All Things to All Men

There is a famous quote that says "I am all things to all men". It comes from the New Testament book I Corinthians 9:22. Paul is talking to the church at Corinth about how Christian workers should be compensated. In that discussion he talks about how he adapts to the people he encounters in order to bring them to Christ. He says "To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God's law but am under Christ's law), so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings. Vrs 22-23.

Paul's process is certainly one to be admired because he made a strong effort to become one with the people and to meet them where they are. I think this is a certainly a good way to approach world peace and unity. One should, in a sense, become all things to all people in order to help them understand, or to see the light if you will, that we all can learn something from each other.

When asked if he was a Hindu Gandhi put it this way "Yes I am, I am also a Muslim, a Christian, a Buddhist, and a Jew" and regarding the Muslim faith he said "The sayings of Muhammad are a treasure of wisdom not only for Muslims but for all of mankind"

My point in writing all of this is that I consider my spiritual development the same way. I know it drives religious hard liners insane to think of all religions being viewed as equal. After all there can only be one true religion right? I once shared the view that I had the only true religion so I know how upsetting it can be when others do not share that view point. As I go along on my spiritual journey It becomes more clear to me that all living beings are bound by the reality that we all must and will die. This is something we all share, from the insect to the human. We all have fear and worry about our mortality and many find comfort in their faith that tells them there is a better place when life ends. However, If we thought about our mortality a little more often and realized how it binds us we may be less eager to make war or cause pain to any living thing. We will leave the after life to the one or ones who decide or do not decide such things.

I'm sure to some this sounds like I've been a little too long on the peace pipe and it's easy to write off such ideals as just hippie or new age talk (although there is nothing "new" about new age thought). However, examining the reality of mortality and how delicate life is can reveal a truth that leads to compassion and universal loving kindness toward all living things.

I can say like Gandhi that I am Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, Jewish etc. On the surface this may seem like a contradiction but I have slowly come to realize how this is possible. It is because I am nothing that anything and everything is possible. Because there is no permanent self that I can locate I am free not to be and that allows me in essence to be whatever is there. I am never the same person, being, or entity for one moment. I may have memories of childhood, my first kiss, when I lost my virginity etc. but no physical part of me that existed then currently exists now. For me to be attached to the experience and the memory is what causes my suffering, regret, anxiety, but the reality is that all of what I thought was me during those experiences no longer exists.

This does not mean that I escape the consequences, good or bad, of my actions but it makes you certainly wonder if you can. One can't help but rethink the nature of reality and what one thought it was. This is enlightenment. To see things as they are leads to letting go and no longer grasping at things that no longer exist.

Mentally it is difficult to grasp because my mind wants to hold on to something that is permanent. I tell myself I am set in my ways and that I'll never change but this is not true. And not simply from a philosophical point of view but because it is impossible for anything living to remain the same for one moment.

This can be a pretty hard pill to swallow for so many reasons. For anyone who has been abused it is hard to imagine that the body that was once violated no longer exists in the same way it did at the time of the abuse. The mental scars are ever so real and the mind keeps saying "I", "me", 'myself" and if the abuse was something that mutilated the body than it can be nearly impossible for one to grasp because the evidence of a self that suffered is so overwhelming. This concept is not something that sits on the surface. It takes a great deal of digging because the mind has spent all its life constructing an alternate reality of permanent ego, an eternal I and a special and different unique me concept.

This is what I am learning and it may not be for everyone. Now back to the topic of other religions.This view of non self allows me to understand that only an ego would promote the idea of acceptance or tolerance. By promoting tolerance of other religions I essentially say I am somebody above the experience of life and the dynamics of life and somehow above others and when I give my blessing to a particular religion or point of view then it somehow is OK. I am nothing. I am just a mass of every evolving and changing phenomena. Who and what am I to say what religion is right or wrong, good or not as good, acceptable or unacceptable? There are points of view that are comfortable saying this way or that way is the only way and what happens is division, unrest and eventually loss of life. Realizing this non self is what is special. The realization is what is solid, real and eternal not the thing that realizes it. There is no thinker behind the thought; the thought is the thinker.

This is the road my meditations and examining is taking and the less me I find the more peace there is in this experience.