Look Closely

I want you to try an experiment. Go outside and look at a leaf. It doesn't matter what kind. It can be from a tree, shrub, or grass. Just look at it closely.

Look at the structure, at the intricate design of the veins. Then, get a magnifying glass and look closer and see how even more intricate that design is than it appears to the naked eye. Then look at it through a microscope. (I know, few folks keep one around, but there are countless such pictures in books and on the internet) At every level, the leaf becomes more and more amazing, and, at the cell level, you become aware, that in those tiny specks, there is a whole world of activity.

Then, back away and think. We have a pretty good idea of what goes on in a cell, but only pretty good. We understand the chemistry that is occurring, and a lot of the physics at the mechanical level, but there is much we don't know about the electrical and quantum physics  happening in those cells.

Then, be aware, we have no idea absolutely no idea of the whys of the cells life. Why does this happen? It is obvious to any but the most idiotically hard headed materialists, that this delicate mechanism, is not the result of any sort of accident. Lightening did not strike a chemical rich gob of mud in the distant past and produce this. Science, while useful and important, cannot explain why and cannot understand, in full, what is going on. What's the answer?

God, you say? Okay, I agree, but stop a moment. If we cannot understand this relatively simple bit of Nature, what can we say about God. Hard headed religious believers, of which there are many, are just as foolish as hard headed scientific materialists.

God's Universe is a mystery; God is a greater mystery and all of that is wonderful, but, blessedly, it eliminates any possibilities of hard dogma. Allow God to be that grand mystery and the Universe becomes enchanted.

Finding the Sacred in Everything

The World should not be divided into the Sacred and the Secular. This is a grave mistake. By creating such separation, we cheapen much of life. If you do not see the Sacred in everyday life, you will not take care and will not cherish the World.

Frank Herbert, in his great book Dune, makes the point that all religions are, to varying degrees, anti-life, and, with the possible exception of the animistic religions, this is true. Christianity and Islam, with their belief that the afterlife is what matters are surely guilty of this and the Eastern religions, with their belief in Nirvana, the goal beyond life and beyond all, are equally guilty.

I am not sure that the founders of these belief systems meant for their teachings to be taken that way. Actually, I am fairly sure they did not, but they lost control over those teachings and, for what ever reason, those religions do have a kind of distaste, if not a downright disgust, with life.

This should not be. Ask yourself this. Can you explain why anything exists? Why is that ant crawling over your kitchen table? Why is it raining? Why are you breathing? Ultimately, why is their something rather that nothing? No one, not even the great priests or scientists  can answer that. It is a Sacred Mystery, beyond our understanding, likely beyond our capacity to understand. Thus, if you look at things the right way, everything is Sacred.

The Finger Pointing At The Moon

I do not consider myself a Buddhist, but I admire the directness of Zen. I love one of their admonitions, "Do not mistake the finger pointing at the moon for the Moon.

Throughout our history, men have tried to deal with the Divine in countless ways. We have gathered in beautiful Cathedrals and isolated ourselves in caves. We have stared at crosses and statues, at icons and mandalas. We have prayed to countless gods and goddesses and to a single God. We have chanted and prayed, meditated and contemplated, danced and beat ourselves. We have consulted spirit beings and oracles and channeled the dead. And, we have swallowed and smoked just about every chemical imaginable.

We have tackled the issue with logic. Just read the tortured, twisting logic found in the epistles of Paul and some of the Buddhist texts. Our scientists have used pure logic and describe a Universe that seemingly is almost irrational and filled with a fantastic array of weird particles that zip about with little rhyme or reason.

And, still, we search. We become convinced that the path we take, the methods we try, are the only way. In fact they give no answers; they only raise more questions. What is worse, they divide us more and more, as we defend our little paths out of fear that if we admit that they are lacking, we will be lost. We would rather soldier on, down a dead end road, than admit we were wrong and that we have wasted time.

The prime and obvious example of this began in the Middle East where Jews, Muslims,  and Christians, all professing a belief in the same God, have been fighting for centuries over silly bits of dogma. All of their battles are just a way of saying, "Daddy (God) loves me best." It is stupid and childish and is threatening the World, spreading bloodshed and wanton destructiveness everywhere.

