WHERE WORLDS MEET

The following article of mine was published in the Journal News, a Gannett Newpaper, on January 24 and 31, 1998:

 

When I was 19, a group of friends and I were camping on a beach in India on the Indian Ocean.  It was nighttime, and we had a campfire near the coconut palms.  Understand that in India, at night, in those years, the sky was rounded, dome-like, and the stars were thick and went on forever.  I walked away from the warmth and the people, down to the edge of the sea where the moonlight glimmered on the water and the phosphorous sand sparkled in the waves.

I stood there in tremendous awe of this lively vast universe.  I recognized that I was standing at the meeting place of three infinitely different and diverse worlds: land, sea and sky.  And at the same time, it felt like a metaphor for the ‘Jungian psyche.’  The ocean was the swirling, deep, collective unconscious.  Space, full of dark and light, was like the infinitely unlimited imagination of personal consciousness.  The land, terra firma, was like the ego, that which I am consciously aware of, that which I can see and know.  Sts. Augustine or Patrick would have likened it to the Trinity: with God represented by the ocean, source of all life, becoming manifest on land represented by Jesus, and infused with the Holy Spirit of the air.  But to me, it was a moment of moonlit, elemental enlightenment, which both grounded me and allowed me to soar.  To use a term by the noted Protestant theologian, Paul Tillich, I experienced a dimension of depth.  And that moment transformed and enriched my life significantly.  I call it a religious experience.

Rachel Carson, in her book The Edge of the Sea, begins “The edge of the sea is a strange and beautiful place…an elusive and indefinable boundary.”  It is a strange and beautiful place.  But I think that part of its beauty, its thrill, its liveliness, is that it is the meeting place of boundaries.  All children love to play the game at the beach where they run up to the water’s edge and run back, shrieking with delight as the water comes forward.  Or stand and feel the water wash away the sand from around their feet.

Why are those moments so exciting?  Perhaps because we stand there recognizing, as I did that night, that we are on the edge, and that makes us feel quite alive.  We feel we’re on the edge of the land and the sea, and we’re aware we are on the edge of the globe!

In fact, our whole lives are lived on the edge in other ways also.  We live on the edge between birth and death.  Not between life and death.  No, life is what we do between birth and death.  And it’s in those moments that we’re most aware of being between that we become truly alive.

Dr. James Fowler, who has written on the psychology of religions, woke up once in the middle of the night suddenly completely aware that one day he would be detached from all the life around him and he would die.  He writes in his book, Stages of Faith: “In that moment of unprecedented aloneness…I found myself staring into the abyss of mystery that surrounds our lives.  As never before I found myself asking, “When all these persons and relations and projects that shape and fill my life are removed, who or what is left?  When this biological embodiment of me ceases to function, is there – will there be – any I?  When the ‘I’ steps into the velvet darkness, will there be this center of consciousness, this ‘I am,’ or not?”

This man was on the edge.  But he’s not alone.  We all are. 

The word religion comes from two Latin words: ‘re’ and ‘ligare’.  It means to connect again.  And that’s what religions try to do.  They try to connect us again, bring together these two polarities in our lives, birth and death, like a yin-yang symbol, so that we can live fully.  Beginning with our awareness of birth and death, each religion attempts to grapple with, describe, define and re-experience the experiences of birth and death.  The description and definitions may be different for each religion, but I think that ultimately, we’re all standing on the same edge – between birth and death – and each religion is trying to make sense out of what that means.

Religions also try to reconnect our little finite selves beyond the boundary of our edge to the energy flow of something larger and deeper.  Call it the meeting place of the immanent and the transcendent, the now and the eternal, the material world and the spiritual world, the everyday and the extraordinary – it is at this edge where religions live.  In the Qur’an, Sura Qaf reminds believers that the God who made the heavens and “firmly set mountains and made grow therein [something] of every beautiful kind” also “created man and knows what his soul whispers to him, and [is] closer to him than [his] jugular vein.”

Robert Ellwood, author of the textbook on world religions entitled Many People, Many Faiths describes it this way: 

“For religion, the line between is not seen as solid…The main idea behind religion is that it is full of doors and windows and much commerce passes between the two sides.  Words and people pass through those invisible doors and the world is full of places and occasions that are like windows to the other side.  This porous borderline, where the action is, is the realm of the religious.”

