The Apple Tree of Religion

I admire the idealism of some groups like Bahai that call for the unification of all religions. But how can all religions come together if not even the various sects within a religion can come together to live in harmony, love, and peace? Witness the discord between Sunni and Shi’ite Muslims.

If you think of world religions in the symbolism of an apple tree, you have the enlightened founders forming the roots and trunk (foundation). Then you have the five major boughs: Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism. From these, you see various offshoots and branches, which are newer religions or movements, such as Taoism and Shintoism in Asia and Eastern Orthodoxy and Protestantism in Europe. These newer religions are further broken down into sects or cults, which are either smaller branches or offshoots. For example, Lutherans are a Protestant sect and Mormons are considered a cultic offshoot of Protestantism. Then within sects, you have subsects like the Evangelicals of the Lutherans.

Just like an apple tree, it’s natural for religions to divide. If an apple tree didn’t divide, it wouldn’t produce blossoms from its smallest branches that later become fruit. So, what are the flowers and fruit of the various branches of religion? They are the mystics and saints in every religion who have distilled the essence of their religion and embodied in their lives and teaching the highest ideals of the founders, the sap from the roots. The highest ideal is the same for every religion, just as the apples are all the same in every branch. It may be called by different names: nirvana, satori, moksha, salvation, enlightenment, but it’s the same God consciousness.

Rather than getting lost in the entangling branches and leaves (pages of dogma) that divide religions, we should focus on the common roots and trunk of spirituality and the common fruits of the saints. Read their biographies and the words they left behind as a legacy, and practice their pure teachings. In this way, we can, at least, gain some appreciation of every religion, and, at the most, become fruit ourselves.