A Beginner's Guide to the Spiritual But Not Religious: Part 2- The Seven Good Rules

“We each have an obligation to analyze our faith, study our religion, and periodically update our belief system as we grow and learn new spiritual truths, even if those truths come to us from sources outside of our inherited or chosen religion.”-The Truth: About the Five Primary Religions by Laurel.

[Note: I've been meaning to wrap up my review on The Truth but I've been considerably busy with final projects, the kids, and moving into our new home in Chattanooga.]

In Chapter 3 Laurel introduces the reader to the 7 good rules of religion, which if followed will lead mankind into the next spiritual paradigm and guide man back to the divine: Philosophy, Science, Morality, Justice, Inclusiveness, Openness, and Spirituality. As soon as Laurel described the rules I knew she was right, our religions have failed us. A religion is only as good as the people upholding its noble Truths.

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Yet where our religions have failed us there are movements within each which have been wrestling with their own faith's failures. A battle for self-identity is being fought within the 5 major religions as future generations carry on the faith. What does it mean to be a Christian, Muslim, or Hindu, and who defines these labels? Can you truly be a faithful Christian and still be open-minded, how much of our traditions must we sacrifice in following these rules? The Seven Good Rules are more like seven noble goals instead of rules for the development of our individual and communal spiritual journeys. Noble goals to which, as Laurel will explain in detail in chapter 4, all religions have failed. So before jumping into the deep end of how they've failed us (which all of them have) let us go over why we feel religion is still important.

Religion began as our early attempt to explain the mysteries of the cosmos and helped to foster the development of civilization and safeguard our tribal survival. The ancient world must have been an extremely fearful environment for our ancestors battling with the wild forces of nature. Religion was the glue which kept communities together (live together, die alone), fed our wildly imaginative and creative impulses, and structured a sense of connection with the world and the divine. We eventually began peeling back the layers of fog blanketing the unknown to discover the actual mechanisms of the universe itself instead of continuously placating the gods to protect us from the elements, praying for blessings to rain down from on high. We discovered that there was not only a structured order to the universe but that we could work within that system to our benefit (navigation, metallurgy, biology, etc). These discoveries began to undermine the truths long held by the religions, which claim divine (or higher) revelation as their sources. Some, like the New Atheists, would say that since we have made long strides discovering the inner workings of the universe we no longer need religion, which was helpful at first but is now keeping mankind from progressing forward. I both agree and disagree that religion is broken and serves to be only as useful as a paperweight. The establishment and traditions of religion have become antiquated and now serves mostly to keep the clergy in power. Period. This is why people feel disconnected and are seeking the sacred outside of the established sacred places.

What has resonated with me the most and which I have found to be the best description of this tension between those inclined towards religion and those towards spirituality is best displayed by this crudely drawn graph.


Human beings crave connection, love, and interaction with each other, but we can't connect if we can't get along. Any religion which strays from these 7 goals are not only attempting to ensure its own survival they are inflicting harm to Man's spirit. The graph above is meant to illustrate that religion only serves to make you a better Hindu, Jain, Muslim, or Jew spiraling inward towards the center. And I have nothing against being a better Insert Faithful Believer Here, but if you're only spiraling inward towards a single faith there will be contention with followers of other faiths. Spirituality, or spiritual growth described as the Saddha Process by Laurel, on the other hand seeks to always grow outward regardless of your religious background. This is why the Seven Good Rules can never be followed by a practitioner of a faith because the clergy will not consider any change which might disrupt their power base. Is religion salvageable or should we follow the advice of the new Atheists and throw the baby out with the bath water? I believe, or hope, we can save religion, but for our religions to survive they (and the men who control it) must be open to radical discovery, radical change, and radical love.

A Beginner's Guide to the Spiritual But Not Religious: Part 1- The Prophets

"I have searched high and low for fifteen years and I still cannot find one religion practiced by mankind today that has remained faithful to God's message of truth." -The Truth: About the Five Primary Religions by Laurel.

When times are tough and the chips are down many of us turn to religion. But the sobering fact is that even religion has demons to wrestle and skeletons to hide, so what then do we do? Where do we go? Meet Laurel, the author of The Truth and a spiritual seeker going on 16 years. She, like many others, turned towards religion in search of answers, in search of Truth. What is Truth? Is it found in religion, and if not, where?

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Before I crack open any book on religion and spirituality, I like to know a bit about the author. I didn't have to look to far since Laurel spells out her life story in the first few pages. I've got to admit, retelling her life story seemed a bit too personal, but after giving it some thought not only do I find this necessary to connect with the reader but I do the exact same thing when I meet a stranger and attempt to spell out my beliefs. Regardless, she is a passionate seeker who began her quest after being hurt by life's injustices which cracked opened her heart, mind, and soul to God. True seekers approach inter-faith studies with an open and thirsty mind devouring not only scripture but histories, biographies, and commentaries of the early believers. In her 15 years of study, Laurel has come to the conclusion that the religions of the world has taken a perverse turn leading away from the Divine. Humanity has gone through four shifts in our collective consciousness, she calls Spiritual Paradigms, and we are on the verge of a fifth. Before mankind can move into the fifth we must understand where religion went wrong, which Laurel states in two major points:

• Religion has failed in assisting us to develop a relationship with the Divine and lead us toward higher spiritual vistas
• Religion was to be our model for demonstrating unconditional universal compassion and love for one another. (p.21)
  

I would like to point out for those deeply immersed in inter-faith studies a lot of her introductory chapters would be review. It is impossible to delve into a deep and worthwhile study of the world's religion in a mere 434 page book. You will either end up painting with broad brushes briefly mentioning the major points of each faith or you will inadequately balance the amount of time given to each faith. These are the pitfalls of writing a book on multiple religions. Yet, I see this book as a catalyst, a starting point for those who've begun questioning their faith and need a place to begin or a gentle nudge to continue their journey. The focus of this book is not to point out which religion is the most historically, ethically, or theologically correct but where the religions have strayed from the original revelation. One of the more useful aspects of the book is its intense focus on information. Key terms are in bold, and there is a 30+ page appendix with a brief history of major events in human evolution, politics, and religion, maps, and a bibliography of her 15 years of research. I personally like footnotes (although I rarely follow up on them) which Laurel leaves out because, I assume, it would be information overload.

Laurel devotes one third of the book to a brief understanding of the prophets and their message. This is where I felt a bit unsatisfied over the imbalance of material towards the Western religions, but the detailed issues brought up in the section on Christian and Muslim Prophets was incredibly enlightening. Without sounding like a broken record, a lot of the material covered in this section was review for me but there is A LOT of ground to cover and Laurel does a phenomenal job of introducing the reader to the basic teachings and tenets of the five faiths: Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam. I can relate to the author as she cautiously delves into the section of the Christians Prophets and spells out her fears in questioning the very roots of her beliefs. With over 80 pages dedicated to the Christian prophets it seems like she poured an enormous amount of time, energy, and spiritual growth into tackling the foundation of her faith. Yet as she delves into the revelations the prophets brought to mankind, Laurel weaves their foundational truths together into what she calls our Tower of Truth. Throughout history, each messenger built upon the tower of man's spiritual knowledge adding their message upon the preceding messengers. It was then I realized the similarities between her Tower of Truth and the teachings of Bahá'í, the 19th century monotheistic religion which espouses a message of unity and universal acceptance of all religious faiths. Thus far she has not mentioned Bahá'í, yet I do not think she is attempting to convince the reader that any one faith contains the Truth, but only if we strive to seek the foundational truths at the core of our religious faiths we would then uncover a sense of spirituality which would lead us to The Truth.