On the unification of religion
Jeroen
Luminous beings are we, not this crude matterNetherlands Veteran
Just these last couple of days I have been reading a book called Unity by a New Zealand author called Maitreya Ishwara. He is an interesting chap, used to be an Osho sannyasin until he found his enlightenment in the early 1990’s and changed his name and started an ashram in New Zealand.
It has been really interesting reading, so far. The book starts with the hypothesis, “think to yourself that God, the source, is all that there is, and that you are a part of it”. This comes from the Advaita concept that the world is far less solid than we suppose, and is actually made of consciousness. Taking in the most recent quantum mechanics research, which says the world is more like a process, this appears to be so. Knowing as we do that everything is interdependent, we too are of this nature.
Maitreya holds further that free will is an illusion, that what we are going to think, feel and do is pre-programmed in us by what we have experienced before, and so that all-that-is is predetermined in nature. That doesn’t absolve you of responsibility to do the best you can and act ethically, you’re still a functioning part of the whole, but your journey on the way to success or failure is laid out beforehand. He believes in karma and enlightenment, which he holds to be surrender to the whole.
Lastly Maitreya holds that the universe, being essentially conscious in nature, is a cosmic intelligence expressing itself, and is essentially pre-planned. He holds there are parallel energy dimensions to the universe which is the cosmic mind having done its thing, planned the pre-determined existence.
The book is supposed to be a glimpse of what a unified religion might be like, taking on board a Christian view of God, a Buddhist enlightenment, Hindu karma and rebirth, and tying them all together with a deterministic-scientific bow. Maitreya says it was revealed to him as a view of what religion will end up being in the third millennium after Christ.
Comments
I get suspicious whenever I hear that someone had a revelation whether out in the desert, or mountaintop or cave or jungles.
The task is relinquishment and not creating a new religion. Whatever ideas he gets are a product of causes and conditions, uncertain and ever changeable.
There is no security in conditions. No unity in samsara.
Haha, yes, sure. His background makes me raise an eyebrow too.
But I thought it was kinda cool that he was able to create an outline that satisfies the conditions, that there even is a combination of concepts that stands a chance of doing this.
This book answered certain questions for me, is what I’m trying to say. If you’re still sitting with ideas of God, heaven, hell, the devil, all the usual stuff Christian religion puts in your mind and which can hang around even after a long study of Buddhism or Advaita, then this book is worth a read.