OTHER RELIGIONS

1. INDIGENOUS RELIGIONS
Tribal peoples sense the Great Mystery. They live and sing and dance in Its company and express their experience with great dignity and simplicity. It is to this that I would like to aspire.

The Kagaba Indians of Columbia describe the Great Mystery as the Great Mother:
The Mother of Songs, the mother of our whole seed, bore us in the beginning. She is the mother of all races of men and the mother of all tribes. She is the mother of the thunder, the mother of the rivers, the mother of trees and of all kinds of things. She is the mother of songs and dances. She is the mother of the older brother stones. She is the mother of the grain and the mother of all things.

Out of the Great Womb of the Great Mystery that we have been born.
How wonderful that she gives birth to us, and to all of Creation - even the songs!

* * *
The Maori reverently describe the Great Mystery's act of Creation this way:
Io dwelt within the breathing-space of immensity.
The Universe was in darkness with water everywhere.
There was no glimmer of dawn, no clearness, no light.
And he began by saying these words:
… Darkness become a light possessing darkness.
And at once light appeared.

My own God has nine million nine hundred and ninety-names; the Hindus have three hundred and thirty million divine names. I recognize Io. By His Divine words, light was made; the whole world was brought into being and illuminated. It is beautiful to contemplate.

* * *
Austrailian Aborigines relate the creation story this way:
There was a time when everything was still. All the spirits of the earth were asleep - or almost all. The great Father of All Spirits was the only one awake. Gently he awoke the Sun Mother. As she opened her eyes a warm ray of light spread out towards the sleeping earth. The Father of All Spirits said to the Sun
Mother, "Mother, I have work for you. Go down to the Earth and awake the sleeping spirits. Give them forms."
The Sun Mother glided down to Earth, which was bare at the time and began to walk in all directions and everywhere she walked plants grew. After returning to the field where she had begun her work the Mother rested, well pleased with herself. The Father of All Spirits came and saw her work, but instructed her to go into the caves and wake the spirits.
… She gave birth to two children. The god was the Morning Star and the goddess was the moon. Two children were born to them and these she sent to Earth. They became our ancestors. She made them superior to the animals because they had part of her mind…

The world is a collaboration between the Father of All and the Sun Mother, His love. We are her grandchildren and have part of her mind - that is, we are divine children!

The Aborigines also say that Pund-jel made the first two men out of clay:
He was pleased with his work and he looked at the men a long time, and later he danced around them… He again smoothed their bodies with his hands, and lay upon each of them, and blew his breath into their mouths, noses and
also their navels. He breathed very hard and they stirred. He danced around
them, made them speak and caused them to get up.

To me, He is the breath of life. The image is very familiar. He breathed life not only into our nostrils, but also into our navel, that mysterious site of the umbilical tie to our mothers, the very entrance into our gut. And He lay on us and danced us into being alive. What an intimate relationship is portrayed between our Creator and us! And how joyful!

* * *
The Navajo say it is the wind that gave us life. Wind. Ruah in Hebrew; Spiritus in Latin; Prana in Sanskrit; Chi in Chinese; Divine Breath.
It was the wind that gave them life. It is the wind that comes out of our mouths now that gives us life. When this ceases to blow we die. In the skin at the tips of our fingers we see the trail of the wind; it shows us where the wind blew when our ancestors were created.

There is great beauty in that image. It is, in fact, beauty that is important in our lives. An authentic human being walks in beauty, creates beauty, appreciates beauty, embodies beauty, and has a beautiful spirit. What a lovely thing to be centered in beauty. It is what makes life meaningful.


Beauty behind me.
Beauty before me.
Beauty above me.
Beauty below me.
Beauty all around me.
It is finished in beauty.
It is finished in beauty.


* * *
The Pygmies say it best. All images, no matter how beautiful and how powerful, fail in the face of the immensity of the Great Mystery.
In the beginning was God,
Today is God
Tomorrow will be God.
Who can make an image of God?


* * *
2. PAST CIVILIZATIONS

What lessons can we learn from the very ancient past when writing was done in hieroglyphics and cuneiform?

Osiris, Lord of Eternity has manifold names and holy forms. He is the hidden form. The spiritual body and world of Osiris, like the Dharmakaya and Pure Lands of Buddhism, and the holy city described by Jews, Christians and Muslims, is likened to Gems:
Truth is in my body; turquoise and crystal are its months. My homestead is there among the lapis-lazuli, among the furrows thereof. I am Hem-Nu, the lightener of the darkness. I have come to lighten the darkness; it is light. I have lightened the darkness. I have overthrown the ashmiu-fiends.

