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Human Diversity in the Mirror of Religious Pluralism

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Human Diversity in the Mirror of Religious Pluralism Human Diversity in the Mirror of Religious Pluralism Samuel Bendeck Sotillos “It is the one truth, which jnānins call by return all together, and He will inform different names.” you of that wherein you differ… Rigveda 1:164:46 Qur'ān 5:481 For each among you We have appointed The many faces of xenophobia a [different] law and a way. And had God threaten not only the national secu- willed, He would have made you one community, but [He willed otherwise], 1 See Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Caner K. Dagli, Ma- that He might try you in that which He ria Massi Dakake, Joseph E.B. Lumbard and Mohammed Rustom (eds.), The Study Quran: has given you. So vie with one another A New Translation and Commentary (New in good deeds. Unto God shall be your York, NY: HarperCollins, 2015). 121 rity of a particular country, state or “Who am I?”—like religion itself, is region, but the stability of the entire reduced to socially constructed phe- world and fundamentally undermine nomena devoid of any transcend- the possibility of enduring peace for ent criteria. For some the mention all people. The rise of xenophobia, of religion itself provokes a nega- analogous to the violence and chaos that have become normalized today present-day and how estranged we are a symptom or a projection of the havetive reaction, become whichfrom religionis a reflection and the of imbalance and lack of peace found transcendent norms that were as- within the contemporary psyche. sociated with it that inform what it Given that very little positive news is means to be integrally human. covered in the mainstream media on How can religion contribute religion, it will appear to be counter- to peace when it appears to be the intuitive and even paradoxical to as- leading culprit of a world in crisis? sert the need to return to religion for This question can be answered di- an answer to the numerous persis- rectly and has been answered by tent and escalating prob- lems of the day, as religion “Truth does not deny forms from is all-too-often assumed the outside, but transcends them to be the primary cause from within.” though it goes against theof thesecurrent conflicts. mindset, Even religion could saints and sages across the cultures be the only way out of this predica- who have repeatedly instructed this: ment. Yet what is radically needed is It is through returning to the origi- to re-envision what religion is and to nal meaning of religion, especially clarify what it is not because misin- its spiritual or inner dimension formation dominates the mass me- and living in accordance with these dia which does little to present the teachings, that right relationship merits of religion. can be established throughout the Because of the interconnected web of life. What is urgently needed nature of the human and the Divine, is to increase spiritual literacy on a there is a sacred origin of human di- mass scale in order to foster genuine versity which is seldom recognized interfaith dialogue which can estab- or understood in today’s secular lish peace. Yet how can this be ac- world. The assertion that there is an complished given the myriad issues essential connection between them and magnitude of today’s problems? could be viewed with trepidation One way to do this would be given the prevalence of secularism to return to the perennial philoso- and its desacralized outlook. In this phy, the essential truths found at the context, the perennial question of— heart of all of the world’s religions, 122 including the First Peo- ples and their Shamanic traditions. The timeless and universal message which captures the es- sence of how peace can be established in these topsy-turvy times is ex- pressed here: “[P]eace… comes within the souls of people when they re- alize their relationship, their oneness, with the universe and all its pow- ers, and when they real- itualis. “The man of the traditional ize that at the center of the universe societies [and civilizations] is ad- dwells Wakan-Tanka [the Great Mys- mittedly a homo religiosus”. 