THE NATURE OF TRUTH  by Brother Martin

(taken from THE FOUR O’CLOCK TALKS Discussions with JOHN MARTIN SAHAJANANDA p113 compiled by Carrie Lock)

 

‘What advice would you offer regarding entering places of worship outside of our own religion?


The question is, ‘Do you believe there are many gods or do you believe there is one God?’ If you believe there are many gods, then entering different places of worship becomes a problem. But if you believe there is only one God, and every person worships that one God, then you see that one God wherever you go. Here in this room, there is empty space. Let’s say this building is a church, and that other building is a temple, and that one a mosque and the other a Sikh temple, a gurdwara. When you enter this building here, the church, what do you see? You see empty space. If you go to the temple, what do you see? Again you see empty space. If you go to the mosque, you see empty space. If you go to the gurdwara, there too you will see empty space. What is the difference between this emptiness and the emptiness outside? Is there any difference? It is conditioned by the walls. If we remove this wall what happens? There is only one space. When you go into any church or temple, don’t see the walls, just see the empty space. That empty space is God, unconditioned. We have two gods, one is unconditioned and the other is conditioned. If you are able to see this emptiness wherever you go, you will not be disturbed because you are not seeing the external walls or the color or the shape, you are only seeing the emptiness.

          All problems come when we are only interested in the walls. This is the mosque, this is the temple and this is the church. They are all human constructions. That empty space is God and we must be able to see that empty space in every religion. Of course, we need to consider the conditions of this space. Sometimes we might need to make it a bit more open, give it some windows and things like this, but what we need to see is the space. It is the space which unites us with everyone and not the external walls. That is why we should not be fearful about going anywhere. Christ made us free. I don’t think Christians, or peoples of any religion, should be enslaved by the walls. We represent Christ. What type of Christ do we represent to the world: a Christ who brings peace, unity and freedom or a Christ who divides people in the name of religion?


 



 

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