The one who says it is not possible should not interrupted the one doing it.
-- Chinese proverbButtercup: We'll never survive.
Westley: Nonsense. You're only saying that because no one ever has.
-- Princess Bride
Shades, Pamda and the other
seekers...
Arthur C. Clark wrote a fantastic story (pretty much on everyone's short list as to one of the best SciFi short stories of all time) called "The Nine Billion Names of God" in 1953. I was (had it there and deleted it) going to quote the last line of the story, as it's one of my absolute favorite sentences in all literature (but no big deal, I don't read much), but since it's a spoiler, and since I'm reasonably sure you'll at least check it out, I won't. So, without having ruined it, you should go out and read it. Awe hell, it's the computer age, you can stay home and read it. Here:
http://downlode.org/Etext/nine_billion_names_of_god.htmlDon't almost all rivers lead to the sea? Most of them, the vast majority of them that we know about do. Yes, there a few that don't. That end up in very bad places. Dead places, like the Dead Sea or the wasteland, like driving through Utah. BUT. MOST RIVERS lead to the sea. So too with religious thought.
The end product of the vast preponderance of 95% of the world's collection of religious thought ends up in about the same damn place so far as we all are really concerned. IF YOU WANT TO BE GOOD, THEN DON"T BE BAD TO OTHER PEOPLE. That's it. That's the entire summation of the message from spiritual works ranging from the Actual Words of God to Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, it's: be excellent to each other. & in being excellent to each other you bring about an excellent world to be in.
That's god's great gift - the peace, happiness, contentment, serenity, nirvana, bliss, whatever you want to call it - is based on being in a state that's totally controlled by our own behavior. The more excellent we all are to each other, the more excellent it is to
Be there, the more everyone acts like dicks, the more you're living in Dicktown all the time. It's all just a matter of how we treat each other.
It's possible to do this in just about every damn area of life, home, work, free time, whatever... It's possible to build your life entirely that way. There are very happy homes(with a multitude of ways to structure and define them), joyous workplaces (and it has nothing to do with the job itself), and many generally excellent places to be. The reason is always the same, it's all about how they treat each other.
In the end, religions - almost all of them - say very little about your relationship with god, but lots about how your supposed to work and live with other people, but the lots that they say is always the same thing.
I mean really, what does it matter to God - the creator, lord & master of the universe what your behavior to him/her/them is? How could it possibly affect him, (except in the very odd context of Judeo/Christianity where somehow we hurt his feelings because of this talking snake - and I LOVE the talking snake - and Eve, and some fruit?)? To me, that's pretty much the ultimate hubris of the human race to think our behavior pleases or offends God the creator, lord & master of the universe. Really.
Does it really matter to G*d (the Jewish people think that God is so vast it's not even a matter of which name we call him/her/them by because puny humans could not even imagine the name of something so magnificent. Always thought that was pretty damn poetic of them) what name you call him by? The point of the Clark story, and the Buddhast teaching it's predicated on, is that anything that is everything - which is God, in all things and of all things - is all the names. Billions of them. And given that there is a big dogpile of Names O God, and there is no need to be throwing down every damn chance people get about who got god labeled right. What's it to G*D? Nothing.
Besides, it's not that G*d wanted it, oh no.
Hey, I told you not to eat that junk, didn't I!? BUT NO... You had to eat it (because of this talking snake - and I LOVE the talking snake - and Eve) So what did we get for this? Did she eat from the other tree, the really bitchin' one (the tree of everlasting life)? No. She ate the knowledge of good and evil - and along with that the ability to choose between them knowing all the time what's right and wrong.
So we all know that the Golden Rule, this one overarching principal of all religions is true, that it works, that's it fair to everyone equally, and when we choose to apply it we're right, and hence life is right - the Buddhists call it 'right living' - and when we choose not to, when we choose evil/choose to do wrong, we create our own evil, and hence, our own hell.
And rather than condemn anything interfaith because it might lead people astray from the one true G*d, we should all be trying to create a hyperfaith, one that sees the totality of most of this stuff (The Satanic Bible and Book of Revelations not withstanding) as one whole, one truth, one way, one love. (that's what Bob Marley was trying to teach). And that love is created by us to each other. To condemn other religious principals and beliefs when they have been believed and applied (with varying levels of success and failures) by so many people, throughout a lot of time is wrong. I've been in and around other cultures based on differing religions then the one I was brought up in - both here and abroad - and they are no better or worse, no more right and wrong - or evil for naming G*d in a different way. Japan is based on Shinto and all in all its a very wonderful place filled with wonderful people, awesome neighbors in real life, nothing is better than living next door to a Japanese Buddhist family. Unless its Mormons. I sure think that some of it is pretty far out there (and yes, I've read the Book of Mormon, first time was tripping balls in Salt Lake City - a bummer in itself - sitting in a real cheap motel and it was the only other thing in the room) but the Mormon's themselves are real nice people. I'll tell you spending the Christmas season in a predominantly Jewish setting is a different kind of holidays - hope you like going out for Chinese food and catching a movie. But it is what it is, and its no better or worse. Doesn't make them any different when it comes to the Golden Rule, which is why, if you ever find yourself in that position, a Jewish Christmas can be just as wonderful as the Christian holiday. And when I was in Saudi Arabia one Christmas Day - and you can bet Christmas is NO BIG DEAL in Saudi Arabia - it was good too. We went out and drove real, real, real, you really can't imagine what it's like to dive there, perfect freeways (among other things what the company I worked for was building) and no such thing as a speed limit, or cops with these real sweet Mercedes, and that was OK too.
It's not that one religion is correct, in the end, they all are.
Kat
/ who thinks that everyone should read and study all the great thought that the human race has created. Everyone should read the Bible, but also the Koran, the Bhagavad Gita, the Egyptian Book of the Dead, Zen stuff, Native American teachings and stories, all the myths, legends and epics and especially don't miss The Tao Te Ching, one of the best ever. They are all of our stories.
