My interests from my childhood in pursuing truths were not limited to just sciences, but also religions. With so many religions in the world, it is too easy for anyone to get lost and confused. It is obviously impossible to learn all religions. At best, one can sample a few major religions in seeking the Truth. And that will probably take a lifetime already.
I tried to learn Christianity, Buddhism, and Hinduism. It is in the last religion that I felt that I have found the philosophical union of all religions. In fact, a major part of all different religions are just philosophies on how the universe and God are. The real religion however is in the faith and the actions that follow. Without concrete actions, any talk is devoid of substance, and are just theories on paper. Nevertheless, some basic understanding of the Truth is necessary for any actions to come about, and questions need to be asked, answered, so that the unwavering faith can be rooted in God.
First of all, how many gods can there be, and which? If you read briefly on any religions, you immediately understand that all the gods or God is infinite in His/Her power and love for us. Mathematically, infinity is beyond all numbers, and is not a number. If you add 1 to infinity, you still get infinity. If you multiply 3 to infinity, infinity is still infinity. There is no second infinity, or a greater infinity (at least in the same dimensional world). There is only ONE infinity. So if every (or most) religion believes in the infinity of the gods' or God's power, isn't that obvious that they are all searching for the same infinity or God? If truly Buddha is believed to have infinite power, and same as Christian God or Allah, it simply has to be the same Power, because there cannot be other Infinity. For obvious reasons, we can never express the infinity of Love in the limited human words, which are bound to have errors or incompleteness.
Even when God is infinity, that does not make an individual with free wills to believe in Him automatically. Why, and why should I? The famous scientist Pascal once said that it is far better to believe in God than not, because if God does not exist, you won't lose much of anything, but if God exists, you may go to eternal inferno. While most people are "pragmatic" when it comes to believing in God, I am the polar opposite. I flatly refuse to believe in a God that is not infinitely full in Love and Justice. I would rather go to the so-called inferno, than submitting myself to an inferior concept of god. My God has to be perfect, because that is how I always love Him and believe in Him. How can He be not perfect? HOW? I will defend the honor of my Heavenly Father if I have to go to hell. I tell you, that our Father has always been perfect in Love and Justice before the clock of time has even begun to click. That is how I have chosen my faith.
Then comes the more difficult problem. How can God be both full of Love and balanced in Justice at the same time? Buddhism and Hinduism explain this via karma and re-incarnation cycles. Christianity explains this by final judgment. While there is no human way for me to know which is closer to truth, I tend to believe more in cycles of re-incarnation only because final judgment presents a limited timeline that limits God's infinite Love for every one of us. God's love is infinite, and even the worst people among us is loved by Him. Frankly, I only choose to believe perfect Love and Justice, but does not concern myself on the actual process of how perfect Love and Justice can be fulfilled due to my inability to comprehend. In fact, I would even guess that a Savior such as Christ is needed to fulfill both perfect Love and Justice, or else it may not be practically feasible to repay all the karmic debts from the past re-incarnation cycles.
Still, the apparent idolatry and atheistic philosophy in Buddhism with Christianity is quite difficult to reconcile if it's possible at all. Obviously I don't think any real Buddhists believe that statues are Buddhas themselves. Statues are just statues, but no Buddhists will dispose these statues in any unhonorable ways either. Why not, if they are not Buddha? Why do Buddhists even worship in front of the statues? The explanation is actually simple. If you have a baby child, and keep your baby photo in your wallet, won't you take good care of the photos, just like you would take good care of the baby? Why do you even look at the photo? Why not just tear it up, and throw it to the garbage can? Why do some even kiss on the photo, knowing fully that the photo is not the baby? In a way, it is just a ritual for remembering the Buddha, and all the good qualities that Buddha represents. If you ever read those incredible vows by all the different Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, you will be so touched by their great Love. One of the Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva vows is to save ALL the sentient beings in hell or else he will not choose to enter Nirvana. Such great love, purity, and generosity are all the good qualities that the worshippers want to (or should) be reminded of, when they go in the temple and in front of the Buddha statues.
The real idolatry is much harder to detect. From Matthew 6:24, no one can serve two masters, and you cannot serve both God and money. Do we adore the rich, the intelligent, or the beautiful? Do we place God as the highest priority in our life, or He is just good enough to be believed for keeping us out of hell? Idolatry is actually any time that we are lured away from God, and we all do that more often than we realize. Experiencing the impermance of the world affairs, our souls once in a while get a reminder that eternal happiness is not to be found in this material world.
Why is God so "jealous" of idols or other gods, an almost possessive love? It is certainly not that God needs us in any way, but rather it is for our own good. When we go away from God, we go away from Light. Without Light, there is Darkness. There is NOT an Evil entity like demons or Satan. There is only with or without Light. The "evil" is without. And to dispel the evil to nothingness, one simply needs to shine a ray of Light which is the power of Love for everything. God created everything including Satan, but He did not create Evil. Evil is like a shadow, which has no real existence. It is simply a state that is lacking the Light. In most western thinking of the eternal fight between Good and Evil, I only ask you to imagine for a brief second of how the guns and bombs kill and blow up the parents of the small innocent children, or the innocent children of their older parents, with limbs and blood all scattered around. Then tell me that such wars and actions are warranted because the killers are from the Good side, because you who is not God have decided that you are Good without flaws, and they are Evil, and as intelligent as we human are, you cannot find a better way to resolve the conflicts.
The lack of a central God figure in Buddhism had always bothered me. I once asked a Buddhist monk why do we want to get out of re-incarnation cycles to go to Nirvana (as a mental state or a place outside of re-incarnation). Why bother? What's in Nirvana that will be more "fun" than all the impermanence and interesting changes in the world? I found my answer after years of contemplation and studies on Hinduism. Considering the historical background in India where Gautama Buddha was born, it is understandable and quite necessary that for a revolutionary like him, to de-emphasize figures of gods in order to break down the caste system (for social classes) completely. Why is the ultimate goal of Buddhism to enter Nirvana? The reason cannot be simpler. This world is not the Home for the souls. It is the playground, where young souls experience the negatives to understand what positives truly mean. Only at Home in Nirvana or Heaven can we be our true complete Selves again. At the thought of me probably leaving the Home for many thousands if not millions of years, truly lost in the whole re-incarnation cycles, my heart cries for the beloved Heavenly Father/Mother: how much I miss You and yearn for Your presence again!
While on Earth, our tasks are many, but the mission is just one. If we are all the children of God, and that we all were made in the image of God, then we are all truly brothers and sisters-in-God. ALL is ONE big family. And ONE is ALL for we were all made in His image, and derive our existence from His Loving Power. Once we all understand that within you, there is me, and within me, there is you, and that we are all connected intricately, love for others is no longer a commandment, but a natural and logical thing to do. The original sin that we carry is truly the ignorance of Oneness. With this ignorance, we set up boundaries to separate from each other, as well as being separate from God. The goal of our lives is simply to dispel this ignorance through real actions, and to be able to be with ONE again.
The true meaning of our life is set forth by death. Without death but eternity, we can no longer make any meaningful choices. If there is always tomorrow, who cares really about now? Instead, every moment of our life, we have the free will to choose to spend the time and money on ourselves for a good party, or spend our time and money to help the less fortunate souls while dispelling our own ignorance of Oneness. What is your choice today?
Written and published in 2010/2011 on my second website
