What is religion?

What is religion? Religion is near identical with culture, a philosophy of life and attitude pattern based on insights that derive from metaphysics. And since metaphysics was said to be the first philosophy according to Aristotle, and Greek philosophy was something like a reformulation of religion into a new term, we can say that religion, philosophy and metaphysics not only are connected, but that in many ways they are merely different terms for what originally was the same thing.

I say "originally" because all these terms or concepts have diverged from one another and deviated from their origin, and not in a good way. The more division that happens, the more you can expect the concepts to be taken and understood erroneously. That everything is connected and founded on recurrence, reflections and correspondences is a fundamental law, and the true meaning behind the expression "all is one" or "all is in one, and one is in all", etc.

The word "religion" originates in the Latin word religio, the origin of which has been speculated to be "reconnect" or "reconnecting," which has the implication of reconnecting to a particular source or origin.

Therefore we must distinguish what religion originates from – what it was in its essence – and what it later became in various cultures or in the psyche of the individual person. In other words, what is of interest here is what the term religion should refer to, not necessarily what it is considered to be among the masses. When different individuals and cultures use the same word but mean different things, then it becomes a problem. Thus it is often necessary to either clearly define words and terms before they are discussed, or invent a new word or term that is less likely to be misinterpreted.

In Timeless Education I attempt to do a bit of both. In part, I try to analyze, explain and clarify old terms in videos and texts such as this one. And partly, I invent and reformulate old terms into new ones as part of a new teaching. I could say that the term "timeless education" has the same meaning as the term "religion." But then people would just say, "Oh, so timeless education is just religion..." But no, it's not religion as people understand it because most people do not know what I mean by religion. You do not know what religion really is, or what it was meant to be. Almost nobody does. Timeless Education also has the same meaning as philosophy, psychoanalysis, science, education, politics, etc. And normally people do not get all this in a single package, properly developed. Timeless Education is universal religion free of all nonsense. It is "essential culture."

I could make it very easy for myself here and simply say: "Religion is not what you think it is. Real religion is the same as Timeless Education. So if you want to know what real religion is, go and read up on Timeless Education." And, obviously, I think you should do that. But I want to elaborate a bit more on religion and explain certain things, since people often want arguments and support for this kind of assertion.

It is often said that all religions are fundamentally the same, with the same message, and containing the same truths. But this is an incompetent way of expressing it, a lazy-minded repetition of something people have heard. And as a result, the counter arguments are often stronger. It is more precise to say that all religions derive from the same source, that they were originally meant to be the same, that they should be the same, but that they, through misinterpretations, human partiality and incompetence have over time deviated both from their original form and from each other. So, no, today's religions are not the same. And because of that, the majority of them can not be called real religions. They are empty shells and rituals that long ago died and have lost their essence.

Ancient enlightened people knew and accepted that all religions sooner or later must die, to be updated and give way to a new formulation of timeless wisdom that reconnected to the source. I brought this up in my text on Norse mythology and Ragnarok. That the gods fall during Ragnarok is partly a metaphor for the coming death of the old religious system. That is why antiquity had so many different religions with similar gods and systems.

Same thing with the monotheistic religions. Christianity and Islam were both reformulations of Judaism. Christianity attempted to clarify that the scriptures should not be taken literally by, among other things, raising the point that "the letter kills but the spirit gives life." Islam attempted to clarify that all religions originally had been valid by saying that all people have had their own prophet. But even these two religions died very early. In their true essence, they only lasted probably for about a 100 years, tops. So the lifespan of a religion is very short. Just because people still call themselves Muslims or Christians does not mean that the real religion, its essence, has not already died a long time ago.

People are very superficial. They think that a label and some routinized rituals mean something. People do not sense their own lack of substance, and that is why they can defend empty rituals and literal interpretations, even though the scriptures or myths often were formulated so that a literal interpretation becomes absurd. Only by sensing that the religion does not feel right and does not fulfill deeper needs can the individual genuinely begin to seek and perhaps find the right interpretation or the origin of his or her religion. Every prophet and originator of a new religion has experienced disappointment with the former religion and how it was practiced. Real spiritual and religious individuals are seekers, people who question.

But then what is this source from which true religion originates? The source consists, in its essence, of two things. The first thing is a self-insight that one's own true identity is an inner observing point or "knower," "observer," "emptiness," "witness" – no definition can quite describe it so this consciousness, veiled behind all thoughts and psychological processes, must be experienced. In the East, this is the original aim of meditation, and in Christian tradition it is called "mysticism." However, "mysticism" is a term that, like religion in general, has different interpretations. Some Christians believe that "mysticism" is to get in contact with God or Jesus as an external invisible gestalt, or a literal voice that speaks to them, and so on. But these are later misinterpretations and superstitutions that are often transmitted by quacks. It is very easy for charlatans to exploit the term "mysticism," and through this concept claim just about anything. So I avoid the term "mysticism" because I do not like the word and I don't know how people interpret it.

But this part of the source of religion refers to the inner source of yourself. What you are when you peel away everything that is temporary and changing and connects to what remains and is permanent – you as an inner observer. And it is this observer or knower who is universal man, who is in God's image, not the rest of you.

The second thing that is the source of religion is a kind of source code or formula that expresses the principles of ultimate reality or highest natural law. This source code is called various things such as "Logos," "Tetractys," "Religio vera," "The Word," "the cross to take up," "God's name," "Jod-He-Vau-He" (or "JeHoVaH"), "Yin-Yang," "Ishvara," "Trimurti," "Odin-Vili-Vé," and so on. Out of this formula or source code, all well-known religious concepts are derived; such as non-dualism, the Creator, Karma, Almighty guide, the light of the world, sacrifice (such as humility and acceptance in front of reality), arithmetics, numerology, astrology, inspired texts, etc.

