Love and the meaning of life

"If one believes that the world is meaningful, yet does not love, they cannot help but experience the world as meaningless. Yet if one believes that the world is meaningless yet loves, that person cannot help but experience their world as meaningful."
Peter Rollins

I can see the point in Peter Rollins's quote about love being the main factor in determining whether a person experiences their world as meaningful, and not the belief system the person professes. It is easy for anyone, especially in the religious circles, to dictate for oneself and others a certain set of beliefs to make life meaningful, but without love, these beliefs and actions are meaningless. For example, a preacher may tell the congregation to "give their lives to god" and "get involved in ministries" to live a "meaningful" life but these activities are only superficial acts mainly for show and not from the heart if people are just following orders and rituals.

In comparison, outside of organised religions, when people live freely and do not follow a prescribed set of rules, rituals and programs, though they may seem to live "meaningless" lives in the eyes of the religious, they are actually experiencing a meaningful life when they love themselves and others without any condition. They are living from the heart.

Love and the meaning of life go hand and hand, and transcend all religious, social and political boundaries, because they cannot be bound by dogma. Indeed, as noted in your question in YA, people who love usually do not need to preach about the meaning of life or follow any particular religion - they simply focus on living their own truth and expressing their own authentic self.

How we can deal with belief systems that make us suffer

"Examine your possible motives for wanting to suffer. Do you deny that there’s anything wrong? Do you think it makes you a better person not to show others that you hurt? Do you enjoy the attention you get when you are sick or in distress? Do you feel safe being alone and not having to make tough choices?

Belief systems are complex—they hold together the self we want to present to the world. It is much simpler not have beliefs, which means being open to life as it comes your way, going with your own inner intelligence instead of with stored judgments. If you find yourself blocked by your suffering, returning to the same old thoughts again and again, a belief system has trapped you. You can escape the trap only by ending your need to cling to these beliefs."

~ Deepak Chopra

In response to the contemplative post above, I suppose belief systems are complex because we human beings are complex as we are all conditioned or influenced by different worldviews and experiences as we grow up in life. Perhaps our way of thinking as little children tends to be simpler and more carefree, but after growing up and facing hardship and disappointment, we begin to form certain beliefs about ourselves and others. Usually organised religions may appear to offer some help in relieving these sufferings, through their promises of "eternal life" and "salvation", but they are limited at best and misguided at worst and may only add to the suffering, such as their sin theology which causes people to think there is something wrong with themselves and others, or the idea of denying one's humanity.

Like what Deepak Chopra wrote, letting go of old limiting belief systems and being open to life can help relieve people from self-imposed sufferings. I think the Christian religion often propagates the idea of "martyrdom" in that the followers think they must silently suffer for "God" and bear hardship and even glory in their "persecutions". While there is a place for cultivating patience and endurance in life, regardless of one's religion, I think sometimes religions carry things a bit too far in this aspect, to the extent the church culture allows abuse and manipulation to go unchecked or unnoticed by preaching submission to leaders or elders and frowning against any open display of honest questioning and any expression of doubt, hurt, anger or bitterness. A recent blog and Darin Hufford's article "The Bitterness Phenomenon" came to mind, which remind people that it is ok to feel angry or bitter, and we can choose not to allow ourselves to be guilt tripped by those in the religious circles for expressing our humanity. It is our way of finding greater freedom through recovering our humanity and being true to ourselves.

Spiritual activities and interpersonal skills

According to this blog "The Bait and Switch of Contemporary Christianity", "spiritual" activities (such as praying and reading the Bible) do not necessarily enhance one's interpersonal skills. In fact, if one is not careful, doctrines and books tend to influence his mindset to the extent of discriminating others who do not think or believe like him. Therein lies the danger of organised religion, which perpetuates the illusion of separation and "us" versus "them". 

I have come to realise that life is not about doctrines; life is all about relationships with people. If those who are still being influenced by religious teachings treat us unkindly, we know it is because of their attachment to doctrines and not because of us. We can only keep resting in our belovedness and perfection, and love them from afar, like what Jesus said "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do".

We are a perfect workmanship created in love, and how others treat us does not define us because we are defined by our original identity. How someone treats other people does not define them; it only reflects him. If he chooses to treat others like enemies just because they disagree with his views, his actions are only a product of religious conditioning from the Christian fundamentalist circles, and he knows not what he was doing. We can rise above the way such people treat us, and we can continue to fly high as eagles.

Coming out of fear-based religion is like coming back to life and back to reality

"I'M GONNA HAVE A BAD-HAIR DAY!
somebody just message me and said you couldn't go to Heaven unless you were baptized in water after Praying the sinner's prayer...
So....I pulled out half my hair.
I....REEEAAALLY HATE DUMB RELIGION!!!"- Robert Rutherford

Yes, the christian religion can be dumb. As much as I am coming to accept that there is no one true or perfect spiritual path, so to speak, since every one is unique (due to the fact that each of us has a unique spiritual DNA and is responsible for our own spiritual path), I also see that some aspects of christianity - especially the fundamentalist ones - can be dangerous. For example, I heard about a case of someone being told by a pastor that he could "see" a tumour in her body. It is sad that many people who are still in the religious circles are being vulnerable to so-called pastors claiming or presuming to have the "authority" to speak in the name of God. I want to address the issue of this cultic mindset in my blog, so as to spread the awareness of such spiritual abuse that is still going on, despite the fact that many are coming out of organised religion in view of the global spiritual awakening.

Incidentally, I was reading this blog "Taking charge of how we experience life" earlier on a similar subject, and I like what it says here:

"I knew that no one had the power to make me feel anything, except for me and my brain. Nothing external to me had the power to take away my peace of heart and mind. That was completely up to me. I may not be in total control of what happens to my life, but I certainly am in charge of how I choose to perceive my experience."

Yes, those of us who have learnt to meditate and watch our thought life have come to a place where we realise the importance of not allowing ourselves to be affected by what others tell us - especially negative or fear-inducing things - and instead choosing to perceive our own experience and guard our heart and remain in peace and wholeness.

Indeed, coming out of fear-based religion is like coming out of the illusion of fear and separation and coming back to life and back to reality, as the song by Soul II Soul goes.