Truth and Religious Unity

From my final paper for my Ethics class.

Few doubt that our world and what we can directly perceive are but one piece of a much greater and mysterious ultimate reality. Throughout the course of human history, certain individuals, gifted in the greatest of spiritual intelligence, have by whatever cultural explanation claimed to have become conscious of this ultimate truth, and in the form of a message that the worldly around them could comprehend, founded what would become the great religions of human history as shamans, prophets, and sages. Preceding our modern world of globalization and multicultural exchange was a time when one single “grand narrative” was generally understood as the ultimate guiding truth by the vast majority of people within any given society. As John Esposito, a scholar on Islamic studies at Georgetown explains, what distinguishes the modern world from that of the past is that we are ever immersed in cultural and religious diversity explained by a new “metanarrative” of pluralism: “No single story,” he writes, “can possibly be all encompassing for all people in a given culture, especially as global culture emerges and the world’s religions are found in everyone’s home town. Diversity relativizes all stories” (Esposito 24-25). The often overwhelming perplexity that is religious diversity may itself be a reason for the modern world’s loss of tradition and even a driving force behind moral relativism. In modern times, the followers of each tradition must ask: does the diversity of the world’s religions necessarily negate their validity, and must the existence of cultural diversity necessitate moral relativism?

In his essay “The Case Against Moral Relativism,” Louis Pojman manages to construct a list of ten non-arbitrary rules of morality:

Do not kill innocent people, do not cause unnecessary pain or suffering, do not cheat or steal, keep your promises and honor your contracts, do not deprive another person of his or her freedom, do justice, treating equals equally and unequals unequally, tell the truth, help other people, at least when the cost to oneself is minimal, show gratitude for services rendered, and obey just laws (Pojman 184).

Our ability to construct a list of universal rights and wrongs matched by traditions across the globe seems in itself, at the very least, to limit the likelihood of moral relativism. However, it seems that there are some societies, such as the Kwakiutl and clans of Melanesia which reputedly embrace violence and murder as virtues and thus violate some of these principles. Perhaps, then, these may not be called universal per se. The existence of exceptions may turn what would otherwise be called universals into general tendencies at best, but it does not in any way mean that the values of differing cultures may not, nonetheless, have a common point of convergence, even a unified origin.

The common origin of world languages is the human brain. Despite the outer diversity of human languages, all languages follow systematic patterns which can be predicted by the presence of other, corresponding patterns. Each of such patterns generally occurs in one of a finite number of forms, abiding by linguistic universals. Knowing much about how nouns work in a certain language, for example, a linguist can predict with a great deal of accuracy, in accordance with documented linguistic universals, how verbs work in that same language. A proportionally small number of universals, however, are almost always violated in the grammar of any given language. Understanding, then, that language is a part of culture, the existence of universal moral principles as manifested in human culture is in fact not refuted by the existence of cultural outliers such as the Kwakiutl.

The great religions of the world, including Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, and the Chinese religions among others, all can be said to vary extensively. On an esoteric level, however, as in the case of language, there appears to be an innate, transcendent unity from which they all mutually originate. Each tradition calls for adherence to the same principles listed by Pojman, manifested through specific cultural norms. Moreover, each tradition in its orthodox form necessitates rite of tradition as a means of social unity and as a reflection of one’s submission to a higher power through belief in the mystical and unseen. How this higher power is described, as an inactive and impersonal force of “the Buddha nature” (Esposito 25), a fatherly personification, or yet by different explanation, is an understandable cultural variance considering the magnitude and intensity behind the concept of the Divine which in its purity exists arguably quite far beyond the worldly understanding.

The existence of universal, fundamental truths, which exist regardless of change in culture across time and space, is necessary in order to make judgments of what is right and what is wrong. It is debatable as to whether these absolute truths are or are not merely the creation of mankind. Each of the great religious traditions teaches that the origin of these truths is, in fact, not the product of man’s reason, but a revelation of the Divine Truth, God in the Western tradition. Just as different languages may convey the same powerful and emotional concepts using different combinations of simple, arbitrary sounds, many of the different religious traditions of the world may express the same innate and unworldly, underlying sapience, molded in the form of the worldly externalizations and cultures on which we are dependant.

