Reflection for June 16, 2013: The tree surrounded by four rivers

 

 

 

Soaring upwards
Can be like reaching down

Pushing forward

Can be like pushing back

Going right

Can be like Going left

Within is within

All things begin

And end at the cross roads

–GraalBaum 2013

 

 

This world-mountain was Nizir to the Chaldeans, Olympus to the Greeks, Hara Berezaiti to the Persians of the Avesta, the later Alborz and Elburz; a transfer, as says Mme. Ragozin, of ‘mythical heavenly geography to the earth.’ This mountain—the solar hill of the Egyptians—we shall again refer to in the next two or three chapters. At its apex springs, the heaven tree on which the solar bird is perched. From its roots spring the waters of life—the celestial sea, which, rushing adown the firmament, supplies the ocean which circumscribes the earth or falls directly in rain. At their fountain these springs are guarded by a goddess. In Egypt Nut, the goddess of the oversea, leans from the branches of the heavenly persea and pours forth the celestial water. In the Vedas, Yama, lord of the waters, sits in the highest heaven in the midst of the heavenly ocean under the tree of life, which drops the nectar Soma, and here, on the ‘navel of the waters,’ matter first took form. In the Norse, the central tree Yggdrasil has at its roots the spring of knowledge guarded by the Norns, the northern Fates; two swans the parents of all those of earth, float there. In Chaldea the mighty tree of Eridu, centre of the world, springs by the waters. The Avesta gives a very complete picture—Iran is at the centre of the seven countries of the world; it was the first created, and so beautiful, that were it not that God has implanted in all men a love for their own land, all nations would crowd into this the loveliest land. To the east somewhere, but still at the centre of the world, rises the ‘Lofty Mountain,’ from which all the mountains of the earth have grown, ‘High Haraiti;’ at its

summit is the gathering place of waters, out of which spring the two trees, the heavenly Haoma (Soma), and another tree which bears all the seeds that germinate on earth. This heavenly mountain is called ‘Navel of Waters,’ for the fountain of all waters springs there, guarded by a majestic and beneficent goddess. In Buddhist accounts, the waters issue in four streams like the

Eden from this reservoir, and flow to the cardinal points, each making one complete circuit in its descent. In the Persian Bundahish there are two of these heavenly rivers flowing east and west. To the Hindus the Ganges is such a heavenly stream. ‘The stream of heaven was called by the Greeks Achelous.’ The Nile in Egypt, the Hoang-Ho in China, and the Jordan to the Jews, seem to have been celestial rivers. This mountain of heaven is often figured in Christian art with the four rivers issuing from under the Throne of God.

Sir John Maundeville gives an account of the earthly Paradise quite perfect in its detailed scheme. It is the highest place on earth, nearly reaching to the circle of the moon (as in Dante), and the flood did not reach it. ‘And in the highest place, exactly in the middle, is a well that casts out the four streams’—Ganges, Nile, Tigris, and Euphrates. ‘And men there beyond say that all the sweet waters of the world above and beneath take their beginning from the well of Paradise, and out of that well all water come and go.

 

http://www.sacred-texts.com/earth/amm/amm07.htm

 

http://chasinghermes.com/2009/04/24/08-axis-mundi.aspx

 

 

Reflection for May 30, 2013: At the borders of speech

It is precisely the challenge involved

in using inadequate words

that drives the mind

beyond all words…

At the borders of speech

we open ourselves

to the positive value of silence….

Literary reading,

through its complexity, its music,

its suggestiveness, points to a fuller realm of being.

–Edward k Kaplan (citing Abraham Joshua Heschel)

 

Reflection for April 29, 2008: Things become more alive when you start working with yogurt

Embracing the Way, you become embraced;
Breathing gently, you become newborn;
Clearing your mind, you become clear;
Nurturing your children, you become impartial;
Opening your heart, you become accepted;
Accepting the world, you embrace the Way.

Bearing and nurturing,
Creating but not owning,
Giving without demanding,
This is harmony.

–Tao Te Chin (10)

……….

If I had no choice about the age in which I was to live, I nevertheless have a choice about the attitude I take and about the way and the extent of my participation in its living ongoing events. To choose the world is not then merely a pious admission that the world is acceptable because it comes from the hand of God. It is first of all an acceptance of a task and a vocation in the world, in history and in time. In my time, which is the present. To choose the world is to choose to do the work I am capable of doing, in collaboration with my brother and sister, to make the world better, more free, more just, more livable, more human. And it has now become transparently obvious that mere automatic “rejection of the world” and “contempt for the world” is in fact not a choice but an evasion of choice. The person, who pretends that he can turn his back on Auschwitz or Viet Nam and acts as if they were not there, is simply bluffing.

