Today at work I was approached by a coworker and asked about my religion and religious up bringing. I told her I was raised a Congregational Christian, however, now I practice Mahayana Buddhism. To my surprise she quickly responded back, “Well they’re all really the same, aren’t they?” Still surprised by what I just heard I said, “Yes, when you get down to the basics of all major world religions they do in fact teach the same lessons.” In thinking more about this I realized how many conflicts are caused by religious differences, yet when you break down their teachings they are surprisingly similar. Having read texts from many of the major world religions including the Koran I found this to be very true. Because of this I believe the Dharma can not just be found in Buddhist texts, but in all texts and all people, even in a coworker.
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I agree, what is the basis of all major religions…Love one another. All religions teach us to love one another and ourselves because we being humans have a tendency to forget this.
“Love one another” is not the basis of all major religions at all. It’s certainly a common component, but more often the metaphysics about deity and the afterlife, as well as general morality, are the key aspects of contention and debate, between denominations as well as within them.
For example, in many Xian sects it is possible to hold in one’s head, at the *same time*, the idea of love one another as well as the idea that homosexuals are aberrations; they are to be loved while they struggle to become heterosexual.
This is only one very small example, but I’m making an important point: “all religions are ultimately about love” is a lazy, new-age statement that ignores the differences between religions, differences that MEMBERS of those religions find very important. Ignoring this is arrogance, the mental sickness of judging another person. Further, it judges that person’s adherence to their faith, highly insulting at best.
New age tripe needs to be excised if true understanding is to be achieved.