The purpose of religion is to preserve this source code as sacred and transmit it so that this ultimate guiding principle never dies out. Because without it, only lies and falsity, conflict and disorder, arise, mainly in the form of dualistic thinking – "the devil." And for people, even extraordinary people and philosophers, it is virtually impossible to reach the right conclusion in terms of reality on their own since people are too partial. The second purpose is to heal people and make them more healthy and capable of taking responsibility by giving them proper education in self-knowledge, especially deeper self-knowledge of the inner observer, so that they may develop true free will and act in harmony with the nature of "the Creator" or Ultimate Reality.

So true religion is inner unity, especially with the inner witness; and hard metaphysics, e.g. philosophical principles, process logic, and the consequent meaning of this, such as communicating a worldview born from the answers through storytelling. This is "reconnection to the source." Everything else is more or less pseudo-religion and pseudo-spirituality.

Creational causality

In Timeless Education I will often use the term "Creational causality," a term that is associated with both "the timeless cause" and accidents (i.e. the lack of free will).

I use this term instead of "determinism" because I want to get away from erroneous assumptions. Most critics of determinism focus on attacking the idea of predestination, that everything is already settled. But not even most determinists think everything is predetermined. They use the word determinism but they mean that everything is in the hands of accidents, not that it is predetermined.

Since I share that view, I think it's a good idea to simply get rid of the term determinism and instead use something that refers to causality – cause and effect. But I also have another reason to discard the term determinism, and that's because it is often used materialistically without taking into account a more complex consciousness. Causality also includes people's "programmed" inner nature in addition to determinism's focus on external influence and environmental nurturing.

Besides, Timeless Education leaves room for some free will in the form of free choices of attitude towards what happens to us, which in turn may, at right times, change the direction of causality. Only Timeless man can overcome cause-creating causality and bring about change or make deliberate constructive work – become a "causal source" of their own – to the extent possible. But this freedom is an exception that requires the right education, endurance, courage and discipline. It is not the norm in people.

"Orsaksmässig kausalitet" (roughly "cause-creating causality") is also called "Skapande kausalitet" ("Creational causality"), which is both easier to translate into English while at the same time connecting the concept with the term "Creator." Causality is more or less the true nature of the Creator in all religions: reality, truth, Tao, karma, Logos, the highest natural law, etc.

The symbols of this highest natural law are the numbers 3 and 4: The Creator and its process of creation without beginning or end. This triad and tetrad are in my system formulated through the essentialness-key A-Ω-X-Ω, and I have called it the timeless configuration of reality that regulates things beyond what people can influence, and thus should understand and accept.

So not only materialistic science emphasizes the limits of free will. It has always been an essential element in ancient wisdom and religion. The success of modern humanistic society is also the result of this insight, that circumstances determine actions more than free choices.

Real insight into and the keeping in memory of creational causality (the lack of free will) leads to less blaming, less hubris, more humility, more forgiveness (including self-forgiveness), and more wisdom with better connection to reality and an opportunity to actually begin acting properly. Even the adoption of victim role decreases. Only someone who still believes that others have free will can assume the role of a victim.

This insight should rather encourage curiosity regarding "what's going to happen" – focus on experience, on surprise – instead of striving in an impossible direction, which is a reduction of life and of experiences. Real freedom is a change in attitude. Real "doing," real actions, are inner actions – attitude, controlled intention. The confluence with truth; with the timeless cause; with the right valuation, is the most beneficial and peaceful. The more people develop, the more they experience themselves as part of a whole in constant exchange of energy and reciprocal maintenance, whether they try or not. Free will is better expressed by the word self-control, especially control over one's attitude. The will people have in their basic state is not free.

Creational causality assumes that people work with things and ideas they come into contact with and mediate these along their own individual nature and experience rather than give rise to something new or truly original. Originality is rather the result of unique events and circumstances.

The goal of development is to understand what is happening to us and how we are participating in an abundance, so that we fully agree with reality. A person who claims to believe in or trust in God, but does not fully agree with reality, can not be said to believe in God. I have never ever met a person who believed in or trusted in God in the true sense. Without a correct definition of "God" and "the Creator," the terms will just become imaginations. God's image in us is the internal witness, which can also do through the right attitude, but people have fallen from this deeper dimension or soul so that they are no longer in the image of the Creator. They are Temporary man instead of Timeless man.

Man and her psychological wiring with programmed instincts is within the powers of chance. People are not causal sources that can achieve without the right internal and external influences or circumstances. Achievements are circumstances and accidents, random genes and preprogrammed drives, but creates the delusion that we can achieve anything with unreasonable demands placed on ourselves and others. Praise and self-praise regarding what we have achieved in life is self-deception and a form of lying. Same thing with self-criticism and blame. People are mediums through which things are done by everything but themselves. And yet they take the credit for it. Wise men give credit to creational causality – to reality, to karma, to the Creator, or whatever they choose to call it.

And even if you believe in free will, which I too can believe in to some extent, this possibility of choice or "possible free will" is still so small and limited that focus on it just becomes a distraction. It is more practical and strengthens the awareness of the laws of reality more if we talk about how much people lack freedom and free will in comparison.


[This text is a transcription of the English subtitles from the Youtube video Orsaksmässig kausalitet (Creational causality) from November 2017 that can be viewed here: https://youtu.be/7kgFQ3I3-Yc]