the (ir)relevance of religion these daze

issue 93 ♡ all religions exist as codes of conduct for humans to follow & download into their etheric fields

guidebooks for living souls incarnated on earth. words & pictures by dee kawai tang

what purpose does religion serve? love team atheist.

have you ever considered inviting jesus back into your life? love dee.

who is jesus again, dada? love rafa rose.

dearest fanatic fantastic readers,

this week i tune into religion. ok, before the collective sigh and groan dance, may i ask that you keep an open mind while reading this post. this weeks carries on a bit from last weeks foray into buddhism further tuning into the higher self to download what the bl**dy mary this religion caper is all about for humans living on earth. kindly replace any reference to god or jesus with a venerable or vernacular that suits you.

part I.

i said to my husband the other day— have you ever considered inviting jesus back into your life— and before i could even finish the sentence he had recoiled from me, making himself as physically far away as possible, as if i had spat gelatinous venom in his face and he was a marvel universe dude dodging a poisonous bullet. have you? i pressed on like a possessed zealot, as he stood on the other side of the room now, in a defensive position with his arms up in a protective force field shield from my unexpected holy firing.

i had just listened to a podcast with a mystical catholic priest talking about the j-man and i was truly asking without any pretence or prejudice— having grown up in a non-religious household with immigrant parents from hong kong. while we had cultural customs to adhere to, there was no mention of spirituality, faith or gods thrown upon us— except for a buddha here and kuan yin there placed on top of the TV cabinet— more for decorative purpose less for their teachings.

through my entire childhood to this day, my parents have never uttered the words god or jesus, let alone mary or joseph and jonas to myself and siblings. they never spoke of any higher power or abiding by religious code or morale. they never exhibited any leanings towards faith or demonstrated signs of spirituality. they were too busy frying spring rolls at their restaurant tang palace, to have space to let ol’ faith or grace to slip into their schedules.

my husband

Desmond Sweeney

on the other hand grew up catholic and went through the catholic schooling system his entire youth. he grew up going to church every sunday and was a choir and altar boy. he grew up with a catholic school teacher mum. he grew up with schools run by nuns and religious classes devoted to the bible. he grew up going to confession and sermons with priests. he grew up lighting candles in pews and holding a crucifix in ceremony.

all of this— is so foreign and fascinating, bewildering and baffling to me. our nine year old is equally engrossed by her dad’s former roman catholic life.

so we drilled him over dinner the other night—

what did you wear for choir? how high could you sing? what’s that stick called that you held? was it heavy? did you feel special? how many candles did you light? what does the priest wear? where did he live? what’s the confession box? what would you confess? how do you pray? do you have to kneel? how many hail mary’s? i like mary.

and who’s jesus again, dada?

the quintessential quran. the trippy-taka teachings of buddha. the whole bible.

part II.

every religion provides a scaffolding or regiment of sorts. some are loose and bound with flowers and bamboo, others are rigid and erected with enormous force and fatality of those who do not stay within the confines of their ‘religious’ selection or structure. religion has been given a bad name of sorts, in the western world lens, as a means of brainwashing and hogwash by leaders who have demonstrated egoic and so-called ‘sinful’ acts against fellow humans over millennia.

however the origins of religion was not so much to curse or crucify or conduct acts or rituals according to their religious codes or dictum, it was in fact (apparently) placed upon earth by higher angelic forces and sources whom wanted to instil some sense of ‘boundaries’ for us ever evolving humans on earth, so that we could decipher between ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ and ‘good’ and ‘bad’— codes even, that could be easily digested and downloaded for humans to follow and folly.

however over time, religion took on another kind of agenda forcibly with their following, telling and taunting humans with “this is the only way and this is the only road to salvation” (wherever that is) so many who disagreed went off and created their own churches, their own breed of boundaries or cult or sect, if you may. in essence, all religions are here and exist as codes of conduct for humans to follow.

we are all at varying levels of evolution on earth and our current incarnations and this variance could be very difficult to manage without some ground rules. and so, the beginnings of religion offers these rules— basically we could call religion ‘rules for living accordingly to this group of souls incarnated onto earth as humans’. but that’s a bit long winded so perhaps we could call it “a gentle guide for living” on earth.

tao te ching translates as ‘the way & its power’. the vedas are ancient hindu scriptures.

and perhaps we could all have the freedom and space to choose whatever guidebook we like, that we respond to, that resonates at the same vibrations and frequency as our souls evolution. and perhaps we could use more than one guidebook because, surely one book on hiking couldn’t be the definitive guide to hiking. wouldn’t it make sense to read more of them all?

perhaps then could we apply this same scope and thirst for learning and comprehending to taking bits and bobs and gods from each guidebook that responds to you and in turn, you feel has found its way into your hands by higher means.

all the teachings and learnings of these gentle guides exist for now, until we as humans no longer need them as reminders. one day our ‘future’ selves and humans will embody all these codes without reminder or restraint and we be kind to one another, not so much as a conscious act but it will become an unconscious occurrence embedded in our DNA and being-ness.

so please do— i implore you and encourage you to read and explore every ‘guide’ you find and allow the teachings/codes to be downloaded into your etheric and material and physical fields, so that it can further emanate and capture the field of those who surround you. the key to religion is that there is no key— it’s an open box of source codes, opened for us all to enjoy and encode.

love woo- tang xx

ps. thank you for being here and taking time to read this post. it makes my heart sing. kindly tap the heart to like, re-stack or make a comment below :)