Faith vs. Religion

I`ve recently seen an episode of Da Vinci`s Demons, that had a grim scene: the Turks (who conquered an Italian city) aligned all the prisoners and made them choose: they accept Islam as their true religion and keep their lives, or they keep the Catholic faith and lose their heads.

I instantly put myself into their shoes (conscious living is my middle name 😉 ) and I realized I would`ve chosen my life, no matter what! Why? Why not?

I am a soul that decided to experiment life and evolve here, on this marvelous planet, or having a dead body doesn`t help my “mission” at all.

There are a lot of people that consider my statement a blasphemy (offense toward church, its representatives, God) but I can assure them that faith doesn`t “live” in our mouths, in our words, in our churches, in the gestures we make when we pray, in the food we are eating, but inside our hearts!

No one can access that part of ourselves, but us.

Faith and religion are two different things, but people confuse them all the time; moreover, they see them as synonyms. They aren`t, really.

I think our society problem starts here, as a result of this confusion. Religion is practiced in churches (why only there?), where people are gathering to pray, they keep all the religious celebrations, they fast, but all these things are done on cruise control, “because that`s what the priest said we should do”.

Faith, on the other hand, is lived every second of every day (or how a wise being once wrote: “every gesture should be a prayer”).

Not once I`ve seen religious people becoming “monsters” in their day to day lives, forgetting their holy book`s commandments. We`re not defined by the religion we practice, but by our character, the choices we make in every situation, our reactions to anything that life throws at us.

I believe that a human being should be born with two essential rights: the right to choose its first name and its religion. This way it will be authentic.

One of the wisest man of our times, Mahatma Gandhi, said it simple and beautiful: “God has no religion.”

Plain and simple … Love

I often hear the sentence “I love you unconditionally”.

As far as I know, the term “unconditional love” is a nonsense. Is there … “conditional love”? If someone thinks it is, I am sure it`s filed under a different term.

I am not writing this article to dissect the meaning of some words, I am doing it to bring a little bit of light in a very good friend`s mind (he`s not the only one in the world that feels this way) who never learned to accept the fact that he`s unique, important, valuable, just because … he exists!

I don`t know if he has the impression that he`s not worth it or it`s too much for him to accept that he`s loved “just because” …

Love, in its pure form, lives inside every one of us, but because we are afraid that we`ll be laugh at or hurt, we rarely share it, show it, declare it.

[I don`t know who and when reached the verdict “guilty” in the case of  “The People vs. Love”, Love being the worthless creature that must be kept in a dark dungeon for some unknown reasons, but I chose to wear IT with as much pride as our ancestors, The Dacian people, carried their flag into battles. This way I can daintily yield IT to the people around me. Not once I`ve been seen as an odd creature for being “so loving”, their first impulse being flight or dodge. As soon as they got to know me, they`ve become “hungry” for my words and gestures, and they`d come looking for them, in case I had a … meditative day.]

There is a small number of people that`s able to love with the love of a creator; the rest of us offer love after we test, probe, experiment, live.

Dear friend, as I stand before you, as a humble mortal being, I confess to you that I did not love you from the start “just because”, but, after you showed me, with such grace and trust, the dept of your soul, your beautiful mind, the things you are capable of doing and feeling, I chose to love you, and, no matter what you chose to do from now on, my love for you will always stay intact, because my soul it`s honored to have yours by its side for the rest of our mortal lives, and, why not, even beyond …

One more thing: “I love you” is not only reserved for lovers and couples; it`s here to be used by anyone, anytime (hopefully, tax free, for a very long time 🙂 ).