Stories We Tell Ourselves

We humans experience the World fairly directly through our senses. Then, our brains go to work, and they do a pretty decent job of interpreting those impressions. But, there is a problem.

To put things in a woefully simple way, our right brain grasps a somewhat whole view of matters, placing the perceptions in time and space and interpreting them in terms of shapes and relationships.Then, the left brain steps in and applies logic to the perceptions, fits them neatly into place and give labels, names to them. This is vital if we are to work and communicate with other people, but their is a flaw. That left brain simply does not like to be quiet.

Our brain has a weird need to not just describe, but to make up stories, long detailed stories, about everything. It just will not stop doing that. It provides a useful narrative to our lives, a sense of continuity, of unity, but does not stop there. If presented with something beyond its immediate comprehension, it will begin making up outlandish tales with little basis.

Now, this can be grand fun. I love storytelling. And, in the course of spinning those yarns, it may be finding bits of truth and putting them in a coherent framework. But, the story is not the truth. Herein lies the conflict between spirituality and religion. Spiritual experiences are difficult, almost impossible, to put into words, yet our left brain cannot tolerate such vagueness, so it starts putting the experience into story form. The story gets told, passed along, and before you know it, a Holy Text is developed. At that point, along comes theologians and priests who know that folks long for spiritual experience but, understanding that such experiences are liberating, substitute the Text for the experience. They say, 'Believe the Text and you need not go through all the bother of experiencing yourself."

One problem: the Text will provide a watered down version in words of something that cannot be put into words. The authorities deny you the experience because, when you have it, you no longer need them. They certainly do not want to lose income and power, so the declare any legitimate spiritual experience as dangerous and heretical.

Holy Texts have their uses. They can and should function as sign posts showing the way to experience, but they are not the experience. An old Hindu proverb says that 'painted cakes do not satisfy hunger.'