We humans walk on two paths. The first path leads us to things of an animal nature, things of the body like eating, sex, anger, fear, pain, and ecstasy. The other takes us to things intellectual, things like art, love, science, truth, understanding and wisdom. When those paths meet, and the intellectual tries to understand the animal, and tries to make sense out of desire and death, religion is born.

Why do we need to find a place for ourselves in this universe? Why religion? What is different about humans that makes us aware at this level?

For many, the answer is obvious: it is the soul. Unfortunately, they might give that answer and then peacefully go on with their lives as if that actually explained something. If pressed further, they might say "you know, the soul, the part of you that is part of God, the consciousness that transcends the physical world."

The kingdom of heaven, the Tao and Nirvana are metaphorical. They are not real; they simply represent the perceived spiritual context.

More so than most people would like to admit, a human's behavior is instinctive. Some of our strongest emotions thrust themselves up from the very root of our being only to be suppressed by our intellect. If something threatens our security or our loved ones, we want to strike out at it before it can hurt us just as a faithful dog will bark and growl at a stranger who gets too close to his family. The tenderness we feel holding a child and the need to care for and protect it are not exclusive to humans but are shared by virtually all animals. The way we interact with each other can be seen mirrored in the group dynamics of other species.

The point of this is not to suggest that humans are simple creatures, but that our complexity rides upon a foundation of instinctive needs and drives. We are more than mere animals, but the animal is part of us.

There is another part of us that reasons and thinks things through, despite our first impulse, which separates us from our animal heritage and it is that part of our brain that we think of as our mind. Yet when we feel basic emotions, we think of them as part of our mind as well.

Our brains are responsible for enabling thought at all levels. They control the beating or our hearts, our physical responses to emotions, the emotions themselves, memory, learning, the coordination of different brain functions during complex problem solving and even our ability to think about being self aware.

When someone says, "Our Father, who art in heaven," he is using his brain to express an idea that he is part of something beyond the physical world, even though that very thought is formed within his brain.

And yet, however it manifests physically, the spirit reaches out to find it's place in eternity.

The spirit is that part of the continuum of human consciousness which we recognize as being separate from the instinctive types of animal behaviors and desires. Just as we are bound physically within the world --we eat from it, breathe its air, walk upon it and, when we die, return to it-- the spirit must also bind itself within a context from which it comes, draws strength and to which it will return.

Because we are aware of our dual animal/intellectual nature, the spirit, as something separate from our body, seems natural and obvious, as if we could continue to think and exist even without the medium of chemically based neural activity.

The thought that our mind, this intangible, seemingly untethered collection of words and ideas, could ever not be, is so absolutely abhorrent that the kingdom of heaven is perceived as real so that the mind, once severed from the body, may go on forever.

Modern religion has focused so strongly on this self serving ideal that it is easy to overlook everyday spiritual development, which is the nurturing of that part of our awareness which lifts us above our heritage to be better than the animals we are.

We don't need to aspire to enter an invisible happy land that awaits us when we die. The kingdom of heaven is in our hearts and in the whole world. It is in our eyes when we see art and not just things. It is in our ears when we hear music and not just sound. It is in the sunset when we recognize its beauty and the trees when we recognize their gift. It is in a mother when she is patient with an angry child. It is in you when you suffer with tolerance and understanding the idiocy and injustice of a mad world.

If you close your mind in judgements
and traffic with desires,
your heart will be troubled.
If you keep your mind from judging
and aren't led by the senses.
your heart will find peace.
Seeing into darkness is clarity.
Knowing how to yield is strength.
Use your own light
and return to the source of light.
This is called practicing eternity.

(Tao 52)

It's a connection with the world and with other beings on a mental, as well as physical, level. Often these two levels are in conflict. The body wants one thing and the mind wants another. Sometimes it is appropriate to listen to the body; other times it is better to look beyond.

However, nurturing our spirit is not simple. It is often easier to be selfish or angry. We can recognize the goodness of caring about others and ourselves and of not allowing the instinctive patterns of thought related to dominance and territory to govern our behavior but its another thing to actually break out of our animal heritage.

Because we can reason and are aware of our mortality, we search for a spiritual context of the mind that parallels the physical context of the body. Where those two contexts meet is the crossroads. Often, the body wants to take the low road while the intellect wants to take the high road. To help resolve this conflict in favor of the mind, religions offer a tangible metaphor of transformation from being a creature of flesh to a creature of spirit.

In the gospel of John, chapter 3, Jesus explains baptism to Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. He says, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." (John 3:6).

This has become the central foundation for the modern Christian faith. The acceptance that Jesus Christ is the son of God is so key to Christianity that many have selected part of this chapter as its popular motto. John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."

In other words,

Knowing others is intelligence;
knowing yourself is true wisdom.
Mastering others is strength;
mastering yourself is true power.
If you realize that you have enough,
you are truly rich.
If you stay in the center
and embrace death with your whole heart,
you will endure forever.

(Tao 33)

Staying in the center and mastering yourself is the Taoist equivalent of knowing Christ.