All of the methods I noted have their uses. Each can show you a glimpse of the Divine mystery, but only a glimpse. You cannot see the whole, the unity that underlies all the diversity and is the source of it all, by just looking at the parts. Staring at your toenail tells you nothing of the rest of the foot and it certainly cannot bring you in touch with the whole body.

Just accept that we know very, very little, that it is all a grand mystery and get on with your life. Do that, and slowly, bit by bit, you will get glimpses of the Divine, little peaks behind the curtain. You will learn at the pace you are ready to learn. First though, stop mistaking the pointing finger for the Moon.

America Needs A New Religion

Now, friends and neighbors, I present what America needs, what it has been waiting for, even if no one knew that they were waiting. A New Religion, a belief system that finally tells the truth and nothing but the truth, well, mostly. Here it is: The First Church of Who Knows.

Our belief system is about as simple as you can get. We don't really know much of anything. Well, you say, that's not true; we know lots. Think again.

We have a way of viewing the Universe within a set of limitations imposed on us by our bodies. We can't see like a hawk, hear like a bat, sense air motions like a cat does with its whiskers, feel heat like a snake, and we sure can't smell like a dog. Even with our finest instruments, we sense a limited world. This is proven by those big particle colliders. In them we see the paths particles take after collisions, but never the particles.

Even with what we perceive, we only see the World our brain creates. The brain uses sense data to construct a model of the World. As the Zen saying goes, 'do not confuse the moon with a finger pointing at the moon.' Our brains have limits, and further more, the brain's own mechanism limits our awareness to what is needed to survive. We are bombarded by a tremendous number of bits of sensory input each second. If we registered all of them consciously we would be hopelessly overwhelmed. If you doubt that, watch someone on their first acid trip. They are near helpless. This is because LSD puts that limiting function out of commission, temporarily. By the way, do not try that yourself. I strongly advise against acid use for a variety of reasons.

So, if we are aware of an incomplete World, we cannot say we know it. We have enough data to make some guesses, and no doubt, some are pretty good, but you cannot know with insufficient information. I will remind you that we thought we had a pretty good grip on electricity, until quantum theory showed up. Now, that seems far from settled.

As far as Theological matters go ( bet you wondered why I was calling this a religion), if you reject the picture of God as the Ancient of Days, the old man on the cloud keeping track of whose naughty and nice, you will have to admit that there isn't much you can say. Congratulate yourself because that is exactly the conclusion reached by such theologians as St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas. The Jewish mystics refer to God in his totality as ein Soff and say that as such, He is unknowable (my use of 'He' is simply a convention, gender does not apply). The Hindu teachers have students list the attributes of God and, to each one, respond, 'neti, neti, not that, not that.' This is because that which is beyond time and space is unknowable in that words, or even concepts, do not apply.

Some will say, 'God is Love,' and to those I will ask, have you ever actually read the Old Testament, a book in which God orders genocide at many points and in fits of temper takes the matter into His own hands at several points. For those of a New Agier point of view, please look at the World, with floods, fires, earthquakes, volcanos, and many, many viscous diseases. Look at the Universe full of  the thermonuclear burning of stars, the incredible explosions of super novas, the raw power that is constantly giving birth, and destroying.

To eliminate the confusion of theology, I propose we start a church where we finally admit that while there certainly is something awesomely powerful at work, we do not really have much of a clue about what that is. This way, we can get about the business of living. Our rituals are simple, have fun, any way you want that doesn't hurt others. Our sacrament, sharing. Our morality, be forgiving, as non-judgmental as is reasonable and  kind.

I think this a fine way to face the future. It eliminates all the stupidly violent fights we have over matters that no one has much clue about. We will in this Church have a God; I, myself am a firm believer, but we will be honest and, in the spirit of the Native Americans call this ultimate God, the Creator, the Great Mystery. I for one am going to stand by this belief until someone can answer for me the one great question, 'why is there something, rather than nothing.'

So join me, all who wish to be free from the shackles of divisive beliefs,  as members of the Church of Who Knows. We can meet in the chapel of Good Deeds, sing hymns from the books of Kindness and Forgiveness, and preach the word of Non Judgementalism. Then we can all have dinner and relax.