Universal Religion?

Aldous Huxley wrote “The Perennial Philosophy” in order to find the common denominators among diverse beliefs. This was an intellectual exercize, probably read and admired only by those who could envision religious beliefs as being universally valid. For most, religion must be localized, individually personalized, self-serving and uncompromising in its basic tenets.
The security of unquestionable assertions appears pitted against any knowledge gleaned from insecurity, uncertainty and the potential for expansion of realizations these provoke.
If a universal religion exists, wouldn’t it require a denial of certainty?

The random element, infintesimal as it is, is an essential espect of divine creation. Without it God would have died of boredom Ages ago. But on the whole, order and certainty prevail, or it would be a sorry God indeed.

The universal religion is non-trespass - the sanctity of indivual space and room to grow. All Atomic associations are based on that principle.

Divine Love, like all creative expressions, works its magic via mutual attraction, not by demand or invasion. It is magical because it lies beyond reason.

Certainty would remove the dynamic of Faith. Faith, tested, is what makes the soul strong.

We all have a common origin in birth and a common destiny in death. All else is manufactured and matters little in the final analysis.

All these principles, if religiously practiced, realize the same Universal Truth.

Experience tells me that if a universal religion exists, it would require a condescending, elitist and pitying attitude towards anybody that didn’t embrace it, while paying lip service to uncertainty.

From the above I would say that your experience is purely intellectual and therefore theoretical.

True religious devotion can only be developed by demanding daily practice, with the aim of not only improving one’s spiritual connectoion with the Divine, but also with the object of donating one’s time and energy to the needs of another without asking for reward. Such practice is never easy and no matter how hard one tries, there is always the sense that one never evokes one’s true spiritual potential. Thus no sincere practitioner ever ends up with a condescending or elitist attitude.

On ther other hand, sitting on one’s backside learning scripture by rote and then spouting the gospel is not, to my mind, spiritually enlightening. It is such 'lip service" people who tend to give spiritual practice a bad name.

So, was this supposed to convince me that advocates of unity are NOT arrogant, condescending elitists who sneer at everybody who do things another way? 'cause I have to admit, I feel like you’ve validated everything I said.

Correct me if I am wrong, but you seemed to have broadend the discussion to include social politics. There are deadly wars in that arena. As there are in scriptural interpretation. I was refering to the universal truths revealed by simcere spiritual practice. There is no elitism there, only humility.

MagnetMan

That’s what you were referring to here?

And the way you referred to these people is an example of what you consider ‘humility’? You can’t expect the masses to have the same enlightened understanding of humility as you, I realize, but you ought to know that to those of us on the outside, your humility appears like snobbery. Like I said, you realize on an intellectual level that playing to ‘uncertainty’ is the sure road to force others to treat your views with respect, but you don’t show the same in return.

I am always suspicious of people claiming to be humble.

It really isn’t the trait that lends itself to advertisement.

There are some factors common to all religious people. Ignorance is probably the greatest one, followed by cowardice. The common factor of all religions is that they exploit these weaknesses.

I have never claimed to be so, Aspire yes, in practice, I would like to kick ass. Especially those asses who make a practice of obscuring basic Truths with pseudo-sophisticated arguments.
What I have stated remains true. Spirituality in practrice breeds genuine humilitiy - for the practitioner is continuousl;y faced with a perfection that can never be reached.

No matter what religion or any social ideology or sciemntific treatise may claim, all and everything, down to the lowest blade of grass, is equal in the eyes of God. There are no elites. This is a simple truth that any child can accept.

Wow! I’m impressed and not being my usual sarcastic self. If universals exists in religion, what are they? I still see little more than a need for self-substantation in the teeth of death among the majority of religious adherents I’ve known. The beautiful I’m a part of all that is concept appears to be an enigma in the West. Consequently, we know nothing of ecology, physical or spiritual, and appear to be headed for extinction from our ignorance. The only religious adherents who do not consider themselves as God-ordained combatants of multiple points of view come from the East!

Where ever we look in Nature and in human relationships, we see an underlying behavioral attitude of affection. It is there in the mother from the moment her child is born. We see it activated during mate selction with birds, animals and man. It can be cultivated in man to a supernatural degree. Love is spontaneously expressed in song, it inspires psalms and poetry. It is the force of motivation that underlies all religions. It can bring about a state of ecstatic bliss. This force of love is universal. It is not manufactured by human intellect. People fall in love with their animal pets and their pets with them. It is the yearning for reunion that makes coyotes and wolves howl at the moon. Ghandi said that Love is Truth. No greater truth has been said. When one is embraced by love, all the world seems bright and gay.

I believe love is the essential metaphysical attribute of all atomic radiations. I believe the force of love is able to transcend all known physical forces - that in the highest state iof love, one can literally walk on air, fly from of the body and unite with God. I believe that Love permeats the entire universe and draws every atom back towards reunion.

The evolution of reason through man takes love to its ultimate dimension. Reason makes love individually specific, mutually intimate. There is a profound sense of recognition. Everything is known. Man and God become one again after eons of separation. For a magical moment the lover and the loved become fused. Such an ecstatic trance can last for months. The return to the mundane brings significant change to the psyche. Remnants of the exulted state remain.

One can live a life that loses sight of love. A life without affection is destitute. It makes people desperate, Appear false. Become mean and cynical. Death brings back the sight of love to all of us, even the most destitute. God is seen there, waiting compassionately for reunion. Hell is the burning shame we feel after living a selfish life devoid of love.

