Inspired by a recent post by MarkostheGnostic, I decided to construct my own "Mountain of Religions" with a concentrated point of Truth/Reality with Paint Shop Pro. It's not perfect, I made it in about half an hour but it illustrates the insightful point that Markos made about different religious ideas and how they essentially all meet at a certain point of Truth. The diagram itself only shows Islam, Christianity, and Judaism - not to discredit the Truth present in other faiths, but I simply didn't have enough room for the others and I am not as learned in those faiths as I am with the High Religions, or Abrahamic Faiths. Besides, there's still the other side of the mountain. 

Quote:

MarkostheGnostic said:
The words attributed to Jesus affirm what you wish to believe. The first commandment is part of the Jewish Shema: "Hear O Israel, the LORD thy GOD, the LORD is ONE. Thou shalt love the LORD thy GOD with all thy heart, with all thy soul and with all thy might." The second part attributed to Jesus is "Love thy neighbor as thyself." The first commandment reflects our 'vertical' relationship with GOD, the second reflects our 'horizontal' relationship with others. If we realize that the metaphysical nature of GOD is love (1 John 4:8), or better translated 'Compassion' (closer to the Greek 'agape'), then we know how to BE and what to DO. Where then is your denouncement of GOD and Christ???? It is an affirmation!

As to the TRUTH of other faiths: Only the outer, or exoteric 'forms' of religion are different. These are the mere husks, not the kernals of religious TRUTH. The 'fundamentalists' of faiths - Jewish, Christian or Islamic seem to know nothing but the outer forms and differences. They DO NOT KNOW that TRUTH is ONE. The inner, esoteric nature of religions IS the TRUTH. An esoteric (mystic) Christian is closer to a Jewish or Muslim mystic, for example than he is to a fundamentalist Christian.

A classic way of looking at the differences between religions was penned by Frithjof Schuon in The Transcendent Unity of Religions. He likened all religions to different sides of a multi-sided mountain. At the base where the sides were widest, the differences were greatest (exoteric religion). As one ascended the mountain, the sides tapered and narrowed and so did the differences. About half way up the mountain, the differences were so much less that they began to become esoteric (inner). At the summit, the peak, all religions merged into a single point - TRUTH - which is ONE.

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MarkostheGnostic said:

My Heart [He Art] aches with metaphysical loneliness...... There IS more, but the Realization of it requires more solitude than the average person can suffer; loneliness rather than aloneness. Even at a lively party, the metaphysical loneliness can dominate. Anyone else KNOW what I mean? It is lonely at the top [of the mountain of Realization].

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Hehe, I KNOW what you mean.

But then again, I don't really tend to feel lonely much of the time. It's strange.... I've been sitting here thinking, trying to decide if I prefer being alone or having people around, or if I feel lonely or not, and the impression I am getting is that it isn't something I even think about, because nothing is coming up to the surface. But I do know that I do prefer sometime to myself now and then, but if I don't get it, I don't suffer or anything.

I definitely know what you mean, though, the feeling of some metaphysical center seperate from everything else going on around you... it can't really be shared directly, and perhaps this is where the loneliness thing is coming from, just from being an unexpressible, silent core detached and observing... nurturing its substance and our awareness of it does tend to suck focus away from the external circumstances....

And when one has so much understanding and realizations, sometimes one might wonder what the point of doing so much explaining, so many different actions, thinking so many different thoughts is when one can simply listen to the wind or the silence.....  Why seperate oneself from their most true state of being?

I'm not really sure where I'm heading with this, or if anything can be picked up from this... states of being just aren't as easily communicated as simple words or ideas, eh?

Like you said, the Shroomery certainly serves as a way to connect with others and focus on more of the inner, as we are far and few between... there aren't exactly Zen temples everywhere nowadays...


Peace.