Unorganized Religion

I was sitting on the couch with a book on Buddha sitting next to me. I decided to just open it up, flip through the pages and then stop when the mood struck me. "Do you have anything to show me universe?", I asked silently. When I stopped flipping I landed on a page that discussed an allegory (I assume) used by the Buddha when discussing religion. To paraphrase the allegory, it said that once a religion become organized, it loses its religiosity - its inherent spirituality. People become so obsessed with making compromises and being caught up in the bureaucracy of its organization that they lose focus of the religion's true context, and so they end up warping the original message they had become so dedicated to in the beginning.

Personally, I find a great deal of truth in this. There are so many spiritual people out there who are longing to connect with some aspect of divinity, yet no matter where they turn some religious institution is shutting them out. I also see a great many preachers and religious leaders who have lost sight of their original intent and are now caught up in the numbers of their congregation and how much money they're receiving. This is often another aspect that discourages people from accepting or investigating a certain faith is the outright negativity and hypocrisy.

Why are people so caught up in "belonging" to a religion and being accepted by one? Why can't they just talk to God on their own or forge their own path? Why must so many be told what to do? Is it fear? Is it weakness?

I just feel that people should stop worrying so much as to what religion they are and start celebrating their own spirituality and embrace it. If you find a group of like-minded individuals right away, then that's wonderful. But if not, that shouldn't be any reason to be discouraged or to feel as if you're doing something wrong. No one religion has it 100% right - none of them.

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