My grandfather used to drive us up into the Arbuckle Mountains of southern Oklahoma to see a mountain laid on its side. As you looked out across the now horizontal slopes of the mountain there were long parallel ridges of rocks with bands of soil in between that looked like plowed fields. We didn't know anything about plate tectonics then, but that was the combination of forces that geologists now believe was responsible for creating land forms such as this.
The great continental land masses are like plates or saucers floating like pond scum on a molten mantle below the earth's upper crust. Far beneath the ocean the deep sea trenches constitute breaks in the crust that are continually being thrust apart as this molten mantle works its way upward like cherry pie filling leaks up through the crust when the pie is baked. The continual outward thrusting of the ocean crust or plates at the trenches results in these plates colliding with the continental plates at their edges known as subduction zones. As these two plate systems collide, the shoreline of the continents continually is getting rearranged, some of it being pulled down into the mantle, other parts being thrust upward into mountain ranges.
In the distant past . . .hundred's of millions of years ago, the continents floated together to form one supercontinent known as Pangaea before separating into the land masses we are familiar with today. We can see the way the continents fit together like a jigsaw puzzle. The Arbuckle Mountains once were part of a system known as the Ouachita Mountains which formed the edge of our North American continent. The Ouachita range now is mostly buried under sediment that accrued after the continents pulled apart again, but its ancient rocks are exposed in a few places such as the Llano uplift in central Texas and the Marathon uplift in the Big Bend area. Ancient schists and granites exposed in landscapes of much more recent origin.
We might think of the religions of the world like these continental plates floating on top of a molten mantle. At times they come together, getting their edges rearranged, sharing ideas, sometimes clashing and grinding against one another at subduction zones, reemerging and evolving. Our religious landscape today is much like Pangaea. We no longer can pretend to live isolated in separate oceans. Science and technology and the migratory spirit of humans has thrust us together in a world integrated as never before. We have the opportunity to learn so much from each other.
But even as things seem to change so much, there is so much that remains the same. The human condition, birth and death, youth and old age, pain and suffering, meaning and loss. There is an ancient stream of Wisdom that continually surfaces like ancient rocks in all the great religious systems that addresses our perplexing human situation. This Wisdom is the result of struggle, life and thought of countless generations of our ancestors and is articulated by our philosophers, prophets, gurus and seers in every culture. No matter how this Wisdom is articulated, it is much the same because the human condition is the same in all times and places, regardless of different languages and cultures. This Wisdom takes on different forms and shapes suited to the spiritual landscape in which it emerges, but its composition is very similar regardless of the form.
The spiritual pathways of the religions follow this ancient stream. What are some of the elements of this vary basic elemental stream of Wisdom?
Nothing created is permanent.
Ignorance, passion and inappropriate attachment create suffering.
It is possible to live in peace and harmony in spite of impermanent conditions.
The highest good is eternal Union with the Eternal Creative Force of the universe which goes by many names and which is the source of all Wisdom.
This Union is achievable by all persons.
The Way, Tao, Kingdom is discovered through self-discipline, self-renunciation,
fulfilling one's duty, obedience, faith and sacrifice.
The weaker may be saved through the merits of those stronger; through community.
