My country is the world, and my religion is to do good.
(Thomas Paine)
A rose by any other
name...
Krishnamurti used to say "god, the universe or what you will" - acknowledging
that there was some force at work in existence, some unknowable, imponderable
rhythm to reality.
He would not label or claim to understand it. He simply acknowledged that it
existed.
Taoism did the same.
Think of the words 'Great Mother', 'Mother Nature', nature, natural order...
These all suggest that some order exists.
The words/insights
are not attempts to articulate the character of reality.
They simply confirm that many people have observed a pattern.
You may call this 'god'. Or you may call it something else. That is entirely up
to you.
Tao Te Ching
Lao Tzu's
Tao Te Ching begins by explaining that 'tao'
was simply a label and in no way indicated or explained what it was he intended
to explore.
He conceded that no words or thoughts could articulate this 'tao'.
This was quite an interesting way to commence a book.
Lao Tzu's book was no different to Krishnamurti's assertion that the moment you
define, explain, organise or claim to understand 'god' you have missed the
entire point.
In the Holy Bible, Moses asked god to explain himself. God replied, "I
am that I am."
This statement may seem tautological in nature, but it also serves to
demonstrate the futility of attempting to define the unknowable.
God could not offer a meaningful definition for Moses because all explanations
would inevitably exist within the field of Moses' understanding and experience,
and therefore fail to apprehend god.
You cannot understand one thing in terms of something else. Does a sense of
Peter help us to understand Paul?
In our modern age we have embraced
knowledge and revere it blindly.
Yet, what is really known? The earth? Humanity? The universe?
Hardly.
We cannot even
see what is right in
front
of us. We are children fumbling in the
dark.
Observe the Sabbath
If you do not want to
set a day aside for god, then set one aside for you.
One day per week that is not devoted to greed, television, your mobile
phone, the internet, work, fashion, friends, family, bills, DIY or chores.
Take time to plod through the day. Walk, reflect. Go slowly.
Catch-up on chores if you want to, but do not let this become a chore in itself.
Sit, talk, be easy with yourself. Get to know you.
Go out into the country, far away from humanity and see nature.
Do not
look. Simply see. Really see it.
When you slow down enough and stop doing, you may really see the world around
you and appreciate it.
You may be filled with
wonder. You may feel
shame.
You may laugh or you may cry.
Maybe in seeing, you will have set a day aside for god, after all?
There was once a man and he had two sons.
And to the first son he said, "Go and work in the vineyard."
And the son said, "No."
But afterwards he thought better of it and he went.
Now the man said exactly the same thing to his second son, who said,
"Certainly."
But he didn't go.
Now which of the two boys did his father's will?
And what is the meaning of this story?
That there are those who think they are righteous because they say "Yes" to god
but they do not do his will.
(Jesus of Nazareth)
Slugs
You buy a house and it needs renovating.
Each morning you find that slugs have entered your kitchen and left silver
trails around the floor.
Sometimes you find a large slug in the middle of the floor.
You plug the obvious holes.
A few days later the slug trails return.
So, you put out some salt. This serves to kill some slugs. Yet there are other
trails.
Slugs are not limited to the floor, they crawl along the sides of things.
You continue to find large slugs on the working surface, on the walls, on the
floor.
At this point you cannot afford to rip out the kitchen, patch the holes and have
a new kitchen installed.
The salt is not working all the time.
Sometimes the salt deters the slugs. At other times they die a twitching,
writhing slow death.
What can you do?
The slugs keep on coming.
Slugs are not like dogs or cats or panda bears. They are not cute. They eat
things and they leave slime behind. They make your skin crawl.
Yet they are not harmful.
The slug is doing whatever it is that slugs do. You have no means of determining
a slug's motivations.
One day you find it difficult to kill the slug.
You begin to empathise with a slimy, odd creature that may not even be aware of
your existence.
Rather than kill the slug you take it outside.
Admittedly, you do not like slugs - they still unsettle you - but you feel.
After weeks of killing slugs, you stop. You no longer kill them. You move them
carefully outside and hope they do not return.
Then you ask yourself: was this a test?
Has life/nature/god inflicted your kitchen with slugs for a reason? Or is this impersonal,
not about you at all?
Is there any
meaning to be had? Or is 'meaning'
self-projected?
If this is deliberate, then how many slugs would life/nature/god sacrifice in order to
ignite your empathy, your compassion?
Hundreds? Millions?
Is there any limit to the patience and indeterminable motives involved?
Humanity has fought wars since the dawn of time.
We have suffered poverty, disease and disability. We have been neglected and
ignored.
The wealthy are walled off in their ivory towers whilst others go without a
home.
Animals are kept for food and entertainment. They are also hunted to extinction.
Is there some message here? Some reason? Some unimaginable purpose?
Should we have learned compassion by now? How many more must die a needless
death over oil, property, land, politics?
Leonardo Da Vinci was convinced that humans would one day consider the
killing of an animal to be 'murder'.
Sadly, that day is not here. We are yet to respect human life, let alone all
life.
Page created 1 March 2007