God in the world of men

Learning Point No 375

God is for all men and all beings. He cares and loves even those who do not believe in Him. . 

God is never the monopoly of any sector, group or religion. There is no chosen people and no one is denied from getting to know God. 

There is no exclusion of anyone, not even those in Hell. There is no precondition from knowing and getting close to God and his saints. 

Such preconditions only exist in the minds of men. Even the answers to who is God, how he came to be God and what he is like differ from person to person. What he can do and what he can not are contentious. 

Men can argue till kingdom come and no one is wiser to the truth. 

Whether in the first place, there is God or whether the world or universe can exist in the absence of God should not stop man from cultivating goodness akin to Godliness. 

Whether God is the creator or the created or both creator and created will never ever be known by men but this should not deter men from spiritual pursuits. 

Cultures of men tell us myths of the origin of God and the universe that are often too simplistic and unbelievable though they were consistent with the times of old. 

To stop God belief from ridicule, men capitalise on fear and say that it is blasphemous not to belief the stories and myths on origins of God and universe. 

Religions created and institutionalized by men erect dogmas to state the stories as realities not to be doubted. 

Modern culture would weave the evolution into the God belief and this is to be expected of men but in years to come, this may then be outdated and be subjected to ridicule as well.

Whether men need to have God concept in their spiritual pursuits is not the concern of God but may be the concerns of men. 

It is the heart that counts and not what one professes to believe and do. 

This is just like what Ji Gong said that what matters is what goes through the heart and not what one does or what goes through the gut. 

The one who believes in God may not be as Godly as the one who is not. He who knows how to be Godly is closer to God than one who is not Godly but believes in God. 

The one who is Godly has the God in him even if he believes not in God. He may even be closer to God than you think. 

To be Godly means to be pure, to love life more so own life as well as that of others, to appreciate the chance to be man and to value life, neither to waste or deny life nor indulge in excess but to be at peace and in cool control of the peace of the spirit or soul come what may. 

The sages of old refer to this as to be atop of the yin and yang. This is not just found in Taoism but is inherently present and written into all cultures, sects and religions. 

Lord Bo Tien refer to this as the basic or inner truth common to and behind all religions.

The green green grass of home

Learning Point No 374

There is more to life at home than we think. We always prefer the home away from home. We envy what others have. We want to live away from parents and want to strike it out alone. 

We give up a stable job and go for a new one. Is the new one better? Distant fields may look greener but there is nothing like the green green grass of home. 

We often think that what we have now is not as good as what others have. But once we get what others have, there is no guarantee that it will be better than what we have now. This is the situation which everyone may find himself in. 

True the new can be better than the present or the old. But before we give up the old, let us learn to better appreciate the old before we plunge for the new. 

This applies to the religion and culture we are born into. Many cast disdain on the culture or religion they are in without even knowing more and decide that the religion that others offer is better or at least has more to offer. Distant fields may look greener but there is nothing like the green green grass of home. 

The next time we think that the religion of our forefathers is not good, think twice. Are we saying that our forefathers are backward, ignorant and ill bred? Surely not. There is more to it than meet the eyes. 

The new may be better but make sure we know the old better before we make our judgement. Please judge not lest we be judged. 

For example, do not be taken aback when others think that our forefathers are idol worshipers for those who claim they do not idol worship may well be idolising God and saints without knowing the Word and they forget that the Word is God. 

God is present in all religions. This the lord saint Lord Bo Tien reiterated. Even in a Chinese cultural temple, do we find God and the Word of God. The Living Life Series is testimony to this. 

All religions are one in God and God is one in all religions. Know the Word, and we will know God and saints. This is the truth we must know. Thus did the lord saint, Lord Bo Tien say.

Know the Word and we will know all religions and why they are same and yet different, so that more can know The Word and God, for the Word is God. 

It may be not fruitful to be changing religion or sect just because others tell us to do so. Don't judge a book by the cover. Don't be swayed by the worldly appeal of men who likes to oversell. Human appeal alone should ideally not be the push and pull factor. That might well be somewhat shallow as such.

We may end up uprooting ourselves and have to grow new roots. This may also become a fad and fad does change in cyclical fashion. We should not change religion like changing fashion and clothes.

