Hello everyone!
You might think this is all about religion, but it is much more than that.
Spirituality is the relationship that you have, firstly as an individual and secondly as part of a community, with God, the universe, and other people. If you do not believe in God, please feel free to substitute the word Life for God. For all practical purposes, it is the same thing.
The raw material of spirituality is composed of ideas, beliefs and opinions. The manner in which you behave in your daily life is conditioned by your belief system, whatever that may be. Politics is spirituality expressed in government. Business is spirituality expressed in the provision of goods and services. All problems that we have are spiritual problems, and answers to them can be found by examining our belief systems. When I say belief, I don't mean a set of ideas about God. We can, and do, create belief systems about animal rights, the environment, nuclear power, and much else that are, effectively, secular theologies.
There are two core principles that I base my spirituality on. The first one is, we are all one. It may not seem that way, because we look different from each other and are walking around in physical bodies. But it is true even in biological terms. On average, our skin cells are renewed completely over the course of a year. Other cells in our body, for example the stomach lining, are renewed far more frequently than that. We are exchanging atoms of carbon, oxygen, and other substances necessary to maintain life, with the rest of the world all the time. If we look further and observe how what we do affects life elsewhere on the planet, it becomes even clearer. Ask yourself what had to happen, and where, so that you could eat a banana or a pineapple.
The second principle is, this is not the only way, it is just another way. We have to have differences of opinion. If we all agreed with one another, there would be no new ideas, no discoveries and no progress. The question is how to manage the differences. The answer that many people have come up with in history is to try to persuade, enforce, and bully others into conforming with one particular way, and therefore any amount of energy has been wasted by people fighting each other. And in any case, which way is right, and how are we to know? Who has read all the texts of all the religions on earth in all the languages in which they were written in order to decide what is the "true" faith, and who could do so and remain sane?
It would be more constructive to ask, given what we want to achieve, will it work? The answer to that question will of course change according to the circumstances. But it's a far more sensible question to ask than whether something is right or wrong. There is no such thing as an objective standard of right and wrong. Right and wrong are human constructs that can be, and are, altered arbitrarily. Whether a course of action will work or not is susceptible to enquiry and scientific measurement.
I'm not advocating any form of "one world religion". We have at present a one world food, the hamburger, and a one world drink, Coca Cola, and I don't find either very inspiring. I am advocating that you can have as many different cultures as you like, as long as they conform to principles of human conduct that can be seen in all world religions if you look in the right place, without which you could not have social cohesion.
My intentions in creating this blog are to engage with the London "Evening Standard" on cultural and spiritual issues, and to make a forum for the exchange of ideas. I intend to, over the course of each week, select items published in that paper which I feel to be worth commenting on, and post my comments on them at the end of the week. I hope to hear from you so as to get a dialogue going.
My opinions on anything are subject to change. My love for you will not change.
2 comments:
Simcha - I can't agree with you that there is no objective standard of right and wrong. Surely that is what the Torah is. I DO agree with you that human beings are not and can never be objective. That is why we need the Torah: a guide to life that does not depend on human subjectivity to determine its standards.
This amongst other things is what we have been learning with our rabbi and teacher, Rabbu Shmuel Lemon for the past six years or so.
You should join us: I think you'd enjoy the challenges he sets.
Best wishes,
Nena
Hi Nena,
Firstly, thanks for your response, I'm glad that you've been able to post something. I was beginning to wonder if I'd inadvertently made this blog comment proof.
Most people who read this aren't going to have a clue what the Torah is, so I'm going to elucidate a bit, for the benefit of everyone. Torah is Jewish teaching. It began with what we call the Hebrew scriptures or "Old Testament", and in particular its first five books, that is to say Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. It takes in the code of Jewish life known as the Mishnah (this is a compendium of our laws and customs which was put into writing in Roman times, circa 2nd-3rd centuries of the Christian era: before that it was passed on by word of mouth), the Gemara (commentary on the Mishnah) and a huge volume of Rabbinic writings.
We have been referred to as the people of the book. I guess it is more accurate to see the Jewish world as the people of the library!
I'm not going to start an esoteric argument on what it all means. Anyone not versed with these sources will switch off at once.
What I would say is that, firstly, our Rabbis and teachers disagreed with one another on almost everything, and this disagreement shows no signs of ending. Secondly, over time we, in the Jewish community, have changed our ideas of what our sources meant. I touched on this in one of my pieces on the illusions of mankind.
Thirdly, even if you take the most basic of rules of human conduct such as the Ten Commandments, you will see that they have been interpreted by religious people of all persuasions in whatever way suited their purposes.
It says that you should not steal. National boundaries are almost always where they are because someone stole someone else's land.
It says that you should not murder. It is universally agreed that if I give you a poison that will kill you in thirty days, that is an act of murder. It is equally universally agreed that if I am a tobacco company, and sell you a poison that will kill you in thirty years, that is an act of commerce.
Examples of this sort can be multiplied.
I think that everyone, myself included, will do exactly what he thinks to be right given his model of the world. If we think that we are doing it because God commanded it to be done, then there is no room for discussion. If on the other hand we admit that we are making it all up, which is what I have come to think we are doing, then we will be open to change, and to objective evaluation of our actions, and we won't waste valuable time and energy in conflict.
You can't measure if something is right or wrong. You can measure whether or not it works, given what you intend to achieve, and what kind of life you intend to have.
If we don't see eye to eye on this, that is perfectly OK.
My opinions on anything are subject to change. My love for you will not change.
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