Beyond Beliefs

When asked what I mean by this title, I reply that the intention here is to accept and value the traditions of beliefs and religions as we know them, but that we need to move beyond them in search for wholeness in diversity, rather than attempting to find unity in uniformity. Allowing for this diversity then, how do we find accommodation for it and resolve the inevitable conflicts that this process of learning to live with this diversity will involve? It is the diversity that needs to be acknowledged first.

It is rooted in the uniqueness of each individual as we have come to recognise this over time. Just as our faces differ, so do we also differ from each other as individuals. This uniqueness needs to be modified to fit into the local community. This is in part brought about by a belief system, each one of which uniquely formed in time as a result of particular experiences and circumstances.

Our circumstance today is that we need to face the reality that religious traditions are here to stay, that they differ and that mutual and interactive accommodation has become necessary. Today we need to move beyond the simple asserting of our beliefs, to a way of accommodating them in a mutually acceptable manner. This is what is meant by our title.

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Talk 1 (2009-10-04) describes ‘Existence Divine’ as a frame work of belief that includes all that exists and so is inclusive of all experience and is governed by rules of ethics and morals that are discovered over time using conscious awareness and so passed on through the human traditions. The discovery process allows for specific revelation of ‘Existence Divine’ in time, place, circumstance and people.

Talk 2 (2010-01-31) titled “The Olympic Torch”, traces the revelations of ‘Existence Divine’ using three examples taken from the human record, namely the Cave Paintings in pre-historic France, the cultural tradition of Ancient Egypt and the present. Each example suggests a human boundary situation in which new insights emerge through revelation. At the time of the cave paintings the shaman, through experiential knowledge, showed how the animals would emerge from underground to be hunted in season. The powers of the shaman and the ‘master animals’ become humanised in time. This is illustrated by the religious traditions of the Ancient Egyptians, such as Toth, the Ibis headed god who dispelled darkness and Amon, god of the city Thebes, who was shown as a human. Each ‘nome’ or part-state of Egypt had such a god, all of which needed to be brought together into community that could work together. Our situation today is similar in that our human global culture faces the boundary situation of one people one planet, one which no human culture or religion has yet encountered and this is our boundary situation today. Can we find wholeness in this diversity?

Talk 3, 2010-04-25, titled ‘Forging a New Belief’, uses historical cases of personal revelation to illustrate that individuals (Eckhart, Luther, Teresa) also do experience ‘Existence Divine’ in their own lives enabling them to open up new possibilities and developments meeting requirements of the time. Over time, in Western Culture with the development of the judicial state and modern science, the authority of the belief frame work recedes to make room for a greater degree of responsibility on the part of the individual person. Here we see emerge a new awareness that the individual now shoulders the responsibility of acting in accord with the handed down traditions and becomes responsible for the integration of his or her own life experiences. This includes discernment of ‘Existence Divine’ in one’s own life and so become informed about the wholeness in diversity of Existence Divine.

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This talk as closure in the series of 4 and emphasises the social aspect of Existence Divine. Each belief has a social component that focuses the activities of the community. Today we have a community, global, of communities. What can we discover that ‘Existence Divine’ as a generalised belief framework could help us in identifying a way of accommodating this given variety of beliefs and traditions? This then could help us frame a perspective from which we can act in this global community and find ways of respecting and honouring each other’s traditions and even learn from them!

- today’s situation re community and Existence Divine’s claim of wholeness in diversity.
- revelation in today’s setting with respect to time, place, circumstance and people;
- recognising our own situation in the present.

Traditional religions have defined an identity for the community and the individual in it. However, religions did not deal with the situation where an equivalent other religion was encountered and that is our situation today. What we can learn from the given religious traditions is how new revelations in a boundary situation can be made a part of the given tradition. This process was explained and illustrated in talks 2 and 3. Today we need to discover how to proceed in our present boundary situation.

