My “Religion”

This stren encourages you to become more acquainted with your religion.   Religion is the collection of beliefs that powerfully influence our actions.   Action springs from faith more so than fact, from our religion more so than our science.  

          This stren could just as well be called “My assumptive world.”  This is because each of us act in a manner that is based on the assumptions we make about our self and the world we live in.  Science doesn’t provide us sufficient facts to know our purpose in life.  What is ethical and moral, what is beauty, and what is the perfect life are some of many unanswered questions.  Think of all our scientific knowledge in an area bounded by a fence.  What is outside the fence is taken on faith.  Science continues to expand the fence that contains the facts we use in our decision making.  So much more of our actions must be based on our assumptions of what is outside the fence, what I here call “our religion”.  We act primarily according to our beliefs, on the “faith” we have in our assumptions.  Religion is the sum total collection of our beliefs or assumptions.    

          In my college days, I recall learning that “religion is the moral teaching of humankind.”  I believe every person is “religious.”  Some identify a specific “organized” formal religion that they ascribe to and say they practice.  Yet, many such individuals conduct their lives so deviant from the principles of their identified religion that I question if they got the “name” correct.  Others who profess no formal religion seem to subscribe quite faithfully to the moral teachings of one or more identified religions.   Avowed atheists regularly act on the faith they place in their assumptions.  No matter; from my point of view, everyone is “religious” because we are always acting on the basis of our particular faith, our unique set of collective assumptions.  They just might not have a name for their unique personalized set of beliefs.  “My religion” or “John’s religion” may be more accurate than the broad labels we use, viz. Christian, Moslem, Jew, atheist, etc.  Since our religious beliefs are so influential, wisdom suggests we familiarize ourselves with the assumptions that influence the conduct of our life.      

          My purpose in sharing some of my basic “religious” views or assumptions is to offer a model of one collection of important assumptions, my own.  From my example, I encourage you to identify the basic assumptions by which you conduct your life.  I offer “My ‘religion’” as a stren for your use in getting more acquainted with your self.  While I believe my religion is a practical and effective one, it would be against my religion for you to blindly accept or comply with my views without critical evaluation.  Rather, I would prefer to share the basic assumptive views that influence my perspective in writing the Guide and that this stren serves you in creating your own “My ‘religion’” stren.  Much of my beliefs are expressed in The practical persons guide to ‘feeling good’ and ‘doing good’.   So don’t be surprised if much of what I write sounds a bit duplicative.      

          I believe I am the “immediate” product of millions of years of evolution, and a step above the monkeys … a giant step.   We used to believe we are a step below the angels.  That may be true but I confess I don’t even know if there are angels, and if so, whether we are very close or eons away.   I humbly accept that my human capacity, while quite sufficient to serve me well in my lifetime, may be puny in the grand scheme of things.   I am curious to know what came before earth and life on earth.  As so many others, I assume there is a first cause or “uncaused cause” but I don’t believe I have the capacity to clearly identify who or what that is and what my place is in the overall scheme.  Likewise, I’d like to know if there was a hereafter and what that might be.  Many people have a faith-based explanation that powerfully influences their actions.  Such explanations are commonly found in most formal religions.  I assume there are universal values and wisdom and that our formal religions have identified most of them, and they share similarities far more so than differences.  I believe the pervasive animosity associated with formal religions is created by our manner of thinking more so than our formal religions basic values.  Our prevalent manner of thinking leads us to focus on our differences while we ignore the similarities that relate us.  (This is why I believe Einstein’s prophesy that we must require a newer manner of thinking is correct.)     

          I believe I have sufficient resources to make my life’s experience beautiful, fulfilling, and productive.  I have faith in my capacity to make a difference for me, and that in so doing, I’ll have an impact of others and the world of which I am a part.  I hold the direction of my energy to these ends to be a worthy endeavor.       

          My understanding of science leads me to infer I am a link in the process of evolution and that we are headed somewhere even more complex than we are now, but I personally will not experience what time ultimately brings.  Consider how religions change with knowledge, for example when we believed earth was the center of the universe and the world was flat.  Try to imagine the common assumptions that influenced the beliefs of cave people?  Have your modified your own religious views since childhood?  Yes, knowledge and “fact” does influence our views about what we don’t know, but let us also graciously acknowledge how much we don’t know and will not understand in our lifetime.  Nevertheless, here are my important basic beliefs that I hold motivate me to use my best to do my reasonable best:  

☻	Good Deeds: – doing a deed that benefits someone(s) and/or makes the world a better place to live.  The world consists of its total amount of positives and negatives.  Any worthy deed adds to the total good.  Striving to do worthy deeds is the simplest statement of my religion.
☻	Attaining the good life requires knowing one’s self.  The 5 ingredients are abundantly available: faith (I think I can!), work, patience, direction, and risk-taking.
☻	The Golden rule: Treat others as I would have them treat me.
☻	Respect for myself and others:  I strive to have tolerance for all people even if I don’t agree with their assumptions.
☻	I am responsible for my actions and experience:  I have been given the gift of opportunity to become my own person, to free my will from the demands of “others.”  I don’t want to waste it.  Though initially dependent on fate and circumstance, I believe as we develop physical and mental maturity we may grow our freedom from what our genes and nurturers have made of us.  Such mental freedom is one of my most important strivings.  I believe we each may choose what amount of energy we invest in self-mastery and the payoff is invaluable.
☻	ANWOT: I continuously work to upgrade my manner of thinking to cope with the issues of modernity.  I have come to believe the prescriptive, dichotomous, dependency manner of thinking inherent in our native (nurtured) languages is the prime source of prejudice, hatred, and wars.  I believe we each can acquire a wiser manner of thinking to consistently promote our well-being.
☻	Love is an important source of energy; perhaps our most important.1
☻	Creating and sharing love begins with loving one’s self:  Love like hate is a product of our manner of thinking, of our higher mental skills.  I do well when I assign a high priority use of my mental energy for the manufacture of love.
☻	Become my own best friend:  I will be with my self far more than any other.  I strive to make meaningful and enjoy the time I have to converse with myself.
☻	Maintain an attitude of gratitude: This wisdom is expressed in so many ways.  Look at the doughnut more so than the hole.  Focus on the half-full more so than the half-empty glass.
☻	The Serenity prayer:  I wisely create the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.
☻	The value of mistakes:  Wisdom comes from mistakes; accept and learn from them.  Nature endows us with tolerance for mistakes.  Consider our ready acceptance of the many required to learn to walk.  It takes years of “training” for us to abhor them.
☻	Maintain high expectancy but limited expectations:  Expectancy is the goal I strive to attain.  My expectations conform to the reality that my reasonable best efforts often result in a less than my goal.  Because I have limited control of luck and circumstance, and the world often doesn’t respect “fairness,” my reasonable best efforts often fall short of my expectancy.   I believe in working hard to do my reasonable best, and judge my worth by my input more so than the outcome.2
☻	I am far from perfect.  So it is with my own pursuit of self-mastery.   I invest more time and energy than most because I maintain a special interest.  I reserve much of me for other pursuits.  I accept my limitations and expect I will continue to make unwise decisions due to my lack of perfection.  I’m fond of the expression, “I waste at least half my time; I’m just not sure which half.”

There are many more assumptions that contribute to how I think and feel and act.  While grossly incomplete, those here identified provide the framework that permits me to fill in the spaces as the need arises to address my personal decision-making.  I pursue Truth and wisdom because I believe they have inherent value for creating a fulfilling life.  Are you aware of the “framework” that constitutes your religion?