The Spiritual World

All religions start from a premise: There is a spiritual dimension to the world.

All religions touch on God, and the spiritual world. Modern science doesn’t recognize its existence. Spirit – what is it? Is it Dark Energy or dark matter? Prana as in India? Chi as in China? Consciousness?

Each religion formulates its own definitions and descriptions of the spiritual world. In India, Brahman is the “One without a second”, ergo it has no opposite.  The same can be said of the Tao in China. The first line of Lao-Tse’s Tao Te Ching says, ‘The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao’. That which has no opposites cannot be defined or described in words. Words are categorized in concepts that have opposites.  But the Tao or Brahman, the one without a second, since it is all-encompassing, has no opposite.

The same might be said of the idea of God.  If God is the creator of the Universe, then this idea becomes all-encompassing and beyond definition/description. One can say that Tao and God are omnipresent, omnipotent, and omniscient. Having said this, this is an aspect of the spiritual world. Allah, Brahman, Jehovah, Ahura-Mazda, The Great Spirit, Wakan-Tanka, Buddha nature, and many others around the world and down through time have represented this spiritual reality.

Many cultures have more sophisticated understandings of the spiritual world. This comes from a greater focus on this aspect of consciousness or Mind. In the Western world this is the Age of Reason, and indeed science and technology follow from reason. However, if reason is seen as the be all and end all, it becomes limited. Spirituality cannot be scientifically identified yet, and so many scientists allocate spirituality to the realm of fantasy. This takes a large part of human history and culture and renders it useless. Consider Lao-Tse’s admonition, “When the Tao is cherished, galloping horses fertilize the fields. When the Great Tao is lost, war horses breed in the suburbs.”

When the human spirit is thus diminished drug addiction, crime, human trafficking and all aspects of human society that indicate corruption grow. Thus, while some religions may bear the marks of corruption, and certainly some do exemplify greed, lust, and the rest of the seven deadly sins, to have no religion at all denies the spiritual strength that is necessary to resist corruption. Therefore, a religion that supports spirituality is needed that can incorporate modern science and reason without conflicting with reason. The world is ripe for such a religion, as there is a huge void without it.

This indicates that a prophet may come, and possibly a false prophet too to exploit this void. Perhaps the false prophet comes first, to exploit the human need. This is very dangerous to the world. Thus, a true prophet is needed, and soon. Expect it sooner or later.