This can be defined as consisting of a confluence of influences. The influences being all the various traditions as well as the modern secular and science based reference frameworks. At one time (1900 – 1980) secularity was believed to be the way forward, but today we know that this is not about to come about. It is rather the other way around in that people are seeking group membership and beliefs systems that give them identity and security. In this process secularity as such can be viewed as a transition stage between beliefs. This diversity in we find ourselves, is at times confusing at least and often gives rise to conflicts where different traditions compete for believability as it were. This is a situation that cannot be productive in the long run and is defining of our boundary situation today on this planet.

The framework of ‘Existence Divine’ allows for a flexibility that can accommodate other traditions. First of all it assumes that existence has always existed and that the various universes within it come and go as a part of the discovered processes of cosmology. Secondly it accepts the findings of science as we humans have discovered that. This includes the acceptance of human origins as a part of a process of biological adaptation. On the other hand, based on our findings of human cultural developments as in anthropology and history, revelation is accepted as a process of emergence of new knowledge like insights and discoveries. In the frame work of existence divine all experience is accepted and that includes the experience of the divine by humans. This ensures that human religious traditions are given a place within the framework besides science, history and other disciplines.

The unique human contribution is that we are conscious being with an ethical awareness and tradition. This acquired and learned ability is a part of the adaptation process and therefore needs to play a role and make a contribution to resolving the boundary situation we find ourselves in on this planet today. In order to address this diversity problem we need to learn from the traditions in human history how they functioned, but refrain from explaining away the very traditions we want to learn from.

We can define a common human ground of origin if we accept the results of science as well as the results that the religious experiences and tradition have passed on to us. In combining these two we can reach a common root, however that was initiated, and accept our present day diversity as evidence of the immensity that ‘Existence Divine’ has revealed and still holds in its remaining mystery.

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[Identifying the solution.]

Using the given traditions of belief as a given along with science, as suggested above, we must now move beyond those known territories and find out how to proceed. In this we proceed using our acquired conscious awareness and combine that with what we know through the human traditions and from modern science. In so doing we recognise that we are in a boundary situation of diversity. This means that the diversity needs to be accepted as a given with great potential, but it also means that we must acknowledge that we have no clear way of resolving the inherent confusion and conflicts. The latter two can be observed the world over at this very time.

In the boundary situation the revelation occurs in the form or manifestation of new insights and discoveries. So, what is it that we can discover? A few hundred years ago we only had explorers and missionaries. The explorers are gone, lack of work you might say. And so are the missionaries. However, the missionaries are a clue, because they constituted the first NGO’s [Non Government Organisation] as it were. They were followed by the Red Cross and after the Second World War we have become inundated with NGO’s.

These organisations are in effect practical examples of an integrating world, of globalisation in other words and there are many more examples like these. So, in effect we are already looking at the very process of an integrating diversity. In his book ‘Postwar’, Tony Judt reports on the tremendous population shifts that have taken place in Europe. There are now 45-million people from outside Europe as a part of the labour market there now and many other instances are cited.

This means then that the process of integration towards a wholeness in diversity is already under way. The revelation is in the recognition of this and can now inform our actions and efforts. We now have a perspective in which we can act, participate and contribute.

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Defining our contribution towards a wholeness in diversity:

In the frame work of New Thought it is taught that the personal well being is affected by means of affirmations and meditations. This is confirmed by modern research of the effects of Buddhist meditation methods. Other research (Dean Radin, McTaggart)i also confirm and show that widely held active beliefs and emotions do affect the outcome of certain physical processes. This means that a held belief has consequences and can be utilised as is reported in ‘The Intention Experiment’ (McTaggart).

On the level of daily action and understanding we can make an effort in learning to discern content from form and presentation for held beliefs. People are identified with their beliefs through these, but it is easiest to examine the content of belief and discuss the rules of helping out one’s neighbour for example. It is here that we can make a beginning in this process to which all of us can and must make a contribution.

Today our need is to adopt an attitude of mutual adventure and discovery in a new process that is founded in our handed down traditions, but now needs to be adapted to this new circumstance of the people of this earth uncovering the wholeness in diversity that is possible within the framework of ‘Existence Divine’.
End.

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