Not completely. Hinduism and Buddhism both maintain that truth is relativistic, or more precisely, that any expression of the truth is only provisional. I recommend the Sutra of Innumerable Meanings, which deals with this very topic- saying that every expression of the truth admits innumerable understandings, and that all teaching is relative. Also the Diamond Sutra, “The Truth cannot be expressed, and that which can be expressed is not truth”. And Taoism- “the truth that can be named is not the enduring, unchanging truth.”
You will find the same expressions if you check out the more mystical pathways of Christianity- Pseudo-Dionysius, Eckhart, etc.
The Koran quite openly says that Jews, Sabeans and Christians will all be saved if they follow their Scriptures.
So, most religions admit that truth as we (they) know it is not absolute truth.
There is a humungous difference between what religions profess in their public, published writings, and what they actually teach in real life, and how they act out their religion in real life.
For example, I have a neighbor who was once a close friend until his physical disabilities, caused by his wife’s insistence upon keeping an indoor cat which freely spread cat feces on the kitchen counter tops and table, led to his being essentially taken over by that wife. He is the American version of a high mucky-muck Buddhist; people come from far and wide to his mountain retreat to learn from him. He has visited India to learn at the feet of high mucky-muck Buddhist supermonks. And he does not know squat.
What he learned about classical Buddhist teaching (Gautams’s original stuff) he learned from me. He eats meat, just like me. He lied to a school about his wealth to get a worthless son a free ride scholarship, and the son got kicked out of school for dealing drugs. Despite an interesting mind, the man is a complete hypocrite, which, as I discovered on a journey through Thailand, is typical of that worthless religion. Buddhism has no real beliefs, no standards, and no theology. It is a perfect religion for anyone who wants to apply an official, recognized name to whatever illogical nonsense his drugged up mind wants to call a belief system.
Religions are like politicians. They have a front line which sounds good, but operate according to an expedient back story. E.g: Obama— can anyone name the campaign promises that he actually kept?
Organizations whose officials do not work for a living cannot be trusted. Their existence is dependent upon the willing contributions of those who believe in their cause. Thus they will never present an unflattering truth about the validity of their cause.
Hinduism is not a religion with which I have much experience. I only worked with one Hindu person, a young computer programmer. He would not discuss his beliefs, and was the 2nd most wretched programmer with whom I tried to work. He accomplished nothing, blaming everyone but himself for his failures, much like B.O. His religion served him poorly in the areas of logical thinking and personal responsibility. Many years later I tried to find an Asian wife, and corresponded with quite a few Hindu women. They were totally illogical people. I’ve studied a bit about the religion, putting in about as much time as I could tolerate spending on a belief system that makes Greco-Roman pantheism look like the most brilliant explanation of reality ever devised.
A quote like your, “
The Truth cannot be expressed, and that which can be expressed is not truth,” is the wailing of complete incompetents, nits who expect to spend their lives sitting on their fat butts and being admired as gurus, by pinheads— and being financially supported by those pinheads. Their words are directed to the ignorant who are happy to remain ignorant.
Every mathematical equality represents a truth which can be expressed, clearly, concisely, and unequivocally. 2+2=4 is a clear and simple truth. Zen meanderings are simply nonsense.
There are lots of stupid people who are willing to believe nonsense such as that which you expressed. Those who find learning a chore, and who have not a curious neuron in their limited brains. They comprise at least half of any human population, more in poorly educated, belief-dominated societies. Your quote is not wisdom— it is simply a marketing slogan, a talking green lizard with a foreign accent, designed to appeal to the mentally and physically indolent, assuring them that their inherent stupidity and consequential ignorance is the way to be.
That nonsense may work for you, and others living on the public dole. It does not work for those who think, learn, and work as a natural part of their lives.
The words you promote are those of third-world priests, ignorant, incompetent fools who, like Obama, want to gather around them the support of the ignorant (students), the indolent (welfare slugs) and the pigs who get rich by keeping people as stupid as possible (unions).
So you admire the Koran. You neglected to quote the parts where it teaches that Muslims should kill those Jews, Christians, etc. who choose not to embrace a belief system founded by an illiterate thief and pedophile. I admire neither your taste nor your ability to tolerate extreme cognitive dissonance.
