God Has No Religion!

I once read of a rabbi who corrected a young, arrogant student named Jacob who loved to

make fun of Christians. He regarded Christians as ignorant and ill-informed and Christianity as

an absurd religion.

One day, the rabbi took Jacob aside and said, “Jacob, why do you suppose Christians

make it a habit to tap the side of the saltshaker while Jews always tap the bottom?”

Certain the rabbi was going to join him in ridicule of Christians, Jacob was more than

ready to play along. “No, Rabbi, I do not know. Why do Jews tap the bottom of the saltshaker

while Christians tap the side?”

“To get the salt out!” answered the rabbi.

There are many ways to tap the shaker, but the purpose is the same—to dispense salt.

Ask the followers of almost any religion what is the purpose of their religion and they

will say the purpose is to guide them to know God. They may use different words or ideas to say

this, but it is essentially the same purpose. Even in religions like Buddhism, where there is no

belief in a Higher Power per se, they still speak sometimes of the “Universal Mind.” What is

that, if it is not the same Reality toward which the words and names that others use point, too?

Similarly, a spiritual seeker in Christianity is really no different than a spiritual seeker in

Islam, Taoism, or Hinduism. All want to know God, the higher self, or to reach what Hindus call

Samadhi, which is “bliss consciousness,” what Christians may call, “salvation,” or “God-

realization.” In other words, everyone wants to be complete, to be happy, and to alleviate human

suffering, which The Buddha showed us is mostly self-induced anyway. In other words, we all

seek the same thing. We just know it in different ways, based on our cultural, social, ethnic, and

religious conditioning. Since everyone is seeking God-consciousness, sometimes confused with

“happiness,” then you can understand that every religion has evolved to help facilitate this

purpose.

Yet, throughout the history of humanity, religion has been the prime cause of most

human division and human and planetary destruction. If this is not mad, what is it? Throughout

the history of my own tradition, for example, Christianity has been either a Divine blessing or a

demonic curse. Embarrassing to admit, it has been the latter far too often. If the human species is

going to survive, it is imperative we make room on this little planet for everyone—that we have

respect for all religions, as well as those who choose to have no religion.

Even as I say all of this, however, I realize, until a person wakes up, this will likely be

more than they can accept. Until they experience a shift in consciousness, making it possible for

them to see everyone and everything through lenses clear of conditioned thinking, then they will

resist virtually everything I written so far. This is true whether they be a Christian, Muslim, or

atheist.

If I have learned anything over the years, it is that every religion, in its own unique way,

has something important to teach us about Ultimate Reality, or what I like to call the sacred art

of knowing God. Even those who profess no religion at all may be able to teach the rest of us

something about this Universal Intelligence, Consciousness, Being Itself or, as I am accustomed

to saying, God.