Religion

This is the name we give to the socialization of a certain kind of consciousness; it is a consciousness that, in its purity, is a divine consciousness. However, owing to our propensity to identify with everything but ourselves, we seldom expend the effort needed to drive inward to make this discovery. Accordingly, when that with which we have identified is slighted in some way, we take it as a personal affront; and if it is attacked, well, that is taken as grounds for violent retribution because it is taken as an attack upon our person.

The cure, of course, is to discover that which is the "I Am" of each of us by laying aside everything we have identified with and getting a firsthand experience of that singular consciousness; then we will discover true devotion because the other is simply idolatry--the giving of our attention to something that is not our Life.