Making of an Omnist

At various times I've been called a Satanist, Atheist and Freethinker, all because I confessed not to believe exactly the same things as the person with who I was in conversation (usually a Christian), but more importantly that I do not refer to myself as Christian. Instead of asking me what I do call myself and what I do believe, the person prefer to make assumptions. Why is it easier to make an assumption rather than asking a question? I'm sure there's some sociological answer to that. In reality, however, I self-identify as Omnist.

What this means (for me)

An Omnist is, plainly said, someone who believe that there is truth in all religions or that all religions contains something of the truth and no religion have the absolute Truth. In this sense anyone who see themselves as Omnist will probably believe different than the next Omnist. In my humble opinion I think that is true of most religions - place a hundred Christians from the same denominational tradition next to each other and you will find something that someone believe different despite the fact that the main points may be the same.

I believe that God is One with many Names and many Manifestations. What I mean by this is that God does not only have Judeo-Christian Names (such as JHWH, Jehovah, Elohim, El-Shadai, Jesus, Christ etc) but that all Names in the various religions belongs to God and thus Allah, Nam, Krishna, Ganesh and Buddha are legitimate Names for God. I like to try and find the meaning behind the Name or the reasons for the Name, which then clarify why that Name is appropriate as a Name of God. Ganesh, for instance, is the Remover of obstacles and Buddha means enlightened.

As for the Manifestations, God manifested in various ways in different times and places to different people. So God was in the burning bush with Moses or as Jesus Christ for the Christians, or as Krishna and Shiva in India and so forth. These are not many different gods, but as I see it, One God manifesting in different forms and different ways but for the same purpose. That purpose, I believe, is Love. The reason God manifest differently to different people is because people all over the world have different understandings of what life is. So, for instance, Christians cannot understand why God would manifest as an elephant (they do understand a lion though), Hindus do not understand why God would want to die and then live again (in popular culture that is a zombie after all). Another example is Western Christians having an aversion to the Name Allah (because "it is a Muslim god") but Arabian Christians have no problem calling God by that Name.

I will post about this in coming blogs, but please feel free to ask as many questions as you would like for clarity in the comment area below.



The history

So how did I arrive at this point in my spiritual journey? I grew up in a religiously conservative Afrikaans home. As my dad is a pastor, I practically grew up in the church, specifically the Pentecostal tradition. As a big bookworm I was always reading and at one time my dad told me that I should not forget to read the Bible. I end up reading the Bible, from beginning to end, quite a few times. All this reading also gave me a love for thinking and putting ideas together.

When I was in high school I wanted to become a missionary in order to save the "heathen" from the "demons they worshiped". This idea was greatly encouraged in my family, but it also lead to the idea that I should know something about these religions. At first I read books about other religions written by Christians but, much later, I would realise that this is biased and I started to read books about other religions written by those belonging to those faiths.

In the meantime, as a normal teenager, I started seeing differences in what Christians say and what they do. My relationship with my dad was not always good and I acknowledge that the anger I felt send me in different directions. At one stage I was angry with God because of my dad, but would soon realise that people, myself included, make many mistakes. Forgiveness, I read, is setting someone else free just to realise that you yourself were the prisoner. It did help me, however, to see things in a different light. With different perspectives I were able to see other religions in the light they see it and also to look at Christianity from the point of view of non-Christians. Today I can do this without anger or bitterness at anyone.

After school I wanted to study Religions (UNISA offers a course called Religious Studies, many confuse this with Theology). My dad suggested I first study Theology. As I were still very much Christian and very conservative (not to mention bigoted) and because I saw Theology, which is the study of God from Christian point of view, as another aspect of religion - I agreed. Studying Theology made me think even more that there is something wrong with the whole "there is only one way" - "turn or burn" concept. I did later study Religious Studies and plan to take these studies further somewhere in the future.