Osiris has Isis just as Shiva has Shakti, and as Yahweh has Shikena. Masculine and Feminine are Divine twin powers. Isis created light with her feathers and air with her wings. She gave birth to a son, Horus, by drawing forth the essence of her divine husband-brother. Osiris' symbol is grain that dies, only to be reborn eternally. Life is followed by Death. Death is followed by Resurrection. This is a most ancient mystery.

* * *

The Zoroastrians worshipped the Great Mystery, Ahura Mazda with their bones and their flesh, and enumerated some of His names:
We worship Righteousness, the Best, the most Beautiful, the Bountiful Immortal, who is endowed with light in all things good.
We worship the Good Mind of the Lord and His Sovereign Power, and the Good Faith, the Good Law, and Piety, the ready mind within your people!

These names of the Lord are familiar to me, and it amazes me to think that we can worship Him with our very bones and flesh - our intrinsic selves.

* * *
The Mayans recounted the time before creation in writings saved from the fiery book-burnings of zealot-missionaries by other, wisdom-seeking missionaries. God was called the Heart of Heaven, and He called upon His divine angelic forces, Tepu and Gucumatz to help with the creation of the world:
… all was in suspense, all calm, in silence, all motionless, still, and the expanse of the sky was empty...
There was only immobility and silence in the darkness, in the night. Only the Creator, the Maker, Tepeu, Gucumatz, the Forefathers, were in the water surrounded with light… In this manner the sky existed and also the Heart of Heaven, which is the name of God and thus He is called.
Then when they meditated, it became clear to them that when dawn would break, man must appear. Then they planned creation, and the growth of the trees and the thickets and the birth of life and the creation of man. Thus it was arranged in the darkness and in the night by the Heart of Heaven.

The great devotion and might of these angelic beings are no more or less mysterious to me than the angelic abilities of great atomic forces, molecules, cells and DNA to carry out the creative intentions of an unfathomable Mind. Together they all conspire to give body to the Universe, to give vitality to its creatures, and to propel all of it toward its destiny.

* * *
The ancient Gilgamesh Epic says:
So the goddess conceived an image in her mind, and it was of the stuff of Anu of the firmament. She dipped her hands in water and pinched off clay, she let it fall in the wilderness, and noble Enkidu was created.

Like Adam, Enkidu was the perfect human being, created out of clay in the image conceived in the mind of the Great Goddess.
But people eventually began to behave badly, and a deluge engulfed the earth. The gods, the divine angels wept when they saw that all of mankind had returned to clay. One righteous man, however, was saved. Utnapishtim, "finder of Life," opened the hatch of his boat (in which he had saved animals of every species) and saw light. He offered a libation and sweet incense to the heavens. And the great goddess promised "I shall not forget."

When human beings behave badly, there can be terrible Divine consequences. In the mind of the Divine Herself, is a sorrow for the destruction of my people, when it is I myself who gave birth to my people. And, loving the sweet and beautiful offerings of a repentant people, she has mercy.

* * *

3. OTHER CONTEMPORARY WORLD RELIGIONS

There are many religions besides the seven so-called "world religions" practiced by millions of people. Some are ancient and some modern. The ancient teachings of Sikhism and Jainism are among them. In the past hundred and fifty years there have also been spiritual masters who offer mature, visionary insights into the contemporary human condition. They say that it is up to us not merely to obey age-old commandments, but to actively participate in finding ways to moving the world forward toward global harmony and peace. Without our conscious participation, we could literally lose our world to destruction.

Here is one of the Hidden Words of Baha'u'llah:
O SON OF MAN!
Veiled in My immemorial being and in the ancient eternity of My essence, I knew my love for thee; therefore I created thee, have engraved on thee Mine image and revealed to thee My beauty.

This prayer strikes a deep chord in me. It is a distillation of the core of beauty in monotheism. A person who believes in the God of Judaism, Christianity and Islam has a complex relationship with Him. God is ancient, immense and incomprehensible. He is the Eternal Hidden One. He knew from the time before time, beyond the bounds of past, present and future that He loved us, and therefore, created us in His own image. It is the miraculous nature of our consciousness that makes it possible for us to know and love Him too.
The current world confusion and calamitous condition in human affairs [is] a natural phase in an organic process leading ultimately and irresistibly to the unification of the human race in a single social order whose boundaries are those of the planet. The human race, as a distinct, organic unit, has passed through evolutionary stages analogous to the stages of infancy and childhood in the lives of its individual members, and is now in the culminating period of its turbulent adolescence approaching its long-awaited coming of age.

I maintain the hope (although it's sometimes very difficult) that human beings will come out of the crucible of our present tumult having learned some deep lessons. We will realize that the enormous destruction we do to ourselves and our world is untenable. If we are all touched by the violence abroad in our world, we will have no choice but to find other ways of living together. The skeleton is already there - we have a World Health Organization, a United Nations, a World Court, and many other embryonic institutions that must be modified, replaced or made to work for the good of the human race. Or we die.

