Religion

The benefits of religion is that you constantly, and at least daily, remind yourself that there are things bigger than you: Things that existed for eons, things that will exist when you are no longer here. It is a reminder that nothing that bothers or worries you now can be so big that it will ultimately change the course of the universe. The major tragedy we believe we are facing is hardly a dent in what is going on in the greater scheme of things.

It is a reminder not to take yourself and your worries too seriously. You are here to experience life, in what ever shape or form or circumstances that may be. But at no time should you concern yourself that the obstacles you are facing are unique or significant to this life. It is merely a stepping-stone of what is to come next.

Every step you take, takes you closer to some things, and further away from others. But there are always flowers along the way that you can smell, touch and observe. But you can never own the flower. The moment you pick the flower to take with you on your path, the flower will die. It returns to dust and does no longer exist in the form that you admired so much. Its time has past too soon to be a flower.

You can look at the flower, experience it, linger a bit where it stands, and then when you are ready, you can move on with the path and found a bird, or a tree, or a bug: Each one waiting for you to observe, smell, experience it in its own right. One is not better than the other; one is not more beautiful than the next. Each one exists within its own beauty. Shining its life essence out into the world. When you can appreciate all that you see in its own right and form, you finally see that all is one, and one is all. One cannot exist without the other. We are a manifestation of each other.

This realization should be the only objective of religion.