All Religion Is Love
As the season of religious holidays begin, we thought it was the perfect time to study commonalities in religion. Too often we find ourselves feeling separate from individuals and groups who feel passionately (or not so passionately) about unique, different and even common religious and spiritual beliefs. Certainly, mainstream media is happy to program us with the things that keep us feeling separate from one another and fearful.
Perhaps you find yourself borrowing ideas and moral principles from multiple religious practices and historical philosophies to create a sense of spirituality and inner peace for yourself. Perhaps you find these different and unique practices and philosophies embody what is true for you. Perhaps you already know what we are about to discuss. Almost all religions practice unconditional love and hold a vision for a healed world. So this holiday season, if you find yourself dining with family, having coffee with coworkers or cocktails with friends… this article will provide you with information to help bring everyone together in a message of commonality, community and honor others in their faith.
What Do Religions Have in Common?
In our research, there are 4300 documented religions in the world. Notably, the foundations of the oldest and most popular of these religions have been built with similar moral beliefs and principles.
Four thousand years ago, Judaism, the oldest monotheistic religion in the world, set the stage for morality with the ten commandments. These commandments are used as guiding principles throughout Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism as well. Hinduism, the oldest polytheistic religion in the world, also repeats five of these historical commandments in its doctrine of principles and disciples.
Regardless of how we get there, connecting to the divine energy that affords us grace, compassion, harmony and love is evident everywhere you look in the texts of the world’s religions. The eloquent message of love is evident when one compares such beautiful passages and holy texts from each religion around the globe.
LOVE
Love is frequently mentioned within the teachings of Islam, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism and Judaism. The most prevalent moral principle that arises throughout the ancient documents is The Golden Rule. The Golden Rule is first mentioned in the New Testament of the Christian bible.
The apostle, Luke, writes,
Do to others what you would want them to do to you. – Luke 6:31
Another common thread throughout all religion is the eminent expiration of the human form. Yet remembering and recognizing ourselves as eternal beings and as more than our body, ego and possessions, is perhaps the biggest challenge of the experience we call “life”. Practicing compassion, honoring others and seeing through our heart’s eye are also common messages in religious texts.
Honesty Is The Best Policy
Being honest with ourselves and others is a tent pole of the world’s religions. Perhaps no other philosopher and poet captures the divine beauty and ecstasy around us than Rumi.
God Is Within Us All
Certainly, the most powerful, comforting and empowering message of religion is that connecting to the divine energy is not something that exists outside of us. A creative force, a field of potentiality, is available to us at all times.
One could say, God does not leave us yet we leave God. An even simpler personal philosophy is that the present moment never leaves us, we leave the present moment.
In the the stillness of ourselves, in the certainty of our divine creative abilities, through love, compassion and wonderment is where we find our connection to an eternal loving energy.
Hypocrisy
In a world where there are many distractions to keep us from connecting to the ecstatic divinity available to us all, we hope that focusing on what brings us together will overshadow the separation that we feel from one another.
Some common themes found in religion are:
• Love
• The divinity within us all
• Death of the human body
• Honesty
These common messages bring each of us closer to one another. With that said, perhaps the greatest disservice that we can do to ourselves regardless of religious belief, is engage in hypocrisy.
Christianity – “But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it- not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it – they will be blessed in what they do. Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless.” – James 1:25-26
Islam – “There are four [characteristics], whoever has all of them is a complete hypocrite, and whoever has some of them has some element of hypocrisy, unless he gives it up: when he speaks, he lies; when he makes a treaty, he betrays it; when he makes a promise, he breaks it; when he quarrels, he resorts to insults.” – Narrated by Muslim, 53
So if you are wanting to expand your spiritual nature or feel a deeper connection to your eternal nature, perhaps the best place to begin is within. Prayer, meditation and the vibrational frequency of unconditional love (528 Hz) afford us a much more comfortable way of being in the world.
In fact, science supports these practices. Presently, Neuroscience studies continue to show us how the brains of people who meditate often are more focused than those that do not. Studies have also concluded that meditating often can result in greater emotional control. Practicing meditation, mindfulness, compassion and love actually changes the structure of your brain.
We invite you to explore this weeks trending products at The OM Shoppe. Finding inner peace may be closer than you think.
Connect to the frequency of love with The Love Tuner
Find deeper states of mediation with a Buckwheat Filled Zafu
Commune with Divine Energy through the use of a Quartz Crystal Singing Bowl
Tibetan Singing Bowls
Chakra Drums
Crystal Singing Bowl Accessories
Beautiful Crystal Singing Bowls