–Thomas Merton. Contemplation in A World of Action

……………………….

I need to become better at caring for living things. I’m good enough with words and concepts, objects and designs. Things become more alive when you start working with yogurt, beansprouts, yeast-bread (‘specially with the chance to feed people!). And the seedlings for herbs, vegetables and flower gardens. Nursery work wil be good. With the plants grows intuition, sensitivity and concern for other beings, patience, tolerance, devotion, responsibility –abilities to be a radiance of love.

Passionate animal nature can be transformed into a beautiful tenderness and compassion. When you have animals, yopu can’t ignore or leave them, you have to be consistent in caring for them. It’s more than just ‘doing the chores’; it’s being sensitive to their emotional needs as well.

Plants need some stability. They get too shocked and stunted if you transplant them too much.

–Miriam Baum

………..

To pray, therefore, is to infuse the blood with one Master-Desire, one Master-Thought, one Master-Will. It is so to attune the self as to become in perfect harmony with whatever you pray for.

This planet’s atmosphere, mirrored in all details within your hearts, is billowing with vagrant memories of all the things it witnessed since its birth.

No word or deed; no wish or sigh; no passing thought or transient dream; no breath of man or beast; no shadow, no illusion but ply in it their mystic courses till this very day, and shall so ply them till the end of Time. Attune your hearts to anyone of these, and it shall surely dash to play upon the strings.

You need no lip or tongue for praying. But rather do you need a silent, wakeful heart, A Master-Wish, a Master-Thought, and above all, a Master-Will that neither doubts nor hesitates. For words are of no avail except the heart be resent and awake, the tongue had better go to sleep, or hide behind sealed lips.

Nor have you any need of temples to pray in.

Whoever cannot find a temple in his heart, the same can never find his heart in any temple.

Yet this I say to you and to the ones like you, but not to every man. For most men are derelict as yet. They feel the need of praying, but know not the way. They cannot pray except with words, and they can fin no words except you put them in their mouths. And they are lost and awed when made to roam the vastness of their hearts, but soothed and comforted within the walls of temples and in the herds of creatures like themselves.

Let them erect their temples. Let them chant out their prayers.

But you and every man I charge to pray for Understanding. To hunger after anything but that is never to be filled.

Remember that the key to Life is the Creative Word. The key to the Creative Word is Love. The key to Love is Understanding. Fill up your hearts with these and spare your tongues the pain of many words, and save your minds the weight of many prayers, and free your hearts from bondage to all gods who would enslave you with a gift; who would caress you with one hand only to smite you with the other; who are content and kindly when you praise them, but wrathful and revengeful when reproached; who would not hear you save you call, and would not give you save you beg; and having given you, too oft regret the giving; whose incense is your tear; whose glory is your shame.

Aye, free your hearts of all these gods that you may find in them the only God who, having filled you with Himself, would have you ever full.

–The Book of Mirdad

—–

“In reality, none of our possessions and none of the beings we are attached to belong to us indefinitely. We are constantly at risk of losing them, and when we do lose them we must call upon all those forces within us that are able to help us endure the loss. These forces are found in light, disinterested love, humility and sacrifice. So why not seek them immediately and consciously? It’s difficult, when everything is going well, to convince humans they should concentrate on what is essential in order to prepare themselves for the ordeals to come. For they will come, that is certain; no one is spared. So do not wait for poverty, illness or misfortune to arrive before you seek spiritual direction. If you are already well armed, not only will you overcome them, you will also be strengthened by them.”

–Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov

O heart!

When will you stop trying to hide
From Him in Whose realm you abide?
Where do you think to find relief
When there is no relief beside?

–Rafael Alejandro Jara.

 

Mother Is The Name For God On The Lips And Hearts Of All Children

My mother died today, 4:09 am, April 19, 1992. Was she a perfect mother? no…

I miss her still…….. but it no longer hurts.

Here’s to you Ms Miriam…wherever you are now

Mother Is The Name For God On The Lips And Hearts Of All Children
–JO Barr, the Crow

wise words from the departing, eat your greens
especially broccoli

–Jhon Balance

Her words from 40 years ago (approx):

A boy and a girl walking

Barefoot down the street

In blue jeans and soft white shirts.

