Recently I read a discourse by a sikh religious leader it impressed me and I found It has so many common things with other religions I thought I should share them with you.
Where there is love there is humility.We wouldn’t behave arrogantly with our loved ones,would we ?So why not extend this respect to strangers too.Since God resides in all of us so why don,t we embrace all in love .
Humility means living with the sense that we are part of creation.When we realise all are interconnected,we begin to act in a humble manner towards others.When we get rid of our ego,pride and vanity disappear.We no longer hurt anybody.We realise we are just humble recipents at God,s door,and even those gifts that distinguish us from one another are gifts from God.When we see,God,s hand in everything we recognise that god is the moving force .When we develop humility of spirit ,we no longer suffer from pride-of wealth,position,knowledge of power.
I will be glad if you can find something common with your religion in this post.Please let us recognise the common factor in different faiths.
from Vishesh :)
from Reema :)
Speaking of “Humility” … I was reminded of how Jesus showed his humility towards his disciples. He washed their feet. And how did he show humility and love? He died on the cross for the sins of the world. Here is a verse that describes this marvelous demonstration of humility:
Philippians 2 (KJV)
5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
9 Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:
10 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;
11 And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
I really like this post.
Yes. It seems to me that Jesus was really upset with the Pharisees, whose attitude was (and I’m exaggerating a bit) “Our way or the highway!”
This seems to be the point of the New Testament teaching which says, “…clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, ‘God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble and oppressed.’”
These words are easy to speak and write. They are much harder to live. May we each find the strength we need to truly act just, love mercy and walk humbly with our God.
Blessings to you,
-bill
Jesus was really upset with the Pharisees because they lacked the very thing love demands first- humility. How right that was. My FAVOURITE words from Jesus about humble love are these:
“If anyone’s will is to do God’s will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority. The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory, but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood.”
- John 7.17-18, ESV
It’s not about US, it’s about GOD. God is the one from whom all things come and to whom all things live and die. Humility before God, love for God and a passion for Him is what speaks for us more than our words
God bless you mum!
love
me
Hi,
You wrote: “Please let us recognise the common factor in different faiths.”
Probably the best book I’ve read on the subject is “The Perenial Philosophy,” by Aldous Huxley. His introductory chapter is “That art Thou,” which we also express as “Atman is Brahman,” or the divine as expressed in the individual is identical to the divine as expressed in the universal.
Or, as you wrote, “God resides in all of us.”
I have a lot of problems talking about religion and faith because I possess neither. I have practiced yogic meditation religiously for probably 15 years. Then I changed to Vipassana meditation, probably the only school of buddhism that can be considered native to the USA.
I’ve had a lot of spiritual experiences. I have directly experienced God, and various forms of religious ecstacy, and have deeply felt the truth that Atman is Brahman.
But I remain agnostic. This presents a dilemma when writing about my internal experience, because the only language I know for discussing it comes from one religion or another.
I wrote a poem called “The Indwelling Spirit,” that is a Christian expression of this concept. My wife tells me that she can’t relate to my poetry when I use Christian symbolism to express spiritual concepts, because she knows I am not a believer. I could use Buddhist or Hindu symbolism, but I write my poetry for a Western readership. I think they would not make much sense if I avoided drawing on Christian tradtion.
But I’ve decided to start trying. Who better to expression the underlying experience of religion than someone who does not believe in God?
“I will be glad if you can find something common with your religion in this post,” you wrote. I am happy to say that I agree with everything you wrote in your post.
I think one of the problems we Westerners have with some of what you wrote is the part about getting rid of our ego. Here in the USA, peole have a very strong identification between ego and self. They cannot imagine geting rid of their ego except as some sort of death, or being absorbed into a group mind and losing their selfhood.
It’s a language problem, and it wasn’t helped by Freud, who codified the Ego as the self we think of when we think of our Self.
I see it as giving up our attachments — to our vanity, our greed, our self-image. So long as we remain attached to our ego we cannot be free. We are trapped forever as the image in a fun-house mirror. We need to step out of the mirror.
I don’t see that religion and spirituality have to be the same thing. I consider myself a spiritual person, yet I have no use for priests or gods.
You need to write a book… I love you thinking on religion and would love to read more!
Thanks Marianne
Greg,
I can totally relate to what you write. I don’t know whether it’s “acceptable” for a Christian to be happy to read of a belief system like yours, lol, but I see open mindedness and I believe it takes honesty to feel truth in the Upanishadic message. Throughout my high school years I moved across different religious texts and the Upanishads were my favourite and I really set myself on that message. I still believe that parts of what I read reflect truths of the Spirit which I still hold on to. The fact that I became Christian of course means that the Upanishads did not sustain my spirit, but that didn’t falsify what I believed in (which was definitely not hinduism as a whole), only replaced it with something more complete. At first glance hinduism and christianity seem like opposites to each other, but for me part of my system of reasoning in christianity is built on the hinduism I learnt first. The monotheistic pattern, the aim to make my body a temple of the indivisable eternal God, till I am homogenous with the spirit that holds the universe, and inseparable from it… from truth in which there is no darkness. A christian can see Jesus in that, a hindu can see the upanishads in it. I call that a common factor between hinduism and christianity.
