Go to the upper stream for clear water

Learning Point No 302

When a temple or church is set up, it has humble beginnings in the form of a shelter and often a rented place. Members would be devoted and rally behind the leaders or pastors. The purpose is to bring people together to be one with God and saints. 

But the search for a permanent place becomes an obsession for some and takes over the primary purpose. Once the place is set up, members may forget their humble beginnings and struggles. Newer members may take over and the new church or temple building becomes the prize and they forget what they and the pioneers set out to do. 

They may even claim the prize building and may even displace the pioneers in the name of renewal. This can of course be good and bad. 

This is how religion at times progresses and this is also why the original spirit of the founders are at times lost and there is need to go to the the upper stream if one wants to have water that is fresh and clear. This Lord Bo Tien said. 

Thus this is also the reason why the lord saint said that there is need to let men know the inner truth that is basic to all religions and sects. 

The aspects of the inner truth are: 

(1) The truth of God and saints is universal. 

(2) The need to cultivate oneself by balancing the polarities or opposites in life is universal. You may call this yin and yang, the soft and hard attributes in life. 

(3) The need for us not to blame God or Satan for our failings too is basic understanding. But sometimes when men create and evolve dogmas and organised themselves as sects and religions, they may divide men in name of sects or religions. They may at times even pit men of the same religion against one another. 

In perhaps a temple or church, men may at times pit brothers against brothers, ridicule the pioneers and turn a temple or church upside down, defeating the original purpose. This, if it happens, is the making of men and not the wish of God and saints.

In some Chinese temples, even the iconic Bagua on the floor of say the early temple sheds takes on a new meaning in the subsequent majestic new temple buildings. 

Many fail to understand that the Bagua originates centuries ago as the dragon and phoenix which depict the yin and yang, the soft and hard attributes of life. 

Later the sages of old in China replaced this with the double dragon supporting pearl. This then came to be represented as the "taiji", the two fish like symbols in the Bagua. 

Newer generation in that temple (more so after the successful completion of concrete and majestic premise), out of their lack of understanding may even say that one dragon depicts the shrine and the other the welfare activities. 

They may even register the welfare activities as a separate entity from the temple. They say both are needed to carry the pearl of success. 

But aren't the welfare activities the result of the spiritual thrust in the first place. Yes, they have forgotten and they should not be blamed for perhaps they know not what they do or knowingly chose to do so. This may be considered the failing and weakness of men but not all will agree. 

Without the failings of men in some temples and sects, there would be no need for the mission of God to invigorate the inner truth understanding and grasp in men in whatever religions or sects they may profess. 

Lord Bo Tien is but a messenger for this mission. He is not starting a new religion or a new sect. 

Lord Bo Tien

The message is to go to the upper stream for clear water. Go to the basic denominator underlying all religions and sects. The inner truth is that basic denominator. 

Religions and sects or for that matter temples and churches are generally rightly poised to serve men and God but they perhaps can even fare better by going to the basics and fundamentals. 

This will further unite men in God through the pillars of religions. The diversity of religions are meant to bring more men to God and not to divide men.