Better to know and fathom more the Word in the culture or religion you are in. Compare this with the very same Word in other religions and cultures, albeit presented in different perspectives and ways. 

That way we will know more and be closer to God and saints. Then we may realize that distant fields may look greener but there is nothing like the green green grass of home. 

But perhaps, we may need to change religion or sect after all. Then our choice would be that more well deliberated, more in depth and will be based on an informed decision and due to a better calling as such. 

It would be truly a call of God through His Word presented in the format that best fit our spirit or soul. Praise God and saints. May God bless us.

Doctrine grows the light and liberates the spirit

Learning Point No 373

Let us face facts. The doctrine phase of mission is in for good and doing well. 

The pioneer phase of the lord saint Lord Bo Tien's descent to the world in the first 13 years some 45 years ago from 2013 is now history. 

Even the second phase of love for fellow beings is now in place, more as backdrop than the front or forerunner of mission. 

People are asking more on doctrine. What must be the attitude of the mind? How do we go beyond the physical needs of the world? What more beyond mundane worldly milestones, events and needs? 

What must be the long lasting impact on the spirit and soul in the present life and way beyond this life? Surely, these must transcend the essence and substantiality of the first two phases of mission. 

Knowing God and saint is just not enough at all. Worshiping God and saints is beyond prayer and worship? 

We must be also go beyond the motivation for doing physical or mundane good for the less fortunate in the form of welfare activities which meet only the worldly needs. 

Doctrine must take precedence. It nourishes the soul and enhances it to grow from darkness to light and from light to light. Doctrine grows the light and liberates the spirit.

In both the mission to save souls as well as the individual life, there are three phases. 

The first is phase of coming to know God and saints. 

The second is the motivation to do worldly good from knowing God and saints by helping the less endowed so they have ample worldly needs. 

The third is to go beyond just alleviating mundane or worldly misfortunes of the unfortunate and the poor. This requires growing the light and liberating the spirit by knowing doctrine God and saints stand for.  

Doctrine opens the way to save souls as mere belief in God (and saints) and good deeds are not good enough. 

The pivotal yin yang balance is the determinant of success in practice of doctrine, be it for mission or for individual life, be it in any religion or in secular life. 

Any principle that applies to spiritual if applied to secular worldly life brings about enough comforts without excesses. 

This will surely facilitate optimal growth of the peace of the soul. There will be no incessant wants to spur excesses and in process create unrest and impede, or worse still, degrade the soul or spirit. 

Doctrine grows the light of God and saints in us and liberates the soul from form to formless and to beyond even formless - to be of pure essence, ever unconfined, without borders and omnipresent like God and saints.  

More on the God Knowledge

Learning Point No 372

How can we know that the gospel or scripture truth is really the whole verbatim truth when it had to be narrated and later written down many many years later, perhaps even centuries later? 

What we can hope at best is that by God's grace, the writers of old would be able to pen down what they could recollect and share with later men like us whatever precious little or more they know of the gospel or scriptures though their mental eyes. 

Thus what we can have is at best a view of their visions of the gospel but not exactly whole in real absolute terms. But we cannot say it is adulterated or unadulterated. 

The writers would not want to discredit themselves but as long as they are men, they would not be as absolute and dead correct as the prophets or saints who delivered the gospel or scriptures. 

Anyway, gospels are only divine guides and even if there is the hand of God and gospel writing through automatic writing or what have you, there is the re-channeling of sorts and this will somehow make at least some subtle differences which may not be for the worse but at times may be for the better and good of the many. 

There is of course nothing like the gospels being written by God and saints. But who would think that this is plausible unless the writers are the very saints themselves from whose mouths the gospels were uttered and floweth forth. 

Even then history is replete with and not short of instances where the very translations of the gospels undergo some revisions of sorts due to ineptness of language as the style of language itself changes with time. 

Thus the translations must change in tandem and the latter-day clergy who effected the change, like it or not, had not the first or second hand knowledge of the gospels other than through passed down written texts in languages that were not of second nature to them. 