My problem with faiths other than christianity is the freedom to add whatever you will mix in, and the liberty to digress from the established word. Thereby denying authority of any single law or code or pattern, and allowing individualism to colour the philosophy according to the “needs of the hour”. Christians especially some denominations have done the same with the bible and I call them hypocrites if they say they are “more right” than non-christians, because they have done exactly what the other faiths already do. The difference I see in Christianity is that this unification of the ordinary human spirit with the Holy Spirit does not come as an act of man but by the grace of God. I have had experiences with God but the authority of the Bible in my life will not allow me to colour these experiences to suit my “understanding” of the day. I have no place to say that I am right or that you are right, but these are just my thoughts- many of us honestly claim experiences with God, but when we give weight to our interpretations more than to his words, that is when we reject the authority of the scriptures we have formed our opinions from- is God not distant and unknown? Are we truly homogenous with the Spirit of the Universe, while in non-conformity with it and with the other members of this Spirit.
I don’t fully understand how to elaborate that thought, but I’m not trying to say who is right or wrong- I am only dealing with the issue of oneness with the Spirit. Sorry if I put it in a confusing manner. My expression it seems is not as clear as my conviction
Diana
Diana,
You aren’t confusing at all. I find it interesting how closely your thougts and mine parallel each other.
You wrote: “My problem with faiths other than christianity is the freedom to add whatever you will mix in, and the liberty to digress from the established word.”
That’s my basic problem with all faiths, including all forms of Christianity that I’ve encountered. That’s why I am agnostic. The universe is what it is, independent of my opinion or understanding. (There are certain physicists who set forth what is called “The Strong Anthropic Principle” who would disagree with that statement, and they might be right.)
The place we diverge is in your statement, “the authority of the Bible in my life will not allow me to colour these experiences to suit my “understanding” of the day.”
Whose version of the Bible are we going to accept as the authority? We know that the text of the bible has evolved over time, both through mistranslations and deliberate insertions of text. We know the collection of books that make up the bible is somewhat arbitrary. There are missing texts; there are the apocrypha; and there are recently found texts, such as the Gnostic Gospels.
But that’s my problem, not yours, and for my part, it’s not a problem. I don’t accept any person or book as an absolute authority.
I don’t even necessarily believe my own experience. There was a time (when I did yogic meditation regularly) that I could drop into a mental state at will where I could see human auras and both see and feel prana energy. I have described that to friends of mine of a scientific bent and the standard answer is, something like “Have you ever done this while next to someone else who is in the same mental state, and compared descriptions of the auras and the locations and activity of the prana energy.” In other words, have I done experiments to verify that my experience is not a personal hallucination.
And no, I haven’t. I only have my experience, and I know that such experiences are not necessarily trustworthy.
That’s one of the things I like about Buddhism. Buddhist though does not require belief in a god or gods, or even belief in the practice. The teachers I know who have discussed such phenomena as auras, or prana energy, or directly experiencing God, or other forms of religious ecstacy or feelings of enlightenment have dismissed these things as distractions, a side-show that just gets in the way of the main point of meditation.
Which is, learning to pay attention to life, to live it, to know that you are living it, and to value living it. To not get lost in your head or your emotions, but to learn how to be in the world.
If there is a God, I think he’s perfectly capable of running the universe. It’s not my problem. I have enough problems just letting go of my own limitations, living life right, loving my fellow human beings, and valuing the world and all life in the world.
My own mind, and its interaction with the world is my Bible. I can study it the rest of my life and not understand it.
Greg
Greg,
I can totally understand what you’re saying here. Two things you said,
“The universe is what it is, independent of my opinion or understanding.”
and
“…God, I think he’s perfectly capable of running the universe. It’s not my problem. I have enough problems just letting go of my own limitations, living life right, loving my fellow human beings, and valuing the world and all life in the world.”
I can’t argue with either of those, they seem correct to me. The difference (or addition) that I bring into it is, that God (whom I know through precisions of the written word, given spirit and of the Universe which is what it is whether I see it or not) has found me for a purpose. He has first created me for a purpose, and then he has called me to it. Why I trust the Bible and not the apocrypha and the other recently found texts, why I trust the written word to be absolute truth, that is a matter of faith and heart which can only be known and not explained. To try to explain that would probably just be annoying and fruitless. No man needs another man to explain the matters of God, because he isn’t just my God he is the God of the Universe. He is perfectly capable not only of running the place but also of manipulating every small particle to serve his purpose. What stops him? Nothing. So I won’t presume to go beyond my role, all that I have to do in my own life and through it, is given to me in the Bible. It has shown itself to be trustworthy and awesome so I centre myself on it (not perfectly but I seek it).
