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I had a professor once who
used to say there are two things you should read every day: the Bible and the
NYTimes. His thinking was, if you want
to understand human beings, what makes us tick, what our strengths, weaknesses,
values, yearnings, wishes, sense of reality is all about, there’s nothing more
human than the bible and the NYTimes.
Personally, I expand that to include the wisdom literature of all
different traditions – and the NYTimes.
And I consider myself so very fortunate that I get to spend my days
doing just that – reading and discussing the wisdom literature of different
human cultures – with young minds who (when they’re awake, engaged, and not
fretting about grades) make really
interesting comments and ask really interesting questions.
I get to ponder the
important questions of life and the answers from extremely different world
views! The shamanic experience taps into
layers of reality vastly different than my here and now. And yet, who knows, maybe they’re in touch
with the multiuniverses that string theorists speak about. Maybe the spirits of indigenous cultures are
the same as entangled particles.
I get to read and reread the
Hindu story of the Bhagavad Gita where poor Arjuna – like us -- faces an ethical
dilemma. The dilemmas he and we face are
not between between good versus bad, they’re between two conflicting values
like truth or loyalty, individual rights vs. community rights. And yet, he (and we) are reminded that a
person “cannot escape the force of action by abstaining from action.. .perform
necessary action, it is more powerful than inaction.”
The Buddhist notions of impermanence – that everything changes all the
time so don’t cling to things as they are, and the ideas of compassion for and
interconnectedness of all beings deeply shape me in every day ways.
Unfortunately, we rarely
have enough time in world religions to examine Taoism and Confucianism. Yet these philosophies which are the ying and
yang of each other deserve time because they express ways to live with nature
and in society.
Judaism, the religion of my
people, helps me to remember the prophetic call for justice and mercy to all
people – particularly the oppressed. MLK
used to quote the biblical prophet Amos: “Let justice roll down like waters,
and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”
And the rabbi Hillel used to ask three questions: “If I am not for
myself, who will be for me? But if I am
only for myself, what am I? And if not
now, when?
Christianity gives us a
story of radical transformation. Just
like those seeds you put into the ground changed into flowering plants, Jesus
used stories and healings to show radical change our lives and our society so that we could be more loving and just.
The ethical demands of
Islam, in both the Quran and the sayings of Muhammed (pbuh) to be kind, to be
charitable, and to live up to a high standard, are ones that resonate with me. Said M. “Show kindness to the creatures of
the earth so that G-d may be kind to you.”
And also “Visit the sick, feed the hungry and free the captives.”
Yes, I know and understand (particularly
when I read the NYTimes!) that religions cause a great deal of pain and
suffering in this world. We humans sure
know how to screw up and twist some good ideas!
But I still think there’s a great deal of beauty and wisdom in all of
these traditions just as I still believe there’s a great deal of beauty, wisdom
and kindness in human beings despite our tendency toward the opposite as well. In any case, studying religious wisdom is a
really good way of understanding human beings and it acts as a guide post in
life. .
Next week we have Passover
and Easter. Both
holidays are celebrations of hope, freedom, and new life – which is what I plan
to enjoy. And with this being poetry
month, I’d like to end with a stanza from a favorite poem by the 13 century
Sufi poet, Rumi:
“Let the beauty we love be
what we do. There are hundreds of ways
to kneel and kiss the ground.”
