Ascended Master Gautama Buddha, January 1, 2014 through Kim Michaels.

Let us begin by considering the difference between spirituality and religion. We of the ascended masters are, of course, not supporters of religion as it is generally known in the world on earth. Why are we not supporters of religion? Because religion separates people from their God, from the Buddha, from the inner experience of reality. Religion, as it has been known on earth in the large religions that have dominated countries, cultures, and civilizations, is not of God, is not coming from God, is not coming from the spiritual realm.

I know many will be startled and will object to this statement because they will say that, surely, their religion came from a direct revelation from a divine source. There are, indeed, several mainstream religions that make the claim that they are based on what is, in fact, genuine, divine revelation. Yet, these mainstream religions are not based on the divine revelation; they are based on a human interpretation of the divine revelation. And, herein, lies the difference.

Spirituality, or shall we call it mysticism, is different from religion, in that mysticism and spirituality does not seek to separate you from your God, from a direct, inner experience of a higher state of consciousness, even a direct inner experience of your own, inner being—pure awareness. This is the all-important difference, and it is one of the initiations that humankind will be faced with in this coming year, and even in many coming years. A new cycle has dawned upon earth, and it is time that human beings in greater numbers, certainly all among the top 10% and many among the 80% of the general population, awaken to the difference between religion and spirituality or mysticism.

The essence of a mystical approach

What is, then, the essence of the mystical approach to spirituality as opposed to the religious approach? Religion is based on the very subtle concept that there is a distance, a gap, a separation, between spirit and matter, between human beings and their God or the spiritual beings in a higher realm.

You might say, if you are philosophically inclined, that the situation of me giving this dictation through a messenger that you hear as an external voice actually reinforces this subtle belief. I would not actually disagree with this statement—if you do not understand the difference between spirituality and religion.

As I inspired this messenger to say earlier today, spirituality that is not internalized becomes religion.

The new cycle that has dawned is a cycle where more and more people need to awaken to the difference between a form of spirituality that is based on the illusion of a gap and that actually upholds this illusion and then, the true spirituality that seeks to help the individual overcome the gap and have a direct experience of the reality of a higher state of consciousness, of the reality of a higher realm, and of higher spiritual beings—having that experience of reality directly within themselves.

The spiritual approach taught by the Buddha

Religion sets up doctrines and dogmas, and it says: “Believe in this, and you will go to Heaven. Deny this, and you will go to Hell.” This, then, puts people in the situation where they have to accept or reject something that is external to them, to their own minds. What did I attempt to teach 2,500 years ago? That you need to look within to master your own mind and that you need to realize that the key to spirituality is to raise your consciousness. This is not a matter of following outer doctrines.

You do not know about this today because it has largely been lost to history, but the Brahmins of the Hindu religion opposed me and my teaching. They were not quite as radical as those who opposed Jesus and nailed him to a cross, but they came pretty close.

They did everything that they could to discredit me publicly, while I was still in embodiment on earth. Had there been better technology for communication and I had been able to spread my teachings even further, they would have done much more to discredit me, as they always do to the true representatives of the Light. Truly, there are those that seek to discredit any teaching that will awaken people to the reality of spirituality, as opposed to the illusion of religion.

This is an excerpt from a longer teaching. You can read the full dictation HERE.