The religions
1
The family has always had a ring in its possession
of which it is said that those who wear it shall become pure
of mind, wise of thought, and of touching compassion.
2
The wise father, having grown old and tired,
had pondered upon which of his three sons he should bestow the ring.
3
Since he could not find any of them to be worthier than the other,
and did not want to favor any one of them, he had two identical
duplicates made, and then died in peace.
4
When the sons searched for the ring, instead of one they
found three, none of which they could identify as the original.
5
At first they were irritated and confused
but soon recognized their father’s wisdom.
6
They said to one another:
“If each of us behaves as if he bore the original,
then each of us will feel the power of the ring and
so preserve spirit and love.”
7
So it is, dear Reader, that after having read this chapter
you may conclude that whenever a religion is played off another
as the only “true religion,” it leads us away
from divine unity and truth.
What is religion anyway?
Religio (Latin) = religio, religo religare, means “tie together, join,
reunite”with the source (Lactantius, 4th century).
This fundamental definition is importantto know from the outset and
should provide a sound definition of the quintessence of the subject.
However, the word religion has a bad connotation, and modern Western
people tend to display animosity toward this description – largely due to the
behavior of the churches themselves (administrative and power structure)
that hold the view that they alone preserve and represent the dogma/religion.
Unfortunately, today neither the churches nor the churchgoers follow the
teachings of the old scriptures. On the contrary, they even pit their “deities”
against others. However, there is only one God, no matter what we may
call him/her. It is interesting to note that the world religions that have
managed to establish themselves and prevail are all monotheistic
(i.e., directed toward one central deity) and were followed by a variety
of prophets at different times and on various continents.
The prophets were sent and led by one and the same Creator to reveal
paths to humans that would lead us closer to our inner selves and
thereby to the Creator itself.
The religions
One of the major surprises and discoveries I encountered on my
personal path was that all world religions essentially have the same
message (Genesis and the Books of the Dead), insofar as there is one
Creator who created an entity from within and through which emerged
the creation of space and beings.
Another common aspect is that we mortals incarnate here on earth
in order to learn and gain experience so that we may realize our divinity.
In this respect, the four religions were in unison until the sixth century.
It was none other than the Christian church that was responsible for the
abolishment of the so-called reincarnation doctrine and the law of karma
associated with it during the 5th Vatican Council 553 A.D. in Constantinople
(Istanbul, Turkey) and which has never since been corrected by the Roman
Catholic Church. This is the reason Christians no longer have knowledge
regarding the significance, the objective and the implication of reincarnation.
It is especially sad to note that the 5th Council of Constantinople was not
convened by the Pope but by the Christian- Byzantine emperor Justinian.
He was dominated by his wife, Theodora, and ruthlessly determined the
course of the state, church and the contents of the Bible and its beliefs.
Since then, we “poor Christians” must accomplish EVERYTHING in a
single lifetime on earth to ascend to divinity, otherwise we poor sinners
will land in “hell”. (Fortunately this is not the case, but it was and still is
helpful for churches to let humans who are conscious of their guilt pay
penance for their sins). Without the understanding of reincarnation many
of Jesus’ passages in the New Testament are meaningless.
Religio, i.e. the connectivity to the inner divine source is not, as
commonly asserted, purely a matter of belief, but a personal
experience and therefore very difficult to understand and communicate.
The ensuing conflict is programmed insofar as each religion claims to be
the “sole and true” one.
I was also surprised to find that Christianity, Judaism and Islam have
common roots going back as far as the Old Testament, refer to the
same prophets and regard Abraham (Ibrahim) as their mutual earthly
founding father. Abraham is also the keeper of clarity and the God seeker
who shatters all false idols, realizing and teaching that we shall never
possess divinity itself, but can recognize it within us and return to it.
In those days, the religions were nearly in mutual agreement and the
differentiation/split between the Abrahamic religions did not yet exist.
All religions were still awaiting the coming of the Messiah (Deliverer,
Redeemer). But when he finally made his appearance, he was not
recognized as such because the deity within him was not apparent to
most people. And yet he brought light (the awareness of the way back
to the father) and love (the teaching of love leading to insight and
redemption), and changed the conditions of the Plan of Redemption.
Most people expected or were hoping for a God who would make an
ostentatious descent from heaven and act according to their assumptions
by alleviating the difficulty of life on earth. For example, at the time
many Israelites associated the Messiah with an earthly king who would
liberate them from Roman rule.
Let us visualize for a moment how it would be if all these peoples had
recognized and accepted him and followed his teachings of love.
There would be only one religion in all of the regions now inhabited by
Christians, Muslims and Jews today.
Our history of the past 2,000 years would have been completely different
and with far fewer wars. Instead of unity, the birth of Christ heralded
dissention. In Christ’s day, only some people recognized and accepted the
son aspect of the deity and the Christ Eioua, the Messiah and Redeemer in
him. They followed his “New Testament” of love and evolved as Christians.
Others did not believe in him at all and regarded him as an imposter and blasphemer, because he was a poor craftsman who was not afraid to tell
priesthood of the Pharisees where they erred, misunderstood or
misinterpreted the ancient scriptures to their own advantage.
He represented the greatest danger to them, which is why they accused
him of blasphemy and brought him before the Roman authorities to
demand his crucifixion. Their descendants became the Jews who to
this day are still waiting for “their” Messiah.
“Christianity needs Judaism but Judaism does not need Christianity!”
