Reza Mohamed

SPIRIT: A Potential beyond Mind and Matter

Dare to go beyond restrictive sociocultural stigmas and taboos. There you will unexpectedly find psychological freedom, compassion and forgiveness.

Perhaps because I have traveled and seen many peoples of different cultures and traditions, or perhaps because I was educated and lived for extended periods in different countries (Guyana, England, China, Egypt, and Canada), or perhaps because my upbringing was lenient regarding my religious observances and tolerant towards other religions, or perhaps because I never really felt a deep connection with religious beliefs and practices, but I have always felt like I did not quite fit into any particular sociocultural or traditional mold. I grew up partly indoctrinated into an Islamic tradition that I could not quite identify with, mainly because Arabic was not my first language and I disliked meaningless rote learning and memorization. The custom of repeating religious phrases and verses over and over again made me feel like I was being brainwashed and suppressed.

Nevertheless,I have always endeavored to keep an open mind through reasoning and logic, and this allowed me to view the religious experience objectively without sentimental attachment. However, I could not assume a disposition of blind faith and sentimentality based on what I perceived to be unsubstantiated scriptural interpretations and beliefs. I clearly sensed a misleading or inauthentic nature behind religion that is evidently manifested in the divisiveness and segregation of argumentative religious peoples, and this condition is amplified by news media.

However, I will always admire and appreciate the artistic beauty and creative expression that religious thought has evoked in humankind. But, to vainly attribute this wealth of artistic expression to any particular individual or group is to vainly overlook the obvious contributions of earlier mythological religious motifs and images shared through various trade routes, invasions and cultural integration.

We only have to observe the wondrous diversity in nature to appreciate the significance of the amazingly grand universal design from which these motifs and images freely arise.