Many believe that the best way to respond to the perplexity of religious diversity is syncretism, not merely accepting truth in multiple traditions but in fact combining them into one, single tradition. This is difficult to defend, however, for two principle reasons. Any polarized distinction between what is religious and what is merely cultural is in itself an artificial construction, and so all the religious traditions in their orthodoxy intertwine faith with law, rites, and dress. It is simply impossible to merge multiple religions in all their complexities into one tradition and still give each its due. Moreover, a consciously and intentionally syncretic faith would be an artificial construction necessitated by belief in the authentic, divine revelation of the traditions before it. Each religion was founded by sages, and each came with its own traditions believed to be authentic according to the founder’s enlightenment. To follow an artificially constructed religion would be to follow a tradition that is not recognized to be authentic by any religion, and the argument that the Divine Truth is lost in so doing is easily made. One cannot fully practice two religions at the same time just as one cannot follow two paths at once, even though the two paths may converge at the end.

A belief in the transcendent unity of religions, collectively housing a single “perennial philosophy,” is one that is held by many scholars of all the major world traditions. The practice of one tradition does not in itself disprove all others, and many of even the most orthodox of each tradition hold dear to this fact. In the Islamic tradition, the Holy Quran teaches that Jews, Sabians, Christians, and anyone who believes in God and does good deeds will have "nothing to fear or regret" (5:69). Moreover, the Quran explains that "for every nation there is a messenger" (10:47), that the Quran is not a new message but merely the confirmation of previous ones (12:111), and that all divinely inspired religious traditions received their scriptures as a part of the same universal message or "Umm Al-Kitab," that is, "the Mother of the Book" (43:4).

As another example, the Hindus have always advocated the common origin and unity of different, often seemingly conflicting, traditions. Jagadguru Chandrashekarendra Saraswati explains the lack of significance of the word Hindu in his essay The Vedic Religion: "Only when there are a number of religions do they have to be identified by different names" (Saraswati 13). However, as the Jagadguru declares, there is only one religion. Similarly to the Islamic concept of the Umm Al-Kitab, he affirms:

"For all the divisions in our religion there is but one scripture—a scripture common to all—and one Godhead which is known by many names. The Vedas are the common scripture and the Godhead common to all is the Brahman. Thus we can say with finality, and without any room for doubt, that all of us belong to the same religion" (19).

Despite the fact that the Hindu vision of a single Godhead is often manifested in multiple forms, this argument mirrors the centerpiece of Islamic monotheism: "La ilaha illa Allah," there is no god but God, which is not only a command to worship none but the One, but in fact a testimonial that there exists none but the only One, and that all the gods that can be said to exist have two possibilities: either they do not truly exist, or they are actually God. What may seem exclusivist on the surface, then, is in fact innately universal and pluralistic.

In Charles Colson’s “The Volunteer at Auschwitz,” Father Kolbe sacrificed his life for the life of another prisoner (Colson 529-534). This was particularly meaningful as, in the concentration camps, no value of human life was recognized. Those deemed useless to the agenda of the state were executed without concern. Those deemed to be useful were kept as long as they were such, often as guinea pigs in degrading and dehumanizing experiments. Father Kolbe’s actions served as a contrast to this environment, to remind humanity that each and every one of us is living due to the same force of life-creation as all others. In contrast to what the military machine in Auschwitz believed, life does and must have a meaning, as human life has a universal, underlying nature that makes it what it is.

All the traditions recognize the sanctity of life and seek to explain its origins. In the Holy Quran, God says that He breathed His Spirit into Adam (15:29). Many traditions discuss the concept of man as created in the form or likeness of God, and mystics all over the world from different places and times have envisioned man as almost nonexistent, merely a this-worldly shadow or reflection of the Divine Reality. While some may have a different answer, and others may suggest there is no answer at all, this, in some form or another, is the basis in all the great traditions for human life. To say that life is aspirated into our bodies by God is to say that while human life flows in our world, its origins are something beyond the dimensions of time and space that we may usually observe. The life-consciousness and self awareness of one person is equally valuable to one’s own because both lives are of the same essence that makes them life, and each originates from a mysterious common source that puzzles the religious and secular alike.

