Being on the Right Path

Yesterday I was hiking along hte lines in the Ocean Beach in San Francisco. On my way back from the Legion of Honor back to the beach around the sunset time I saw an inter-continental ship sailing right towards the setting sun. In exact direct line. What a beautiful scenery. I thought this ship is on its way to salvation. Right towards the sun. Towards the light.

As I was coming down the curve of the hill around the Cliff House, the ship was no longer towards the sun. At least it didn't spear to be like that. I thought so badly for the ship. What a damn ship. It's not "on the right path". It's not moving towards the sun. Then I realized that maybe I'm not on the right path. Maybe these curves have been such that the  direct path from me to the sun doesn't go through the ship. It was a striking moment. The ship was still moving towards the sun. I was still moving towards the sun, it was just that our paths were were not directly aligned. Our path had different sources, but ONE destination, the sun.

I felt like this is the exact same thing that is happening when people think about religion. People start from different sources, take different routes, culturally, economically, geographically, etc. All are hoping that they are on their way to salvation, being a better person, being selfless, helping the poor, etc, etc. But they take different routes. Somebody takes the route of Jesus, somebody takes Buddha, Somebody takes Muhammad, Somebody takes the route of science, but there is one final goal. being a better person. Making the world a better place. And everybody think they are on the right track and everybody thinks everybody else is doomed to misery of ignorance, and they are the only righteous people. What a striking moment. What a moment of silence. And the sun was down the horizon, The ship was towards a nowhere destination, I was towards home, and people were enjoying a chill afternoon at the beach. What a moment of silence.