Maybe that’s another reason why the edge of the sea is so awesomely strange and beautiful: because by being there we remember that no one realm is the only reality that exists, just as no one view of truth is the only one.  The sea has a beauty and reality quite different and no less real than that of land or air.  Buddhism, in trying to describe nirvana to us, said it’s like trying to explain to a fish what it’s like to walk on land and breather.  It’s impossible.  Yet it doesn’t mean that the other reality doesn’t exist.  It only means that we can’t conceive it.

The seasons remind us of being on the edge as well, for they are different realities bound together.  In fact, perhaps part of the reason we feel most invigourated in the fall and spring, besides the temperature, is that they are the edge seasons: the seasons between the full ripe richness of life and the deadly dearth of life. So it is with each religion.  In different spiritual languages, they attempt to put into words, actions and metaphors our human experience of being on the edge between birth and life, the known and the unknown, the here and now and the beyond.  To rephrase Rachel Carson:  “The edge is a strange and beautiful place…an elusive and indefinable boundary.”  Let us savour and enjoy our time being here on the edge.

 

 

 

PROPHETS

“Visit the sick, feed the hungry and free the captives.” So said the prophet Muhammed, peace be upon him.

“Let the oppressed go free…share your bread with the hungry. And bring the homeless poor into your house….” So said the prophet Isaiah.

In the U.S., we will soon celebrate Thanksgiving. So I thought it’s a good time to talk about something that’s common to Muslims, Christians and Jews: the message of the prophets. All three groups see the role of the prophets as important to their religions and each group sees the message of the prophets – taking care of the needy in our midst -- as a central message.

What is a prophet? A prophet is someone who is a messenger or mouthpiece for God. To Jews, Christians and Muslims, the 16 biblical prophets [with the addition of Muhammed for Muslims] used words and actions to try to get the community back into right relationship – with each other and with the essence and power of life which they called God. Said the scholar Abraham Heschel:

“The prophet was an individual who said No to his society, condemning its habits and assumptions, its complacency…” (Heschel, The Prophets II p. xvii) The prophet Amos said: “I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies” (Amos 5:21) because, he felt, they were full of hypocritical posturing.

But they didn’t just “say” no to society, they acted in a way that got people’s attention. Wrote one author about the prophets:

“They staged what are known as prophetic acts – wild attention grabbing, God-inspired pieces of performance art. the prophets were the inventors of street theater.” (Jacobs, The Year of Living Biblically p. 88) Jeremiah went to the equivalent of the Capitol in Jerusalem with a huge vase which he smashes and says this is what will happen to the kingdom if they don’t stop being so materialistic. Isaiah took off all of his clothes and wandered naked through the streets as he shouted his message. Hosea married a known prostitute faithless to him in order to illustrate how faithless the people were to their vows of caring for each other and God. Pretty dramatic ways of speaking truth to power!

But all of them were trying to get across the same message: we are commanded to be good and just to everyone. It wasn’t just a nice suggestions to be nice, we are required to practice social justice all the time.

The prophet Muhammed, who believed that the same God who spoke to Abraham, Moses, David and Jesus spoke to him, said “One who tries to help the widow and the poor is like a warrior in the way of God,” “Every good action is a charity.” and “God is not kind to him who is not kind to people.” (al-Bukhari)

For Jews, Muslims and Christians, the prophets’ message of social justice has been heard – sometimes louder than other times – throughout history. It is why so many social action organizations exist in our world today and why so many try to change the world. The reason Muslims fast during the month of Ramadan and Jews fast on Yom Kippur is to experience what it is to be hungry so you can help those who really are. And it’s why each group is commanded to give to and act to help others.

People often wonder if there are prophets in the world today. I think they still exist. I think MLK was a prophet. His bus boycott, the marches and his sermons against racism and the war in Vietnam dramatically got the point across that this society must change. In his sermon, “The Drum Major Instinct”, Reverend King is very clearly speaking in the prophetic spirit when he said:

“If somebody doesn't bring an end to this suicidal thrust that we see in the world today, none of us are going to be around, because somebody's going to make the mistake through our senseless blunderings of dropping a nuclear bomb somewhere. And then another one is going to drop. And don't let anybody fool you, this can happen within a matter of seconds. (Amen) They have twenty-megaton bombs in Russia right now that can destroy a city as big as New York in three seconds, with everybody wiped away, and every building. And we can do the same thing to Russia and China.

But this is why we are drifting. And we are drifting there because nations are caught up with the drum major instinct. "I must be first." "I must be supreme." "Our nation must rule the world." (Preach it) And I am sad to say that the nation in which we live is the supreme culprit. And I'm going to continue to say it to America, because I love this country too much to see the drift that it has taken.