In the same way that taking an introductory course is needed in order to take one of a higher level, a recognition of truth, of an ultimate origin from which the axes are drawn and all things are plotted, is a prerequisite in the belief of universal right and wrong. To judge another’s actions by his own principles alone counts for nothing in the quest of distinguishing rightness and wrongness universally. Culture varies by place and also by time. As the perception of truth appears to change over the course of both, truth itself remains static.

On the surface, the existence of religious pluralism creates a myriad of conflicting truths from which the conclusion of moral relativism may seem reasonable. However, there are universal, underlying similarities shared among each of the great traditions which suggest not only a common message but a common origin, the perennial philosophy. Man’s existence itself is dependent on truth, as nothing can exist without it. It is our duty then, as human beings, to seek and protect it. If we conclude that the Ultimate Truth is God, then we have the responsibility of following Him. If we recognize divine prophecy, then we must attempt to follow one of the many revealed traditions, in all its form, in the most traditional way we can and without syncretism, in order to become fully human. While we seek the big questions as the religious and secular alike, we discover that diversity does not negate truth but is a miracle left as a sign of its existence, the garden of one underlying, transcendent truth from which many traditions flow.

Notes

Colson, Charles. "The Volunteer at Auschwitz," Louis Pojman, ed. The Moral Life. Oxford University Press, 2000, p. 529-34.

Esposito, John L., Fasching, Darrell J. and Lewis, Todd. Religion and Globalization: World Religions in Historical Perspective. Oxford University Press, 2007, p. 24-25.

Pojman, Louis. "The Case Against Moral Relativism", Louis Pojman, ed. The Moral Life. Oxford University Press, 2004, p. 166-90.

Saraswati Swamigal, Jagadguru Chandrashekarendra. “The Vedic Religion: Introductory” Introduction to Hindu Dharma: Illustrated. Online Library, The home page of World Wisdom - Perennial Philosophy and the World's Great Spiritual Traditions. http://www.worldwisdom.com.

My visit to a Catholic Mass

This entry reflects my most recent religious studies paper, documenting my visit to a Mass at the Immaculate Conception Church, a Catholic church in the small town of Brownville, NY.

From a personal, spiritual perspective, I have often been curious and attracted to the Catholic tradition, the authenticity of which as one of the gateways to truth I believe is confirmed by my own Islamic faith. Catholicism seems to be a religion which still retains a degree of tradition and orthodoxy, and I value its ability to provide for many people of the world a venue through which they can seek the heart of Divine Truth despite the ubiquitous and ever-increasing distractions of modernity. From time to time I have sought and continue to study the wisdom of many Catholic thinkers, but I have never until now taken the opportunity to attend a Catholic Mass.

I attended the Saturday evening service, led by Father Kevin O'Brien, pastor, who greeted church members as they entered before service. There were about one hundred people in the congregation, seated in two wide lines of large, hardwood pews, resembling those of many Protestant churches in my memory, with the exception that installed into them were retractable kneelers connected to the back of each seat for those seated behind them. Behind the pastor was a highly decorated alcove architecturally reminiscent of an enlarged Islamic mihrab, decorated by several paintings showing events in biblical history, particularly depicting Christ in a divine light. At the left and right apex of this alcove read the words, in English, “He was pierced for our offenses, by his stripes we are healed.” These words were yellow on a purple banner, and just below them was a large crucifix hanging from the ceiling, a painted statue of Christ on his cross. On the left and right walls were several stained glass windows that were difficult to examine at night. Between each window was a distorted cross-shaped plank, in the center of each of which was a painting of Christ at some stage during his torture and execution. As I seated myself in the pews, I told the woman to my right that I was not Catholic and was attending primarily for scholarly purposes, and so I somewhat jokingly apologized to her beforehand if I were to do anything silly or out of line. She laughed and said with a wink, “We're not as tough as they say we are.”

Much of the service was strongly resemblant of many protestant services I had attended when I was younger. In fact, I was rather surprised by the similarities. My father, who is a non-practicing, formerly practicing Catholic, was particularly surprised when I stated that I had heard no Latin spoken during the service; even the words printed above the crucifix in the front center were noticeably English. Like many protestant churches, service opened with a hymn. The alien, overly traditional ritualism I had imagined I would witness had been noticeably exaggerated.

