There’s a Buddhist saying that describes religion as being like a raft, once you’ve crossed the river you don’t carry that raft on your back to your destiniation, do you? After you’ve made it to the opposite shore leave your raft there and continue on foot without the oppressive weight of your raft (or religion) on your back.
Likewise there is another Buddhist saying that insists that if religion were a raft don’t stay on it too long or you will get washed out to sea where you will be forced to stay and deal with the consequences.
Religion A Good Start
I’ve always said that religion is an excellent starting point for a spiritual life…sort of like ‘Spirituality 101’. But after that you’re on your own, you need to make your own way.
Most of the problems on Earth are caused by people who are trying to carry their raft…or who have stayed on their raft too long.
Your Path to Enlightenment
There are 6 1/2 billion people on the planet and there are 6 1/2 billion paths to enlightenment. We are creative souls…get creative…ask questions!
Don’t carry your religion like a raft, don’t stay on your raft too long and mostly importantly, don’t follow me….make your own path.
The Nous Age 
Hi David,
Although I’m not familiar with either of those Buddhist adages, I find myself totally agreeing with you. At least, I agree with you as far as my own path has evolved. But there may be people who do need to carry that raft on their back in order to maintain any connection to spirituality. Yes, they get bogged down in the details, making their paths longer and more difficult to maintain, but they can’t get there any other way.
Thanks for the comment Zendette! I don’t believe that true enlightenment is possible with the weight of a dogmatic religion suppressing you. Jesus’ wish for us was to achieve enlightenment…the Christian church’s wish is to keep us under their thumb.
I think that once religion becomes overly organized it eventually becomes it’s own reason for being and faith is used to control rather than enlightenment. I’ve seen it happen in Jewish and Buddhist cults.
No, not enlightenment. That’s rather a tall order even for the spiritually savvy. Rather some people need to carry the raft to have any connection at all to spirituality. Unfortunately, sometimes the raft was built by the devil 😉
I believe Jesus’ goal was to show us the path, or the ‘door’, to enlightenment. As difficult as it seems to attain in this modern, materialistic world…I believe it’s a goal worth at least trying for. The true message of Jesus was more Buddhist than what would be considered “Christian” today.
I agree, to the extent that I understand the message of both Jesus and Buddha, that it was somewhat Buddhist. Then again, most of what I know about Jesus was learned from reading The Messianic Legacy, where the research is shoddy, but fascinating.
There are many gurus who can show you the door, but few people understand that’s it’s a door, and even among them, fewer still want to do any real work to create and open it. Most people are willing to forgo the actual door that they need to build with their own hands and would rather pay for a replica of a door that they can show off in their curio cabinet. Yes, I’m an elitist, lol.