My Search of Truth
In my days of innocence, days
were happy and energetic. Life was alive and playful. As time pass, things
start to change. I went to school and studied.
There was nothing important in
the textbooks.
Yet we studied hard, and the
competition was stiff. I emerged victorious, normally top 10 for the top class.
Deep in my heart, I knew these
were not important. But the expectations of parents were enormous. I do not
want to fail my parents.
When I reached secondary
school, needless to say I became unhappy. The teacher was mean. Some classmates
became abusive because they could not reach their family’s expectations. It was
altered ego. All and all, it was unhealthy environment as I looked back.
I went to accounting classes at
night. My father hopes that I understand how to do business. Out of these
redundant clutter, came an Indian teacher.
I asked him a question which
would spark a huge interest in me later on in my life. Who is God?
The Indian teacher was
overwhelmed. For to him, it was one of the most important question and he could
not believe that I approached him first.
He gave me an answer, which
till now, is relatively good. It cut down on my time to find the answer. He
told me he couldn't tell me who god is, but one day, when u finally found it,
it would be within yourself.
I always consider myself
intellectually high. But things on this topic are not easy to comprehend. So,
with this question in my mind, I started reading books. It is important to keep
this question alive and look out for answers where ever you are or whatever you
are doing.
One thing that always get into
my way, is the question of Christianity God.
The one question I always think
and pray is, if god is real, please appear before me. I believe so many seekers
had asked this question. It is true that God did not appear before me, like so
many others and I think that this might be the reason people become atheists.
A Genius does not conform. Before
you go into conclusion that God is not real, ask this questions, Is God a
human-like deity? Can he appear before us? Does he has any reason why he could
not appear?
So I decided to ask another
way. If you are real, please guide me to the path of Truth.
To tell you the truth, this
path is painful and confusing. For the traditional beliefs, thoughts, will hold
you back.
The reason for confusion, is
our Ego. We believe so much in the society, norms and role-playing. We are
son/daughter of our parents. We are our job. We are our appearance. We have
responsibilities so heavy. And our ego cling on to these. It basically feed on
it.
Once you do away with these,
you will be confused. Who Am I?
The battle of religions is one
of the elements that caused confusion.
Christianity, Buddhism,
Hinduism, Islam are the main religions of our world.
Strictly speaking, Buddhism
cannot qualify as a religion for there is no worship of higher beings. It is a
set of teachings passed down by Buddha to enlighten people. Buddha does not
require anything, including worship and making of statues. But all teachings
are easily twisted by human. Thus, the Buddhism now, is not the same as before.
And so are many teachings.
The main conflict is
Christianity and Islam.
For those functional
illiterate, Christianity and Islam shares the same root. They have the same Old
Testament. And unlike the sayings of many Christian pastors, Islam believes
there is a person called Jesus, and is recorded as Prophet Isa in their holy Quran.
The conflict is, Islam says
Jesus is a prophet and not the holy Son of God.
This is contradicting to
Christianity teachings.
In Christianity, Jesus is the
son of god or god born in flesh to redeem us. He died for us. No one can go to
heaven except through him. Believe him and you will go to heaven.
Hence, to say Jesus is a
prophet and not God would hurt the core of Christianity beliefs.
So, who is correct?
Islam believes Prophet Mohamed
was the last prophet. And that Allah is the one and only God.
Christianity believes in the
holy trinity. That the Holy Spirit, the holy father and Jesus are one and the
same. That Jesus was god in flesh and died for our sins. Believing in him would
mean that our sins our redeemed by him.
I would not draw any conclusion
on this, but put down correct information on both sides, and let you decide.
What I observed is the hatred
generated by 9.11 incident was enormous and basically based on little
understanding on both sides.
Many Christians do not
understand Islam. They don’t even know they share the same Old Testament. Some
Christians don’t even know their Bible and their many different versions. They
just do to church and read a few sentences of the Bible that the pastor wants
them to read and sing praises. It is a feel good, motivating experience.
Many Church do not stress the
point of reading the entire Bible. Not to say, different versions of it. They
would rather pick up few sentences from different parts of the Bible
(paraphrasing) and give a motivating speech by pastor, sing praises, and
testimonials.
Such is religion. It is no
different from Amway.
But for any organization to
grow, these are great tactics. Many new found religions employ the same tactic.
Simply put, it works.
Putting aside these, one must
remember their goal and not divert from it.
Who is God in Christianity? It
is Israel’s God. Doesn't this contradict to the saying that God is all loving?
Why Israel only?
When I read the Bible, I was
visualizing the Super Ruler portrayed by The Old Testament in my mind.
Try it. He creates Adam and Eve
out of likeness, and forbids them to eat the tree of knowledge and tree of
immortality. For he feared they would be as powerful as them. He even put a
guard there to prevent Adam and eve from eating. He cursed them and banished
them out of the Garden. He destroyed cities.
This is probably the reason why
the church would tell you to read the New Testament first.
One interesting thing is, in
Hebrew, there are Gods and God, singular and plural. While the God that created
the World in seven days is singular. The God that walked the Garden of Eden,
talking to other Gods is plural.
In the Old Testament, God is a
being that can be jealous. The All Knowing super power is jealous and killed
people. When you can have anything you want, jealousy fades away. It is simply
not logical.
If Bible is the Word of God,
then it cannot be fallible. Yet, Isaac Newton, who is well known for the
discovery of Gravity, largely debate on a few sentences in the Bible. He was
ridiculed. BUT, after he passed away, the church changed two sentences in the
Bible according to Newton.
Newton and Einstein are not
Christians. Newton is suspected to be Rosicrucian, while Einstein (Jew)
believes in a God that has no human character. These geniuses studied the Bible
and did not convert to Christianity.
This being said, I would like
to say that I loved Jesus, for he is one of the greatest that walked the
surface of the Earth, regardless of who he really is. Read the Bible with an
open mind.
My study on Christianity is not
conclusive. I turned to Buddhism for an answer.
Buddhism is a set of teaching
pass down by Buddha (The Enlightened One). Buddha does not claim to be God. His
finger points to the path but his finger is not the path.
Forbids the worship of his
statues, thus the worship now should only be seen as gratitude towards the
teacher.
In Buddhism, our life here is a
journey to enlightenment. It is long path and we can choose to be proactive in
following or choose to take detours by not accepting and learning.
All material world is going be
destroyed and created. Nothing is left unchanged. Everything changes. Thus the
saying the only unchanged is change itself.
Karma is always present and is
a Law surpassing Change.
We are all Buddha (once
Enlightened) but we had forgotten we are.
Time is always on the Now.
There is no future and past.
Our life here is an illusion;
we are held captives by our ego.
All of these are Truth, nothing
less.
Yet, few could achieve the
state of Enlightenment.
The problem with Buddhism is
the wisdom and knowledge is too much to comprehend in a lifetime. Thus, many
need to reincarnate and continue many lifetimes until he could finish.
Buddha’s teachings are
important and I thanked Buddha for his efforts to pass it down.
So, the question, Who Am I, Why
am I here, Where would I go, Who is God?
Here is my attempt to tell you
God. But remember, you need to find it on your own, for knowing is not enough.
If you wished with all your heart to know, it would be shown to you. It has
nothing to do with your income and ability.
God is all encompassing. It is
the sum of ALL with no opposite. It is NOT an entity with superhuman power.
We are extension of God’s
Being. We are here to experience material world. We would go back to God when
finish our journey. Thus, we are infinity and our spirit cannot die.
Our Logical Mind cannot
comprehend it. Any attempt would throw you into a state of confusion.
We need our Heart to open to
understand this.
