Discard religious and mystical fantasies. Just live life as it is.

I've come to feel that the strangest thing about religion and mysticism is how these dogmas introduce a big dose of strangeness into life that makes living way more complicated than it needs to be.

Here's another way of saying this: everybody's life is full of problems and challenges. But life itself isn't a problem or challenge. It's just life. 

So when a religion or mystical path tells you that you need to be saved, or enlightened, or self-realized, or god-realized, or cleansed of sin, or any other bit of bullshit that holier-than-thou preachers, gurus, and such like to blab on about, don't believe them.

You're absolutely fine just the way you are. 

Again, I'm not claiming that you should give up all effort and let things happen however they might. Keep on trying to improve the life of yourself, your loved ones, and other people.

Just discard the notion of some cosmic flaw at the core of your being that needs fixing.

You don't need to know God because almost certainly God doesn't exist. You don't need to attain a state of divine virtue, since that's a religious myth. You don't need to soul-travel your way to a supernatural realm, as there's no demonstrable evidence that you have a soul or that anything beyond the physical is real.

Simply be the human being that you already are.

Imperfect. Flawed. Yet doing the best you can. And that's plenty good enough. No need to beat yourself up about not attaining some religious or mystical fantasy about a heavenly world other than the one you, and me, and everyone else already inhabits.

I'd been thinking along these lines before I read this comment from Ron E., but Ron's thoughts stimulated me to ponder more deeply the theme of giving up imaginary life problems. 

I’ve just come across this quote from U. G. Krishnamurti; Although he often comes across as somewhat exasperating in what he says, the quotes below describes a certain life truism:

“This question haunted me all my life and suddenly it hit me: 'There is no self to realize. What the hell have I been doing all this time?' You see, that hits you like lightning. Once that hits you, the whole mechanism of the body that is controlled by this thought is shattered. What is left is the tremendous living organism with an intelligence of its own. What you are left with is the pulse, the beat and the throb of life.” - U. G. Krishnamurti.

It’s perhaps possible, that when certain thoughts, concepts and words are realised as being unnecessary in life, and cease to carry the ponderous weights of anticipated hopes and fears, then a certain lightness and freedom ensues – taking one back to the simplicity of being what one is and seeing life in general being as it is.

Comments

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>> You don't need to know God because almost certainly God doesn't exist.<<

"You need not to know god" ..... [to live a life]

To state there is NO god is the same as stating there IS a god.

What they have in common is the effect these thoughts have on a'person's view on life; and ultimately the way of life but it does not solve the problem of the existence of God.

Those who are interested in the [causal] source of their life will go on searching in whatever direction suits them.

To drink coffee, there is no need to believe in or know about God ... that is correct

To live a simple, natural life, very few is needed,... little food, shelter, some clothes ... no need to expand that to any limit .... hahaha ... most of what is to be found in our fysical houses and in our metaphorical house is not needed for that reason and does unnecessarily complicates life

[Dungeness]

@ Ron E [It’s perhaps possible, that when certain thoughts, concepts and words are realised as being unnecessary in life, and cease to carry the ponderous weights of anticipated hopes and fears, then a certain lightness and freedom ensues – taking one back to the simplicity of being what one is and seeing life in general being as it is. ]

Mystics agree I think about the"ponderous weights of anticipated hopes and fears".
They'd disagree though IMO about how to shed them. By simple affirmation or
violent invective perhaps? Probably not... at least no reported sightings of such
mantras of affirmation or cursing seem to work a permanent cure.

No, the problem is our attention. No sooner do we nab "hope or fear" coursing
thru our mind, the next moment we're distracted and miss several that elude us.
Bliss and ease of mind are hard targets.You'll need mindfulness and years of
practice, maybe even a lifetime. But most start to realise benefits immediately.

[Appreciative Reader]

Hm, Krishnamurti. To look through the flood of drivel that this man has "taught", and to find in there some nuggets of truth, is like staring at a broken clock and then, when it does happen to align with the right time, imagine that that's wisdom in there.

How the hell would he know, anyway? And why would he need a lifetime of doing ...what exactly?... to arrive at that answer?

Is there a self? That's a scientific question, that admits of a scientific answer. That this guy's answer seems to match with currently emerging scientific consensus is merely happenstance. Likewise Zen and Theravad and all that bull. That is, there might be worth to them, wisdom even, but when it comes to answering scientific questions, only science will do. Not flashes of random intuition, not unless these are tested and polished in the crucible of hard science: the 1℅ inspiration 99℅ perspiration thing.

That said, all respect to Krishnamurti for having walked away from his gilded position at his Star organization, where any amount of wealth and adulation and hot young fangirls could have been his, entirely effortlessly. Kudos to him for having had the integrity to walk away from that.

Which appreciation and respect for his personal integrity is no reason to swallow the copious faux-wise BS he spent his life spewing.