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Today's
quotation:
Depending
on the use to which it is put, religion can be a demonic
force. Religion should bring us together, but it is exploited by
some
to create greater schisms among us. Nothing could be more
unfortunate. Religion must always be for the people.
People do not
exist for the sake of religion. This must be the fundamental
guideline
of religion in the twenty-first century.
Daisaku Ikeda
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Today's
Meditation:
We've
all seen ways in which religion can be exploited in order
to harm other people. It's truly a shame that people
do this, but it seems to be human nature to use elements
that are supposed to exist for our good in order to do
things that are bad. Over the years, many human
beings have used religion to make themselves feel better,
to spread their own personal beliefs, to make other people
suffer-- for almost any bad purpose that you can think
of. They use manipulative strategies such as guilt,
intimidation, fear, and ignorance in the name of their
religion, all the while making people's lives less
fulfilling rather than more so.
And
of course, this is an incredible shame because religion
should be something that we trust. It should be a
part of our lives that we don't doubt. Its motives
should be pure, and its effects should be always
positive. And when we find out that some people in a
religious group are trying to manipulate or harm us,
unfortunately, we lose faith not just in those particular
people, but in the religion as well. It's little
wonder that people are leaving religious affiliations in
droves.
Religion
can play a very important part in our lives, but we've
seen enough people who are caring and compassionate who
don't have any sort of religious affiliation to know that
religion isn't absolutely necessary for us. We can
be Christians or Moslems or Jews without belonging to any
particular church, without spending our Saturday or Sunday
mornings in a certain building listening to someone else's
version of our faith. Very often we've seen religion
bring people down, limit them, and manipulate them, even
abuse them, and if that's what religion is doing to
someone, it's time to drop that religion.
Religion
could be a very positive way of bringing people together
in love in a spirit of service, but very often our
"religion" is little more than a social club
where we meet with like-minded people. If we are a
part of a religion, then it's important that we give to
that religion, and make sure that no one is harming us or
our loved ones. I don't believe that religion is
irrelevant, but I know that as long as religions stick to
dogma and allow themselves to be used, they're going to
continue to become less and less important in our lives,
and in the societies in which we live.
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