She is carrying a tambourine…

A girl walking along on

The curb, balancing…

A puppy playing in the yard…

Freedom is a dance

In the sunshine

Let it be.

………….

All religions, all yogas, may be paths to lead us closer to Him who is the only One through whom all was created, the Christ. Jesus was the manifestation in human form of the limitless Christ of God.

There is no separation in God. The forces which promote separation, selfishness and egotism should not be feared, for nothing can hinder the plan of God, nor prevent its fulfillment. Love alone shall be our protection. Where there is love there is unity, there is the Christ.

When Christ returns, He will be as the fulfillment of each individual soul potential, and the unified consciousness and loving brotherhood of all mankind. No differences of language, race or even religion can separate us then, as we are all One in? Him, and we will realize this in all fullness. Meanwhile we should realize that no man is our enemy! The only enemy is the sense of limitation which divides us from Him and each other.

All this shall pass away as the Consciousness of the whole race is lifted into a larger awareness of God. We grow toward this by letting go of our limited conceptions, and opening up to the universal Christ-Love, by allowing His Love to flow through us to all mankind.

This I believe.

……………….

I’ve got a full time job

Just bein’ me

But if bein’ me means

Carin’ about you

I’ll do that too

‘Cause you help me

‘Cause you see me through

Yeah, you know you do

I’ve got a full time job

Just thankin’ you

For the things you do

……..

Miriam Baum 1944 – 1992

 

Reflection for April 15, 2008: Love is the only wonder worker

Compassion and love are not mere luxuries. As the source both of inner and external peace, they are fundamental to the continued survival of our species.’

–The Dalai Lama

,,,,,,,,,,,,

Love integrates. Hatred disintegrates. This huge and ponderous mass of earth and rock which you cal Altar Peak would quickly fly asunder were it not held together by the hand of Love. Even your bodies, perishable as they seem, could certainly resist disintegration did you but love each cell of them with equal zeal.

Love is peace athrob with melodies of Life. Hatred is war agog with fiendish blasts of Death. Which would you: Love and be at everlasting peace? Or hate and be at everlasting war?

The whole earth is alive in you. The heavens and their hosts are alive in you. So love the earth and all her sucklings if you would love yourselves. And love the heavens and all their tenants if you would love yourselves.

Love is the only wonder-worker. If you would see let Love be the pupil of the eye. If you would hear, let Love be in the drum of the ear.

Not-hating is not loving. For Love is an active force; and save it guide your every move and step, you cannot find your way; and save it fill your every wish and thought, your wishes shall be nettles in your dreams; your thoughts shall be as dirges for your days.

–Book of Midrad

……….

“Rahula, practice loving kindness to overcome anger. Loving kindness has the capacity to bring happiness to others without demanding anything in return.

Practice compassion to overcome cruelty. Compassion has the capacity to remove the suffering of others without expecting anything in return.

Practice sympathetic joy to overcome hatred. Sympathetic joy arises when one rejoices over the happiness of others and wishes others well-being and success.

Practice non-attachment to overcome prejudice. Non-attachment is the way of looking at all things openly and equally. This is because that is. Myself and others are not separate. Do not reject one thing only to chase after another.

I call these the four immeasurables.

Practice them and you will become a refreshing source of vitality and happiness for others.”

–extract from “Old path white clouds” by Thich Nhat Hahn

…….

`A new commandment I give to you, that ye love one another; according as I did love you, that ye also love one another;

in this shall all know that ye are my disciples, if ye may have love one to another.’

–John 13:34-35

Eluvium “Seeing you off the edges”

 

Reflection for February 19, 2008: What is God?

God is ineffable

as soon as you say what God is…
You have not said what God is.

The more you speak, the less you say.

Amen

…………………………..

“When an individual goes through a traumatic experience and reacts as if nothing has occurred, then the experience has most likely not yet sunk in. The data is in the intermediate period between the gathering of the information and the time when it becomes fully processed and absorbed. The information is still lingering on in the passageway and has not yet trickled down into the heart. This occurs with all types of information. There is always a lapse between receiving information and the emotional absorption of that information. The only variable is how long this takes. Some information is processed immediately, while other data takes more time to absorb and to be registered emotionally. At times we smile walking down the street because of something we heard hours earlier, and it is only then that we feel its impact.

