By Wes Annac, Culture of Awareness

This is going to be hard for me to write, because I’ve always had a problem with the way religion misrepresents spirituality. I feel like religion gives spirituality a bad name, and especially when it comes to tolerance, religion has failed to reflect the messages of various enlightened messiahs, prophets, masters, etc.

I’ve always resisted religion because it uses control and uptight dogma to keep us from understanding true spirituality, and I feel like it was devised to make people forget what spirituality is supposed to be.

Spirituality doesn’t have to be associated with control or giving up our lives just to be in God’s favor, but religion has twisted and perverted it into something that completely contradicts its original meaning.

Not to mention that people have been (and continue to be) killed senselessly for centuries in the name of God or because of some ‘holy’ book. I could probably write a whole book of my own on why we shouldn’t put our faith in religion, which is why it’ll be difficult to say what I want to say.

The bible (and various other religious books) has obviously been edited by leaders throughout history who wanted to control their people, but I don’t think we should give up on it.

In my opinion, a big portion of the bible is nonsense that has nothing to do with true spirituality, and we really don’t need it. However, if we read certain verses with a conscious, open-minded perspective, we can decode them and find little gems of genuine spiritual advice.

We have to understand that most spiritual text centers on finding enlightenment, whether we realize it or not, and a lot of bible verses are actually encoded lessons that can help us on the enlightenment path.

There’s a reason so many spiritual teachers use religious terminology – all of the texts and teachers are united in the goal of helping their followers find enlightenment.

A lot of people (like the late great Terence McKenna) tell us to distrust ideology of any kind and find our own way, and this is great advice, but it doesn’t change the fact that the bible and various other spiritual texts can teach us about enlightenment and a higher consciousness.

We just have to interpret the things we read in ways that help us. For example: When I read a spiritual teacher’s writings about giving God all of our faith and devotion, I translate it as putting our faith and devotion into love and our higher consciousness.

When a bible verse talks about giving ourselves away to God, I translate it as giving ourselves to enlightenment, which completely empties us before refilling us with God’s love and awareness. When I read that we should be ‘obedient to God’, I translate it as staying disciplined and dedicated to our spiritual practices.

It’s all a matter of interpretation, and we can take these spiritual texts or leave them. We’ll find our way back home no matter what we do, but should we choose to open up to these books or the teachers who can help us take the next step, we might learn some valuable lessons.

It isn’t easy for me to be open to the bible or spiritual teachers who talk so much about God, but I’m learning that there’s a lesson in everything. When we read something that sounds ridiculous, we learn to be more discerning and we skip right past it and look for something that will help us.

I’m not saying we have to be completely open to spiritual texts or teachers, but we don’t have to be so rigid toward them either. Everything has its role to play, and if we can be open to things we once rejected, we might understand how they’re relevant and maybe let them teach us a thing or two.

The first step is to open up to them, and the second step is to remember only to take what resonates with us and let the rest be. This process of picking and choosing what advice is helpful can actually connect us with our higher consciousness, because it allows us to grow closer with our authentic truth.

So the next time we want to trash religion or the bible, let’s try to be a little more open and centered in love. Even the religious people we think are brainwashed are following a path that works for them, and we don’t have to agree with their path to show them love or acceptance.

They might not accept us, but we can take the high road and show them love anyway.

Not every religious person is crazy or overly judgmental, and not everything that’s written in the bible is meant to confuse or mislead us. There really are genuinely loving religious people and genuinely helpful religious texts, and if we try hard enough, we’ll find them.

If we’re passionate enough about bringing the world together that we’re willing to open up to things we once resisted, we could make it easier for the world’s religions to accept each other instead of killing each other in the name of their quarreling, illusory gods.

Our actual creator doesn’t want us to turn its sacred creation into a battlefield, and if the conscious community can learn to tolerate religion, we could eventually persuade various religions not to be so hateful or judgmental toward each other.

We could bring the world together, but for now, let’s focus on how these spiritual texts can help us personally. You might not agree with what I’m about to say, but I really do think a fundamental truth underlies every religion, belief system and spiritual text.

We can search for this truth independently without the assistance of any spiritual teacher or text, or we can receive that extra bit of assistance that might make some things clearer. The choice is ours, but no matter what we choose, let’s try to be little more tolerant of people who think differently – even if they don’t tolerate us.

Share freely.

I’m a twenty-two year old spiritual writer, blogger and channel for the creative expression of the inner universe, and I created The Culture of Awareness daily news site.

The Culture of Awareness features daily spiritual and alternative news, articles I’ve written, and more. Its purpose is to awaken and uplift by providing material about the fall of the planetary elite and a new paradigm of unity and spirituality.

I’ve contributed to a few different spiritual websites including The Master Shift, Waking Times, Golden Age of Gaia, Wake Up World and Expanded Consciousness. I can also be found on Facebook ( and ) and , and I write a paid weekly newsletter that you can subscribe to for $11.11 a month .