Thus the lord saint Lord Bo Tien wants us to know that there is need to rekindle and reinvigorate the spirit of the founders of religions and men must learn to decipher more from life the basic truth behind all the well written gospels and see the magnificence of the teachings as known by the pioneers. 

This the human transmitter at Bo Tien mission half century ago (perhaps only 45 years w.e.f. 2013) refer to as God Knowledge. 

This is however definitely not the last word on the God Knowledge. Our life is the living gospel which will elaborate on the God Knowledge. This the lord messenger Lord Bo Tien did reiterate and wants us to know. God bless.

Let us face facts. God is God, not man

Learning Point No 371

Let us face facts. Are we closer to God and his saints by having more choice of religions and sects, by having more differing styles of relating to God and saints? 

The answer is a big 'Yes' as there is need for God to bless all men with more choices and more chances. What is good to John may not be good to Jane. That is a reality. 

If there be only one choice, then God is being not fair loving and just as that choice only appeals to a minority. What about the interests and needs of the many others? 

If you say that to worship God, all must carry incense sticks, then many more may be alienated than be attracted to have affinity with God and his saints. 

If you say and insist that all must sit cross legged in meditation for a few hours every day, then you are raising the barriers for men to get closer to God and saints. 

This is not that there is no value in meditation but that there is more to religion and affinity with God and his saints than meditation. 

Also, there are many ways to kindle the light in us than just sitting full lotus cross legged in guru style meditation. Prayer of any form or even free style is in a way meditation of sorts. 

As said before and need to say again, there must be choices and God provides many so that many can higher chances of developing affinity with God and his heavenly saints. 

Praise God for his love and understanding. Let us face facts. God is not like some men.  Men may be that narrow minded and want to alienated others by creating barriers for them. They may want to have exclusive hold on God. 

God opens himself to all even those whom many think are beyond redemption. They too have the right and places with God in their own ways and no one can say they are condemned or goner for good. That is why God is God and not man. 

For men, there is eternal damnation or hell if you are disobedient but for God, how can that be if God is God and a loving and benevolent God. Men may like to curse and damn but not God. 

Even those already in Hell will be saved by His saints who heed the cries of those in Hell. They will show those in Hell how to cultivate the Way or Tao even in the midst of Hell fire. This is so that they may leave Hell and be in Heaven and beyond like the saints themselves. 

King Yama the lord of Hell is ever too busy helping them as well to think and energise any past good they have so that they need not be in Hell even a second more than necessary. 

King Yama

Linyin monastery monks might have condemned, defrocked and sent away from the monastery the young novice monk Ji Gong as he did not behave with decorum, drank wine and ate meat. 

Ji Gong - Lord Ji

But he was pure and cultivated at heart. "What matters is what goes through the heart and not what goes through the gut or one's outward display." 

This was the pivotal principle of Ji Gong. His practice was based on this. He succeeded and is the living Buddha after all. 

Why must followers of the same saint be divided into sects?

Learning Point No 370

It is interesting that when a saint or at least his human intermediary is around, there is no division among the adherents or followers. They may not agree with one another but all can be together because the saint is around and holds them together even if they are a diverse bunch. 

Thus in the days of historical saints, there is no sects or divisions. There is not even the official name of the specific particular religion then. The followers were merely believers. 

They are simply followers or adherents of the teachings. But lo and behold, once the saints are no longer around and with the passing of time, these people suddenly notice they do have differing views and desire to strike out on their own separate ways. 

They do want to be distinct from one another. They then become separate and distinctive entities which we do know as sects. 

Each sect thinks their sect is better and more right and claim the others are not as right. This don't seem ideal to many. 

But if the saint returns, there will be no separate groupings or sects and they will gel as one. They then become merely followers or adherents of the saint. 

They will then see themselves as one in the saint and not as separate sects or groups. They are like brothers of the same family that is brethren of the same saint. 

Isn't this strange and bewildering? How strange can men be? The different sects of a religion will no longer be there once the saint of the religion returns in physical form. 

This does tell us more of the human kind. Why are men like that? Why must there be denominations, sects or divisions?

There should not be any, when all saints of God say that they are not as important as the Word or teachings. The Word is God. 

