Starting a Religion, Part Two

Okay I’m a little freaked out. You’ve heard of the Stanford psychology experiment of 1971 that enrolled some college students and assigned them to be either guards or prisoners? Within a short period of time, the mild-mannered well-adjusted students fell deeply into their roles as either sadistic guard or depressed prisoner and the experiment had to be prematurely aborted.

Well as soon as I jokingly introduced the idea of establishing a religion, my mind immediately latched onto the idea and began deciding what rules would be foundational, what dogma members would absolutely have to agree to in order to belong, what beliefs were indispensable.

Precisely the reason I find myself unable to join any already established religion — because there will always be something that I can’t get behind.

And I immediately begin to justify my choices. “‘Love is the Law.’ No one can argue with that, can they? Everybody knows Love is the highest good. Surely anyone worth being associated with would swear allegiance to such an idea.”

But precisely because it’s an idea that members would be asked to embrace absolutely and without any exception is what makes it feel really dangerous to me, when I step back and look at the monster being built.

What if there was an escape clause of sorts? A mandate to “Think for yourself” or “Everyone is responsible for their own Trip.” Then any rule, principle or directive issued would have to be filtered by each individual through their own mental machinery to see what comes out the other side for them.

And then of course you’d have to have some kind of clause insisting that “Diversity is to be tolerated, encouraged and celebrated” so that when we’re all standing around holding a different result from the same starting point, no one has to feel the outcast or throw theirs in the trash.

It gets fantastically messy real quick.

No wonder the other founders of religion ended up creating such giant cesspools of insanity.

Starting a Religion

I’ve had people joke with me (I assume) about this. Even my own Dad.

But now reading Jon Krakauer’s “Under the Banner of Heaven,” as he details all the Mormon shenanigans, I think, why not?

What makes other humans special that they get to start a new interpretation of divinity?

Okay, I’m not talking about Buddha or Jesus or Lao Tsu or those sorts of “humans,” who obviously are special. I’m talking about the run-of-the-mill people who have interpreted what the wisest among us have said and extrapolate to impose laws, rules, guidelines. Generally with much prejudice and imbecility.

I think Rule Number One might be “For crying out loud be nice!”

Too obvious?

My daughter will insist that years ago I said Rule Number One was “Keep it in the bowl,” but seriously, that’s for cooking. We might be able to make a metaphor or parable of it and apply it to Life in General, but honestly the profoundly deep secret meaning of it (you might want to jot this down in case I become a prophet later) is “For crying out loud be nice to your poor Mama who has to clean up the floor later and stop whooshing everything on the floor.” So, really, just a corollary to the Rule Number One I previously suggested.

Rule Number Two for cooking was “You can’t have too much butter.” I think we might just keep that one in our religious text verbatim.

Done.

Put a fork in it, three years later I’m finally done with the quilt for my parents. (Okay, wait, after all that work, if you put a fork in it I’ll have to hurt you, so just admire it from afar! )

It occurred to me a couple of weeks ago that if I got it done in time, I could get it in the mail and it would make it to California in time for Mother’s Day and my father’s birthday, which is the day after.

So I’ve been driving myself and my family crazy working every spare second to get it done.

Done!

*sigh*

I keep thinking about how the post office will ask if I want to insure it. Whenever I hand make something, I always think to myself, there isn’t enough money in the world to replace however-long-it-took-me.

Anyway, I hope they love it, and feel the warmth and love that is stitched into it.

Now I’ll just pack it in a box with a framed family portrait we just got taken, buy a couple of cards, ship the whole thing off to the other side of the continent.

Then move on to the next project…

How to Live on a Day Like This

Today is one of those days where I want to run away, hide, scream, cry, give up.

But I’m tired of feeling overwhelmed. I want to do it differently. Like 880 freeway differently. Like why did I get this tattoo if I was just going to be beaten down by every tiny dilemma that comes my way. Even if there are fourteen of them and they are all coming at me at once.

I  sit with the feelings, keep my eyes and heart open to love and meaning.

