What is the meaning of religion?

Religion has historically been understood to be a way for us to praise and worship God. The shift today around religion lies in realizing that God is not outside of us—God is within. For according to the Pathwork Guide, what religion actually means is “re-connection with God.” And whether we realize it or not, everybody wants this. We all want to find our inner divinity.

When we feel unfulfilled in life, this is nothing else but feeling our wish to return to God, to return to religion. The more we are aware of this wish, the more our soul currents flow in a harmonious way, allowing us to feel at peace.

This is also the core of any religion that guides us to discover peace within. But at this point in time, many people are anxious to assure themselves and others that they are not “religious.” For we mistakenly assume that being religious means we must blindly accept a set of dogma that feels dry and filled with errors.

For such people, finding a way back to God does not follow the path of a traditional religion. Such people need to be shown another road.

When this is the case, we can find our way back to God by following a non-religious sect if the instructions we receive open the doors to searching within. For this is the avenue to having a higher perception, which means having a higher connection with God.

The search for absolute truth

In the long run, re-connection with God, or religion, is essential for everyone. For deep down, we all long to find the truth that lies beyond human error. We are searching for something that is absolutely true. And God is both truth and absolute.

But no matter how we go about it, we all need help from others to find this. Such outside help gives us the materials we need to build a new house. We need to build an inner house of God.

In accordance with our current level of development, we will receive as much truth as we are able to understand and take in. But many today are capable of being given more truth than we are currently receiving.

The problem is that we don’t want it enough to work for it. For as Jesus taught, we have to knock in order for the door to be opened.

When we partake of the sacrament in a Santo Daime sacred plant medicine ceremony, we are knocking on our inner doors and asking to re-connect with God. We are seeking our inner divine light, which is heaven within.

These splendid rays of light are an aspect of the essence of God. When we rediscover them, we will feel connected not only with God, but also with all that is.

Helping people re-connect with God—to find their inner divinity—is what our religion at Casa da Calma is all about.

By entering this Pathwork*, you do not enter therapy. You embark on a voyage leading you into the new territory of your inner universe…you will still need for quite a while to pay attention mainly to those areas within yourself which are negative, destructive, and in error. You may not like to do so, but if you truly wish to find your real self, that core of your being from which all good stems, this focus is necessary…So this path must teach you to face whatever is in you, for only when you do this can you truly love yourself. Only then can you find your essence and true Godself.
–Pathwork Guide Lecture #204: What is the path?
*And by extension, Santo Daime ceremonies

Adapted from Pathwork Guide Q&A on the meaning of religion.