 

There are times when this connection is impaired, or severed, so that one’s ability to feel what one thinks is all but absent. This occurs when the passageway is cluttered, and it is a no go between the mind and heart. On a physical level, within the neck of a human being there exists two passages, the esophagus, which is the food pipe, and the trachea, which is the windpipe. In the spiritual domain as well, these two passages can be stuffed and cluttered. Spiritual blockage of the food pipe occurs when one is filled to excess with physical nourishment, when one is so overly engrossed in consuming and absorbing physical pleasures that one neglects the spiritual. The windpipe, on the other hand, represents air and ambiance. When this pipe is clogged, it means that one is not in an appropriate environment conducive to the arousal of noble emotions. When these connecting pipes are congested, the intellect has no avenue to penetrate the heart. The thoughts cannot evolve into emotions, and so they remain in the mind.

 

In Kabbalistic terminology this phenomenon is called Timturn halev, dullness of the heart. This is when one suffers from the inability to be responsive and to feel emotions. One may perceive with one’s intellect how one should love, yet one’s emotions remain silent. One is incapable of feeling or being spiritual moved. This spiritual numbness arises from and is a manifestation of one’s ego, where all that one feels is one’s own existence and need for survival. The preoccupation with coarse bodily experiences does not allow for genuine sensitivity to spirituality. In this state of spiritual numbness the ego does not allow the light of comprehension to illuminate the emotions.”

- DovBer Pinson (Meditation and Judaism)

………………………………

Children, you belong to God, and you have defeated these enemies. God’s Spirit is in you and is more powerful than the one that is in the world. These enemies belong to this world, and the world listens to them, because they speak its language. We belong to God, and everyone who knows God will listen to us. But the people who don’t know God won’t listen to us. That is how we can tell the Spirit that speaks the truth from the one that tells lies. My dear friends, we must love each other. Love comes from God, and when we love each other, it shows that we have been given new life. We are now God’s children, and we know him. God is love, and anyone who doesn’t love others has never known him. God showed his love for us when he sent his only Son into the world to give us life. Real love isn’t our love for God, but his love for us. God sent his Son to be the sacrifice by which our sins are forgiven. Dear friends, since God loved us this much, we must love each other.

–1 John 4-10

………………………………

 

the words flow, decisions made
idea’s mine, but the inspiration not
dreams of hangers on, dreams of getting well
spells of ezmerelda, emeralds foretold
splinters in the eye sentiments remain
bones that never rest where we going to
it was never up to me and yet i pushed until it broke

I love the open road and all that it suggests
wheel wagon dust weeds and infidelities and
always for a love never question why
in a wooden house immoveable and silent and
drinking strawberry wine forever lost in town
and thru the sleeping streets night bound and heavy
wheels in the spoke still spoken for himself

now my gates are high, my friends even higher
forgotten in my mind, yet the sky still linger and
cloud the blue skies, i’m jealous of you birds
was the only truth in a world full of words?
hear the prairie sound in a friend called near
the heart is pointed down but my spirit pointed up
his voice for siren of greek mythology

i pause with my pen i begin to defend
every action taken, every moment sealed
when i was quick it coursed through open veins
the will to live the urgency to move
behind a panel door sealing cherry stain
i play my guitar and live those lonesome notes

like a dog that’s down
in a corner just a sigh
waiting to be called
waiting to be yours
ghosts of all my shame
without purpose or will

i often speak of you but the you is always me
cause when i speak of me it’s me i ask of you
so let there be no truth just trickery in rhymes
time the only thing waiting still as death

i hope for resolution pray one defining moment
pause without restrain barren without child
a child is who i was a child is who I’ll die
soot in my hair
and stars in my hands
soot in my hair
and stars in my hands
soot in my hair
and stars in my hands

–soot and stars (smashing pumpkins)

 

 

reflection for January 22, 2008:The secret unity

Why is it that one wanders through samsara?

The answer is that one wanders because of the confusion of not knowing one’s own nature.

For example, if a person possesses a stone containing gold in his fire place,

He might, when not recognizing it to be gold, undergo the misery of starvation.

Likewise, when your master points out your essence, it is an expression of great kindness.