It’s really freakin’ hard.

 

Family Pictures

After our latest family photo saga (the whole process seems to take an ungodly amount of time and effort), I looked at this photo and thought:

That’s a helluva lotta work, right there!

Not my most generous thought ever, but for some reason the whole weight of the last 20 years descended upon me at once, and I felt proud and grateful but also overwhelmed at the hugeness of the task I’ve lived (and I’m sure the years ahead loomed large in there somewhere as well.)

Do you ever stand back and just say, Wow!?

 

Jesus as Healer

I’m reading for the second time Thomas Moore’s book Writing in the Sand: Jesus & the Soul of the Gospels. This morning I started on the chapter about healing and read:

The good news is that we are creating a new world order in which the first task is to heal each other.

The Buddha begins his teaching with the simple observation that there is suffering in the world. Jesus similarly focuses on the sickness of the soul that affects people individually and socially, physically and spiritually. This perception of sickness is central, and healing is his signature activity. Jesus does not teach how to be virtuous, how to be saved, or how to be a good church member. He says nothing about memorizing dogma or following a strict set of moral rules. Instead, he continually demonstrates how to be in this world as a healer.

I find this perspective so inspiring. Moving away from judgment, rules and regulations, to focus on healing and becoming whole.

Also, in my current reading of the Gospel of Mark, I’m realizing for the first time how concerned Jesus was about feeding people. I mean, we’ve all heard the story of the miracle of the loaves and fish, but I think previously I had assumed that it was just another opportunity for Jesus to show off. But the second time he does it, Mark describes it thus:

In those days when there again was a great crowd without anything to eat, he summoned the disciples and said, “My heart is moved with pity for the crowd, because they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat. If I send them away hungry to their homes, they will collapse on the way, and some of them have come a great distance.” Mark 8:1-3

I can completely relate, since I love to feed people and am constantly thinking about what food I will make, who will be around to eat it, what they might enjoy, etc. For the first time I felt a real human connection to Jesus through a story in the Gospel.

I think my study of Buddhism and Taoism has deeply informed my understanding of Jesus and what he was all about. I think for me the Good News makes much more sense when approached from these directions, rather than the hellfire preacher or rigidly structured, Pope-dictated way.

The message becomes very simple, and living as Jesus did and following his example is precisely as we are told the Tao operates, flowing like water to the lowlands, moving with the terrain, serving without asking for credit or being clever, losing one’s self in the ocean of Oneness.

To heal, to feed, to love!

I don’t know how any of it could be officially integrated in any way that anyone else would ever recognize as valid, but for me, it feels like Spirit is speaking and being revealed through the interweaving of it all.

Crisis Management

I’ve begun to implement a technique to monitor my level of crisis. In other words, I often (many times a day) get to the point of feeling completely overwhelmed by all the things I’m juggling, by the challenges I encounter, by the people in my life who are emoting, whining, begging, or otherwise creating an atmosphere of desperate urgency.

I truly believe that paying attention, as the Buddha suggests, is the first step toward healing and strengthening. So I am trying to ask myself, when I’m on the verge of panic, How bad is this situation I find myself in? On a scale of 1 to 10. One being a situation in which one might enjoy total relaxation of body, mind and spirit, ten being some sort of life-or-death catastrophe inducing full-blown fight-or-flight stress.

I think it helps when I remember to do it. I think I get down in the trenches and forget to come up for a panoramic view of the situation, to reassess. I get too close to a small little piece of my life, and then when I don’t think it’s going exactly right, it looks like the whole world is falling apart. Because if that one little thing is your whole world, then it really is all falling apart.

If I pull back and try to judge based on everything as far as I can see, chances are there will be enough things that are calm, secure, at peace, that I can put my tiny crisis into perspective and not freak out about it.

Or, if the sky really is falling, I can problem solve for that instead. Either way, I’m looking to cultivate an appropriate response to my situation rather than an overblown conniption fit.

Do you have a way to keep from being overwhelmed by your day-to-day challenges?