A Melting Pot Cao Dai?

Before God existed, there was the Tao, that nameless, formless, unchanging, eternal source referenced in the Tao Te Ching. At some point, manifestation occurred, out of which the Supreme Being was born. The universe could not yet be formed, for God controlled Yang. Therefore, He shed a part of himself and created the Goddess, master of Yin. In the presence of Yin and Yang, the universe materialized. The Goddess is, literally, the mother of the myriad of things in the Universe. Thus, Caodaiists not only worship God, the father, but also the Goddess, literally referred to as the Mother Buddha. Note that the Goddess, or Mother Buddha, is male, as are all Buddhas. The Goddess is master over Yin but is not a part of Yin, which is female.
There are 36 levels of heaven and 72 planets harboring intelligent life, with number one being the closest to heaven and 72 nearest to Hell. Earth is number 68. It is said that even the lowest citizen on planet 67 would not trade place with a king on 68 and so forth.
God is symbolized by the Divine Eye, specifically the left eye because Yang is the left side and God is the master of Yang.
In the order of most to least difficult, the Three Teachings within Caodaiism are:
The Teachings of Buddhas
The Teachings of Sages
The Teachings of Saints
The Three Teachings represent levels of spiritual attainment, with Buddha as the highest. Caodaiism's various stages of spiritual development from human on up are: Than (no translation yet), Thánh (Saint), Tiên (Sage), and Phat (Buddha). Than, Saints and Sages may have, accordingly, extremely long lives in the realms of heaven, but only Buddhas are free from the cycle of birth and death.

First Period:
1. The Teachings of Buddhas - Dipankara Buddha
2. The Teachings of Sages -
3. The Teachings of Saints -
Second Period:
1. The Teachings of Buddhas - Shakyamuni Buddha
2. The Teachings of Sages - Lao Zi
3. The Teachings of Saints - Confucius and Jesus
Third Period:
God is at the helm.
Jesus is regarded as a Buddha and true son of God, shed directly from God.

Although various sects of Caodaiism claim to have received messages from numerous spiritual entities, the Tây Ninh Holy See acknowledges significantly fewer. Inside the Holy See is a painting depicting the Three Saints signing a covenant between God and mankind. From left to right, they are: Sun Yat-sen, Victor Hugo (also a Rosicrucian Initiate) and Nguyen Binh Khiêm.

(Source: Wikipedia)

Cao Dai,
It was one of the tour session, where we went to a Cao Dai temple in Tay Ninh, 90 km from Saigon, where the followers are conducting the prayer.
The temple is similar as other Buddhist temples in Vietnam, with oriental design and pattern in the walls. The bulding is colorful and decorated with scarving.
We opened our shoes and enter the temple. It is a huge temple with rectangular shape and size of 40 m x 20 m x 10 m (including 3 main towers).
They are seems ok with a lot of tourists come and interfere in their prayer.

As can be seen in the pictures.. all people come with white suits, just several people wear blue, read and yellow collor robes.
They do repetitive movement; they sit and bow the head to one direction and chant a prayer.
Whereas several other person sit in the balcony and play a loud song with an instrument.

At the first glance, this ceremony and temple and overall impression looks like other buddhist ritual.
But when we see it closely.. there is a Jesus picture carved in the wall together with Hindu Gods and some Buddhist Gods and also Mohammad, Napolean and Shakespeare.

And there is a picture similar as above picture, telling us about the 3-saints of Cao Dai: Victor Hugo, Sun Yat Sen and Nguyen Binh Kiem.

I never thought more of a Victor Hugo except that he was the author of Hunchback of Notre Dame and never been to Vietnam in his life. And also Sun Yat Sen as a Chinese Politician.

And also the mixed-belief-ritual and dogma of Cao Dai consist of a lot of formerly exist beliefs, such as they have chatolic-alike organization with Pope, bishop, cardinal, etc.

They conducted 3 times ceremony in a day, each last for 1 hours.. morning, midday and evening.

They believe in 1 God (which I conclude that God is a Man or Yang).

God is symbolized with an Eye (left eye) which the picture is hanging in every Cao Dai temples.

The religion is continuosly closely monitored by Vietnam government and given a specific restricted area consist of temple, houses and school.

Maybe it is good in away that Cao Dai mixed and take all good things from every religions.

But for now, I think I have to learn and read about it more to truly understanding their way for believing something new and different.

From wikipedia:

Religion is a system of social coherence based on a common group of beliefs or attitudes concerning an object, person, unseen being, or system of thought considered to be supernatural, sacred, divine or highest truth, and the moral codes, practices, values, institutions, and rituals associated with such belief or system of thought. It is sometimes used interchangeably with "faith" or "belief system"[1], but is more socially defined than that of personal convictions.

According to above definition then nothing wrong with mixing up all the beliefs as long as it is accepted by the people. So it is it? Cao Dai has showed us at least something