Beware false prophets

I just read Lyam's post on his official move to Buddhism, and have been a frequent and vocal correspondent with TBO on the same subject to the point of being unfair in a non-disclosure kind of way.

It sounds like a fantastic move for Ly, and TBO damn near emits light when he speaks of his beliefs. And yet, I find myself time and again the kicker of sacred cows. Which in itself I am ok with, but which is completely unfair when I allow no access into my own beliefs, admit to no cows suitable for kicking.

So, here is my deal, as far as I can articulate it.

Our, meaning all individual's, struggle to rectify a finite life to an understanding of the infinte is the fundamental thing that binds all of us together, mainly because it produces such an elaborate array of flailings about, nearly all of which manifest in the creation of false binaries. At best, we understand Truth in bites. But when we do... well, that is what we live for.

Any path one might find to even the briefest contact with Truth, I'm down with. But, I believe that seeing Truth is a one-way proposition: one can only see Truth when looking towards and contemplating Truth, and not when looking toward or contemplating non-Truth (which is just mullings over of the false binaries we create).

I trust and am willing to listen to any person of faith, any strain of religious thought, up to and until the inevitable move of "beware false prohpets" and its like. When someone, Christian or Buddhist or proclaimed atheist, tells me what they believe and how it makes them feel and what it helps them understand, I am rapt (largely because of my own difficulties feeling the same way). The moment they begin to tell me why any other strain of thought is wrong, I tune out. The conversation is over.

If you are enlightened, if you have found an access to Truth, there is nothing to be gained from kicking anyone else off the train because their ticket was punched by a different agency than yours. And while I will not jump to the support of any particular ticket-punching agency, I will rush to defend the holder of any ticket from assault.

Here is the important distinction: religions almost invariably develop political arms. This is the portion of a religion that enforces the "beware false prophets" edicts. Christianity is a prime example of the importance of this distinction. I will join in on kicking the Chrisitian church for its every attempt to spread its dogma into political systems, and find much to hold in contempt in both the history of the church and its current agenda, but it does not follow in my worldview that Christianity cannot provide an access to Truth.

When that distinction is crossed, I rebel, every time.

As to what I believe, well, I'll try. I believe in the essential fallibility of human beings to resolve the paradoxes of existence, and in the redemptive power of embracing those paradoxes. I see little of the universe to be mutually exclusive, if any, but rather always a negotiation of forces whose existence is inextricably tied. I believe in more than I am, which is also incomplete without me, and that the goodness, the infinite Love, of the universe proven in the fact of existence, of Life.

I believe that all paths are equal, have the same potential for bearing fruit, and the one slap-across-the-forehead-able offense is to lose focus from the path to Truth to denigrate another path.

Plus, I really like kicking cows, but only sacred ones. Because the only other thing I believe is that the Universe is a colossal joke played upon those who don't get it.