What I found particularly interesting was that each of the several times during the service that the congregation was called to prayer, everyone stood up, and after the prayer, sat back down. To me this parallels many traditions, including Islamic tradition where prayer is partially standing, as well as Zoroastrian. To my recollection, in most protestant churches people remain seated for prayer, and rise only for song. I also noticed that were several lines of prayer memorized by the congregation which they recited in unison at appropriate times throughout the service, including the Lord's Prayer as well as the words “Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again” before the communion ceremony, which was different from the majority of protestant services in that those in attendance left their seats row by row to take communion at the front center of the church, using ritual glassware. Those leaving a pew to take communion returned in the same order, entering the pews from the opposite side they had left, and, as I had remained seated, those who had been sitting next to me had trouble getting around me because the pews were very close together. Collection baskets hung from sticks, and were carried by select people down the isles.

There were several prayers recited during the service, including blessings on the Pope and a prayer for the leaders of all Christian churches, for political leaders, soldiers, and the recently deceased. This prayer was divided in parts, each part followed by the congregation replying in unison “Lord hear our prayer.” There are also printed prayer requests in the bulletin. Among unhealthy individuals listed for whom our prayers are requested, I noticed the names of a relative of a student at Nazareth College two and a half hours away as well as another man who happens to share his first and name with a famous scholar of Islamic Studies at Georgetown University (who also happened to have written the textbook for the very course that sent me here.)

Tonight's service came the day before the first Sunday of Advent. One may infer that I was the only person present who did not know what Advent was, as the pastor did not explain it in great detail. He did, however, explain that it is a particularly important time in which we must do all that we can to better our lives and not to become complacent in our faith, as he explained from readings from Jeremiah, where it was said that the time was coming soon when God's promises would be fulfilled. As more and more time went by without the coming of the end times, however, many grew tired of waiting and came to be weaker in faith. Luke warns not to grow tired, but to remain watchful. The pastor also explained that we ought to bring joy and peace to those around us to ensure that we are ready for the Day of the Lord.

I had an enjoyable experience at the Immaculate Conception Church and would consider attending a service as a guest at a different Catholic church in the future. The beliefs of the church like any other church are subject to debate in regards to the nature and truth of their orthodoxy, but among them, its truths, are neither of an exclusive nature, nor one of universalism. I believe I witnessed tonight one authentic path, a fellow pedal on the great, esoteric flower on which each of the authentic traditions is present. The Catholic Church, in ritual and faith, maintains a community which serves to uphold tradition and thus preserve prophetic revelation and ultimately the Divine Truth. While it is all too often misinterpreted and poorly spoken of by some other Christian communities, it may serve as an example as to how to survive in the modern world and maintain a community that adheres to the human necessity of tradition.

The church's website is detailed and up to date, with appropriate events, services, contacts, and photos.

http://www.immaculateconceptionbrownville.org

The Winter

The winter is not here yet, but the inevitability of its arrival is becoming harder and harder to ignore. Leaves are falling, and the temperature is dropping. Every year I catch myself speaking out against it and fearing it. And yet, I believe my words are usually harshest only in its absence or anticipation. In fact, there is something quite beautiful and somehow nostalgic about the winter, something perhaps difficult to appreciate when it is not here.

I'm sitting in bed, facing the old style wood-framed window of the old house, imagining the glow of snowfall on the other side. I'm thinking about the family that used to live here so long ago, and imaging the comfort and warmth that this house must have brought them from the cold of every winter.

I'm wearing a hooded coat I bought about a year ago at a Buddhist shop in Rennes, France. It was made in Nepal, and unlike a lot of things one may find today that were manufactured somewhere in East Asia, this coat actually looks like it could have been. And although it is by no means clean or professional looking, I find there is something really attractive about it, something that whispers tradition, something that whispers peace.

This is how I feel about winter as well. While it may not be the most convenient season, it is something that whispers peace.

