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Graduation
It has been asserted that
>If you look at the scriptures of the various religions of the world,
>you will find that they express different but not necessarily
>conflicting perspectives on God. All of them, for example, agree that
>God is a person.
That opinion voiced no verses to support that, and so I do not know what text
was referenced. As I look through Tanach, Tao, Zend Avesta, Sutra, New
Testament and Quran, I find God is a Spirit, not a Person. True enough in
Christianity, God is a Spirit indwelling One Person, who (or which) functions
via yet another Spirit- so that the Supreme is all at once sort of a three in
one being- so assuredly is not `A Person." For these reasons I discount the
opinion that _all_ relgions reveal GOD to be a `Person.'
Some say GOD is not only a Person but that:
>>This is why it has been said that Vedanta is like post-graduate study
>>while other religions are like undergraduate study;
I am not sure in what text the fellow found Vedanta was `said' to be like
post-graduate study, yet I do appreciate the metaphor. I am not so sure that
others like Islamics, Christians or Jews would appreciate it, but hopefully
they might if welcomed with respect and affection to consider the idea.
Respect and good will is key in spiritual discussion, just as appetite and
thirst are key at feasts. I appreciate that to a hungry man, restaurant signs
appear everywhere, so I feed folks before discussing GOD. So too to the
lustful man, desirable bodies manifest and so I defuse desire before
discussing God. Perhaps in similar wise to the gradute, courses and tests
are welcomed before discussing GOD, but assuredly among graduates such
sideshows per se no longer appear to be paramount, and conversants can get on
to what, matters: life lived with GOD. That life is not enclosed by
ivyleagued walls, nor limited to books or dead men's commentaries, and gets
broader and more wondrous as one graduates to the good stuff, the adult
stuff, the nonschooled stuff.
That all serves as introduction to the thesis that, as I see it, there is no
religion higher or lower than any other; there is no form or name of GOD
that is higher or lower than any other. This opinion is voiced, I believe, by
many who hunger and thirst only after righteousness, rather than for
burgers, babes or blazers.
It is after all the personal _experience_ of deity, more than theory, which
is most often reflected in how we respond and interact with others. Those who
_know_ God, be it as Person or as Force or as Presence, such people tend to
show kindness and tact and good manners- where those who only talk about
ideas of God which they have memorized from text, be it as Person or Concept
or Absence, tend to show rudeness, brazenness, and arrogance. That is why
schoolboy enthusiasm for memorization is to be supported, but not to the
point where youth or students becomes fanatical. Fanatics rarely find any god
but their own ego, and often thwack on the noggin any who do not worship
there. Perhaps that is why the wise might bow at any altar, seeing GOD
everywhere, everytime.
It sure makes for a long life- maybe even for tenure, but most of all it
makes for joy.
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