the Bible is amazing on multiple levels. It's like a treasure chest full of useful information who's bottom has not yet been found.
So is
the Bhagavad Gita,
the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama as well as studying the potentials of
lucid dreaming.
When pursuing spiritalism I think it is imperative that we
not limit ourselves to one faith or philosophy alone.
In regards to Hinduism, for example, there are some who would instantly start by saying "Oh, but they have this horrid caste system which degrades the lowest of the totem and glorifies the highest." The fact that this does not imply to the whole of the Hindu religion notwithstanding, the beauty of any belief system is that we are all more than welcome to take what we want from it and discard the rest.
For example, in the same breath Gandhi has both appraised and degraded Hinduism.
He has said:
"Hinduism as I know it entirely satisfies my soul, fills my whole being ... When doubts haunt me, when disappointments stare me in the face, and when I see not one ray of light on the horizon, I turn to the Bhagavad Gita, and find a verse to comfort me; and I immediately begin to smile in the midst of overwhelming sorrow. My life has been full of tragedies and if they have not left any visible and indelible effect on me, I owe it to the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita".
Later he goes on to criticise the castes and the religion's mysoginistic views (though I can't dig up a suitable quote for that one at the moment).
For me, the best response anyone can say on the subject of religion is when Gandhi was asked whether he was a Hindu and he replies:
"Yes I am. I am also a Christian, a Muslim, a Buddhist and a Jew".
Yes, I'm obsessed with quotes <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />.
And incidentally I'm not trashing Christianity by any means. I just see it, as with all beliefs, limited. Single belief in anything erects walls, it erects boundaries. Religion has more often than not served as a retreat from reality rather than a quest for truth. But I don't find it strange at all that all we want to believe is only that which comforts us. How else do humans invent the traps which betray us into mediocrity?