God didn't call America to do what she's doing in the world now. (Preach it, preach it) God didn't call America to engage in a senseless, unjust war as the war in Vietnam. And we are criminals in that war. We’ve committed more war crimes almost than any nation in the world, and I'm going to continue to say it. And we won't stop it because of our pride and our arrogance as a nation.”


I think Malcolm X was a prophet. In fiery speeches and interviews, in his willingness to put his life on the line he made it clear that his objective was “complete freedom, justice and equality by any means necessary." He said “Early in life I had learned that if you want something, you had better make some noise.” and: “if we don't stand for something, we may fall for anything."

Today? I don’t know. Perhaps we only know who the prophets in our midst are after a bit of time has past. Perhaps it's the comedian Jon Stewart, who always speaks out against the hypocrisies of our government and the need for justice. Maybe it's the young woman, Malala Yousafzai, who spoke for Muslim girls getting an education and was thus shot in the head. Maybe they are the people who are written about in the book Divine Rebels: American Christian Activists for Social Justice by Deena Guzder. Or people on the front line of climate change/environmental issues. Maybe it's the person who is organizing a food and clothing drive in our town for those effected by the economy. But I do know that the message of the prophets – whether from a Muslim, Jewish or Christian perspective is still with us: do justly and love mercy.

So, as we eat our meat or soy Turkeys this Thanksgiving, let's remember the message of the prophets. There are plenty of ways to make this world a more just, and caring place. I shall end with the same quotes with which I began:


“Visit the sick, feed the hungry and free the captives.” So said the prophet Muhammed, peace be upon him.

“Let the oppressed go free…share your bread with the hungry. And bring the homeless poor into your house…If you put yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness…and you shall be like a watered garden.” So said the prophet Isaiah.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

DEATH: What's Life Got to do, Got to Do with it?

Death has been on my mind the last couple of months.  But in fact, I've thought about and written about death a lot over the years.  Below is something I wrote so many years ago, I can't find the document on any of our computers -- only the hard copy which I've retyped!

What will happen when this body gives out?  Where or what will the "I" that I've lived with so long go to, or do, or be, or not be?  How many people in how many ages and cultures have asked those questions?  Yet, for as smart as we are, as insightful or knowledgeable as we might be, we don't have an inkling of an answer for that one.  All we have are the ideas and hopes that we are brought up with and hear about from this side of death.  And those ideas differ from religion to religion, culture to culture.  Each answer effecting not only what we think will happen, but how we live our lives now as a result.

Take the Muslim view:  this is the one and only time a person comes around.  What you do with this "one precious life" as the poet Mary Oliver calls it, will determine what happens to you -- the you that is eternal and fully, individually you.  there's no coming back, no 'do over.'  For Muslims, there will be a day, Akira, of judgment, of reckoning.  On that day, that one day, all souls from all time and places will be judged by God and that will determine whether one goes to heaven or hell.  Says the Qur'an about that day:

"Then a soul will know what it has given and what it has held back...
What can I tell you about the day of reckoning?
Again, what can I tell you of the day of reckoning?
A day no soul has a say for another
and the decision is at that time with God." (Sura 82, The Tearing)

So, your actions and your intentions in this lifetime have long term consequences!

Compare that to Hinduism in which life is a constant 'do over.'  You didn't get it right the first time?  Back on the wheel of life to try again -- and again and again and again.  There are consequences to your actions here too.  But there is no judge who will determine what happens.  It's strictly cause and effect.  Like driving a car.  If I move the steering wheel left, the car goes left.  If I put the foot on the brake, the car stops.  If I treat people well, I will be treated well.  If I am greedy and mean, I will suffer the consequences -- perhaps not in this life, but in the next.

Whether we are Hindu or not, we all understand that when it comes events in this life.  When I look at baby pictures of myself, I don't look like the same person and in many ways I'm not.  Something continues to the next stage -- adolescence, adulthood or old age, even if it doesn't ook or act the same.  But how I was treated as a baby, the love I did or didn't get, the things I did or didn't do then, determine to an extent who I am today and who I will be when I'm older.  Just extend that idea beyond death and one has a clearer picture of the Hindu understanding of what happens to us after death.  The atman, the energy force that resides in this lifetime in our bodies will continue on to some other form based on our actions -- good or bad -- that determine what will happen to us in our next life.  The  goal, however, is that one day our atman will be released from the cycle of rebirths and rejoin the great ocean of energy known as Brahman.  Say the Katha Upanishad, an ancient Hindu Scripture:

"Lo! I will declare to thee this mystery of Brahman never failing.
And of what the self [atman] becomes when it comes to the hour of death.
Some to the womb return,
Embodied souls, to receive another body;
Others pass to lifeless stone in accordance with their works
In accordance with the tradition they had heard."

