Dare to be different like the sages of old

Learning Point No 326

If you do not believe the package teachings of conventional religious institutions, you are not odd or lost to religions. In fact, you may perhaps be different and more perceptive than those who just flow along with culture and the tide. 

Had not prophets and founders of religions be different and not accept the culture and norms of their times, there would be no religions  and sects that we come to know today. They were not dogmatic and did not just accept so that they can flow with the crowd. They questioned and were different. They had no notion that they are creating religions. 

They did not consciously create religions that we know today. These arose from what they profess. If they had not professed beliefs and understanding that were different and somewhat at odds with their times, the religions and sects that we know today would not be there. 

But the irony is that the religions of today that take reference from them too have evolved and may be so changed that if they were around today, what would they say? Perhaps they would be heartened that men do not just believe but think on what best to believe. 

Men are like them. Men dare to think differently and be different but this is alright so long as the basic doctrine, the fundamentals are more or less the same. These basics are what collectively referred to by Lord Bo Tien as the Inner Truth. 

The truth is that all religions and sects are different but yet one in God and saints. Saints might preach what were best for the times and the people but there will ever be the same one Divinity or God. 

God has his saints and saints do try various ways to help and save men. One saint alone cannot help all but only some. More are needed. Thus one religion is not enough and one sect for one religion too is not enough. There must be many. 

Men too reinvent more ways that better appeal to fellow men. But whatever the ways, the fact remains that there are the ups and downs in life. These can be upsetting and men must find peace unaffected by the ups and downs, the dualism in life. 

The peace cannot come from without but from within the man. Man must be at peace with himself and only then can he be at peace with the world outside himself. Man must find God in himself, in his heart before he can find God everywhere outside him. 

It is always the case that those who found God in them are those who are different and do not just flow along. They need to question, to rethink and to  be challenged or troubled enough to want to have that peace that can only be found in their hearts before they can be at peace with the world and the whole gamut of ups and downs inherent in nature and life. 

Men must dare to be different and go against the tide. Men must if they want to be insightful and grasp the divine peace. Men must dare to be different like the sages of old such as Buddha, Lao Tse, Ji Gong and Jesus. 

He is different. He is Ji Gong

If Ji Gong had not been different and ate meat, drank wine, would we know him as Ji Gong today? Surely not.... He said that "what matters is what goes through the heart and not what goes through the gut or what one does."

Gautama Buddha

If Gautama had not been different and decided to eat and not follow ascetic self mortification, would he have become the Buddha? His five followers left him when he decided to eat and not mortify. He even ate whatever offered by others to him, even meat. 

Jesus did not sing the tune of the Roman Empire or the synagogues then. He was different and that made him special and the Messiah. Death on the cross could not stop him. He did not die but live on. He was resurrected. Had he not been different, we will not know him as the messiah.