There is only God - religion is just an idea.

[Onkara]

Just a thought to share...

Every religion is an idea, whether written, spoken or thought. There is no real religion, there are only ideas of religion, the boundaries of which are marked out by ideas, spoken or written. These ideas rest on words and all words come from the first word, the word of God.


John 1.1: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Mandukhya Upanishad: 1. All this is the letter Om. A vivid explanation of this (is begun). All that is past, present, and future is but Om. Whatever transcends the three periods of time, too, is Om.
2. All this is certainly Brahman. This Self is Brahman. This Self, as such, is possessed of four quarters.

Sri Guru Granth Sahib: The Guru's Word is the Sound-current of the Naad; the Guru's Word is the Wisdom of the Vedas; the Guru's Word is all-pervading.

Torah, Genesis: 3. And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.

 

[YmirGF]

Even "God" is an idea, Onkara. It is an assumption about the nature of reality that cannot be falsified.

 

[Onkara]

Even "God" is an idea, Onkara. It is an assumption about the nature of reality that cannot be falsified.

I agree with you YmirGF.
Are we stuck in the realm of ideas and words?

 

[Gaura Priya]

Baha'u'llah from His work, "The Seven Valleys and The Four Valleys: which is a mystical treatise on the journey of the soul, He says,

"For the mystery of this utterance is hid within the storehouse of the Great Infallibility and laid up in the treasuries of power. It is sanctified above the jewels of explanation; it is beyond what the most subtle of tongues can tell."

 

[Onkara]

Thanks Madanbhakta,
I searched the Baha'i scriptures for something but without luck. Interestingly I couldn't find anything similar in the English Quran either.

 

[Gaura Priya]

How about this:

"This [last] station is the dying from self and the living in God, the being poor in self and rich in the Desired One. Poverty as here referred to signifieth being poor in the things of the created world, rich in the things of God’s world. For when the true lover and devoted friend reacheth to the presence of the Beloved, the sparkling beauty of the Loved One and the fire of the lover’s heart will kindle a blaze and burn away all veils and wrappings. Yea, all he hath, from heart to skin, will be set aflame, so that nothing will remain save the Friend. "

 

[Gaura Priya]

I try to go away from the trappings of religion, including the Baha'i Faith and its terrible creation of the Administrative Order, and come to the idea that God is ineffable, unknowable. Although I mainly use Baha'u'llah's Writings to help me on that journey, I do see that there is that same spark in the Sri Guru Granth Sahib, the Srimad Bhagavad Gita, the Qur'an, the Gospel, the Tanakh, and the Veda.

There is a reason why I am a panentheist!

 

[Onkara]

The Vedas/Upanishads speak of "God" as that from which the mind returns. It is ineffable. It makes sense logically, as the mind was created or depends on God, so it has the limitation that it can not know its foundation, similar to a building, once built, conceals the foundation on which it stands.

 

[Gaura Priya]

Or as the Baha'is would say, the table can not comprehend the carpenter that made that table.

Generally, spiritual life is an eternal progression of higher and higher spiritual advancement, with no limitations or reached apex. As God, Ishvara is eternal, so is the spiritual progression of each individual soul towards the Divine.

 

[Onkara]

Or as the Baha'is would say, the table can not comprehend the carpenter that made that table.

Generally, spiritual life is an eternal progression of higher and higher spiritual advancement, with no limitations or reached apex. As God, Ishvara is eternal, so is the spiritual progression of each individual soul towards the Divine.

I like how you express that. When it comes to a sense of direction, I would likewise say that we never left God, rather we bathe in God with every breath we take. There is no where to go, no arrival, just God.

 

[not yet now]

ah my first whatever ....
religion
just an idea....
ah definitions
perhaps therein is the rub....
add the issue of ideas versus ideals...
can it be said that religions can be more than just ideas
but express some ideal ......
methinks yes.....
and some better expressed than others
but definition wise
methinks of religion thus
a basis of a societies concern
for a commonly accepted spiritual ideal
that come from the divine for the sake
of individual empowerment and restraint
for the sake of both the individual's and the society's well being....
now then
can it be said that such is achieved by some religions
thru the intercession of benevolent supernatural sources...
which bespeaks probably theism.....
such as was there a supernatural salvation plan
that implemented thru a chosen people
to bring in a messiah for the salvation of all
as paul suggests.....
but does this limit that the supernatural
was not working in a positive way in other religions ...
consider too
that what many believers in the bible
contend on some matters
say such as reincarnation or eternal suffering
that such <EDIT IN HERE CONCEPTS
ARE WRONG THO ACTUALLY THERE IS REINCARNATION AS PART OF THE BIBLICAL SALVATION PLAN
AND THE BIBLE DOES NOT SAY THAT THE WICKED SUFFER ETERNALLY IN HELL
AND THAT MOST CHRISTIANS MIGHT BE SORELY MISTAKEN ON SUCH MATTERS could be sorely mistaken by most
yet the role of christianity and the bible
yet remain as the main thrust and force for the salvation of humanity.....

 

[Caladan]

here is only God - religion is just an idea.

And I would say there is only religion, God is a religious idea. the religion keeps the community intact, God is an idea which takes the ideals of the community and the religion out of proportions.

 

[matthewm]

I believe God is someone to have a personal relationship with apart from religion.

 

[doppelganger]

Even "God" is an idea, Onkara. It is an assumption about the nature of reality that cannot be falsified.

That pretty well sums it up.

"Only the hand that erases can write the true thing." Meister Eckhart