The Universal God: The Search for God in the Twenty-First Century

(Paperback)

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This is the first book of a trilogy titled: "The Universal God". It is subtitled: "The Search for God in the Twenty-First Century". It is written as a comparative religion book and focuses on the major modern religions: Hinduism, Confucianism/Taoism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Differing from many other comparative religion books that focus on the difference between these religions; this book seeks to find the commonalities and 'Truths' that these religions share with each other. The difficulty with attempting this search within the modern versions of these religions is that many of those core teachings and principles that they do share with each other have become hidden within the 'exclusiveness' that these religions now want to proclaim: They alone are 'the one true path' and they alone hold the keys to salvation.
To find those commonalities within their 'shared Truths', the search cannot be directed to the present. Instead, these religions must be stripped clean and taken back to their original beginnings, their roots before they became organized religions. In their beginnings, there were only the 'founding sources', 'divine sparks' and 'revelation'. In those 'founding' moments, 'Truths' were revealed that equally apply to all human beings. Those founding 'Truths' are 'Universal' and belong to everyone. This book searches for those 'Truths' by exploring the lives and teachings of the Buddha, Jesus, Krishna, Mohammed, Confucius, Lao-tzu, Abraham, Moses and the many other prophets and teachers who provided the initial spiritual inspiration that brought these religions into existence. The book is formatted to discuss each of the religions within separate, self-contained chapters. It then concludes with a 'Commentary' section. This part of the book searches within these religions for shared principles and teachings. When we analyze these religions in this manner, we find that there are many theological and philosophical teachings that these religions do have in common with each other.
In the search for God: there are multiple different paths that seekers may travel in their search: First, there are many human beings who have already developed their own personal relationship with God and have found their individual spiritual fulfillment within one of the different major modern religions. Second, there are many human beings who believe in God but have had difficulties in conceptualizing what those beliefs may be. Third, there are many human beings who believe in God, but in some manner have become disenchanted by the dogmatic, doctrinal, and institutional approaches that these organized religions require to fulfill those beliefs.
This book can offer spiritual guidance to those individuals who identify themselves with either the second or third categories. Through the revelations and teachings that are set forth by those different 'founding masters'; a fuller and broader understanding of God's attributes and total 'Being' are brought forth for discussion. Within this book, the following major attributes of God are discussed: God as Ultimate Reality; God as Creator; God as Lawgiver (These laws include both Natural Laws and Moral Laws); God as Father; God as the Soul (Spirit); and, God as Messiah (Avatar).
This book can equally function as a book for individual study or be used as a textbook for comparative religion study.

Author Bio

For most of my life, I have been on a spiritual quest. As a child, questions arose within me that I could not answer. I could not understand why; if Jesus loved all the children of the world, why would Christian children alone be the ones that he would save If God is our Father, why is He Father to Christians only He surely had to be everyone's Father. At that time, I had no answers, but my list of questions kept growing within me. By the time that I began my college years, I finally was able to formally begin my personal 'quest' and the search for those answers. This began a lifetime passion. My journey brought me to: Christian Mysticism: Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman, Meister Eckhart, St Anthony, Thomas Aquinas, Thomas Merton, William Blake, Joseph Campbell, W. Summerset Maugham; Buddhism: The Four Noble Truths, The Eightfold Path, Zen Buddhism, J. T. Suzuki, meditation, walking meditation, Koan meditation, running meditation, Dalai Lama, Tibetan Book of the Dead, more meditation, Pursuit of Bodhisattva, Mind Science; Zoroaster; Kahlil Gibran; Houston Smith; Joseph Gaer; Vedanta Teachings: The Bhagavad Gita, The Upanishads, Eknath Easwaran, Mantra meditation, Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Raj Yoga, reading meditation; Lao-tzu, Tao Te Ching, I Ching; more meditations; Sufism, Hafez of Shiraz, Maulana Rumi and still more meditation. On this 'mish-mash' of a 'spiritual journey', many things came together and made sense; but other things continued to be contradictive and confusing. Then Meher Baba entered my life. As I began to read, study and meditate upon his teachings; all my contradictions and confusions disappeared. His teachings fill in the missing blanks and made this journey become whole and fulfilled. He brought coherence and structure to my search.

The conundrum that a 'spiritual journey' requires is that the journey must be made internally, within the seeker's 'mind' and 'soul'. The truths and insights gained are often difficult to articulate outward. Spirituality drives the seeker to focus one's consciousness inward.

Life itself, however, intervenes and requires that it is lived out in the opposite direction. We are of the world and life's journey must be lived 'out there' in that world. In the living of my life: I am married with two grown children and four grandchildren. I graduated from college with an undergraduate degree and a masters' degree in Economics. I spent most of my professional career working in a variety of jobs that required analytical, statistical and writing skills. I am now retired. I have found that my greatest joys in retirement have been found in spending time with my wife and playing with our grandchildren and our dog.

Retirement, however, has also allowed me to reflect upon my 'spiritual journey' and to begin deciphering and organizing the contents of that journey. This late life inspiration has given me the opportunity to bring out that which I had held privately within me for so long. Through the writing of this Universal God trilogy, I am hoping to share with you the reader what I have learned from this 'spiritual journey' that has consumed so much of my inner life.