Christians are more similar to the Muslim view.  The person who dies will be resurrected as whom they are and they will either go to heaven or hell.  But there is a difference between the physical and the spiritual.  Said Paul in his beautiful (and very Greek) letter to the Corinthians:

"What you sow does not come to life unless it dies.  and what you sow is not the body which is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain... So it is with the resurrection of the dead.  What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable.  It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory.  It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power.  It is sown a physical body, it is raised a spiritual body.  If there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual body." (I Cor. 15.35-44)

Indigenous cultures, the original natives of many places such as Africa, Asia and the Americas, seem to have similar ideas to each other as to what happens after death.  In all of those traditions the spirit or ghost of the deceased becomes more powerful and more influential in the life of the community.  the Akan of Africa, for example, believe that:

"There is a reciprocal relationship between the dead and the living and both sides have a role to play in keeping the relationship alive... the dead have a duty to protect, intervene, and mediate on behalf of the living, and as it is believed that death increases one's powers, the dead are able to offer more help and assistance." (Professor Kofi Asare Opoku, Nananom Nsamanfo: The Akan and their Ancestors, AAR, 2000)

When Robert Coles, the noted child psychiatrist who has studied the beliefs of children of many different cultures interviewed a young Hopi girl, she made it clear that to her people, the ancestors who had already died, were living on the mesa and communicated with the living people through birds.

Jews are perhaps the only group that does not clearly delineate what happens to a person after death.  In the Torah, the first five books of both the Jewish and Christian bibles, God says "I set before thee life and deth, choose life."  And so, the whole focus of Judaism has been this world, this life.  For a group as loquacious as the Talmudic rabbis, who argues about all kinds of things, they were relatively silent on what happens after death.  One sees both the ideas of resurrection and reincarnation in Jewish texts.  But as my Jewish grandfather used to say, "There's enough to worry about here, you think we need to worry about what happens next?"  and yet, for a culture that doesn't focus on what happens after, there are all kinds of practices related to the care of the dead.

For Buddhist, there is no death because there is no me -- change happens all the time so the "me" that existed before, doesn't exist anymore anyway.,  It's kind of like my skin.  I know that this largest organ of my body sloughs off as new skin grows, so that the skin that was me seven weeks ago is not the same skin that is me now.  We are, according to the Buddhists, nothing but skandha, a collection of strands that have temporarily come together, for now, and that will dissipate like a cloud, when the time comes.  Or, like a candle that lights another candle, the energy will transfer.  Of course, that might be what the historical Buddha said, and it might be what many Buddhists around the world think.  But there are other Buddhists, Pure Land Buddhists for example, that have quite a different view.  For them, we will go to a place, the Pure Land, if we live right and if our intentions at the moment of death are focused and pure.

Despite real differences in views of reality before and after death, there seems to be some similarities among cultures as well.  all traditions believe that there are consequences to our actions and that how we treat ourselves and others matter.  This life, whether the one and only or one of many, is a test to see if we can be good and care for others.  And all people, no matter what they think happens to someone when they die, grieve for the loss of loved ones.  We may believe they may go on to something else, something better.  But the wailing for a dead child is the same in Hinduism as it is anywhere else.  There is a Buddhist story about a woman whose son died and, distraught, she goes to the Buddha pleading with him to bring her child back to life.  the Buddha agrees -- "But first", he says, "You must find a household that has not been touched by death."  the woman begins her search, knocking on every door in town.  "No" says each place.  "We lost a parent, an uncle, a child, a brother, a sister."  Finally the woman realizes what the Buddha wanted her to learn:  There is no one who is untouched by the death of a loved one.  Somehow, that knowledge itself made it a bit easier for her to accept.

Ultimately, however, we humans are left with what the Spanish philosopher, Miguel de Unamuno, identified as the "tragic sense of life."  Because the "man of flesh and bone, the man who is born, suffers, and dies -- above all who dies .. wishes never to die and that longing of ours never to die is or actual essence." (The Tragic Sense of Life)

I don't know what will happen when this body gives out.  I do know what people think will happen.  And perhaps that in itself is a comfort.  It certainly is a mystery!