My search led me from conservative Christianity to a more liberal form, then on to deism, Buddhism, Hinduism, the Baha'i Faith and Unitarian Universalism. After a while I realised that there is no one religion with which I am able to agree with completely. I continued to read widely and even started to collect the Holy Scriptures of various religions. While reading I was always praying and thinking and while doing that I decided at each new point what I believe and what I disagree with. In reading and studying religions I came upon such terms as syncretism, eclecticism and universalism as well as the concept of the perennial philosophy. Each of these describe a different form of comparison or similarities or mixing of religions.

At last I came upon the term Omnism and in that found the term with which I am most comfortable to identify and within which I continue to develop my thinking. With this term I also grow spiritually every day. Spirituality, how we get closer to God, is a choice each of us have to make daily. As with everything in the world there is things that work for one person but not at all for another. Therefor it is not wrong to stay within one religion, you can even be an Omnist while only practicing one religion. Those who say they are more spiritual than religious like to say - "Religion is following the ideas of others, spirituality is experiencing for yourself".

Omnism is not a religion as such but more a believe system. One or other spiritual leader, I forgot who, said: "If you are a Christian, be the best Christian you can be. If you are Muslim, be the best Muslim you can be. If you are Hindu, be the best Hindu you can be". For me that is to grow spiritually as much as I can, to practice as regularly as I can, to accept that my views are not the only right views and may well be wrong and to always live the love of God towards all beings.

Where I am today

The spiritual journey is one that never ends (it might even continue after this present life is over). Whichever road you decide on, whether that is one which has been walked for millennia by millions of practitioners or one yet to be discovered - give it all your energy.

Much of my thoughts are still very much influenced by Christianity but a large part of my spiritual practice includes Hindu and Buddhist ideas and practices. I meditate and pray regularly. I love going on meditation retreats. I visit churches and temples. I worship, listening to the songs sang in different traditions. I read various Holy Scriptures, I’ve never stopped reading the Bible but I also read the Koran, the Bhagavad Gita, the Book of Mormon, the Tao te Ching and various others. And above all I try to live the love of God towards all beings.

My ideas around religion and spirituality constantly change and I may look back on this blog in a few years and totally disagree (or not). God however, as Christians love to remind us, is the same yesterday, today and forever. But think about this – if God is greater than we can ever imagine, is it not possible that we still have much more to learn about Him (or Her or It) than what is possible to know in any one religion?

May the One God with many Names and many Manifestations bless you

How Adhering to the Rules of the Road can be Spiritual

This morning while driving to work I was astonished, for the umpteenth time, at the number of motorists driving in the yellow lane at the side of the road and at the number of motorists speeding. This is nothing new on South African roads. It is part of a list of road rules that are being ignored, almost as a rule of thumb. It is, for instance, also not unusual to see a vehicle stop in the middle of the road in order to have a conversation with someone walking next to the road while the rest of the vehicles have to try and drive around that. There is even a joke about speeding:

"What is the speed limit on South African roads?

R100"

I guess that most of you will think this is mostly applicable to taxis. I can understand taxis though. Don't get me wrong - I'm not condoning their behaviour and I would like to see them disciplined severely. However, due to a lack of a solution to the "taxi problem", I think many of us are so use to them that we are always on the lookout for them in order to be safe. Some important things I learned regarding taxis:

• Never fight a taxi. If a taxi want to pass you in order to speed or drive in the yellow lane or whatever other rule to break - just let them. It's much safer that way. Remember a taxi does not care about his vehicle, or yours for that matter, and won't try to avoid scratching you.
• Never curse a taxi. Honestly they do not care. All you are succeeding in is to push your own blood pressure up. "Like water from the back of a duck" does not even closely say how much they don't care about your curses.
• Never get into a shouting match with a taxi or try to physically attack them. Apart from this being not spiritual at all, it is plain right stupid. They have to make only one phone call and the whole universe of taxis will surround you... Who ya gonna call?