4 The tery or Great Spirit], and that this connection between the human and center is really everywhere, it is the transpersonal was known since within each of us.”2 earliest times, “In one manner or an- differently, “[P]eace…is ultimately other all life is seen to participate in nothing else but order, Defined equilibrium, slightly the sacred, all cultural forms express - the sacred, so that inevitably within tion of unity in multiplicity.”3 this context the lives of those peo- or harmony…denoting…theIt is imperative to recall reflec that ples who live close to their sacred the etymological root of the English traditions may be called religious, word “religion” is from the Latin re- and they are thus beings who are ligare, meaning to “to re-bind” or religiously human.”5 Yet deprived of “to bind back” by implication to the the transcendent, true human iden- Divine or a transcendent Reality. Across the traditional civilizations, It is a precondition that being hu- the human state was considered to mantity is requires disfigured what and is beyond unintelligible. the hu- be inherently connected with the man state, what is transpersonal, in transpersonal and could be said to 4 Mircea Eliade, “Introduction,” to The Sacred be Homo religiosus or Homo spir- and the Profane: The Nature of Religion, trans. Willard R. Trask (New York, NY: Harcourt 2 Black Elk, quoted in Joseph Epes Brown, The Brace Jovanovich, 1987), p. 15. Sacred Pipe: Black Elk’s Account of the Seven 5 Joseph Epes Brown, “On Being Human,” in The Rites of the Oglala Sioux (Norman, OK: Univer- Spiritual Legacy of the American Indian: Com- sity of Oklahoma Press, 1989), p. 115. memorative Edition with Letters While Living 3 René Guénon, “War and Peace,” in The Symbol- with Black Elk, eds. Marina Brown Weatherly, ism of the Cross, trans. Angus Macnab (Ghent, Elenita Brown and Michael Oren Fitzgerald NY: Sophia Perennis et Universalis, 1996), p. (Bloomington, IN: World Wisdom, 2007), p. 43. 93. 123 order to make it human. sincerely believe themselves to be In the same way that human religious have for the most part a diversity requires a metaphysical greatly diminished idea of religion: framework to accurately situate the dialectic between differences and on their thoughts or actions and is asit hasif separated hardly any from effective the rest influence of their at their innermost core, the same life. Practically, believers and unbe- issimilarities, true for religious and what pluralism. unifies themThis lievers alike act in almost the same is made evident in the following: way”.8 “Truth does not deny forms from the An essential stumbling block outside, but transcends them from in comprehending human diversity, within.”6 What is critically needed not unlike religious pluralism, is due is not a shallow or docile tolerance to the prevailing weltanschauung of toward understanding the diverse modernism and postmodernism and human collectivities and religions, its entrenched assumptions about rather a quality of receptivity and the nature of reality. “[M]odern man way of seeing that recognizes the has desacralized his world and as- necessity of these differences and sumed a profane existence.”9 So dia- what is beyond them. “That which metrically opposed is the worldview is lacking in the present world is a of secularism with that of the sapi- profound knowledge of the nature ential traditions that the following of things; the fundamental truths needs to be kept in mind: “[N]onre- are always there, but they do not ligious man has been formed by op- impose themselves because they posing his predecessor, by attempt- cannot impose themselves on those ing to ‘empty’ himself of all religion unwilling to listen.”7 Due to the im- and all transhuman meaning.”10 It is balance that dominates this era, the in this context that we can better un- religions themselves are not imper- derstand the psychological mecha- nisms underlying the attack waged are facing myriad challenges from on religion: “‘Religion has failed’ say within.meable Withto these this conflicts said, there as theyis a cer too- its critics. They do not understand tain shortsightedness or spiritual illiteracy with regards to those who 8 René Guénon, “The Reform of the Modern Mentality,” in Symbols of Sacred Science, trans. identify themselves as being reli- Henry D. Fohr, ed. Samuel D. Fohr (Hillsdale, gious, while well intended, they of- NY: Sophia Perennis, 2004), p. 2. ten do not adequately understand 9 Mircea Eliade, “Introduction,” to The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of Religion, trans. what this means: “[E]ven those who Willard R. Trask (New York, NY: Harcourt 6 Frithjof Schuon, “The Vedanta,” in Language Brace Jovanovich, 1987), p. 13. of the Self (Bloomington, IN: World Wisdom 10 Mircea Eliade, “Human Existence and Sancti- Books, 1999), p. 40. The Sacred and the Profane: The 7 Frithjof Schuon, “No Activity Without Truth,” Nature of Religion, trans. Willard R. Trask Studies in Comparative Religion, Vol. 3, No. 4 (Newfied Life,” York, in NY: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, (Autumn 1969), p. 195. 1987), p. 204. 124 that it is not religion but those who analyzing these underlying assump- analyze, criticize, and neglect it who tions or rather fundamental biases, - we are limited to a surface level of manity which is precisely to be re- understanding of human diversity ligioushave failed (since in nothe other first creatureduty of canhu and religious pluralism. “When we be) and that humanity has through use the term “modern” we mean nei- its fault lost its sense of direction.”11 ther contemporary nor up-to-date….
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