25 Aug '13 16:43>1 edit
Originally posted by Proper KnobA Parable of Religion and the Real
Dasa, can you explain why these words don't apply to you -
Religion means to surrender to God. It doesn't matter what religion you profess. It doesn't matter. But you must learn how to obey the Supreme Lord. That is religion. Religion does not mean that you stamp some stereotype religion, "I am Christian," "I am Hindu," "I am Muslim," "I am Bud naticism. Religion means how one has become devoted to God. That is religion.
There are those who try to build
walls around a freshwater sea,
so that any who are thirsty
must drink only from one spigot—
Those who have seen behind the walls
scale them—and just go swimming.
____________________________________________
Note: I have used the term “the Real” to refer to the all-in-all ground to which (or “to whom”, for those that prefer—I am not making an argument on that here) to which religions (and religious language, art and practices), at their best, point or allude. The quest for immersion in the Real, as opposed to immersion in religion, is sometimes called “spirituality”.
The Real is prior to all language (and image, and thought) used in reference to it—and, partly because all views are perspectival (since we are of it, and not outside it, no one having “a view from nowhere” ), all such language is, even when useful, deficient. The “spiritual masters” (for lack of a better term for various roshis, rabbis, gurus, Sufi murshids, etc.) of every religion have realized this. There is propositional/descriptive language—and there is the language of metaphor, myth, allegory, etc. ; they are all valid, each in its own domain. There is also language that is intended to be allusive or elicitive, as is the case with lyric poetry, parable, deliberate paradox.
___________________________________________
EDIT: I have referred to “the Real”, above, as “the all-in-all ground”—but the Real is a gestalt which includes the (explicate) figures-forms-manifestations as well as the (implicate) ground. Obviously, this is a nondualist view.