| | Intolerance between the religions has been a central theme behind many of the worlds conflicts. Whether past or present, the out come of these conflicts are usually not very favorable and most often end in terrible suffering. If we are supposed to have come from God like the religions say, how then could humans cause harm and suffering to each other? And even worse—do so in the name of God. The answer is very simple. All suffering comes from ignorance and ignorance comes from the forgetfulness of who we really are. When we forget our inner God nature and wisdom, we're then left at the whims of our historically unreliable human brain power. Only by rising above the intellect can we truly see that all religions come from the same source and teach the same fundamental things. |  | | 
| There are five major religions in the world and from these five, many different branches and variations have sprung up over time. In the state of California alone, there may be over three hundred of these so-called different religions. I say so-called different because actually they aren't. All faiths believe in a higher power. Some would call this power God, or Allah, Buddha, Lord, The Tao, Father or Supreme Being ect. Originally these different names were born out of the simple innocence of geography, language and culture. Otherwise, there is no difference. Even the atheist who “believes” in no God still finds him or herself “believing” in something and when this belief becomes a passion, then ironically atheism even starts to take on the form of religion! | | Also ironically, and maybe to the disbelief of many of our theologians and spiritual leaders, this very same God or most high is present in all faiths. In other words through religious ignorance we end up fighting over the same God! In the worst case, this fighting shows up as war. Most religions however live in a kind of silent “ours is the only way” mentality. When a thought or strong belief is left unchecked for a long enough time, one can expect eventually the creation of this energy. Two great religions today have done just that by manifesting a long time opposing polarity, into war. A war that has now embroiled many countries of the world on many different fronts. While many Muslims openly believe anyone who is not a follower of Islam, is an infidel, the Christians are no better with their “only by going through Jesus” obsession, as being the only way to heaven. These misunderstood dogmas have left tens of thousands dead with many more thousands mourning the loss of loved ones. Because all the masters of these great religions always taught loving kindness and compassion, not only for humans, but even the animal kingdom, it can only mean one thing—we don't understand our own religion when we go to war against another! |  | | To bring things up a notch, because this one God or most high dwells within all of us (all the masters taught that), then it would have to also be logical to say that we are all connected to each other. I have experienced this state to a certain degree. Now not only are we fighting over the same God, but when we cause harm to another, we actually cause harm to our selves. This is made so through the law of causation that governs the physical universe. This law of “reap what you sow” is often disguised behind the cloak of time to make it appear like it doesn't even exist, just like different plants and trees take different times to grow. A good example of this is the China/Tibet affair that's headlining todays news. China, whose religion is atheism invaded Tibet in 1949 killing and displacing thousands of peace loving Buddhist monks as well as destroying many of their beautiful temples and environment. As always and rightly so, this act of aggression and hostility is now coming full circle unexpectedly with the Olympics and world opinion. (Incidentally, the 1949 invasion was also unexpected). | | I think the bar should still go to a higher truth—most spiritual thinkers today would agree that we are not the ephemeral body. If that's true then that doesn't leave us with many options as to who we really are. Actually we are only left with one—our true identity can only be that we are that which dwells within us. In other words WE ARE ALL GOD because after the body dies (so—called) that's all that's left for us to possibly be! In the end, no matter how hard we try there is nothing we can do to not be who we are. The best we can do then is to forget for a while our true nature of compassion and wisdom. This can be fun because it makes the play seem a little more real and dramatic and certainly the state the world is in today would attest to our skills of this forgetfulness. It may however be a good time to take a break from our self created suffering. |  | | For the first time in ( recorded) history on earth it looks like human greed and power will come to a head and will probably do so in the next 50 to 100 years or less. As always, It comes down to only two choices—if more people get in touch with or at least act out their true nature, then the world will become more like our true nature, heaven. If we continue relying only on our transitory human brain power and intelligence, instead of our inborn eternal wisdom, then the world will continue with its countless wars, suffering and environmental destruction. The only difference today is the guns, chainsaws and oil rigs (just as an example) have gotten bigger and more efficient. Were now finding better ways to so-call kill each other and exploit and destroy every corner of our beautiful planet. For that reason choosing to ignore our true greatness over the tradition of ignorance, greed and power will no longer work and will fast come to a head. | | Fortunately, more people today are searching for ways to connect to the God within. Many religions today are becoming more open not to new theologies, but instead to new understandings of the old ones. It's this wisdom that all the masters of our past and present