I believe we are all the CEOs of our lives, but many of us can be swayed by the politics of our sense of belonging to various groups. I have been addressing this topic in my blog posts for years because I believe most of our prejudice and discrimination-related problems stem from our individual weaknesses. As CEOs of our life projects, we need to understand the importance of balancing all aspects of life, especially our sense of belonging and sense of freedom. Living a mortal life individually is our personal responsibility, especially if we feel strong influences being imposed upon us. Our belief systems, nationalism, and racial belonging can hold sway over us. Everything, including our learned knowledge, ingrained data, and political affiliations, falls under our individual responsibilities. Living comfortably in our mortal skin is not only an individual right but also a personal responsibility, above all taught knowledge. If your politics of belonging lead you to commit spiritual crimes in the name of your group, creating prejudice and discrimination, it’s time to reject that divisive education.
Examine your fiber or atom of autonomy critically, and consider whether your umbilical cord is still intact. As you seek answers to these questions, you will find that being free makes you a foundation of physical humanity and simultaneously a thread in the spiritual fabric of God. Without you, everything falls apart, contrary to our false and accepted truths. This is not blind faith; it is logical because without the individual, there is no group, nor the need for good or evil, rendering God and the Devil irrelevant.
Our belonging groups, especially political ones, work hard to discredit this truth. Religions are notorious in this area, discrediting evident human legitimacy in the larger scheme of life. We all have to learn to respect the little godly part within us. This respect is not limited to individuals; groups must also value the individual. If we are unhappy individually, we lose self-esteem and become insecure. As a collection of insecure and spiritually inept individuals, we openly accept prejudicial and discriminatory political policies and aggressively participate in conflicts, seeing ourselves not as independent spiritual entities but as physical extensions of a group. The politics of belonging robs us of self-esteem and our spiritual side. Political religions are no exception. Even monks, who ideally care only about spirituality, have had their spirituality robbed by the politics of belonging. This is why I discuss the politics of our sense of belonging to groups.
Our divisive social education creates unhappiness and spiritual discontentment for individuals and leads to crimes against humanity. We become aware of death as we reach adulthood, adding to our insecurities and leading us to adopt controlled lifestyles—the opposite of what a mortal should do. We accumulate literal clutter and metaphorical infections in our thinking as we grow up. Clearing this clutter and looking at life as a child allows for a worry-free life, but our realities are that we are grown-ups and mortals. A child is no longer a child, not because of physical growth but due to accumulated flawed knowledge. We all have a responsibility to question and seek solutions for our flawed ancestral knowledge, yet we egotistically defend it. Is our problem flawed knowledge, chemistry, lack of spiritual awareness, or all of the above? We need soul-searching. With the rise of equal human rights, it is time for individuals to question the roots of our problems.
Personally, I don’t need respect from my belonging group if they demand blind obedience to them or God. I value self-respect more, achieved by doing the right things, living spiritually, and connecting with God through practical prayer and practical living. If I am fulfilling my responsibilities, I should not fear God or hell nor be greedy for heaven. By staying comfortable in our mortal skin, we can create heaven in our lives by eliminating fear-related stresses and guilt. Stress and guilt rob us of happiness and contentment. This leads to a living hell driven by guilt, a reality you can experience without dying. Ask a spiritually damaged war veteran who committed spiritual crimes in the name of their nation and religion about the real hell on earth.
Physicality is necessary for spirituality to be real; without it, spirituality has no value and is as intangible as God and the Devil. To live a spiritually happy and content mortal life, one must be physically functional to receive spiritual rewards. All promised heavenly things require a physical body to be enjoyed. If we get another chance at heaven, why waste this one killing each other to earn a spot and make others’ lives a living hell?
No matter what religious leaders have taught you, since the shell must crack to start and end life, the physical shell is traditionally discarded when there is no spirit. As a human individual, you can’t value physicality exclusively, nor spirituality without physicality. This unique spiritual clap requires both hands to make a difference for a mortal being, individually, collectively, and even for God.
