Staring into the bleak landscape of the political season, I ponder man’s yearning for transcendence. It has been a quest since antiquity, some leading to perverse and violent paths, others to an otherworldly serenity.
Divinely inspired revelations have been preserved and written in all languages. Wisdom is not confined to one set of beliefs or orientation. It is neither Western nor Eastern. It is universal.
The Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount represent the pinnacle of Judeo-Christian transcendence. They are a blueprint of how to be in the world but not of the world, hence not political. The same can be said of the venerable Bhagavad Gita, an allegory of Krishna the servant revealing the meaning of life, action, devotion and non-attachment to the mighty warrior Arjuna. In other words transcendence of being in the world but not of it.
One can touch the unity of an elusive path. The ephemeral nature of politics and power within the perspective of infinite wisdom is difficult to articulate and even harder to live and practice in the modern world. Yet, it is in our DNA, much like the wolf howling at the moon, to restlessly seek and experience the transcendental meaning to existence. If we could just reduce the perverse insanity that grips the world, we could unite around our common spirit.
Divinely inspired is an interesting concept. Many people who believe in one religion or another believe that their sacred book was divinely inspired and for some even written by God or saying this is the word of God. God, God, God. As we know these books show an evolution in the understanding of God. These books are man’s writing and evolving in the understanding of God. Man’s understanding of God has evolved over the years due to great spirits, including their own, and other beings, martyrs standing up for the truth and so helping mankind to evolve. The book of John even says that Jesus said, “there are many things you cannot bear to know now but I will send my spirit to give you direction” So humans need to be involved in this evolution of understanding and stop stopping the process by saying ” my God says this or that and that is final.
We all know that Abraham believed in many gods. We know the idea of one God was a slow evolution of understanding the transcendence. The idea of God not demanding human sacrifice was a slow evolution of understanding the compassion of God. Tribalism is all over the Old Testament. The New Testament talks about love, compassion, forgiveness, equality and being servants. What an enormous evolutions this was. It was often aborted by the Roman Emperor, the Hierarchy, the Vatican, Popes, over the centuries. Transcendence begins with us going in to find the Spirit that has been given to all of us since our birth.
David Stang
Before seeing what Arlene wrote in her reply, I decided to write “beautifully said”.
Love reading your musings. They make much sense to me. Keep writing.
Beautifully said Jeff, but will that unity of spirit ever be?