Is Religion Necessary? Q&A Eckhart Tolle

Is religion necessary if only presence matters? Is there a place for going to church and following in the steps of Jesus? If only presence is important. The question is specifically about focusing on Christian religion. But the answer, I suppose I don't know what the answer is going to be. But it's going to be probably also referred to other religions. Religion in general. Is religion necessary? It depends who you are on the level of the form. For some people it can be necessary or helpful for two reasons. It can provide the more superficial reason. It can give your life a certain amount of structure, which for some people can be helpful. Regular practice gives you feeling of comfort. Some people have too little structure in their lives and others have too much already. More importantly, on another level, religion can either obscure the spiritual dimension within yourself, and often it does. Or if used rightly, if approached rightly, if understood on a deeper level, it can help you access and stay in connectedness with that deeper level of yourself. Or the transcendent dimension of consciousness, whether or not you need it. Only you can know whether you find it either helpful or a hindrance. It can be either depends on you as a person, your past, what function it had in your past, and so on. It is a hindrance. If religion becomes an ideology, then it operates only on the level of the mind and is very similar to any other kind of ideology that you may believe in. Whether it's communism as an ideology, or any political theory, or anything that explains the universe. It could be a metaphysical system that you completely believe in, philosophical system, and so on. So an ideology is something that takes possession of your mind and exerts a controlling function. And it can influence almost your entire mental functioning. If it becomes something of overwhelming power in your mind, it's a little thought that grows into a huge thing in your mind. And the tentacles reach into every aspect of your mind. And there are religious people like that. Usually you can recognize that it is an ideology by the fact that they are not peaceful human beings and by the fact that they have enemies either even within their own religion or another religion. Anybody who does not agree with their ideology becomes an enemy. In the same way, people who were not nowadays that many were deeply believing in communism, which was a wonderful idea to start with. Of course, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. It was a beautiful idea of equality. Everybody say that is wonderful. No personal possessions. It's wonderful too. And the only mistake was it was imposed from outside by people who themselves has not gone beyond the egoic state of consciousness. They just played it in their Mind, that's a good idea. And then it was imposed on other people who also were not in that state of consciousness. But most importantly, those who imposed the idea on others forced them to live it out. The ideal became contaminated with ego. So when these people came to power, their egos became inflated to an enormous degree, almost to absurdity. And without realizing it, they reenacted the same evils, in some cases worse than those that they were fighting against, like in Russia. They saw the. The injustices associated with the tsar regime and so on, and they truly saw that. They truly wanted to remove that, and that seemed a good thing, but they had overlooked their own state of consciousness. And the great challenge is for people power. You can have that very meek person who seems, oh, this is what a lovely person. He seems to have no ego or very little. He. So give that person power. Then the latent ego, which was there in a. Let's say a person is very poor, has no power at all. Give that poor person power. Then the latent ego will no longer be latent. It will suddenly come to life. And that happens, is repeated and has been repeated many, many times in countries where frequently the government is overthrown and then the previous rulers are accused of corruption. And the new people who overthrow the previous, they truly believe that, that now they have more just societies going to arrive. Because again, they don't know themselves, they have not observed themselves. And the moment they achieve power, they are seduced by that and their ego suddenly grows and they reenact the same thing. So ideology, religion can turn into, and often does turn into ideology. You can recognize it, as I said, by the fact that these people are not peaceful. They will condemn other people or other groups of people as evil. They may verbally, even physically attack others. And if it's not that extreme, it might be that they simply are extremely intolerant towards anybody who does not share their belief system or their ideology. And so that's a clear sign that that kind of religion is a hindrance to the spiritual dimension, to knowing who you are, to being a peaceful human being. It's in the service of the ego. It's an egoic creation. The ego can take scriptures that are beautiful and point to the truth and can corrupt them completely, misread and misinterpret them, and then they're used in the service of the ego. So that's how religion can become a huge hindrance. But religion can also become an opening into the spiritual dimension. So a religious practice or a religious reading, a reading of a sacred Text, an ancient spiritual text, can be a wonderful thing. The questioner mentions Jesus. Following in the steps of Jesus. Is that, or is only presence important when you use it in a deeper sense? Following in the steps of Jesus means becoming present. How? First of all, Jesus taught presence in quite a few of his utterances, starting from the flower that you said, you should really look at a flower and see how it lives in the present moment without worry and anxiety. He taught egolessness, deny thyself, which means recognize the unreality of yourself. He spoke of the I am as the foundation, which is misinterpreted. We have. Now, let's just for a moment. In Christianity, we have a historical person, probably Jesus, and we have Christ. Now, Christ was not his actual name. It was a title given later, and that's already mentioned in the more enlightened parts of the New Testament, that Christ is a dimension of consciousness. And I believe it's St. Paul who says, I must diminish and Christ in me must grow. This is a mystical, deeper interpretation of Jesus, who was an historical person who realized his kinship with the transcendent dimension, the divine, whatever you want to call it. He realized his connectedness, his kinship, his oneness with that. And as he realized that, he became the transcendent dimension emerged in him as it does in you. It emerged in him. And then the historical person, Jesus, became the Christ. Therefore, we have in mystical Christianity the term Christ consciousness, which is the transcendent consciousness that emerges where before there was only the person. And we have in certain Buddhist traditions the term Buddha nature that says that every human being and everything that's alive has at the core of their being is Buddha nature or the Buddha as the reality of who you are. That's the teaching in some Buddhist traditions, and it's a beautiful teaching that your true nature is Buddha nature. And you just have to realize your true nature is Buddha nature. Isn't that what we've been talking about? It's just a different name attached to it. In mystical Christianity, it's Christ consciousness. And so Jesus was a precursor who showed the way to Christ consciousness. And if focusing on the historical figure of Jesus and realizing that he embodies both the person and the Christ can become a vehicle for you. If that is suitable for you. And if you still feel drawn to Christianity or any other religion, that is the way for you to go, deepen that rather than think you have to move into something else. But if that doesn't work for you, then fine, then walk away and find Christ consciousness somewhere else. And some people don't need any religious structure anymore. This is for the first time, perhaps in the evolution of humanity. There's spirituality that exists outside of formalized religions. And that's an amazing thing. So many of you may not need the formalized religion anymore in others may need it. And that is a beautiful thing. You can deepen the way in which you live, practice and understand your religion so that it becomes an opening into the transcendent dimension within yourself. If you are a Christian and want to deepen certain readings, I would highly recommend there were certain teachers who who expressed the truth of Christianity from a deeper level than the conventional church. Christianity the most in the past. Meister Eckhart, who lived in the early Middle Ages, the most wonderful. His writings are superb and fantastic depth to them. And he uses Christianity to take you very, very de. Deep into the core of it all, the core of all things into yourself. Other mystical writers in the Middle Ages are good too. Some Spanish ones, some more German ones. And more recently I would recommend Course in Miracles, which uses Christian terminology throughout, which to some people is obnoxious, can't stand it. And others say, oh, now I understand Christianity much better. And Joel Goldsmith, he was a teacher in the 50s and 60s, also reinterprets Christianity and makes it deeper, discovers the depth dimension that's there. And other religions have the same. You have deep teachings in Judaism, you have deep teachings in Islam, you have deep teachings obviously in Buddhism. So there's the superficial level to religion. And if that's all there is for you, it will probably become an ideology and then it becomes a barrier. Or if understood more deeply, it can become an opening. This mind made sense of self is also much more focused on the negative than the positive. To be free, you awaken to who you are beyond your history and your life situation. It.