According to spiritual philosopher Joan Chittister, religion is a means, not an end. “When we stop at the  level of the rules and the laws, the doctrines and the dogmas…and call those things the spiritual life, we have stopped short of the meaning  of life, the call of the divine, the fullness of the self.”

When it comes to organized religion, I’m a parasite and a cherry-picker. I take something from St. Augustine and Christ and Christianity, something from the Kabbalah, something from  Buddhism, and something from the Koran. It’s a feast of thought and enlightenment.

The Western world’s first great thinkers and philosophers came from organized religion; they taught me most of the essential things I know.

But real enlightenment and self-awareness, at least in my experience, are more than dogma, as Chittister suggests. Enlighten is the ability to go beyond our notions of God to find a God that works for us. Real enlightenment is self-awareness, the desire to go inside.

That isn’t simple.

When I look for God, I look for goodness. Goodness is clear, constant, and visible in the simplest of people, the most unlikely places. Many see   God in fancy cathedrals, mosques, and synagogues but not in life’s bleaker or barren dimensions.

Enlightenment, to me, goes beyond the shapes and icons of religious teaching. My idea of God lives in the goodness, hope, and striving of ordinary people who work hard to survive.

To be enlightened is to be in touch with the idea of God within. As I grow older, I understand I have no place to go but inside.

To be enlightened is to see that “heaven” is not up there but right here. My idea of God is the spirit that helps Maria make art, me take pictures and write,  Ian McCrae write poems,  our friend Alfreda live in a trailer so she can send money to her family in Mexico,  my farmer friend Cindy make soap, and my friend Bob make music.

That’s where the spiritual life takes me.

This kind of God speaks to me through everything that seeps through the universe and speaks of love, the creative spark, and the ability to stand in the shoes of others. There is plenty of evil out there; there is plenty of good. I go with the the good.

Self-awareness and acceptance are holy to me. I am who I am, and that is sacred too.

I don’t have to go anywhere to find this idea of God. He’s right here, deep inside of me and all around me.