All paths meet at the Self

Tonight is a unique full moon in India.

Hindus are giving it special attention. A family I know is slaying a goat in the name of the Divine Mother, and then offering it as lunch to all the other community members tomorrow. Evidently doing so pleases The Mother and will win you grace from Her.

Like this, all religions are for the most part an amalgam of external rites and rituals performed to win grace for a more prosperous, peaceful existence on Earth. As extreme as animal sacrifice, as simple as prayer.

As you go further and further down (or is it up?) the path, as your awareness expands, as illusions melt away, you start seeing all the other paths that were once distant, apart, and out of sight getting closer and closer together.

You see they are all leading to the same place.

To You. Your Self.

The path then turns singular.

You realize the external thing you were looking for is actually inside of you.

(A striking revelation that is.)

You begin to realize that true religion, nameless, formless religion is to be practiced in your every day life, especially in moments when it matters least.

Are you putting teaching in to practice? Such as actually loving your neighbor? Or do you still just nod your head in agreement at the passage?

Are you being the change? Such as looking at your own shortcomings? Or do you still judge those of another?

Are you free of the past? Or are you still reacting to the same childhood patterns and conditioning? 

Are you steady in the face of stress? Or do you still have bouts with jealousy, anger, greed, and so on?

Where are you?

Are you here? Or are you still seeking a better now tomorrow?

Is that your voice you're speaking with? Or still that of another's?

Are you reaching out? Or still pushing away?

Giving? Or still begging?

If so, then every day turns into a luscious tapestry of amazingly interconnected and seamlessly flowing events. Every day is abundant in its giving, as you have become abundant. Sounds like Heaven.

If not, then this now is our practice, our sadhana.

Taking the risk of living our teaching and of being our own Guru, perhaps without any sign of visible reward of doing so and maybe, just maybe with some evidence to the contrary.

What you find though is that the effort, the practice itself, wins grace—no rituals are needed, no goats need be harmed.

And any rituals that are still used are used to assist you in this task of being you, they become something internal, not external, not based on hope.