First, why do I say “a guidance on our life on earth”? Because Our life will not end when our flesh body leaves this visible, material world (please refer my early posting “The Two Fundamental Laws of Nature”). Second, Having clarity on the understanding of God and religions helps us in forming and reshaping or enhancing our belief systems which are the principle guides of our thoughts that are the direct conductors of our daily actions, especially in a time of belief confusions.
Confusing Concepts
God – to a lot of people, it’s difficult to form the idea that God is pure existence, has no form, no shape but omnipresent; some may accept God is Omniscience, Omnipotent, still a lot of people have the impression God is a super power figure who resides in Heaven watching and governing us human beings on earth thanks to major religions that give God different names and doctrines for people to believe and worship. There are many different views on God such as One God/deity or one-God-three-form belief, Multi-gods belief, Panteismgod bielief, some conceive God is persona, some not etc…
gods – many people have their various idol gods to worship and pray for different benefits in a lot of cultures which form other regional religions such as some sects of Hinduism
And all the different religious beliefs form a very strong shield for their respective followers, and in many cases lead to religious fights and wars because of human natures.
There is the famous story （盲人摸象) originated from Buddhism scripts :
A lord asked a few blind men to feel an elephant, and then asked what the elephant looked like. Each of the blind people reached and felt a part of the elephant and all had different ideas about what an elephant was. The one who felt the ear said it’s a flat basket; a plowshare (trunk), a Wall (the body), a rock (head), a brush (the tail tip), etc. and they were roaring up to argue about it endlessly, then the Buddha said the following:
“O how they cling and wrangle, some who claim
For preacher and monk the honored name!
For, quarreling, each to his view they cling”
I see this as a vivid story that can be described about the situation of religion arguments in human history. The advice is:
If the preach of an religion doesn’t make you feel good, doesn’t lift you up, but make you shamed and can’t provide you with guidance for your daily life, then you need to rethink about the god concepts and their teachings all together. I was baptized many years ago as a christian and used to be a member of the choir, then something happened in the church which made me think and search more. Then recently I was guided to start reading Bhagavad Gita (it’s part of Hindu epic Mahabharata, one of the 2 Hindu ancient epics), I immediately felt so uplifted. I believe the messages in the Gita are the most enlightened ones as far as I know. And I also believe it has nothing to do directly with religion although it was applied in most of Hinduism teachings. I read it several times already, and still reading it, and always have new understanding and new wisdom about the world, human beings and natures and God. And it helps me in the expansion of my consciousness. Here are some excerpts about creation, God, gods:
– “I am the source of all spiritual and material worlds. Everything emanates from Me” – 10.18
– The seven great sages and before them the four other great sages and the Manus [progenitors of mankind] come from Me, born from My mind, and all the living beings populating the various planets descend from them – 10.6
– Neither the hosts of demigods nor the great sages know My origin or opulence, for, in every respect, I am the source of the demigods and sages – 10.2
– To show them special mercy, I, dwelling in their hearts, destroy with the shining lamp of knowledge the darkness born of ignorance. – 10.11
From DaoTejing 道德经， the ancient Chinese book (attributed to Laoszi) which was the main teachings of philosophical Daoism, there is the famous verse at the beginning:
“道可道非常道，名可名非常名” The paths that are talkable are not eternal paths, names that can be praised are not eternal names (This is my understanding and translation. There are different versions of translations which can make the meaning vague, or different)
From reading and meditate on those ancient scripts, here are my understanding and concepts given to God, gods, religion and belief:
– God is the Supreme, pure, formless Oneness Existence, it’s Omnipresent, Omniscience, Omnipotent. It’s the Spirit and Super Soul that permeates everywhere and in everything. It can only be felt with the human’s soul or spirit, not reachable by the normal human senses.
– gods are the supernatural beings who are created by the Oneness God, who are the progenitors of all living beings, and or who are the avatars of God. They’re usually worshiped by people. They’re the names appeared in religions, myths and ancient creation stories
Religion and Belief are two different concepts and meanings which are usually mixed up by majority of people
– Religion is an organized activity by groups of people who believe in and or worship god(s) seeking to understand the relationship between human beings and god(s), and who believe in a certain doctrine, that was formed along the time by individual(s) of having obtained expanded consciousness at the time of the doctrine formation.
– There are 2 categories of beliefs, one is of the essential principles one adopts to form their world views on the relationships between human beings and nature and with other living beings; the other category is of those beliefs that form one’s thoughts and guide their daily conducts in personal and social life. One can believe in any of the existing religions, or in any philosophies or theories or believe nothing to guide their deeds in their life on the earth.Then the outcomes of these beliefs would be different, some can lead to conflicts. So belief has nothing to do with religions unless one believes in one of the existing religions.
I hope these are interesting to everyone who follows me, and give some help for the clarity on your thoughts and beliefs
Next posting, I’m going to cover the new interpretation of Trinity and the Christ salvation.
Please ‘Like’, ‘share’ or Support me if you think we’re facing an urgency to reshape our beliefs and culminate our spirituality!
With Lots of Love and Peace
Posted by Helen Zhu copyright@www.learnwithuniversalmind.com