Our real fears are related to not accepting our mortal nature. If you know you have a temporary life, shouldn’t you be humble enough to value yours and others’ lives? Living life as a CEO should reduce your fear because you understand and believe in life’s realities without political influences.
You should also understand and separate politics from spirituality. Heaven, hell, and grave punishments are realities you only discover after death. No one returns to tell you about these religious truths. You must believe in them blindly. When it comes to this, you are expected not to think or question, becoming a submissive and irrelevant follower. As a CEO, you must recognize the politics of fear and control behind all traditions, customs, and rules of authority.
A political group intending to keep the individual weak can tell you that you are meaningless, unimportant, irrelevant, and a born sinner, regardless of its long-term impact on your self-esteem, mental, physical, and spiritual health. To me, being human is about being relevant in the grand scheme of life, so much so that without you, everything, even God and the Devil, becomes irrelevant.
One group expects you to submit entirely to be forgiven for sins you haven’t committed. The other tells you you’ll go to hell and be punished in the grave if you don’t submit. Personally, I place God on a higher level because even a reasonable person would not punish an innocent due to hidden political agendas.
Remember, your fiber or atom of autonomy is valuable to you and all groups because it is the foundation of any powerful entity. It is the thread that makes the fabric of God meaningful. Whether it is a nation or a religion, if they don’t respect the individual’s importance, they fall into the political category. Logically, if you remove individuals, the entire group falls apart and loses integrity. Groups fear losing power. If the individual is fearful, insignificant, irrelevant, and has no self-esteem, the politics of fear strengthens the group to the point that the individual does the group’s dirty deeds.
The politics of fear has been used for thousands of years without opposition until the recent equal human rights movement. Now, questions are asked, even the Pope has politically accepted homosexuality and abortion along with other pressing issues. Even if you are a passionate follower with blind faith, it is your individual responsibility to see through all the politics.
They want your fiber but want you to believe you are worthless and insignificant. If you believe this, you are easier to control and can be herded like sheep for the group’s dirty deeds. The group gains power over your life. So, if it’s not you, who benefits from all that politics? Why do group leaders seek control, and why is the individual kept weak and vulnerable? Why are questioning people disliked by religious leaders, and why do they get upset when someone calls them out for asking questions? They tell you that you are worthless, yet they want your fiber. Look at the majestic buildings and money laundering of religions; you still can’t find God there. Recently, in northern Ontario, a church building was on sale for one dollar. What is happening? Why can’t God pay Godly bills? It’s because God is within people, not in man-made buildings.
As Bullay Shah said:
“Masjid tah they munder tah they tah they jo kuj tehenda
Dil na kisay da tahwin bundya Rub dillan vich rahnda.”
“Demolish the mosque, demolish the temple, demolish anything you can and want,
Don’t demolish someone’s heart because God lives there.”
Instead of demolishing hearts, by killing each other, we rob each other of everything, including love and life, in the name of our religions, yet God lives in people’s hearts.
Groups first rob individuals of self-esteem by making them dependent on the group, then install false self-esteem by preaching that their group is the strongest and best. This means an individual’s self-esteem can fluctuate with the group’s success or failure. Religions claim their way is the only way to God. Again, this is political because weak individuals seek to attach themselves to something majestic like a stronger group, nation, or God. If individuals can’t find strength within, they join groups and believe God is on their side, making prejudice and discrimination inevitable.
If God doesn’t show up when needed, their self-esteem and inner spirituality, which were false to begin with, fall apart. Their problem is not just their belief system but how they view themselves. They always seek to join something majestic and never see themselves as majestic. If individuals think of themselves as part of a group instead of being a crucial part of the godly picture, they become worthless to themselves, internally and externally. This foundational problem allows political groups to sway and use us. We look down on ourselves with disrespect. Physically, we may feel inferior, but realizing our spiritual side helps us tame the largest internal and external beasts. So, while we may be a drop in the ocean, with internal spirituality, we are an ocean in a drop.
Regardless of how you view yourself, as mortals, we need a belief system to spend this temporary time with confidence, self-esteem, and comfort in our mortal skin. This comfort comes from a belief system, not necessarily in any one political religion, but in spirituality that crosses religious lines.