ok, cartographer@ok_cartographer

Replying to @prodigygrimes

Your Spanish example is amazing. In Spanish, whenever we speak of death, we use the transient "estar" as opposed to the definitive "ser". "El está muerto", not "El es muerto". So, in the same way I say "está aquí" - in reference to my transient location, I say "está muerto". Ser is improper here because baked within the language itself is an entirely different way of perceiving the world that is inaccessible if you do not speak that language. There are no direct translations - only approximations. Each language serves as a different colored lens. In English, we are not afforded such a luxury, and there is no differentiation between the two. Death is much more definitive. It is in part why Americans are so scared of it, I imagine "I speak Spanish to God, Italian to women, French to men, and German to my horse." - Charles V The same is true of religion. There is a phenomenology baked into each respective language & religion. Hindi has 72 ways to say the word "love", with varying contexts. English has one. So if I were to translate the word "love" into Hindi, it would be incredibly difficult to convey even what the hell I'm even talking about if I hadn't done years studying the language, it's cultural development, etc... the same thing is true of religions. And, while every religion is true, each religion has fundamental claims that vary (Islam & Christianity, for instance, have fundamentally different foundational claims) Religions are, in large, written & recorded by humans. So, in truth, every religion is false in some ways as well! But the fault lies not within God, but within the human. Christ tells us "beware of the scribes", and this is true - many scribes have altered the words of the prophets and of God. The same can be said of Buddhism as well. The Buddha, in reality, never meant to start a religion but rather a practice - it was his followers who created the religion, and thus Buddhists prayer to Bodhisattvas to help then reach Enlightenment (in a similar way to how we pray to Saints to intercede and ask God to help us; perhaps it is because they are also seeking God and tried to find Him in Buddha). So, then, which religion do I practice? It would be the definition of syncretism to pray the rosary and then attend a Hindu temple, if you see my point. It is a tricky subject. Each religion is true in that they perceive the same reality we all do, but just like the example I gave with language, the manner in which that religion is expressed is an entire universe in and of itself. Again in language, a gendered noun gives the noun a more masculine and feminine connotation, and in the unconscious of the individual, they perpetually view that object as being masculine or feminine. Let's say in Language A, the word for bridge is gendered as feminine, while in Language B it is masculine. They are the same object reality, yet the language of the native speaker colors how they perceive that reality. A good way to think about it is the Tower of Babble. Perhaps it was not only the universal language that was broken, but religion as well. So should we try and rebuild Babble? I find the moral of the story is no. So in the end, the truth is simple - just follow the Tao, the Truth, and the Life. The way, however, is complex.