 

– Union of Mahamudra and Dzogchen: A Commentary on The Quintessence of Spiritual Practice, The Direct Instructions of the Great Compassionate One by Chokyi Rinpoche (page 1113)

“Two grave errors of dualism can be cured by a simple flu. First is the belief that you are your mind, or that your soul is separate from the body. This ignorance of your true self causes egocentrism, suffering, and a false sense of separation from everything else in the universe. Second is the concurrent belief that, since your essential nature is non-material, the material world is, at best, an amusement, or at worst, a burden to be thrown off. This ignorance causes the error of supposing that God is not present in the material world, leading either to asceticism on the one hand, or to hedonism on the other. A little dose of reality – that, with a different balance in blood sugars or a change in neurochemistry, the supposedly separate ‘you’ changes completely – can remove both obstacles to realization.

Return again to the model of the six-pointed star, a symbol of the integral life. To live only materially, denying the movements of the soul, is an impoverished life. But to live as if the soul, disembodied, is all that matters in life, is likewise a form of impoverishment, an embrace of one portion of human experience, and a denial or denigration of the rest. Kabbalah, like the symbol of the Star of David, is centrally about balance – bringing into balance the ever-shifting forces of creation. Thus it, too, is an intivation to live in an integral way: bodily and spiritually, experiencing the joys and sorrows of human life and their transcendence, uniting heaven and earth. The messianic age is that time at which the sacred marriage will be consummated: the meeting of sky-god and earth-goddess, masculine and feminine, spirit and matter, line and circle, the Holy One and the Presence, temporality and eternity, soul and body. And the ‘secret of Unity’ of which these same Kabbalists speak is that they are already one – since time itself is only half of the infinite. Unity may be experienced now, but not by leaving anything behind.”

 

- Jay Michaelson (God in Your Body: Kabbalah,

Mindfulness and Embodied Spiritual Practice)

 

 

 

……………………………………..

 

 

……

Saṃsāra, the Sanskrit and Pāli term for “continuous movement” or “continuous flowing” refers in Buddhism to the concept of a cycle of birth (jāti) and consequent decay and death (jarāmaraṇa), in which all beings in the universe participate and which can only be escaped through enlightenment. Saṃsāra is associated with suffering and is generally considered the antithesis of nirvāṇa or nibbāna.

 

Refelction for December 15, 2007: Mindfulness is transparent

 

 

“He who sees himself only on the outside, not within, becomes small himself and makes others small.”

–Mani (turfan fragment M 801)

…………………………..

“It has been observed for centuries that the Hebrew word for nature, hateva, is numerically equivalent to one of the words for God, Elohim. Depending on your perspective, this may be mere numerological wit or a linguistic insight into the cosmos, but the sensibility is sublime. What would it mean to experience the natural world, the context of the body, as merely a mask of God? What is the significance of the fact that when we simply leave our homes and enter the wilderness, a change takes place within us?….

Our texts tell us that wilderness is the realm of the sacred, and the journey is irreplaceable.

There is no substitute for actually going there yourself. Lech Lecha – go…..

Mindfulness is utterly transparent. On the outside, your embodied spiritual nature practice may look like a simple walk in the woods or a hike in the desert. On the inside, what is happening is that the body is changing, and the soul is shifting – and you are aware of it all. In particular, focusing on a few key elements of your experience in nature can transform a simple day trip into an embodied spiritual practice.”

- Jay Michaelson (God in Your Body: Kabbalah,

Mindfulness and Embodied Spiritual Practice)

………………………….

I was walking out on the exercise yard last week, along the fence, staring up at the beautiful clear sky. It was a gorgeous day. Then something frightening happened: someone got stabbed on the adjacent yard. In the gun men^‘s tower, prison guards were racking rounds into their rifles. They were shooting at two guys scuffling and fighting and trying to kill each other. I knew immediately that someone was going to die. Either the guards or one of these two prisoners would be responsible for taking a human being’s life.

The tower gunmen ordered everyone face down on the ground as they swung their fully loaded rifles around the three adjacent yards. I didn’t know what to think. Since I didn’t hear any gunshots, I figured the two guys must have stopped fighting. At least the gunmen had been saved from taking someone’s life. But what about the prisoner who had been stabbed? Was he dead? What had I been thinking about before all this happened? Why am I lying here like this? Is this all real? Shit! How long can I go on trying to be a Buddhist in this prison culture that has me lying face down? Who am I kidding?

Just as I thought my head would explode from so many flashing thoughts, I locked onto a single idea; how some people in this world have only a tragic five seconds to put their entire lives in order before they die-in a car crash or in some other sudden way. I realized that what really matters isn’t where we are or what’s going on around us, but what’s in our hearts while it’s happening.

