The Function of Religion

Ken Wilber says that he believes the function of religion is to grease the wheels of history so that we can move toward nondual consciousness, or what I would call the contemplative mind. Quite simply, we are supposed to move toward love. Mature religion’s function is to make us capable of compassion, mercy, forgiveness, nonviolence, and care for others. When religion is not creating people who can reconcile things, heal things, and absorb contradictions—then religion isn’t doing its job.

When we stopped teaching the contemplative mind in a systematic way about 400 to 500 years ago, we lost the capacity to deal with paradox, inconsistency, and human imperfection. Instead, it became “winners take all” and losers lose all.  Despite all our universities and churches in Western Christianity, we learned to choose one side over the other and if possible, exclude, punish, or even kill the other side. That’s dualistic thinking at its worst; and it’s the normal mind that has taken over our world. It creates very angry and, often, violent people. Peace and happiness are no longer possible, because there is always a crusade to be waged and won. That is ego at work and surely not soul.
—Richard Rohr

Yes.

By teaching “do not judge,” the great teachers are saying that you cannot start seeing or understanding anything if you start with no.  You have to start with a yes of basic acceptance, which means not too-quickly labeling, analyzing, or categorizing things as “in” or “out,” “good” or “bad,” “up” or “down.”  You have to leave the field open, a field in which God and grace can move.  Ego leads with no, whereas soul leads with yes.

The ego seems to strengthen itself by constriction, by being against things; and it feels loss or fear when it opens up.  No always comes easier than yes, and a deep, conscious yes is the work of freedom and grace.  Spiritual teachers want you to live by positive action, open field, and studied understanding and not by resistance, knee-jerk reactions, or defensiveness.

Words and thoughts are invariably dualistic, but pure experience is always nondualistic.  You cannot really experience reality with the judgmental mind, because you are dividing the moment before you give yourself to it.  The judgmental mind prevents you from being present to the full moment by trying to “divide and conquer.”  Instead, you end up dividing and being conquered.

—Richard Rohr