Those who see and know the Word see and know God and saint. Those who do not, see not and know not the saint even if the saint is before them. This did Lord Bo Tien say. 

If the followers of the saint of a religion know the doctrine of the saint, they would see and know the saint. They would be one in the saint. 

If they are divided as separate sects, then they are not one in the saint. Is this because they see not the saint because they see not the Word of the saint? 

We will never really know but why are men like that? Why must men be divided into sects and groups when the saint is not around but not so when the saint is? 

Why must followers of the same saint be divided into sects? What does this tell us? 

Men should know, don't they? But perhaps God and saints know better. 

Thus in the mission of Lord Bo Tien to let the world know the oneness of religions, there too will be one lord saint in Lord Bo Tien but there may be different groups for the mission. 

This however may not be ideal but their existence will always be a reality even in any religion or mission. Men will always be men. Men will be like that. History bears witness to this reality and trend.

Hopefully in most situations, their work will be somehow complementary and perhaps at times even synergistic. They may appeal to the varying tastes and needs of mankind. They will thus reach out to more to save more souls. 

PS But do note that some sects of a religion may be under the different disciples of the same one saint. 

Are we living up to God's will?

Learning Point 369

The problem is not with God and saints but with men when the issue of why despite the diversity of religions and men, few are spiritually close to God. 

Why is this the case when religions and sects have undertaken the job religiously to bring men to God? 

The reasons are many and plentiful. Men though not perfect, always want their way and they think that popular views must take precedence. 

Popular views may not be right and exactly what God wants. It is not question of free will or for that matter popular democracy of religious kind but more a question of insight that only the exceptional rare few will achieve. 

But how can the rare few convince the many or dictate what the many need to believe and to do in matters of spirituality? That is the problem. 

Thus church or temple leadership are at odds over trivial matters that should be sidelined and not considered, all because they want to and have to heed the ground somehow or other. 

Gay issue is one such matter. Is gay sex the design of God? Well, nowadays, no leader dare to ruffle the sentiments of even any odd single segment of the congregation for fear of backlash. 

When ground swell is given unfettered leeway, God it seems will have to listen to the ground and God will have to listen to the bidding of men, not men listening to God and doing the bidding of God. 

Yes indeed God gives freewill to choose what man likes to do with his life and man must bear the consequences. God will want man to live his own life and make it to Him in the end. God cannot live the life for man. 

But this does not mean that men dictate how religions should conduct themselves. The Word or teachings of God should be institutionalized and set as dogmas if need be. 

Thus men have carried out the dogmatisation of God Knowledge or Word to regularize religion as institution. Otherwise there will be no semblance of consensus. This is the basic problem of religion as institution.

But if the teachings of God are made rigid and cast as dogmas, then dear readers, this will be against the will of God to respect the rationality and wisdom of men. 

Unfortunately, men tend ever to be smarter with time and sometimes too smart even for God. Men wants to outsmart others, even God and saints. Men take liberty to change and modify dogmas. Dogmas then are no more than man-made and not dictated by the will of God. 

Through man made dogmas, men do dictate how religions are poised to win over other men and how men should live up to God's expectations. But in reality are they living up to God's will or man's will? 

This is a silly question to many and the majority answer may well be wrong or at least not so right. So have some thought on this. Are we living up to God's will? 

Who should lead? Is it the few man who knows better but who are too way ahead of the crowd or is it the crowd or majority? 

It is easy to say God leads but often this will still end up with some men usurping the leadership for there will be those who want to talk for God and make a puppet out of God and saints. 

The question is still the same. Are we living up to God's will or are we succumbing to the design of bigoted men who make a mockery of God and think and act for God?  

Such bigots claim to be men of God but they instead make God to be merely no more than a God of men? They ironically do make a mortal out of immortal God. God must listen to them.

Immortal God is made out to be like mortal man. He is made out to be one who must win the support of men otherwise he is no longer God. 

Democracy may in fact determine the tune. Perhaps popular decision must and can overrule the wisdom and will of God. Can this ever be the case? Isn't this absurd? 

How sad and pathetic can this be, if this is the case! Definitely, this cannot be evident of the historical Tao principle that "as on earth, so also in Heaven", or is this the case?