I used to feel I could hide inside my practice, that I could simply sit and contemplate the raging anger of a place like this, seeking inner peace through prayers of compassion. But now I believe love and compassion are things to extend to others. It’s a dangerous adventure to share with them in a place like S.Q. yet I see now that we become better people if we can touch a hard­ened soul, bring joy into someone’s life, or just be an example for others, instead of hiding behind our silence.

The key is in using what we know This calls for lots of practice. There is this vast space in life to do just that, both as a practitioner and as someone who walks around the same prison yard as everyone else in this place. I’ve learned how to accept respon­sibility, for the harm I’ve caused others by never letting myself forget the things I did and by using those experiences to help others understand where they lead.

-Jarvis Jay Masters (Written on Death Row)

…………………………….

Hugging meditation is a practice I invented. In 1966, a woman poet took me to the Atlanta Airport and then asked, “Is it all right to hug a Buddhist monk?” In my country we are not used to expressing ourselves that way, but I thought, “I am a Zen teacher. It should be no problem for me to do that.” So I said, “Why not?” and she hugged me. But I was quite stiff. While on a plane, I decided that if I wanted to work with friends in the West, I would have to learn the culture of the West, so I invented hugging meditation.

Hugging meditation is a combination of East and West. According to the practice, you have to really hug the person you are hugging. You have to make him or her very real in your arms, not just for the sake of appearances, patting him on the back to pretend you are there, but breathing consciously and hugging with all your body, spirit and heart. Hugging medita­tion is a practice of mindfulness. “Breathing in, I know my dear one is in my arms, alive. Breathing out, she is so precious to me.” If you breathe deeply like that, holding the person you love, the energy of care, love, and mindfulnesss will penetrate into that person and she will be nourished and bloom like a flower.

At a retreat for psychotherapists in Colorado, we practiced hugging meditation, and one retreatant, when he returned home to Philadelphia, hugged his wife at the airport in a way he had never hugged her before. Because of that, his wife attended our next retreat in Chicago. To be really there, you only need to breathe mindfully, and suddenly both of you become real. It may be one of the best moments in your life.

-Thich Nhat Hanh, from Teachings on Love

…………………………….

“Where love is little, all acts are imperfect.”

–Mani (turfan fragment M 801)

 

…………………………….

 

 

Reflection for November 8, 2007: The Snowdrop

 

On the same spot I sit today

Others come, in ages past, to sit.

One thousand years, still others will come.

Who is the singer, and who is the listener?

–Nguyen Cong Tru

…………………………….

 

 

 

One day during a storm a heavy branch fell onto a little snowdrop plant. Later when the branch was removed the small tender stems, unharmed, were seen to have spread out and curled around as if to embrace the log. Less than an hour later, the little shoots had all but straightened out and, unimpeded, were growing upward toward their fulfillment.

–Murshida Sitara Brutnell

 

 

“The moment the first man sprang into being, moved by the breath of God, the depths of the center of his perfect soul blazed with the silent, magnificent flame of Wisdom.  Poised over the bright abyss of an interior purity that was perfectly serene because perfectly unconcerned with itself, Adam knew, before all else, that he possessed the truth, shining in the clean mirror of his own spirit.  But more than that, knew that his very spirit existed in and by and for the Truth.  That Truth
was more than a transcendental property of being.  He saw himself in the Truth Who is a personal Absolute, the Lord of life and death, the Living God.  He knew that he was himself real because he was loved by Him Who Is.”

–Thomas Merton

 

 

Gospel of Thomas Part 34: The blind

(34)

Jesus said,

“If a blind man leads a blind man,

they will both fall into a pit.”

 

Matthew 15: 12-14

Then the disciples came to him and said,

“Do you know that the Pharisees have taken

great offence at what you have been saying?”

He answered:

“Leave them alone; they are blind guides,

and if one blind man guides another

they will both fall into the ditch.”

 

Religious teachers who try to lead “sight-seekers”

to experience God, while they themselves

have closed their own eyes to the truth,

will lead all to false conclusions.

These “teachers” will cling to false doctrines,

professing to believe in things

that they know don’t ring true,

all because they are ruled by fear of an angry god.

 

The world’s major religions remind me of the ancient Indian fable, The Blind Men & The Elephant where all the blind seekers discover different

partial truths, extrapolate false conclusions,

then argue about who is correct!

The moral of that story is:

“Knowing in part may make a fine tale,

but wisdom comes from seeing the whole.”

 

quote from Seven Blind Mice

by Ed Young, 1992, Philomel books