Religion as repetition or presence?
Tradition is what happens, what we experience, when we carry presence. Repetition is stagnant; tradition is something that is alive. Tradition is not simply a structure, a dogmatic belief, or a system we inherit. It is the moment we find ourselves in relationship with its essence. Something older than us meets something immediate within us, and suddenly we are no longer alone in our seeking. The sacred becomes our very breath, and we recognize that we have arrived after a long journey toward union.
Many of us have walked away from the traditions we inherited from our families or our cultures. Yet leaving the form does not extinguish the longing. Losing the house does not mean losing the home. The heart continues to search for depth, for continuity, for meaning, for a belonging far greater than anything the ego can construct.
Because tradition is alive.
In my experience, it is breath, movement, wisdom, awakening. It is transmission, and it is happening now. It has passed through countless hearts. It has survived doubt, betrayal, rediscovery, and devotion. It carries the frequency of those who widened the path with greater understanding for all of us.
I experience tradition as a lineage of consciousness, a lineage kept awake through devotion. It has endured centuries of longing, misunderstanding, faithfulness, courage, and revelation. Within it, human experience has ripened, deepened, matured. When we step into such a current, we discover communion, communion with essence, with soul, with the Divine. We recognize that others have stood exactly where we stand.
And in this recognition, we are strengthened.
This is when tradition begins to educate us from within. It reshapes the senses so that we perceive depth where before we saw only surface. Slowly and patiently, it teaches the soul how to return, to truth, to intimacy, to what has always been here.
When tradition is lived as presence, it is no longer about confinement to the past or repeating forms for their own sake. It is initiation. We find ourselves speaking and experiencing a language that is ancient, a language of symbol, beauty, responsibility, and closeness to the Holy.
Tradition is revelation trusting itself to embody once more, and through us, wisdom remains alive.
AHAVA,
Ana Otero
