I'm not trying to debunk Religion though sometimes I want to. Religion quite often really makes me sick. But that's not it. No! What I want to do is to try to take the wraps off Religion and off God. So often it's all wrapped up in so much pious well-meaning clap-trap that it doesn't give the person outside looking in much of a chance to get a clear view. Yet every survey shows that most people still believe or want to believe in a God and are still looking. And many many people have a deep inner sense of the religious the holy, the mysterious good, the other. So many people are so lovely so fine and decent and human. I don't want them to believe that God is a hard-fisted rock-solid cold killer of all non-believers though that's often the picture that comes over. I want them to believe that they carry God in them all their seeds of goodness are God in their hearts. There is the children's prayer Closer is God than breathing, nearer than hands and feet. I want people to know that that's what I want. I want people to know that God is more important than any religion. Christianity is not the best religion. Neither is Hinduism or Buddhism or any other 'ism' or set of beliefs. They are all unique. Nothing is more precious to me than my Christian faith (I would like to think I could die for it but do I really have the courage?) but it cannot stand on its own. No religion can. They belong together. They are parts of a jigsaw

meant to come together into a Unity to complete a mosaic.

Not to swallow each other up but like the best pictures in an exhibition to hang there together to show the unique artistry each beautiful in its own way. Together they sparkle in their differences.

And so it is terrible when instead you see those who own the different pictures snatch them off the wall and smash each other over the head with them. There is much ignorance to overcome.

There is a Universal Wisdom. Religions clear the pathway towards it. A good religion will always point beyond itself towards the Universal Wisdom which is deep deep beyond in the depths of every human heart. And the Wisdom is this - that we all swim in a sea of compassion.

There is a story about a small young fish swimming in the sea who goes up to another older and larger fish and says "Can you tell me where the Ocean is please? I've been looking for it everywhere and can't find it". "The Ocean" says the older fish "is what you are swimming in right now". "What this? But this is only water" said the young fish and disappointed swam off to look somewhere else.

It is so obvious we miss the Universal Wisdom Divinity Godhead when a life is all compassion, always, all the time and nothing else.

Here is a prayer a thought or reflection a theme for inner guidance call it what you will to guide you through the New Year towards the divine compassion.

"May my heart lend its ear to every cry of pain

like as the lotus bares its heart

to drink the morning sun.

Let not the fierce sun dry one tear of pain

before I have wiped it from the sufferer's eye.

But let each burning human tear

drop on my heart and there remain

nor ever be brushed off

until the pain that caused it is removed."

(Gautama, the Buddha, 4th Century B.C)