By Reza Ganjavi
It's becoming more and more evident that a key to world peace -- aside from each individual living in peace with themselves as a start -- is further understanding and tolerance for diversity. Anybody that studies world religions -- and has an awareness of the divine, of that which is beyond the material, that which is the source of everything, which is so obvious yet so unnoticed, so present yet so ignored in so many daily lives; the immeasurable; the great; the love that is the quintessence of creation -- can see that all world religions essentially have the same purpose and are very very similar in their approach however superficially they may differ.
This understanding, appreciation, and tolerance are absolutely important in today's world. Therefore, throw books not bombs!
Having gotten to know Dr. Rupert Sheldrake better recently, studying his work, and having many personal contacts with him, has inspired me to retrieve an old passion... Rupert's aim is to bridge science and religion and he's made fascinating progress in this area.
I'm hoping to make a documentary around this subject but for now let me share an insight:
All religions have some spiritual practice which is a form of invoking, or calling out to the divine. I think this is important in whatever form it takes. Of course, if there's a deep understanding of many subjects, psychological particularly, that play a role in this field, that's all the better -- but even for a layman without any deep philosophical understandings and psychological insights, still, some form of a non-dogmatic religious practice can be helpful. I heard even some atheists are now going to atheism Sunday service!
It’s interesting how similar the spiritual practices of various religions are – most of them have some sort of an invocation of the divine.
On the other hand, thought has devised a lot of blind, unrealistic beliefs in some religions in an attempt to systematize truth. And these beliefs turn out to be what divides people. So a key seems to be to understand and appreciate each other’s ways, call out to the divine in whichever form we know, end the divisive egotistic ways of thought and its consequence of psychological self, and not get bogged down in the divisive peripheral beliefs. It doesn’t matter if Kali Yuga is 400k or 400m years. That has NOTHING to do with our daily life, problems, and challenges of existence.