On Inclusiveness of Wisdom and Faith Traditions

Every cultural tradition seems to be marked by two ways of life. One is characterized by wisdom and the other by faith based upon belief and acceptance. Religious traditions may be many, but their wisdom is one. Wisdom transcends critical thinking yet is attained through it.

Wisdom Traditions

Seekers of wisdom are interested in knowing the truth of existence. They ask questions such as: What is the existence of the universe from? Where do I come from? What is my relationship with the rest of existence? They indefatigably seek true answers to such questions with dispassion and detachment. Having found the answers that satisfy their heads as well hearts, they live their lives in accordance with them.

They find all perceptible existence emerging from one spiritual essence.  Every creature, every animal, every human being and everything else, whether terrestrial or divine, is a manifestation of this eternal reality unmanifest in itself. They find that all existence, whether manifest or unmanifest, is indeed one at the core. All humanity is one in essence, all divinity is one in essence. Humanity and divinity are one in essence. Not only humanity and divinity, but all forms in nature, animate and inanimate, are one in essence.

They consider this imperceptible essence of existence, whether terrestrial or divine, as That One spiritual reality of metaphysics. It is this reality that manifests itself as different forms in the perceptible universe. It is the common ground from which infinitely diverse beings in the universe and the universe itself emerge. It is the common ground in which they all sustain and it is the common ground into which they all dissolve. This common ground, although imperceptible and mystical, connects all existence into a kinship of one. We are not only a family but one being with diverse bodies. Wisdom traditions strive to live the relationship of oneness and as a result there is little conflict amongst the followers of wisdom traditions associated with different religions. They have a high sense of belonging to any community in which they live. They may use culture-specific terminology and rhetoric in telling their story, their love and compassion for the manifested universe is a representation for their love for the underlying essence.

Faith Traditions

The inner structure of our very being is a barrier to the development of wisdom preventing us from living the non-dual oneness of wisdom traditions. We have a body driven from the inside by a mind. We begin our physical existence with a helpless body run by a mind with rudimentary senses and no intellectual capacity whatsoever; we are unable to think let alone think critically to develop wisdom. Our senses keep informing us of our individual distinctiveness when extrasensory integrative wisdom is well beyond our scope. Our intellectual faculty of thought begins developing when sensory divisiveness is well entrenched in our psyche. Inbuilt fear of survival runs life unconsciously in an automatic fashion. We learn to accept things on authority. Thus, acceptance on faith has a head start over critical thinking.

The state of our early existence is the very reason why our societies want us to start going to school in our early childhood. We need to develop our ability to know.  To develop our intellectual capacity, we are taught various disciplines of knowledge. We are fed the legendary stork fable when we enquire about the source of our existence. This inquiry is built naturally in being human and the academy keeps overlooking to educate us meaningfully in it keeping us practically ignorant of the metaphysical truth of the oneness of essence. This truth stays hidden from our awareness. This is the truth needed to develop the wisdom for living in non-dual oneness, peace and harmony amongst our planetary family.

Faith traditions associated with different religions, on the other hand cannot comprehend and accept the possibility of an unseen and imperceptible spiritual reality manifesting as the universe with all its existents. They are not only indifferent to logic, critical reason, physical or metaphysical truths or human wisdom, but averse to them. They are simple folk disposed to accepting things on authority and be led by faith. Traditions of faith comprise the main stream of practically all religious cultures.

Faith traditions characteristically accredit a culture-specific divine form with the creation and administration of the universe. Imperceptible to the senses of perception but perceptible to human mind, the divinity of faith is a subtle being with a finite though small degree of concreteness. Its relationship with the imperceptible Absolute of metaphysics with a degree of concreteness of 0 (zero) is no different from that of any other manifested being with the essence. Divinity comes into existence only when manifestation at large comes into existence; only the unseen essence is eternal, it pre-existed perceptible existence and it will exist after all perceptible existence ceases to exist.

Divinity is commonly perceived as a supernatural power that creates the universe, then sustains and nourishes it as it lords over it to maintain order. Invariably such a power is seen as an anthropomorphic being whose form and attribution are culture-specific.

The appeal to faith lies in human difficulty to deal with total mystery. It develops when we attempt an expression of the inexpressible Absolute, ultimate reality or spirit. Form, whether etched in stone, wood or words, is the medium of this expression. Spiritual essence assumes expression through the use of divine forms. Faith based divisiveness is related with how the followers of a specific faith tradition perceive the relationship between the divine form and its essence. There are two opposing ways of this perception:

Monotheism: faith specific divine form is all in all with little awareness of any underlying essence except for wisdom traditions rooted in monotheism, and

Monism: faith specific divine forms are helpful for the generality of humanity, but all forms, including divinity, emanate from the underlying formless essence.

