ALL RELIGIONS ARE ONE

This is the reason the necessity for different religions has always eluded me: -

If we accept that the Gods of other religions are the same as our God - then are we not of the same religion?

If those of different 'faiths' do not accept that they share the same God? Then either they are acknowledging the existence of other single supreme beings (a contradiction in terms) or denying the validity of everyone else’s mystical experiences and spiritual journey - the root of conflict throughout the ages.

At best, it seems, we can claim our preferred sacred texts to be better written, that our particular sets of words for describing The Divine are more likely to guide an individual towards a meaningful communion with God, or to make us happier - collectively and individually - by exhorting us to act in a more ethical and loving fashion.

There is a sense in which all words are ‘true’ – the sense in which they are existent forms that govern our belief-sets and value systems. We do not consider them to be the primary organising principle governing our collective memes, as the universal archetypal stories, being universal, transcend language - or, rather, they underlie it. Perhaps an appropriate metaphor would be to imagine the archetypes as an invisible loom which we illuminate with words – without the specific threads of words we weave we cannot see the looms at all, but our choice of colours and stitch are merely transient decorations, patterns that play upon the surface of that which I AM.

That a hair's breadth seperates us - this is obvious. That we share a common source, a common cause - this much is clear. Our spirituality? This IS our relationship with our common source, thus that which seperates us is not the source (though this, too, comes from it and returns there). Yet that which binds us and unites us? This IS The Source, this is of The One Whole Spirit. Of this true mystics from each and every tribe can agree. Then who is it that sets us up with fear and shame, to swindle, pilliage, condemn and maim?

It is The Devil, to be sure - Beelzebub, Lucifer - yet The Devil only lives in the hearts of men, for he IS Adam after the fall - Humankind, the sons and daughters of The Divine, The Bringers of Light. Within your secular sacred heart - you know whether you are a light worker - or whether your holy task is to to perpetuate this dark.

Soldiers, lay down your arms, violence only begets violence. I know this is the very hardest thing to do when the blood of your loved ones is fresh, but there is no other way to heal yourself, Man, Mankind, there is no other way to heal the ancient harboured grudges, but to forgive the freshest wounds. This is The Holy War – the war that is fought upon hate in ourselves and is won by Love. This is the Whole War. There are no ‘Muslims’, no ‘Christians’, no ‘Jews’ - there are only Holy men, and those that aim for wholeness - and neither state of being is better than the other - though for some the road is simple, for others the road is hard. The harder the road the greater the potential for heroic deeds, acts that free your great-great-grand childrenfrom the ancient cycles of hatred and violence. It is braver to run or hide than perpetuate this cycle. When we avange the wrongs done to our own? We call it 'justice' - yet the sword that strikes this blow? It may as well be thrust straight through the skin and bones that holds the heart within our own children's children's chests.

Why anyone continues to conflate the authority of Jesus with that of the canon authorised at The Synod of Hippo is beyond me. Absolute truth cannot be arrived at by committee - whereas absolute lies can be perpetuated by concencus.

The Gospel of John says "you do not need any man to teach you...the same anointing teaches you all things and is truth...you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things...Beloved, now we are the sons of God. He who keeps his commands dwells in him, and he in him. And we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit which he has given us." So, surely, the contemplations of any 'righteous' man should be 'true' (if 'true' is a meaningful term) and worthy of our consideration? It is in this sense that we might regard all virtuous beings as prophets, as they themselves, and what they produce, are all expressions of an Immanent God that dwells both within them, and that they, equally, dwell within. Are not all stories allegories, parables, timeless riddles, that are as much mirrors on ourselves as they are reflections of the topics they ostensibly explore?

It is not the sacred texts, nor the holy men, in truth, that betray us - it is the dogma that sets men up against each other, and the church's walls that divide brothers.

If an organisation becomes created for this [spiritual] purpose it becomes a
crutch, a weakness, a bondage, and must cripple an individual and prevent him
from growing, from establishing his uniqueness, which lies in the discovery for
himself of that absolute, unconditional truth. Krishnamurthi

We are all prophets, and both mankind's most ancient noumenous expressions, and the musings, fictions and machinations of this apparently Godless age are, collectively, the most diverse and beautiful, spiritual canon in this or any other universe. The Life of Man, in its entirety - let us not waste any of it, then none of our suffering will have been in vain.

the jesTer x