Can you profit from religion or should you?

I agree with Bruce Bates

we have given god different names.we chant in different languages and styles but he understands everything because he catches true feelings.God is one.

Religion is man made and not that relevant

I profit from knowing the truth, but I do not use the truth to gain in monetary value. I could - but teaching, educating, and creations made in remembrance are things to be given freely and shared freely. Then again profiting from anything that is not the truth is equally wrong. It is a complex conundrum.

Religion does not matter. It is the relationship with Yeshua our Messiah that truly matters.

Tri Jumaedi, I agree that air is free and it doesn't need money nor any guidance but one...religion though putting the way you have needs money, buildings, leaders etc...without those things it would seem to fail the way we are today. Thanks.

religion is very important, like your breath air, its something that important can we get easily like an air

Derek Ayre, sharing is a gift and you have given it! Thanks!

Thank you Mike. I feel flattered by your comments but that is most un-Zen like of me! Or maybe not - there is no answer on that.

I can say that a true master is nearly always in the background, but people feel his enlightenment in his/her presence. Osho called this TRUE religion as opposed to the religion that asks you to believe in what is being preached.

Zen is just a name, and these master transmit their enlightenment as there is no way to teach it. A person who is ready will FEEL i

Derek Ayre, THAT IS WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT! I must have talk to over 2 million people over the years but less that 300 have explained whatever as wonderfully as you have!

I think the challenge is always that we have to sprinkle gold dust on everything in order to get people to hear us. Whatever that is deep down inside is the best presentation that one can give. No matter if it has no rational reason for others to understand clearly...

Each breath is important and you understand it to the hig

Hi Mike, "When you first heard about Zen you had to think about it first then believe it would work before you tried it."

Actually when I first went into Zen, whilst I thought about how "good" it was going to be, I didn't have a clue of what it was going to be like. It was a Zen weekend and I thought that it was going to be all about bliss and meditating to the "highest heights". That the trainer (master - although he didn't want to be called it) was going to have some power and influence an

No because I think that would be impossible for me. I don't believe anyone is truly alone.

Joseph B., as much as I like to talk you leave me with nothing much to say but yes...I agree. Now if you have time If you believe in Heaven would you go if you were going to be the only person there?

Hello Mike,
nice to hear from you...........
Yes, the herd tends to follow but many of the answers are within if we would care to look, although organized culture, society directs our attention to some conforming behavior magnified outside our natural integrity, that we come to worship.We are brought up to follow be co-dependent which is always risky business because if I submit to anyone as my leader, my guru,my mentor totally then I also am erecting that entity as somewhat of a God.It seems t

Joseph B., I agree with you but the funny thing about this is if all the money was gone out of religion will there still be as many followers? Thanks.

Profit usually connotates to me the usually boring and tedious task of making money only.
However the meaning of this word can be applied to spiritual as well as materialistic ends, so it is important for one to define specifically what they mean by the word profit.
Many people use religion to make money but I think this is wrong because the essential purpose of religion is not greed i.e. selfishness but to permit people to evolve to a place where they have love, compassion and know how to giv

Derek, all the things that I was going to say you took away from me in the end of your speakings...I can say this, I was raised as a Christian in the beginning then in my preteen years I decided to take care of someone who cared for me as a kid she was an elderly Muslim. Some where in the midst of all this my mentor was Buddhist who thought that I should learn every martial art under the planet (close to it). In the middle of all this I had to fight the toughest gangster seems every time I had a

Joe, there are many that do. Thanks.

Another interesting discussion…

As a Zen practitioner this is where I come from...

I feel that there are two issues here, experiential and belief. I consider true religion to be a living, existential process and conventional religion to be a belief system. If I look back through history, belief has been used to manipulate and control - in the early days- for instance, witch hunts, and conversion of the native inhabitants by raiding nations that followed dogma preached by those who also "

I believe there are people who successfully profit from religion, however, I don't respect someone who does, as I believe it's a form of blasphemy.