| There are two faces of religion; that which we | | | | way? This is all symptomatic of believing that we |
| profess, and that which we project. Our professed | | | | have changed when in fact we have not changed at |
| religion follows our scriptures and our beliefs and are | | | | all. |
| what we declare to be our truths, our ideals. It's the | | | | A good test is when someone says to us that our |
| talk we talk. Our projection of our religion is how we | | | | religion is stupid, a child's fairy tale. How do we react? |
| act, what we say, how we say it, and what and | | | | Usually, an undetected anger flairs up for a moment |
| how we think. It's the walk we walk. | | | | before the mind reacts psychologically and says "I |
| For example, we might profess love, but project | | | | am not an angry person so I will therefore feel sorry |
| (openly or surreptitiously) hatefulness if someone | | | | for this uninformed, unbelieving person." What |
| disagrees with our religion. The divergence between | | | | happened there is a hypocrisy, not being in tune with |
| these two faces means that we could be living an | | | | your true feelings. And when we do that, we lie to |
| hypocrisy, which indicates that we are not whole, not | | | | ourselves which is breaking a commandment. We will |
| integrated, and therefore life becomes subconsciously | | | | never change this way, never become Christ-like, or |
| unsatisfactory for us causing us to experience | | | | Buddha -like. |
| negative emotions all the time. We get depressed | | | | We don't change because we can never see and |
| and don't know why. | | | | accept what we actually are. We kid ourselves; we |
| We can reject the notion that we are hypocritically | | | | lie to ourselves in order to maintain a certain image |
| religious by justifying our hypocrisy, or even denying | | | | of ourselves which we desire. But it is not truth. |
| it, but instead if we can simply and honestly look at | | | | Being only one-faced, not only in our religion but in |
| ourselves and see where we are at, we can begin | | | | our lives, is key to being integrated and in harmony. |
| becoming truly religious. After all, we want to be | | | | This means that we don't have to remember how to |
| happy, and if we only believe that we are happy | | | | act because we allow our actions to be spontaneous. |
| while at the same time expressing emotions that | | | | We don't pretend to be loving if we are hateful; we |
| create unhappiness for ourselves and others, such as | | | | openly express our hatred, and in the reaction to |
| separation from others, anger, judgmentalism, | | | | that hatred within our relationships is the possibility of |
| self-righteousness, or conceit, then we are being | | | | our changing. Then, our actions will truly reveal what |
| hypocritical with ourselves. | | | | we are and where we are with our religion. If we |
| If we find that we are indeed a persistent work in | | | | fake it by being one way one time and another way |
| progress that doesn't seem to really improve at a | | | | another time, then we never really reveal the real us, |
| deep level, for example with our depression, our | | | | even to ourselves, and therefore can never really |
| anger, and maybe even our guilt, then a real | | | | work on what our religious failings are. |
| possibility exists that either our religion isn't working | | | | Of course, if we are not interested in improving our |
| for us, or we aren't working our religion. Working | | | | lives and becoming basically religious and good people, |
| ones religion involves self introspection to see exactly | | | | and are content in just saying that we are, and only |
| where we are, not where we think we are. How do | | | | want to make points or win arguments to boost our |
| we feel about our neighbors? Do we truly love them | | | | egos, then our destiny in the next world will of |
| or just tolerate them if they are Hindu, Muslim, | | | | course reflect that dis-ingenuousness because we are |
| Christian, Buddhist, Asian, White, Black or Latino? | | | | only using our religion as a weapon, not as a way to |
| This self introspection of course requires a clear | | | | become better human beings. |
| observation of ourselves with the ego out of the | | | | So if we find ourselves being two faced, we should |
| way, and not just kidding ourselves. This is actually | | | | delve deeply into our religion until we find the |
| the first step in changing ourselves for the better; | | | | instructions on how we can integrate ourselves and |
| seeing clearly what is actually going in our hearts and | | | | become whole. Without this, a life of hypocrisy will be |
| what we publicly project, opposed to what we | | | | a life lived subconsciously in uncertainty and |
| believe is going on. Are we angry? Depressed? Do | | | | confusion, while putting on a face of confidence and |
| we still worry, do we want things to always go our | | | | clarity. |