The problem is that taxis are not even the main problem. So we are used to them not following the rules. What's flabbergasting is all the other vehicles acting in league with the taxis, mimicking them. It is to them who I address this (because taxis won't listen anyway and I hope the rest of the bad drivers still have something of a conscience).

There are some reasons anyone can think of about why the rules of the road should be followed. Especially the two I am focusing on. One is obviously that it is the law... When we think of criminals we immediately think about thieves, murderers, burglars and so forth. The fact that you drive in the yellow lane or drive over the speed limit means that you are also a criminal. Look, I understand that you are late for work and that you have to get there as soon as possible or else you have to explain to your boss... but, when the traffic is thick, so will the rest of us. Don't be a criminal and let's manoeuvre the traffic together.

Another obvious reason is the danger factor. Especially with speeding - there is so much happening on the road and not everybody are as aware. Think of how many people are on their cell phones while driving (which is also against the law by the way for those odd ones who didn't know) or busy thinking about the day ahead or the fight with the wife last night instead of focusing on the road. Add to that the fact that you are driving 180km/h in a 120km/h zone... We see so many road accidents and will, ironically, slow down to see what happened just to speed up right after that again not sparing a single thought that perhaps it was the speeding that killed.

One last reason I want to mention (but there is much more) is especially for the yellow lane drivers. You might get to the front of the line much quicker but the moment you want to return to the actual lane where you are supposed to drive, you slow everyone else down even more. But, because you got to your destination quicker, what do you care, right?

But that is exactly it. What does all this have to do with spirituality? Personally I believe that spirituality is not just going to church on a Sunday or going to the Mosque or Synagogue on a Friday or Saturday. Spirituality is not just about visiting temples or other holy places, about meditating and praying and reading the Scriptures. Spirituality is also what you do after you did all those things. Actually spirituality is changing yourself on the inside and then acting it out into the real world. If you are serious about your spiritual life than you should know that life as a whole is supposed to be an act of worship. Kindness, compassion and love should shine in absolutely everything you do. The world will not be changed by famous people doing big and awesome things but by normal people doing small things out of love for their fellow human beings, all other beings and nature itself.

Caring, then, starts with yourself and can be acted out in something as mundane as driving on the way to work (or wherever else you are heading). Let's start with the more obvious one - speeding. In many cases a law was implemented with a specific reason (I'm sure there is some that are not, but that's besides the point at the moment). The speed limit were not implemented in order to keep you from reaching your destination in time (time management is your responsibility, not that of your government). It is there precisely because death may occur when two vehicles collide (Yes there might be other, less virtuous reasons, but again - besides the point). Loving yourself should be enough motivation to drive within the speed limit, not to talk about the danger in which you put others. Loving others, and realising that if you cause an accident you will be hurting them, is a basic point in the fact that we are all interconnected.

"The moment you understand the importance of loving yourself,

you will stop hurting others."

Now as for yellow lane driving. In a strange way a person who speeds and a person who drive in the yellow lane are equally guilty when there is an accident. To understand why we need to understand the reason for the existence of the yellow lane to begin with. When you are in an accident you would surely hope that the ambulance arrive at the scene as soon as possible. With a big traffic situation the yellow lane is exactly for this purpose. Now if there is bumper to bumper traffic, perhaps because you were in an accident, and many people decide to skip ahead by driving in the yellow lane then that means that the ambulance will also have to drive slower as it cannot make full use of the lane. And here's the connection between the guilt of a yellow lane driver and the one who caused the accident through speeding - if you are the one driving in the yellow lane, then you are the one obstructing the way for the ambulance. Someone else might die because you wanted to get ahead quicker.

The meaning of the words "love your neighbour as yourself" means much more than just taking some food to a homeless person whenever the need to feel good hits you. It is phrase that should be present within every interaction, directly or indirectly, with others.

Drive safely

and may the One God with many Names and many Manifestations bless you