Spirituality – Page 2 – The Universal Oneness Blog

…worshipping on the altar of our “Divine Leaders”. Who is your Kim Jong-un? Mine is Jesus Christ. Some submit to Adonai, Allah, Buddha, the natural Universe…still others to science, or a trusted source of information that defines our world view.

Regardless of the target of our devotion, we are called to give absolute fealty…to take as unimpeachable truth any perceived pronouncements from the altar…to form monolithic associations with other true believers (Us), and to offer scorn and contempt to any one who dares to hold different beliefs (Them).

Be rest assured, there are millions of fellow human beings in North Korea today who are certain of our damnation for not yielding to the commands of their “divine leader.” If any of us are completely honest, their certainty will feel very familiar. This is the heart of everything wrong with life today. For people like Us, “we hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal.”* And for people like Them, they deserve the inhumanity we provide because they don’t share our values.

Have you noticed there are less of Us these days, and far too many of Them? Truly faithful versus falsely faithful; Faithful versus non-faithful; Objective versus subjective; True Americans versus Fake Americans; Americans versus Foreigners; Conservatives versus Liberals; Democrats versus Republicans; Allies versus Axis of Evil; Fox news versus MSNBC; NY Times versus Infowars; GMO versus Organic; Renewable energy versus Oil/Coal; An Inconvenient Truth versus Global Warming Deniers…

Yet while we condemn Them, have we considered but for the randomness of birth, we would be them?

None of us choose our place of origin, but where we are born, the family that raises us, and the culture we are given, all frame our choice of values. Acknowledging how we became so certain of our beliefs should illuminate how they became certain of theirs.

The moment we can see our choices in their eyes, is the instant we connect to our mutual humanity.

Today, we are all North Koreans.

*Thomas Jefferson

Our spiritual isolation is another myth…

One of the unique characteristics of the three great religious traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam is the broadly held belief that each offer the singular path to spiritual truth. Even in the name ascribed to the Creator: Adonai, God (Father, Son – Jesus Christ, and Holy Spirit), or Allah, is indigenous to a particular religious faith. Yet concurrent with the notion of one specific path to spiritual truth, the faithful subscribe to the foundational belief of a universal, all powerful, all knowing Creator. As a man raised in the Christian faith, and a deep reader of the Scripture, I have become acutely aware of how religious practice sometimes differ with Scriptural guidance.

One of the most important examples is the interpretation of Jesus Christ as the “narrow gate”. At the heart of the Christian faith is the belief that Jesus died so all of our sins would be forgiven, and He rose from the dead to demonstrate our salvation. The significance of the universal forgiveness of sins was to allow all people to worship God (The Creator) directly. Therefore, Jesus was the “narrow gate” to our reconciliation with the Creator. As a result, the narrow gate has become the basis of Christian exclusivity for spiritual truth.

In Judaism, the tradition of the Chosen people includes the opportunity to sense Adonai’s closeness, hear the truth, and share the truth with the world. Jewish salvation emphasizes correct conduct as revealed by the Mosaic covenant and recorded in the Torah and Talmud.

I have never had the pleasure of reading the Quran, so I can not cite the basis for Islamic exclusivity for spiritual truth. Nonetheless, each of these great religious traditions have expressed their exclusive claim for spiritual truth through political & legal force, and even violent conflict.

As a Christian, I look to the Scriptural guidance regarding “speaking in tongues” to counter the tradition of Christian exclusivity of spiritual truth. The Scripture introduced the practice of speaking in tongues to describe how through the power of God, the Holy Spirit, we each hear the voice of God in our native tongue. To me, these verses of Scripture epitomize the universality of an all-powerful Creator…one voice, vividly understood by all because the words are heard in the native tongue of the listener. This in my view is how a Universal Creator would speak so all creation would understand. I further interpret the native tongue as a metaphor for how each of us discover our spiritual truth.

Assuming for a moment the presence of a Universal Creator, would our relationship be constrained by the randomness of birth?

I was born in the Bronx, New York. Would I have been raised in the Christian faith had I been born in Tehran? Or as a member of the Australia Aboriginal communities?

Doubtful.

Even as a practical matter, spiritual exclusivity feels more like ego than truth.

Why would I think that my narrow path to truth defines anyone else’s path to truth? The full richness of our human experience teaches us of the boundless diversity of tangible, emotional, and spiritual reality.

Yet at our core, who amongst us doesn’t seek truth, confirmed by experience, which leads to a deeper purpose for living?