I'm not sure how to explain it; I'm not sure what there is to explain. I am visited by images of the night, the glow of the moon reflecting off the snow in all its vast surfaces. There's something mystical about the winter. Mysterious, and mystical. Something magical, and curious. A precious enigma. I don't know what it is.

I used to have many dreams about the winter. Perhaps I still do; I just haven't recalled them lately. It's a pity we can't recall all of our dreams. Perhaps we could train ourselves to.

My dream is always quiet. There's something about winter that is very, very quiet. Rather than chilling ourselves off with electronic air conditioners and blaring fans, we're warming ourselves up in a blanket, a coat, or by the soft cry of a fire. Everything is covered in snow. I am surrounded by nature, trees and bush, and animals of many kinds.

This is a pleasant dream.

A song I wrote last night.

I wrote a little song last night that I really liked and planned on sharing with you. But I thought there was something in it that was wrong and out of place. There was one line I deleted, and that made it a little better and more truthful. Then I deleted one more. And with every line I deleted from it, I though it became exponentially better, becoming more and more in tune with its true essence, the true meaning I was hoping to express. I kept doing this, until there was nothing left, and now, I am absolutely in love with it. This is my favorite song.

My Own Fried Egg Story.

In regards to he who claims to be spiritual but fears religion, or anyone to whom I must actually explain the benefit of ritual and organization, let us compare the spirit to the egg. And let us compare the goal of that spirit, as enlightenment by Divine Truth, to that of being fried for breakfast.

One cannot fry an egg without a pan.

Cycles

Reincarnation.

It certainly must occur from time to time, at least accidentally, but I don't believe it is the norm. There are of course some within the Islamic community, particularly of the esoteric schools, who interpret from the Quran that it may be the case, and of course there are the many followers of other authentic religions in which reincarnation plays a fundamental role. Nonetheless, I don't happen at this precise moment in my voyages to believe that is the way life works as a norm.

That being said, if reincarnation is not only real, but the norm, then, considering the fact that there are many more people living today than at any time in the past, there must be many individuals today who are but beginning their cycles, who are here but for their very first time around. New spirits. Or at the very least, those who have never lived as humans before. The celestial equivalent of the incoming freshmen class, if you will.

Indeed, I feel as though I am one of them.

And I'm hoping to skip a few years.

How to upgrade the BIOS on an HP Compaq 6820s

Ciao, lume.

This is for anyone googling around, or binging around as they may be, for information regarding the HP Compaq 6820s laptop.

I've been using the 6820s for a couple of years now, and one thing that's always irked me is the fact that the keys on the right-hand keypad are, well, broken. If you have such a laptop, you probably have to press the num lock key two or three to get them to work. And then, if you use the caps lock key at any time, it actually turns num lock back off, and then you've got to press the num lock key several times to turn it back on again. (Also, there's no LED indicator, so don't expect to know which way it's set until you need to type something.) I eventually learned that this was not just a problem with my own laptop, but all the 6820s, HP had been aware of the program, and that it could be resolved by means of a BIOS upgrade. Sounded scary to me, but in all actuality BIOS upgrades on most mainstream hardware have become rather easy and automated.

Of course, HP didn't explain the steps involved.

Hoping to upgrade my BIOS from version F.05 (10/23/2007) to version F.0D N (4 Nov 2008), I downloaded the according automatic flash executable from HP's website, sp41876.exe. After following all instructions exactly, and rebooting, I received the error "BIOS failed to complete the update, Please ensure that you follow the correct procedures and try again. This may require two sequential BIOS updates to complete the process." No worries, I could still boot, and actually my system ran fine other than greeting me with this message at every boot up. The num lock keys were even fixed.

In order to resolve this, I had to download the executable (sp40490.exe) for the intermediary version, F.0B 06/20/2008, and install that version of BIOS after which I was able to install the newest version F.0D N (4 Nov 2008) without error. Of course, this was not mentioned on HP's website, or in the readmes accompanying either of the ROM flash executables. Nowhere did it say the BIOS had to be upgraded in two steps, nor that there was a minimum BIOS version to have installed before upgrading to the newest version.

No, instead, I had to find out about this from an error message... from my BIOS. That could have gone a lot worse.

Thanks HP.