this” or “My father was like this and I am like my father”.

The society and world prefer it that we don’t change. Society wants the average person in the ordinary world to be consistent. There’s so much pressure on us to be like everyone else. While we are always concerned about what others think of us, we need to ask: What is it that other people do for us? They want us to conform to their way of thinking and be like them. They constantly judge us for who we are. Worst of all is that the majority of people believe they are better than others. (Who decided that one life is worth more than another?) We have all been created to live here on earth and we have been created with differences. We have different needs and different perspectives.

A good example to look at is religion. There are many religions on earth today because of changed viewpoints and perspectives. When we look at our own religion, we see that it too has changed in many ways over time. Our religion was given to us by our parents. From a very young age we were told by them what to believe and we accepted their teachings without any questions. Some of us feel a sense of instilled guilt when we believe otherwise so we don’t change our beliefs and refuse to consider other religions. In fact, we tend to look down at other religions quite unfairly and with prejudice. 

Most of our actions spring from our behaviour. Our natural behaviour is simply an automatic response system. It is based on what, how, and how much we have been taught. Religion is a programmed behaviour. It's not the name of a building or the choice of religion that determines our faith. Faith remains within our hearts because God reads hearts and not the names of the churches we attend.

Change is inevitable, but while we live our lives - filled with many opportunities and differences - we need to learn to live with mental flexibility and accept other people as they are without forcing change upon them. We also need to respect other people for who and what they are.