Wrapping my brain around "Religion"

Some more nice quotes from Willigis Jäger from Search for the Meaning of Life:

Barriers and limitations are created solely by the fact that humans want to pin down the ineffable with concepts. Such religious modes of expression are conditioned by time and hence transitory. But experience is timeless and transcends all differences in dogma. It is the common ground on which the individual religions build.

All religions agree that Ultimate Reality is ineffable, that it can only be experienced. Everything that humans say about it is already a distortion.

On the level of experience, all religions are one. But individual persons who want to speak about their experience have to be content with the forms of expression available to them from their cultural background. And thus the variety of the esoteric paths reflects the variety of cultures, but in their essence they are all one.

Lately I have come across various sources trying to peg down what humanity means by "Religion." It is such a huge concept. A giant overwrought package of baggage. And there are way too many voices arguing over what is "right" and "wrong." I have been trying to wrap my brain around it as well, and reconcile how I found myself on this road to Catholicism.

First I should clarify that by the word "Religion" I am referring to that large descriptive box attached to one of the mainline religions, whether it be Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, etc.

I have come to view religion more and more as something that must be viewed from multiple dimensions. It is too simplistic to describe Christianity as merely a literal interpretation of the Bible, or that scientific materialism pulls the covers off all religions and reveals them all to be warm, fuzzy fairytale hoaxes to help us sleep at night. There is more to religion than showing up at church every Sunday or telling other people what not to do in their bedroom.

I am seeing religion now as something that encompasses many layers, or boundaries. And as one progresses further along on their spiritual path, the layers keep expanding further and further outward. You could start at the most basic level of religion, of primitive understanding about life; identifying your bedrock place in the world and its meaning. For me, the basic level would be someone solely wrapped up in the external layer (exoteric), with concern about morality and society; of following the "dogmas" of one's faith, the external rituals that bind community. Exoteric is where everyone loves to argue about "the rules" and who is or is not following them. Then the next step would be internal (esoteric), exploring one's inner world through contemplation; observing the actions of one's mind in operation; trying to dissolve that barrier between the ego-self that says "I am" and the inner conflicting God-nature that also wants to say "I AM." Then as you keep stepping beyond, one must realize there are still more horizontal and vertical dimensions, stretching to that ineffable Ultimate Reality.

It is as I have heard or read elsewhere: religion is like a vehicle. You need both the cart and the horse to be able to get somewhere. The cart contains the dogmas of external religion, the centuries of collected knowledge, wisdom, and rules; but we also need the horse, the engine, the fuel that springs from the inner work of contemplation based on the deep spring of esoteric wisdom underlying all faiths, to propel the cart forward. You must have both knowledge/rules and practice/action. They cannot go anywhere without the other. And then ultimately what you end up with is the final, genuine lived experience; that living, breathing awareness of God-reality, the "Gnosis" of self-realization, must be the end result.

Other random thoughts:

• there is the path of the intellect, the rational mind, Zen, or contemplation
• there is the path of the heart, of devotion, of a blissful union with the divine; of seeing God as a nurturing Mother-figure or lover

Plus we can't leave out the cultural layer as well. Depending on one's culture or how one was raised, can have an enormous impact on how one views or experiences religion. But to a certain extent, even the cultural layer is part of the exoteric shell that encompasses "Religion." Culture, like language, has many flavors and colors. The cultural layer can give us many different words to describe God's face, yet the underlying esoteric truth is still the All-One, Ineffable.

Some other influences on my thoughts this weekend:

Father Keating on Ken Wilber's Holons site:
http://www.holons-news.com/node/71

Bill Harris' Blog from Centerpointe/Holosync:
https://www.centerpointe.com/blog/