* * *
Paramahansa Yogananda said:
Most men consider the course of events as natural and inevitable. The sudden cataclysms that occur in nature, creating havoc and mass injury, are not ‘acts of God.’ Such disasters result from the thoughts and actions of man. Wherever the world’s vibratory balance of good and evil is disturbed by an accumulation of harmful vibrations, the result of man’s wrong thinking and wrong doing, you will see devastation.
When materiality predominates in man’s consciousness, there is an emission of subtle negative rays.

When I consider that my brain has electrical impulses, it is not too much of a leap for me to entertain the possibility that they interact with electro-magnetic forces of the world and its people. Scientists have observed that monks in deep meditation have very distinctive brainwave patterns. The electrical impulses have actually been measured. This also happens with people who are deeply relaxed, peaceful and content. On the other hand people who are very angry or under great stress, display a completely different set of brainwaves. Our attitudes and intentions must affect the world. Think what would happen if we all individually change our attitudes and state of being. We may be able to change the world.

* * *
Ramakrishna was a modern Indian mystic who taught that all religions provide ways to the Divine, and encouraged people to use simple ways of staying in touch with the Divine that are common to all spiritual systems:
The light of the gas-lamp illuminates various localities with varying intensity, but the sustenance of the light, namely, the gas, comes from one common store. So religious teachers of all lands and of all ages are many lamps through which the light of the Spirit constantly flows from the one almighty source.
… it is most necessary to go into solitude now and then and think of God. There are three ways of meditating: think of God while doing your duties, or meditate on Him in a secluded corner of your house, or contemplate Him in a wood. And you should always discriminate between the Real, and the unreal: God alone is real, the Eternal Substance; all else is unreal, that is, impermanent. By discriminating thus, one should shake off impermanent objects from the mind.

Vivekenanda spoke to the World Parliament of Religion in 1893, and said something that sums up the only hope for the people of the world:
If some people still dream of the exclusive survival of their own religion and the destruction of the others, I pity them from the bottom of my heart, and point out to them that upon the banner of every religion will soon be written, in spite of resistance: "Help and not Fight", "Assimilation and not Destruction"; "Harmony and Peace and not Dissension."

Unless we realize that any religion that seeks it's own dominance at the cost of destroying other religions is no religion at all, we are doomed. This is the crux of the matter at hand in our times.

* * *
The Book of Mormon says:
And the one being is as precious in his sight as the other. And all is of the dust; and for the selfsame end hath he created them, that they should keep his commandments and glorify him forever. (Jacob 2:21)
Go thy way unto thy brother and first be reconciled to thy brother and then come unto Me.
Worship Me with full purpose of heart and I will receive you. (3 Nephi 12:24) But, wo, wo, unto you that are not pure in heart, that are filthy this day before God; for except ye repent the land is cursed for your sakes; and the Lamanites, which are not filthy like unto you, nevertheless they are cursed with a sore cursing, shall scourge you even unto destruction. (Jacob 3:3)
Reflecting the teachings of Jesus, this is a clarion call for us to set our hearts in accord with the Divine, and to follow the Golden Rule that is articulated in all religions. Treat others as you would like to be treated. Forgive others as you would like to be forgiven. Polish and shine your heart so that it is pure, and can reflect the light of the Divine.

* * *
It is interesting to note that many recent winners of the Nobel Peace Prize have been spiritual heroes. Among them are Bishop Desmond Tutu, Mother Teresa Martin Luther King, Elie Weisel and the Dalai Lama. In his acceptance speech, the Dalai Lama spoke about the inspiration he receives from Mahatma Gandhi, who founded the modern tradition of non-violence, and reiterated the message of Vivekenanda:
People inflict pain on others in the selfish pursuit of their happiness or satisfaction. Yet true happiness comes from a sense of brotherhood and sisterhood. We need to cultivate a universal responsibility for one another and the planet we share. Although I have found my own Buddhist religion helpful in generating love and com-passion, even for those we consider our enemies, I am convinced that everyone can develop a good heart and a sense of universal responsibility with or without religion.
I believe all religions pursue the same goals, that of cultivating human goodness and bringing happiness to all human beings. Though the means might appear different the ends are the same.

What is brought ever more sharply into focus is this need for followers of all religions to be respectful and compassionate to each other. We really must.

The very fact that there is an international prize for peace, that there have been councils of world religions, that people have come together to pray for world peace, that there is a United Nations at all, are hopeful signs of an underlying urge for peace, understanding and brotherhood. Even in the face of tremendous forces of terror in the name of religion, we must look for and nurture these hopeful signs in ourselves. We have at our disposal a battery of spiritual tools gathered from over the millennia, more than we have ever had in human history, and a vast array of skills and creativity with which to use them. My own hope for the world lies in the knowledge that many, many people are beginning to use them.