Understanding Religious Differences: The First Step Toward World Peace

If understanding other people and their religious beliefs is the key to acceptance and peace, then how can we begin to understand? What does our faith say about our personal relationship with our God and the world? Where do we draw the line between secular messages, and why has the real truth been veiled from our basic understanding. Understanding other people's culture, religion and beliefs can be sought through:

1. Prayer,
2. Meditation,
3. Education.

Many of us were raised by our families to believe that one faith is the only truth. In fact, the lack of understanding of other religions and belief systems causes fear and mistrust. Fear is the root of hate.

The first thing we need to recognize is that most of History is lost and/or extremely filtered or censored. Whether through natural causes such as storms, floods and fire, or through so called "Book Burnings" that quickly dispel the past during international conflict. Propaganda is an easy tool used to erase the truth. Knowing this, all that has been passed down orally and eventually in writing have been contoured for specific purposes and for mass discipline. This is the model for modern politics. Exploitation is a key to damage or repair any decided and given situation. As long as your right hand doesn't know what your left hand is doing, you are good to go with propaganda.

If we become educated and open minded we will begin to experience a peace and serenity that God has intended for us. Many "Devout" Christians make statements such as, "Muslims are to blame for the problems in the world." or, "Islam is an evil faith and all 'those people' in the Middle East are inherently evil and do not want peace". This couldn't be further from the truth.

The fact is that most people in the world prefer love over hatred, peace before war. Modern Western media portrays Middle Easterners as "Savage, Tribal Warmongers" who want nothing more than to destroy the earth and force those who remain to follow their beliefs.

This couldn't be farther from the truth. In fact, the Middle East is the birthplace of so called "Modern Religion". Christianity and Islam were created from peoples of the same lineage. That is why the "Holy Land" is so sought after. If we knew more about our neighbors couldn't we have a chance at peace?

Although we wake up every day to start a new day, we aren't fully awake in the world. If we spent more time in prayer, learning and reaching out to our brothers and sisters, maybe we would find less reason and time to hate.

If we pray to our loving father and ask him for forgiveness from prejudice and sin, we just might have a chance at understanding. We pray the "Our Father" because that is the way Jesus taught us to pray. We ask for forgiveness because without it, our burden is too heavy to bare and we can not focus on the task at hand, we always think about our sins and transgressions. We pray for peace and love, we pray with hope. If we keep hope we can move mountains.

Meditation is the process toward freeing of the mind. Simplifying our thoughts and creating a very fine focus is the point of meditation. Meditation is so simple in nature that it is extremely difficult in practice. We need to find a place and a time where we can be free from secular propaganda and outside influence. Detachment from outside sources and internal thoughts must be put into living practice in order to meditate properly. Some key elements to proper and sober meditation are, and are not limited to:

• Environment-pick a quiet and stress free environment
• Silence-the key to inner focus is silence. Be silent in action, thought and soul; slow your breathing so that it makes no noise or movement; don't forget to breathe.
• Music or Sound ("Noise Therapy")- play and listen to, if you so desire, soft music. Play chanting and or A'Capella sound to draw you into focus.
• Repetition Is Key- When you settle and feel the vibrations of sound flowing through your body and soul, you can begin to release your old thoughts and stress.

Education is important when learning about different cultures, religions, beliefs, and peoples. Education is not rated by scholastic tests or exams. True education is the seeking of facts and knowledge of the past, research and study create the present, and adding everything together brings us the future. The future is influenced by the past but the present is completely in our hands. What we choose to do with our education is what makes a difference and leaves an impact on this world.