The wise men who came out of the East, beginning with the hippie revolution, have brought back the original sense of spirituality to many millions of westerners. We owe them a great deal.

An unquestionable assertion is a certainty. If a religion is made up of unquestionable assertions, then the universal religion is that there are certainties.

MagnetMan,
I like your ideas! What do you think of Deepak Chopra’s ? I’m an old hippie who believes love is all there is and love is inclusive. Chopra, in “Life After Death” is able to show complementation among Eastern and Western religious assumptions without getting into the human existence is illusory (Eastern) or corrupt (Western) senseless dichotomies…

I have not read Chopra.
Mystic adepts from all cultures report on realms of existence that vibrate at frequencies that operate beyond physical perception. They mention seven realms higher than this one and seven below this one. Earth is in the center. This is the realm where all mystic training takes place
Christ mentioned "in my father’s house there are seven mansions" which leads me to believe that he engaged in some of the kabalic practices of the Essennes.

The loving/praising/healing path leads to the higher realms and experements in hating/cursing/poisoning leads dowmwards. I believe at death most of us travel to the astral realm, which is immediately above this one. More advanced adepts go to higher etheric realms.

I have had several mystical experiences beyond the Gates of Heaven and Hell.

Astral colors are intense; scent is like jasmine; taste is like nectar. I have tried on other threads to explain what the first taste of Divine love feels like. The familiarity is immediate. All is instantly known. There is the sense that not one thought, not one hope or aspiration has not been witnessed, empathized with. Everything is positive, reassuring, loving.

Travel in the astral is by levitation/flight. The people and cultures living there, the art, music, dance and architecture are endlessly varied. Life there is infinitely more entertaining and the sense of well-being is all encompassing. I once performed a solo act in an arena before a large and distinquished audience. I was astonished at the spontanious orginality of my performance. I knew that I had genuinely entertained them.

On the other side of the coin, when entering the nether realms everything is the exact opposite. Every mean thought, selfish deed, ugly action is brought painfully to the forefront of the consciousness. The sense of helpless depression is almost over-whelming. I experienced this hell when I was still in my 40’s. I had the rest of my life to atone and try to clean up my act. I can only shudder if that negative encpounter with myself had happened on my death bed. It is we ourselves, not God who condems us to stretch in Hell. The burning shame of hellfire is intense and very cleansing. The lowest I have been was to find myself slipping down a slimy putrid slope with a pit of puss yawning beneath me. The stench was aweful. I had the sense of total annihilation if one fell in. I think it takes a lot of daring to take the lower path. But if the end is annihilation, I cannot see the point. I prefere eternal existence. Maybe I’m a wimp.

All of those paranormal experiences have given me deeper insight into the meaning and purpose of our human existence and, as far as I am concerned, more than validates all the years I have invested in metaphysical training. The reason I write in these forums is purely to share that and try to urge others to actively engage in spiritual development.

I have made sure that all my own children spent an equal amount of time in left and right brain exercises. I educated them at home. They have yet to make a break-trhough into other realms of perception - but their earthly behavior is exceptional and they have demonstrated the beginnings of ESP capabilities.

MagnetMan,
Your statements here sound a lot like Chopra’s. Perhaps that is because the two of you have experienced a common ground of knowing. Your teachings of these things to your children is laudable. Help them escape from the matrix, the locked mental box, the “mind-forged manacles” (Blake). This is no indictment of minds; it is indictment of incarcerated minds who come to believe confinement is all there is.
Al Huxley died, if I remember correctly, in 1962. His wife Laura claimed he had told her he would send a message to her after he died. She claimed she got it. ( No one has of yet heard from Harry Houdini.) She also said he would have loved the hippies. His novel “Island”, about ecological morality, has spawned a commune that still exists. Google “subcultures”.
While we can rationally dismiss the levitations of Teresa of Avila as historical rumor, no one has been able to dismiss the actual levitational feats of Daniel D. Home. See Encyclopedia Britannica.
My take on these things comes from a physical perspective. See my last post to DEB in the thread in philosophy about reactions to the void. In current studies of physics and biology the concepts of potential and possibilty, explicit in evolution, cannot exclude free will or creative development.
I do not place my personal value and meaning on what happens after death. That is irrelevant for anyone who already exists in eternity.

There is reams of more stuff that remains scientifically inexplicably. The uncorrupted bodies of saints, miracle cures at Lourdes etc.
My first initiation into metaphsyics was with the TM movement in the 70’s. I believe that is where Chopra began too.
Most of my basic understandings have come from work with Kalahari animsists and African shamans. Five years in China and Japan helped me to confirm the universal connection with all mystics.
It has been nice talking to an open psyche for a change. :smiley:

Unfortunately, my friend, the human race is locked in spiritual adolescence. The mature exceptions are who comprehend the vital relationship between universals and particulars. But they are few and far between. Will we self-destruct before we can learn how to escape from the mental matrix?

M.M.,
I’m interested in where you found the number 7 in John’s statement of mansions. My old KJ version simply states many. The Tibetan Book of the Dead describes 7 bardos (states of awareness after death).

My mistake, I should have said many.
I believe that after contributing our individual self-realizations and brilliance of original expression into the cosmic matrix, further movement into higher realms of being transcend individual egos and even individualized souls. Consciousness merges with the Universal and one is entertained by the agonies and ecstacies of everything.