I realize that the thought that all of the religions are
interconnected, that they're all based upon the same lessons and that they're
all designed to lead us back to God is a lot to try to absorb.
What I have learned over the last ten years of
communing with God is that there is only one true form of idolatry and that is
self-worship, which is the very same disease that Lucifer suffers from.
In trying to understand how best to
communicate the idea that all life-affirming religions are related, I asked the
Holy Spirit to guide me. The vision that I received was very simple and
hopefully, will prove to be very effective.
Imagine a
standard deck of 52 cards. We all have some understanding of card games and how
some card combinations are more valuable than others, depending upon the game
being played. The major religions of the world are like poker hands. Hindus
believe in many spirits so we could imagine their hand to be one of each kind
of card, ace through king. Since Jesus is considered spiritual royalty, let's
imagine a Christian hand being represented by a royal flush. Other religions,
represented by other hands, could be a straight, or four of a kind, or all even
cards, or all odd cards, or all face cards, etc. The effectiveness of this
example doesn't lie in the metaphor of the hands assembled, but rather in what
happens when you flip all of the hands over. When we do that, we now begin to
understand that they have all been created with cards that have the same
pattern, the same message, the same energy on their back the energy of God's
love, the Christ energy. They are all assembled from elements of a larger
system, 52 playing cards, and they are all based upon the same principles, even
though we tend to get caught up focusing upon the face side of the cards we
prefer.
Some might find it hard to accept that the Trinity and
Allah are actually the same energy, but this would be the ego promoting
superficial differences rather than the Christ energy promoting common sight.
Those souls who feel comfortable judging and hating others will find it
impossible to consider that there is only one reality for all, but these are
the aggressive souls who carry their beliefs in their minds, and on their
tongues, and in their fists.
True faith exists in the heart, and in the soul, and in
the open palm.
We consider our world to be a complicated place, full of
overlapping, interlaced and seemingly unsolvable problems. Darkness and evil
renamed violence, poverty, hunger, genocide, war and disease seem to run rampant
in many places around the globe. Many people wonder where God is and how He
could have created such evil, or, if He didn't create it, how He could allow it
to exist.
We should be pleased that God doesn't answer our prayers
to eradicate evil from our world, for if He did answer, we wouldn't be here,
for we are the evil that runs rampant in the world.
Leaving the subjects of reincarnation and
balancing karma for another time, the most immediate example of how we all
create darkness and evil in the world is through our daily thoughts and
actions. Most people seem to believe that if they don't break one of the Ten
Commandments, then they're good people, living admirable lives.
From God's perspective, that simply isn't so.
From God's perspective life is very simple.
There are only two real choices in any given situation. Either we act in a
loving manner or we are selfish, and every one of us chooses between these two
perspectives with every action we take throughout each day, and many more times
than not, we pick poorly.
Consider your soul to be a bowl, and throughout the course
of the day you make decisions that determine what will be placed within your
soul, a white marble indicating that you acted in a loving, caring fashion, or
a black marble indicating that you've acted selfishly. As human beings we've
learned ways to make other people think that our motivations are generous when,
from God's point of view, they're merely self-serving.
A mother takes her child to a shoe store to get new shoes.
There's a world of spiritual difference between the mother who says, "If
you can't find shoes that don't pinch we'll go somewhere else (white
marble)" and "Pick the pair that hurt the least (black marble)."
When we do something for others to maintain
our own reputation in some way it is not an act of love. It is not brotherly
love, or sisterly love, or kindness, or compassion, or unconditional love. A
person builds a new hospital wing as a tax write-off (black marble). A person
makes a donation to a worthy cause anonymously (white marble).
How sad is it that stating that sex is not love is
probably necessary in our culture. Sex is about meeting a personal need and so
it does not qualify for a white marble and buying dinner and flowers to get sex
doesn't qualify for a white marble either. Lust is not a form of true love, no
matter what the ego tries to tell you.
As a teacher I spend each year getting to know
my many students. In my thirty years I am saddened by the dismally few students
whom I would consider to be potential white marble people that I've met.
Most of my students earned decent grades, but
that doesn't change the situation that their energies remained focused upon
their own opinions, their own needs, and their own immediate entertainment. Very
few of them tried to consciously be the very best person they could be. Over
the last decade, I have had to stop my curriculum many times in order to teach
the concept of personal integrity because students no longer learn it at home
or, it seems, at their place of worship, and they certainly aren't going to
find it hidden in their iPod or in their video games.
As long as we spend our time trying to worship ourselves
through our never ending selfishness, the devil will do everything he can to
help us succeed in becoming just like him. "What's
in it for me?" is his mantra.
Humankind is slowly teaching itself everything it can
about self-idolatry, and true love, the one thing in the universe that can save
our souls, is becoming more of a mystery.
If every person in the world earned one white
marble a day, the world would be a dramatically different place.
It would begin to fill with love.
"Of all the ways you can think of, none has a
sixteenth part of the value of lovingkindness. Lovingkindness is a freedom of the heart which takes in all the ways. It is luminous, shining, blazing forth. "
Buddha
"Is there any one maxim which ought to be
acted upon throughout one's whole life? Surely
the maxim of loving kindness is such."
Confucius
"Every religion emphasizes human
improvement, love, respect for others, sharing other people's suffering. On these lines every religion had more or
less the same viewpoint and the
same goal."
The Dalai Lama
"Kindness is the light that dissolves all
walls between souls, families, and nations."
Hinduism: Paramahansa Yogananda
"And hold fast, all together, by the rope
which God (stretches out for you), and be not divided
among yourselves; and remember with gratitude God's favour on you; for ye were enemies and He joined your hearts
in love, so that by His Grace, ye became brethren;
and ye were on the brink of the pit of Fire, and He saved you from it. Thus
doth God make His Signs clear to
you: That ye may be guided."
Islam: Mohammed
"Deeds of kindness are equal in weight to
all the commandments."
Judaism: The Talmud
"I love all religions. ... If people
become better Hindus, better Muslims, better Buddhists by our acts of love, then there is something else growing
there."
"All is God--Buddhists, Hindus,
Christians, etc., all have access to the same God."
Mother Teresa
"It is one of the most beautiful
compensations of this life that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping
himself."
Transcendentalism: Ralph Waldo Emerson
Embrace, embody, and then emulate Love.