Faith based monotheism is characterized by the acceptance of one divinity, complete rejection of the possibility of any other divine form and a requirement of propitiating divinity through the agency of a specific prophet. Direct placation of the divinity without the intermediacy of the prophet is not enough. Making a statue of the divinity or the prophet is considered an unpardonable sacrilege. Faith based monotheism, in effect, leads to a multiplicity of relative divine forms seeking appeasement through the agency of different prophets. God is the ultimate reality and prophet is the way to it. Such cultures consider it their sacred duty to save others from false gods. This practice leads to never ending intercultural conflicts.

Monotheism is characterized by its insistence on faith to the exclusion of any intellectual activity in this regard. There exists a strong feeling of tension between people of faith and those of wisdom; faith, embodying acceptance on authority, and wisdom, embodying heart mind seeking, are incompatible with each other.

In faith based monotheism, our specific form of the divine becomes the God. Suddenly, somebody's God becomes less Godlike, somebody's prophet less prophetic, and somebody's community less righteous and deserving. It naturally leads to feelings of supremacy of our faith over that of the others. In its drive to assert “our” supremacy, monotheism implicitly and explicitly encourages fragmentary thinking. It tends to divide humanity into communities with tribal values, setting them apart and against the other.

Strong religious identities may be harmless within homogeneous communities, but they are known to cause havoc between them in a world reduced to a global village by modern science and technology. Understanding the one Absolute truth as the shared essence of all relative divinities is the key to the essential unification of all religions without the imposition of any uniformity of form.

Monism, on the other hand, accepts the significance of faith for the generality of humanity, but faith must be rooted in the primacy of wisdom. According to it, faith may be a necessary step in the journey of human development but it is not sufficient for the culmination of it; the attainment of unifying wisdom is the highest goal of spiritual development.

Monism honours and recognizes the formlessness of the unseen truth with its acceptance of all divine forms as personal metaphors pointing to it; a formless principle can be imagined in any divine form. Who with any certainty can say that it can only be represented only in one particular form? Then, why not let individual persons or cultures represent it their favourite form? No harm is done to the truth if it is always kept in mind that their favourite form is just a representation of the formless that can assume any form.

Monism accepts the metaphysical analysis clearly showing the unity of essence of all divine forms of various faiths. They all are united seamlessly as being various manifestations of one unmanifest essence. As such, all culture-specific divine forms are equally venerable. This understanding has endless potential to harmonize and unify the various faiths of humankind. Not only that, it also has potential to promote responsible consumption for the health of our planetary home.

Thus, religious faith can be seen an institution with various degrees of inclusiveness. The higher the extent to which faith is moderated with wisdom, the higher its inclusiveness potential. Conversely, the lower the extent to which faith is mitigated with wisdom, the lower the inclusiveness and its acceptance of the other. Faith thus can be inclusive and unitive on one side and exclusive and potentially divisive on the other. Faith may unify people into communities and it simultaneously divides them by building tight boundaries around them.

Religion is founded upon the bedrock of one formless, infinite and indescribable Absolute spiritual reality underlying the entire universe of finite and diverse beings. It lies at the core of human values and human spirituality. Spirit, unlike matter, is all-inclusive and totally integrative. Being the ultimate essence of all that exists, it unequivocally declares the essential oneness of all beings, natural and divine. It is at the root of our inbuilt feelings of love and compassion. This face of religion is the nectar of love, life and justice.

Wisdom traditions of all religions bear witness to the oneness of the inexpressible essence with their acceptance of multiple divine forms expressing the same inexpressible essence. These traditions tend to honour all divine forms as equally venerable because they all express the one essence. If we really want peace and harmony in the world, we must seriously consider how we can make the growth of inclusive wisdom as the primary goal of our educational systems at all levels.

Human history is the proof that divine forms change when cultures change. If a culture disappears, its divinity disappears with it, and a new divinity appears when a new culture is born. Where are the Vedic, Greek, Roman and Egyptian Gods of antiquity today? If somehow humanity disappears from the face of the earth, so will all the different divine beings for whom we are ready to sacrifice our humanity in killing one another.

Thus, one ineffable and formless essence is confined by faith and culture in finite forms. It matters little whether the forms are sculpted in stone, wood or mere words. Without the understanding that the divine forms of all faiths are manifestations of one shared unmanifest essence, describing the indescribable in particular ways concretizes and defiles it. Without this awareness, our faiths identify the one underlying formless Absolute reality with a plurality of irreconcilable relativistic forms which fragment and divide.