All religions teach the same truth

I am happy to know that somebody has finally recognized the difference between spirituality and religiosity as Rahayu Ratnaningsih did in her article Spirituality differs from religiosity in The Jakarta Post on Feb. 24, 2000. I am of the opinion, however, that being religious does not stop one being spiritual. I think the emergence of religions in the history of mankind is a natural phenomenon in human evolution, that is an evolution toward higher levels of divine consciousness.

As Ms. Rahayu herself said, the spiritual person finds God in his or her own being. Thus I think the direction of human evolution as directed by the various religions is toward the awakening of the core of the human being. The awakening however does not come at once but gradually. In the process, religious as well as spiritual people are born, people with various levels of consciousness, in the sense of divine consciousness.

The core of the teaching of all world religions is to show the unity of life with love as the glue to that unity, as shown in the teaching of Christ and other world teachers. Only people who have found and realized the truth in their being, that is they who are advanced spiritually or they who have a higher level of consciousness can perceive the core of their own religion. They who have gained high religious knowledge but a relatively low level of divine consciousness always stress the difference between my religion and your religion. Those people do not understand that our culture and language have a very limited capability to express and show the ultimate truth, hence the emergence of intolerance and bloodshed. Knowledge and "being" (in the sense of the level of consciousness) should be on the same level to assure peace in the world.

In connection with the theme of a different perception of the same thing, I remember a childhood experience when I was in the second grade of a Dutch elementary school. The teacher asked me how a dog barks. I said "huk-huk-huk". No, the teacher said, "not huk-huk-huk but waf-waf-waf". He asked me again how the cock crows. I answered "cukurukuk". No, the teacher said once again, The cock crows "kukleku".

To reconcile our differences, I thought afterwards, I and the teacher should listen together to how the dog barks and the cock actually crows. Similarly our religions show us, with different methods as deemed appropriate by the Teacher, the direction to approach the ultimate truth, but we have to experience it ourselves.

What we need now is not only to study our own religion and dogmas but also to awaken the Truth in our own being, which means realizing the unity of life, realizing the virtue in every religion. Only then can peace be created in the world in general and in our country in particular.

BUSONO SUDARSO

Jakarta