found by looking to the God within. After looking at the teachings of most of the worlds religions, I began to see striking similarities. By shining a light onto this “religious sameness” maybe we could learn to better co—exist with each other. |  | | To do so the bar will have to still go higher! You may ask—how can we go higher than God? It's easy, all we have to do now is to “make it so” and become living Gods! Of course we can't really become living Gods because all of us are already that. What we can do however, is become aware or conscious of this reality and begin to behave accordingly instead of going against the grain of the universe. When we do all of a sudden our perspective changes and we begin to see that things happen not only by chance anymore but by our own creation—be it individual or collective. When our “seeing changes” we become awakened to the reality that every thought, speech and action of ours is very creative and so we should be careful how we use our inborn creative powers. | | To help us with this the masters of the past left us with guidelines like the ten commandments or the five precepts of Buddhism. These morals can be found in every religion and are there to make the play run smoother. Again they are similar. For example the five precepts from the Buddha—“refrain from taking the life of sentient beings (includes animals), refrain from taking that which was not offered, refrain from speaking that which is not true, refrain from sexual misconduct and refrain from the use of intoxicants.” Sound familiar to the ten commandments? Of course and there are many such examples like this if we were to look a little closer at the other religions with an open mind. |  | | The notion that all religions are actually the same will no doubt give rise to a wide range of emotions and or intellectual thought. The reason for this is because the six plus billion souls who presently dwell on this planet are at different levels of consciousness. Not better or less, just different degrees of experiencing. In the past, conflicts were kept (somewhat) at bay by the separation of countries and geography. Today that's simply not possible. With ease of fast travel and communication, the worlds cultures are mixing like never before in human history. Today we're trying to cram grade 1 and 10 students in the same classroom and that will simply not work and nor should it. What sparked these harsh words was a recent Sikh parade in Vancouver that traveled the streets with photos of known terrorists and even the master mind behind the air India bombing. “Religious sameness” is needed now more than ever to curb this kind of hate. | | The most important “religious sameness” that should be looked at in our troubled world today is compassion. All the masters of the religions understood the importance of compassion not only for humans but also the animal kingdom. Peace can only come to earth when humans develop a reverence for all forms of life. I feel strongly about this and so I will speak straight to the point—humans are going to have to stop killing not only each other, but also their younger less grown up brothers and sisters—the animal kingdom! Killing and suffering should (and does) lead to killing and suffering and has done so since the recording of history. The law of cause and effect is impartial. Somehow humans are deluded into thinking that animal life doesn't matter and therefore it won't cause “us” harm if we cause “them” harm. That of course is not true. The law of “reap what you sow” (karma) applies to all creatures that have a wish to live—plants included but to a much smaller degree because of their less developed consciousness. It is said that humans are the highest in creation and this is true but this truth cannot be realized without loving kindness and compassion. Of course these words mean nothing until they are made real. Here's just an example of what would happen if we respect all life and eat vegetarian and.... “make it so.” |  | | —3 times more food (at least) could be produced to feed the world. —many heart, cancer and other illnesses could be reduced or eliminated. —better use (non use) of the earth—something like one third of the ice free surface of the earth is used for cattle production. —global warming would be greatly reduced. —CO2 emissions would drop tremendously. Cattle produce through methane gas, as much CO2 emissions as cars. —enjoying the beauty of the natural world, living healthy and breathing clean air. —untold animal suffering would be eliminated. —untold Karma ( “reap what you sow”) from this inflicted suffering would be eliminated. | | It is sad that these words seem to need to be written in this so-called 21st century. Actually, they probably don't because in my eyes everyone is God and so in the end everything has to be OK. It is still sad, however to have to watch the untold wars and animal suffering that comes from the innocence of forgetting who we really are. |  | | |
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unfortunately up to now religion has been a weapon in the hands of the human.
it could be used in the right way or in the opposite direction.
Mankind has used it mostly in the opposite way.like the death of Jean of Arc or the rest of the crusaders' murders.
I think the reason of most wars is not religious difference,it is just because of a cruel king,emperor or politician who wants to destroy his enemies or capture their land.we are all from the same parents and the same God no matter whether they are black,white or....
but there are some people in the world in any time that they have only a heart no mind to understand you. so you must fight with them if not they will burn the world.
they will accept the religion by their heart not their mind so they are harder than a rock of stone to change.the word has no effect on them but maybe if they are under the blade they change their beliefs faster than any other one.they are the most dangerous ones,be aware of them.