This claim can often be heard or read from Jewish scholars with regard
to the Old Testament. This is a statement we do not share because
Judaism has actually remained attached to the harsh and judging God
of the Old Testament, which has become a closely and tightly knit code
of conduct for its believers (as later in Islam). However, in this context,
both Christianity and Islam represent progressive teachings in which all
humans are deemed equal and follow the path back to divinity.
For this reason Judaism will not be mentioned separately or regarded
as a world religion in the comparison that follows, in spite of the fact
that it holds the most comprehensive and detailed documents and
descriptions of the Old Testament in its legacy and that the Torah,
Talmud and Kabbalah all contain many divine truths and wisdoms.
However, through the centuries they have come to contain many
half-truths about a “chosen people” who are meant to lead and direct
others – a misinterpretation of a remnant from the Old Testament in
which “chosen” referred to prophets stemming from their tribes who
would announce the Redeemer. However, this prophecy was finally
fulfilled with the birth of Christ on earth.
In our overall view, Judaism is a tangent of early Christianity
in the Old Testament.
However, there was a third group that recognized him as the
“Great Prophet”, but not as the Messiah, the God who became man.
Following the Christians’ lead, they turned away from the Israelites because
the Pharisees (predecessors of the Jewish priests) were responsible for the
crucifixion of the Great Prophet, Jesus (Koran from Sure 2.81).
To this end, they could and would not follow a uniform teaching until
500 A.D., when the prophet Mohammed introduced the stringent code
of conduct of Islam.
Since then Muslims have lived in a spirit of rejection
of the Jews and to some degree in mutual acceptance of Christians,
although Islam was gaining ground as a religion.
This continued until 1095 when Clermont Pope Urban II launched the
Crusades to liberate Jerusalem and the “Holy Land” from the Muslims
(80 years after the destruction of the nativity church, a sanctuary for
Christians, in 1009 under the rule of the Caliph, al-Hakim).
This occurred in spite of the fact that the Muslim rulers of the time
openly received and respected Christians, as many historical scriptures
confirm. This attitude changed when Christians undertook increasingly
greater Crusades of destruction and considered Muslims to be of an inferior
race. In the course of the next 200 years, four Crusades were undertaken,
none of which ended in a decisive victory in spite of heavy human loss.
In 1187 during the battle of Hattin, the kingdom of Jerusalem suffered a
crushing defeat and Jerusalem was again lost.
To this day, war continues to plague the Holy Land, which, to a large extent,
has been annexed by the merely 90-year old Jewish state accompanied by
gruesome suppression of the local Palestinian population and in accordance
with their deity Jahwe and the old scriptures of the Torah. A recent tragic
and gruesome episode of inciting war through misuse of religion was carried
out by American President George Bush by launching the two controversial
invasions of Iraq by US and English troops, thereby re-instigating the old
feud between Christians and Muslims. Bush spoke of a “crusade” on Iraq
and that “God stood by him and his objectives”.
(This is quite a controversial statement in light of the suffering resulting
from the medieval-style Crusades).
The Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein, and the Islamic mullahs responded in
kind by calling for a “holy war” against the Christian invaders – in the name
of Allah, of course – and considered it to be an honor to go to war against
the “Christian” Americans.
It is just as blasphemous and contrary to the Holy Scriptures for both
Christians and Moslems, since both preach: Thou shall not kill!
To this day, the masses can be influenced and power struggles waged
through religion and in the name of God.
The incarnation of Jesus Christ ushered in the start of a new era and
fulfilled four great objectives of the Plan of Redemption on earth for all,
and yet his spirit of love was not able to prevail in the human environment
and way of life, not even among Christians.
During the Reformation in the 16th century they were known to fight
against each other, resulting in the Catholic and Orthodox churches and
later the Protestant Church.
Not until recent years did the opposing sides manage to settle shameful
disputes in Northern Ireland where Catholics and Protestants fought and
killed one another on public streets for centuries and into
the 21st century – in a Western country!
These are only a few examples that serve to demonstrate how people
fight and kill each other in the name of the same God when they allow
themselves to be manipulated by political and religious leaders.
In contrast, all the holy books state: follow the path of charity!
Essentially, all religions should lead to calm and peace, love and
fulfillment, but so far none of the religions on earth have succeeded
in their mission.
In contrast, the viewpoint of the Oriental Sufis is impressive and
connective. They view the world religions as stepping-stones and
tools that are interdependent and complementary.
A Sufi woman in Giza explained it to us as follows:
“God the father, Allah, gave Ieoua creation and the teachings and in
turn passed them on to the prophets Moses, Mohammed,
Buddha and Krishna.
For those who are ignorant (spiritually dead), Buddhism demonstrates
the fundamentals of life in a simplified form
and acquaints humans with rebirth…
Islam is an elementary school with many rules for those having chosen
to follow the path to divinity, to learn and to develop…
Consequently, Christianity is the higher school, since it is very difficult
for us weak humans to emulate Ieoua and the angels,
and yet this is our destiny…
The Vedas comprise the spiritual ascension that Christians embark upon,
those who have recognized and follow the divinity within.
They are supposedly the oldest scripture on earth and constitute
a framework for all the others because they contain the whole picture…”
I have often contemplated this statement and must admit that this
definition holds true as a rough guideline and wonderful vantage point
to all religions. We should therefore recognize that we are all equal
beings originating from the Divine Creator and that the various religions
only show different ways of recognizing our divinity and ourselves.
No more and no less…
This is an excerpt from the book DEI LEGACY.