It must be understood that it is not the water that cleanses one's spirit during baptism, but the acceptance of Jesus Christ, which is what John 3:16 is all about. Baptism is just a formal ritual through which one decides to transcend from the material, animal consciousness toward an intellectual, spiritual consciousness.

This is the story of the resurrection of Jesus, who was born of flesh and died to that life. When Jesus rose from the dead on the third day, he was reborn in spirit and carried up into heaven to sit at the right hand of God. Just as baptism is a metaphor of Christ's death and resurrection, so is the risen Christ a metaphor of our own personal transformation.

By accepting that Jesus is of God, or in other words, of the spiritual level, and by living a Christian life through following the teachings of Jesus, Christians nurture their spirit.

Personal transformation is a conscious effort to take control of the thoughts and beliefs that control us. It is a denial of our primitive side, which is coarse, undisciplined and selfish. It encourages our spiritual side which, if properly nurtured, can control the beast within and offer us a means, through intelligent discipline, to obtain peace and contentment with our life and death. It is a process of identifying our concept of self with the part of us that is capable of such control.

It also provides us a spiritual context so that we may interact with the world at those higher evolved levels of thought and feel at peace with it.

And this is really the whole point to find peace and contentment with our life and death and not, as the Christians believe, for some post-mortem reward. In other words, babtism and living a Christian life is not a means towards something beyond, but an end in itself.

Realizing this goal is the main purpose of religion.

For Buddhists, the term representing the kingdom of heaven is Nirvana or Enlightenment. For them, spiritual transformation is not achieved through baptism, but by conditioning one's mind toward the attributes of the spirit. This and other Buddhist concepts were presented to the western world in the 1940s by the Buddhist Society of Londen who summarized Buddhism into twelve basic principles which were then endorsed by most of the main Buddhist Sects. (Humphres 73).

7. The Eightfold path consists in Right (or perfect) Views or preliminary understanding, Right Aims or Motive, Right Speech, Right Acts, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Concentration or mind development, and, finally, Right samadhi, leading to full Enlightenment. As Buddhism is a way of living, not merely a theory of life, the treading of this Path is essential to self-deliverance. "Cease to do evil, learn to do good, cleanse your own heart" this is the Teaching of the Buddhas."

8. Reality is indescribable, and a God with attributes is not the final Reality. But the Buddha, a human being, became the All-Enlightened One, and the purpose of life is the attainment of Enlightenment. This state of Consciousness, Nirvana, the extinction of the limitations of self-hood, is attainable on earth. All men and all other forms of life contain the potentiality of Enlightenment, and the process therefore consists in becoming what you are. "Look within thou art Buddha."

9. From potential to actual Enlightenment there lies the Middle Way, the Eightfold Path 'from desire to peace', a process of self development between the 'opposites', avoiding all extremes. . .

(Humphres 75)

This goal is also represented in the philosophy of Central American Yaqui indians. Carlos Castaneda studied with a Yaqui "warrior" named don Juan Matus and offers this example of don Juan's teachings.

"Everything I've put you through," don Juan went on, "each of the things I've shown you was only a device to convince you that there's more to us than meets the eye. We don't need anyone to teach us sorcery, because there is really nothing to learn. What we need is a teacher to convince us that there is incalculable power at our fingertips. What a strange paradox! Every warrior on the path of knowledge thinks, at one time or another, that he's learning sorcery, but all he's doing is allowing himself to be convinced of the power hidden in his being, and that he can reach it."

(Castenada 10,11)

This again is another way of moving to a type of Enlightenment, being a man of knowledge, through focusing ones attention on the spiritual side. Again, the goal is to control the part of yourself that is capable of controlling the rest of you. Don Juan's word for this is "intent."

The Tao Te Ching is a handbook of transformation. It doesn't offer a specific set of procedures to move you toward your spiritual nature; rather, it shows by example and describes what you will find once you get there. For example:

Empty your mind of all thoughts.
Let your heart be at peace.
Watch the turmoil of beings,
but contemplate their return.

Each separate being in the universe
returns to the common source.
Returning to the source is serenity.

If you don't realize the source,
you stumble in confusion and sorrow.
When you realize where you come from,
you naturally become tolerant,
disinterested, amused,
kindhearted as a grandmother,
dignified as a king.
Immersed in the wonder of the Tao,
you can deal with whatever life brings you,
and when death comes, you are ready.

(TAO 16)

Each of these paths of personal transformation toward our spiritual nature is different in style, imagery and theme. Yet what they all share, what all religions share, is that they each provide, through metaphors, rituals and examples, a means by which that part of us that is beyond basic animal instinct may come to understand it's place in the world and control the beast within so that we may obtain peace and contentment with our lives and with our deaths.

We are more than the animals from which we evolved, but without a reminder, some state of mind called the kingdom of heaven, Nirvana or the Tao, and a set of ritualistic behavior reinforcements, it is all to easy to allow the animal's desire, anger, fear and selfishness to control our judgement. Thus we search for some method or philosophy that will help us nurture our spiritual awareness.

This is personal transformation.