Myriad Paths to Fit Each Person

[DharmaCatLamp]

Howdy,
Recently I have been thinking about the prolifiration of ideology and religion within the world and how various people view truth. I have studied various religious traditions and ideologies over my lifetime and what has occurred to me is that there is no one path which fits ever being.

I don't think God, Brahman, Ultimate reality etc would create such a myriad of paths on earth and then make it so only one works for spiritual growth. People have different tastes in all kinds of things and it seems to me that God or whatever you want to call divine reality is willing to approach us through various different means. This could even mean that in some cases divine reality would approach us in a way that does not seem to be godly. Even an atheist can approach supreme reality without it being anthropomorphic or what we might call personal divinity.

In the Dao te Ching it is said that the Dao which can be named is not the eternal name. In the Bhagavad Gita chapter 4 Verse 11 we can read " In whatever way people surrender unto Me, I reciprocate accordingly. Everyone follows My path, knowingly or unknowingly, O son of Pritha." What we are ultimately trying to understand in this reality is that the superficial outside of the truth is not the same thing as the inner core. We all share our part in the way while still being on our own paths.

I was watching a brief documentary on Mahavatar Babaji today. People were talking about searching the Himalayas for this supposedly 2,000 year old guru. What I am trying to tell you can be summed up simply as a man being 2,000 years old is irrelevant. The miracle of any person is in the truth they have ascertained and are willing to share.

We spend far too much time worried about external reality when we should be searching for deeper truths and attempting to live by them. It doesn't matter if a person is an atheist, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Christian etc what matters is the truth of love and connection that we should all foster. I believe we can achieve enlightenment on just about any path if we are sincere and that some paths will simply fit better for some people.

I just felt like sharing those thoughts as they have been on my mind lately. There is no one path fits all but there is one truth connected to myriad paths.

 

[Native]

Howdy,
Recently I have been thinking about the prolifiration of ideology and religion within the world and how various people view truth. I have studied various religious traditions and ideologies over my lifetime and what has occurred to me is that there is no one path which fits ever being.

Howdy to you too and thanks for your OP

IMO it all is very simple:
The numerous cultural Stories of Creation speaks of the same creation of everything observable on and above the Earth, all up to a story of the creation of the Milky Way galaxy.

This is our common story which basically fits all humans - and only interpretative distortions by priests, theologists and authors can be a cause for discussions and what is worse, religious based wars which is outright stupid.

Of course some religious differences occurs from local conditions, but the basics are the very same:

We all live on the same Earth, in the same Solar System, in the same Milky Way galaxy and in the same local part of the observable Universe.

Links:
Creation myth - Wikipedia
List of creation myths - Wikipedia
My personal Mytho-Cosmological site - Ancient Science. The Ancient and native Way of Knowledge

Regards
Native

 

[Sirona]

I just felt like sharing those thoughts as they have been on my mind lately. There is no one path fits all but there is one truth connected to myriad paths.

I agree with you but I learned from this forums

(1) that humans have a "tribal" nature and a need to form small groups to put a "label" on themselves
(2) then there are some who pretend to like or to be of the same group X that you are, with intent to dupe or exploit others
(3) almost all religions I know state who/what is in the out-group non-X and they teach to stay away from those persons or practices (probably with the exception of New Age and Hinduism, however, New Age is inclusive for marketing reasons; and at second glance Hinduism also tends to exclude certain people like outcastes or mlecchas although this is not commonly known or played down in order not to tarnish the tolerant image of Hinduism in the West).

 

[DharmaCatLamp]

I agree with you but I learned from this forums

(1) that humans have a "tribal" nature and a need to form small groups to put a "label" on themselves
(2) then there are some who pretend to like or to be of the same group X that you are, with intent to dupe or exploit others
(3) almost all religions I know state who/what is in the out-group non-X and they teach to stay away from those persons or practices (probably with the exception of New Age and Hinduism, however, New Age is inclusive for marketing reasons; and at second glance Hinduism also tends to exclude certain people like outcastes or mlecchas although this is not commonly known or played down in order not to tarnish the tolerant image of Hinduism in the West).

Humans love forming in groups and out groups and will often come up with fairly ridiculous excuses to justify their exclusion of others. This is of course part of our evolution and it isn't difficult to notice that once someone becomes part of an outgroup it tends to make it very easy to justify doing horrible things to them.

I understand this and could share more than a few stories of this behavior in my own life and examples throughout history. However, I think the divine does not view things in this way. I think that the rules of various religions are typically very surface level and offer little in and of themselves.

If for an example you say that you are a hindu but still eat beef or some other thing which one sect or another claims is a sin it does not make you a sinner. What is important is the quest to realize ultimate reality.

Now this being said it is not like you couldn't identify with one group and use that as a path to further your spirituality. For instance Guru Nanak said there is no hindu and no muslim. He did not literally mean that no one could be from either of those groups and follow their practices but the distinction is not quite as important as we might make it. IF you wish to be a Muslim and wish to take on various restrictions in your diet because it makes you feel closer to that ultimate reality you can do so but it is not the action of being restrictive in and of itself that is important.

I believe it is a good idea for us to come together and share the various wisdom throughout our traditions, I think these distinctions should not cause us to look at one another at enemies. I also think that the divine is still accessible even if yoi do things differently than I do.

AT least that is how I would phrase it.

 

[syo]

In my opinion, there are two paths. True paganism, and christianity. The virtue paganism, and vice christianity.

 

[TransmutingSoul]

I just felt like sharing those thoughts as they have been on my mind lately. There is no one path fits all but there is one truth connected to myriad paths.

I personally see all the paths are our choices.

The Bible reflects what you say about the one truth and many paths.

This is what it says about the many paths and one Truth, it calls the many paths the broad road and broad gates and the One Truth the narrow path and narrow gate.

Matthew 7:13-14
New International Version
13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

I see thus is how we will find our unity in our diversity, the realisation that all our paths can find the same one narrow gate.

To me the wide path and gate is this world, the narrow road and gate is finding our own true self, finding God within us.

Regards Tony