Submission

My favorite translation.

The Judeo-Christian-Islamic religious model is one of submission to patriarchy. From sacrificing children to a possessive god in the Old Testament to the word "Islam" itself, which means "I submit.". Submission to patriarchy and the use of the religious machinery to propagate and maintain this submission lie at the heart of all the sects of these religions. 

Buddhism at its source is not a religion at all. It is the conveyance of the teachings of one man who rejected the patriarchy of his time. The rejection of patriarchy is at the heart of the story of the Buddha's life. He turns his back on his powerful patriarch, his father, to explore a life of individual practice. He turns his back on his own patriarchy by leaving behind his wife and child. In his time, this may have earned him a death sentence if he had not been born to the ruling class. This is the ancient and current irony of human progress, which often requires the education which comes from the privilege of an upper class, the main impediment to social justice and equality.

My road to a non-religious personal practice was paved by the verses of  Dhammapada. I was led to this source material by my participation in a modern Japanese Buddhism, which was focused on promoting world peace by encouraging personal practice. While I no longer follow the ritualized practice of this Japanese Buddhism, due to my abhorrence of ritual as a trapping of religion, I credit my participation in those rituals with stimulating my development of my own personal daily practice. 

This is the paradox of religion's contributions to the lives of those who eventually turn their backs on it. However, I believe the evils of established religion far outweigh this contribution. An evil and abusive parent can father a good and gentle child, if that child somehow separates from his parental dysfunction at a formative age. The child who submits to the patriarchal abuser becomes one eventually.