I don’t agree that the Bible texts have “evolved” over time, because the original manuscripts remain intact and are still used for any new translating effort. There are minor differences in translations, but to stumble over them would be like “swallowing a camel and straining out a gnat”, in Jesus’ words. Still, this is probably not an appropriate place for me to continue writing on this topic, since the post is about common factors in different religions not the complete trustworthiness of the Bible.
Diana
Greg,
it is a pleasure reading your comment and I am of the same opinion.In fact after reading your comment my faith in (vasudhev kutumbkam)ie the world is a big family has strengthened.I believe there is a power controlling the universe, still I am not able to relate to any particular religion or faith.There are so many questions left unanswered eitherways,whether you are a believer or not.The book I recommended throws these questions at us.
You have practiced Pranayam and Vipasna yourself.I do pranayam for about half an hour daily it helps I am more at peace with myself ever since I started.Healthwise although I have observed a big difference in me.
Ego is definitely less than what it used to be I hope it continues.Thanks a lot for taking interest in the blog it is a great pleasure knowing your views.
Glandheim- I totally appreciate your post (both of them) (I’m fairly inarticulate at the moment, so bear with my jaded language). I identify with what you have written, and you articulate questions which have been and are on my mind. I would also call myself spiritual, rather than religious. I reject religion (the ones that exist) because the problem that I see with most is that good words get scrambled through the ages to suit the purpose of the powerful (and men. sorry, but it is, traditionally ,a patriarchal world), and somehow, ‘truth’ cannot be written down, atleast not in the languages we possess. It can be felt, but thats just my opinion.
In communication with god, he asked him why he allowed suffering when man is his creation. The answer was something to the effect that man creates hos own life-he is made in god’s image, meaning he is a potential god(thats how I interpret it) and if he want’s he can get rid of his suffereing. ‘m not expressing this the way I’m seeing it in my head, but I plead a temporary disabling form of inarticulity. Reading that piece was liberating because it felt as if a piece f the puzzle had flipped over and was close to fitting th entire puzzle. God is chilled out (oh cringe, what blasphemy:) ) and isn’t a big daddy 
He/She leaves you be to do what you will yet butts in if you plead 
You said- “If there is a God, I think he’s perfectly capable of running the universe. It’s not my problem. I have enough problems just letting go of my own limitations, living life right, loving my fellow human beings, and valuing the world and all life in the world.”
Thats how I picture God too. I’ve had a lot of questions about god, lots of interpretations and theories spewed at me, but I like best what I read by my favourite Yogi
Sorry about that off-topic comment.
pr3rna,
(How do you pronounce that, anyway:))
I’m glad you practice pranayama and find it brings you peace and health. I think doing it for so many years is what allowed me to change from being a tightly-wound, high-strung, distrustful, aggressive person into a fairly relaxed person who would rather get to know people than fight with them.
Pranayama is very good for balance and restoration.
Vipassana can be very stressful. By watching how your mind works, it can bring you to tears. The truth about yourself can be very painful.
Both are a process. Speaking for myself, It took a lot of dedication to get to the point where either did a lot of good. For some, it’s as natural as walking.
Shanti.
Hi Sporadicblogger,
I forgot I was going to reply to your comment. The part where you wrote “he is made in god’s image, meaning he is a potential god,” and then thought you were inarticulate: you weren’t inarticulate.
I don’t believe in God. I don’t know what it would take for me to believe, given all of the “religious” experiences I’ve had already. Let me be a little inarticulate for awhile.
In the movie, “The Ruling Class,” Peter O’Toole played a Brittish nobleman who was insane because he thought he was Jesus Christ. A psychiatrist came to cure him and asked, “Why do you believe you are God?” O’Toole replied, “Because when I pray to him, I find I am talking to myself.”
A writer whose name escapes me at the moment wrote something like “The ultimate proof of God’s omnipotence is that he need not exist in order to save men.” (And there we are, using “men” to mean “humans.”)
Despite their satiric intent, I think there is an enormous amount of truth in both of those statements.
Given how much trouble I had with Group Theory and Quantum Mechanics when I was studying Physics, I really do not feel equipped to worry about the nature or existence of God. If it helps to believe in one, I say more power to you. If it helps to believe only in yourself, I say “Amen.”
Greg
Oh! Oh! The writer is Peter De Vries (not to be confused with the mentat assassin Piter de Vries in the novel “Dune.”).
I’m sorry that I am unable to contribute any thought to this post but I would like to refer to some of your writings in my school paper. I am writing about the separation of church and state. Could you please give your name so I can use this page as a reference.
Thank you