What is Religion? Religion is a personal thing, therefore it is your non-dual relationship to God by doing what Christ came to instruct us in. It is the act of removing the knowledge of good and evil from the self. So a number of questions arise from this statement.
1. Is religion meeting other people? No. Your relationship to God is like wearing blinkers. Jesus said, "Be passers-by." He meant to the whole world, events and the sea of people.
2. Is religion practised in a Church? No. You get knowledge from there and are expected to act accordingly for the rest of the week.
3. Is religion dual, in other words, is there a yes or no about it? No. Religion is removing the dual part to become whole again.
If the original sin was for Eve to doubt God's word and to eat of the tree of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil because the serpent put the seed of doubt in her, then the act of religion is to become aware of what this knowledge is, what it causes to exist in us and to remove it. When Eve heard the alternate option provided by the serpent, which is a metaphor for a split tongue in the mind, she made an alternate understanding and judged herself to be right about it above God's initial warning. As a result, she created an ego. It was created to take the punishment she knew she wouldn't be able to avoid.
As is human nature, she didn't want to suffer this punishment alone and so gave Adam some of the fruit, knowing it was against what God had said. This means the frame of mind required to decide for oneself is exactly the judgement God was talking about, and how Eve and Adam became like God in that they judged for themselves what was right and wrong. One of the main aspects the Bible is trying to teach is that you should not, in fact, are not in a position to judge others, or even yourself. That is the sin described. What harm or good can be done without initially judging someone else to be worthy of that harm or good actions?
As you may be aware, our environment seems to be a mix of dualist principles. This isn't holy at all but divided like the self. Hot and cold, light and dark, matter and anti-matter, not forgetting good and evil, to name a few. When we are born, our brains are equipped with a 'like' and 'repulse' feature. This is to avoid bad food and dangerous environments and forms a part of our basic survival abilities. As our parents are also subject to this dualist way of thinking, and their parents, and their parents too, it stands to reason that everything coming from the mouth of our ancestors would also be from this dualist philosophy. One thing is right, the other wrong. This is safe, but that dangerous.
As a result, education and higher education further embed this feature which distorts our view of reality by splitting it. After all, everything which comes from this dual thought system is of, by, and flavoured with the dual ideology. Tainted in fact.
From the Bible, we know the following. The acts of religion are:
1. Halting egoic desires. If my needs are done because others do them, and that is deemed ok, then I have merely used everyone else to determine what is suitable as a lifestyle. Again, those things are done because we copy them from other people. To decide about this we need to judge that what they do is correct, and that was the original sin of Eve. To decide and judge for herself.
2. Knowing the self. For example, why do you judge people? If the answer to this is "Because everybody else does" then you have hit the nail on the head. That doesn't come from yourself but rather defined by other people. That is not 'the self'. That is not 'free will'. By halting your egoic desires, what squats within you will show itself to claim it is you, and demand that you start doing the things which it needs to remain in your kingdom which is a metaphor for your unconscious mind. The proof of this is written in the Bible when Jesus went to fast in the desert alone. It is also what Buddha experienced when he went lucid after fasting.
3. Being virtuous. Once the desires are halted, all actions are either virtuous or not carried out. Any seed of doubt may well be indicating I'm about to judge for myself.
4. Convening with God personally, all the time. If I believe I can only be in touch with God in a church, where there are others, then I can go about the rest of my week exercising the seven deadly sins which are: Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, and Envy. But according to Acts 7:48 However, the Most High does not dwell in houses made by human hands. As such, all religious activity takes place outside of a church and churches are unholy places.
5. Non-judgement by learning that dualism, Dwaita, or Yin-yang should not be applied to people, or even used as a thought system. It is the lie of lies. It is what Satan wants. He wants you to judge.
The acts of religion are described as "Seeking for and knocking at the door".
If you observe all coats of arms, all government seals, the Catholic crossed keys, and even a one penny piece, their logo's show two items/aspects in opposition. This is the symbol of the thought system of the lower classes and the poor. Without it, you wouldn't be forced to 'better' your position in life, and the rich can't use you as an example to teach other people to fight for status and money. They benefit, being at the top of this financial pyramid system we all live under. Monarchs, Monks and elites are allowed to emerge from this thought system to use Monism, also known as Adwaita or non-duality. Notice the emphasis on the MON part in MONarch and MONks. More on this follows.
So how can we go about knowing ourselves? I only need to look at what happened to Jesus. When he fasted in the desert, he was not around people, did not eat, drink or fulfil any desires at all. He was there on and by himself. And yet he was eventually tempted by Satan. The same happened to Buddha. Initially, he nearly killed himself by fasting for years. One of the most significant aspects of Buddhism was Buddha's discovery of "The Middle Way". This was a hint at non-dualism which could also be described as the place between any two extremes of thought. I discovered this from a Vedanta, which means the end of the Vedas in Hinduism. This particular Veda is called Advaita Vedanta, meaning non- (A-) dual (dwaita). After seeing this along with the good and evil aspects of the Bible, and Yin-yang of Buddhism and Daoism, a light went on for me concerning the treatment of other people using this mode of 'judgement'. I also remembered from films, the Inuit tribes used to say white men spoke with forked tongues. I couldn't believe how obvious this was when it struck me.
So how do we change this? If you halt all desires, the same thing that happened to Jesus and Buddha will happen to you. You WILL know yourself or that which is within you. So from the above list, one and two are dealt with. If you know that all deeds are done for yourself, above and beyond food, sleeping and using the toilet, then no actions can be virtuous. It is better to sit perfectly still and quiet-minded than to judge something which you are unsure about. The fact you are unsure means it requires judgement. Your most basic needs don't require judgement. You need them to survive!
By not thinking about what else you need, all of your actions are as God intended. There is no other work than preparing/growing your food which the ground provides for you...i.e. God made it that way. That work is good. Anything else is not from God and requires you to judge yourself as worthy and wanting/needing other things above your basic needs. That is gluttony and not from God.
The aforementioned list of actions is what is required to "die before you die". It clips the egoic wings and causes it to show itself. The wholesome (monist) thought system is what divinity truly is. Seeing is believing, but doing is knowing.