Power and Truth

One of the reasons that positive change, the power to do good, is often ignored is that change can revolutionise the way we live and the way we think. Change can alter the status quo; undermine power and privilege. People who hold power are generally always sensitive to the risk that changes can often bring. For example, when the mathematician, Nicholas Copernicus published his book in 1543, De Revolutionibus showing that the sun was the centre of the planetary system and not the planet Earth his book was banned by the Catholic Church. 16 years later, Giordano Bruno was burnt at the stake for saying the same thing. Later, Galileo published his own views in support of the Copernican theory. The Inquisition responded by threatening him with torture, he recanted his views and was then placed under house arrest for the rest of his life.

Dr Joseph Bronoski in his famous book, The Ascent of Man, commented that, 'Galileo seems to have been strangely innocent about the world of politics and most innocent in thinking that he could outwit it because he was clever.' But the Roman Catholic Church was a church that held power, that believed 'faith should dominate' whereas Galileo believed that 'truth should persuade'. The Catholic Church was a totalitarian, ecclesiastical power and as we have seen, it would brook no opposition to its doctrine.

Today, we have our own political juggernauts and those who stand outside of the main parties or the political consensus are often ignored and marginalised. One who is not listened to or does not have access to the 'corridors of power' is often referred to as a 'voice in the wilderness' as though that voice or that person is of no consequence. But just because one person, or a minority holds a point of view or has an idea that is not supported by the majority it doesn't necessarily mean that that idea is wrong. Someone once said, 'If 50 million people think a foolish thing it is still a foolish thing'.

In the gospel of Mark, that lone voice of 'one crying in the wilderness' opens the story of Jesus' ministry.

Behold, I send my message before thy face, who shall prepare thy way; the voice of one crying in the wilderness - prepare the way of the Lord make his paths straight.

Here was John the Baptist at the River Jordan, bringing a message to those who were seeking a new beginning, baptising them with water but Jesus of Nazareth he said 'would baptise with the Holy Spirit.' The voice crying in the wilderness proclaimed not himself, but a new message that would turn the world upside down, where the first would be last and the last would be first. There is this story where the disciples of Jesus are all arguing and bickering amongst themselves, trying to outdo each other, scoring points, so to speak but Jesus gets them all to sit down and says to them, 'If you really want the place of honour, you must become a slave and serve others.' Later, he told them of the need to 'forgive what others have done to you' as an essential practice in the spiritual life.

But in his own life, the message he brought and the ideas he conveyed were rejected and rejected not least by the people who knew him in his own town of Nazareth. He said, 'Prophets are honoured by everyone except the people of their hometown and their relatives and their own family'. However, the Pharisees, the teachers of the law, they also dismissed his teachings and in response to their disbelief, he quoted these words from Isaiah:

The stone that the builders tossed aside is now the most important stone of all.

You can imagine that it did not go down well. Prophets are often without honour in their hometown and amongst their closest family, because often the prophet brings an uncomfortable message that challenges power, self-interest and tradition. The words of a prophet can bring all sorts of consequences and insecurities the whole thing is problematic. Jesus said (in the gospel of John) 'and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free'. But as we know men are often more interested in the power of their own authority than being persuaded by the truth.

Laugh with Buddha

In the Buddhist tradition, we have the Laughing Buddha or the Happy Buddha, known as Hotie in Japan and Put-Tai in China.  This Buddha is not the historic Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, but supposedly a fat, wandering Zen monk, who carried a bag over his shoulder that contained sweets for children.  The bag is also reputed to contain gold, or it can be said that the bag represents fulfillment wishes that can also be the blessings of the Buddha.  This Buddha is really a fusion of the Buddhist notions of enlightenment and practical Chinese aspirations for happiness through prosperity and plenty.  So we get the image of the fat laughing Buddha with the big belly. There is this proverb that says "laugh and grow fat" and on laughter, the American inspirational and self-help author Og Mandino wrote these words: 

"And so long as I can laugh, never will I be poor.  This then is one of nature's gifts and I will waste it no more.  Only with laughter and happiness can I truly become a success.  Only with laughter and happiness can I enjoy the fruits of my labour.  Were it not so, far better would it be to fail for happiness is the wine that sharpens the taste of the meal.  To enjoy success I must have happiness and laughter will be the maiden who serves me."

Laughter of course, is one of the great joys of life; those with a quick smile and a sense of humour are bound to enjoy life.  Like the Fat Buddha then, we can laugh and become enriched with the blessings that light heartedness can confer.  I once knew a man, Fred, who wanted one of those brass Fat/Laughing Buddha's as an ornament to put on top of his television.  He got his wish and there it was situated, pride of place on top of the set.  Then one night the brass Buddha which was quite substantial, fell onto Fred's head as he knelt down to adjust the telly.  It may not have amused Fred, but the Buddha certainly brought the gift of laughter to everyone who witnessed this unfortunate incident, and may I say it brought the gift of laughter to everyone who subsequently heard about it too. 

There is this laughter that in a way performs a role much more effectively than all the sermons and scriptural texts on humility can hope to do.  Laughter can bring us down to earth very quickly at those times when we might be taking ourselves a little bit too seriously or when we might be trying a little too hard to impress.  Like the unfortunate heckler at a comedy show, showing off, who was put down with these words: "Well it's a night out for him... and a night off for his family."

We see this coming down to earth in the story of the prodigal son, the story of a young man who dreams of great things and a better life, so much so that he takes his inheritance, because he thinks he knows what's best, and goes to live it up in a far off country.  But in the end, when the money is gone he comes up against reality, he finds himself friendless and in abject poverty.  The dreams and the showboating are over and he is forced to return to his roots, to the place where he is really known and loved. There he finds a true homecoming, a welcome that must be met with some acknowledgement and humility, an opportunity for learning, for repentance and for personal growth.  Reality sets in when that brass Buddha falls on your head.  When we face reality we wake up to an opportunity to show gratitude and to acknowledge the many blessings that we may be fortunate enough to have such as warmth, shelter, food, friends around us, and the people we love.

The Bubblegum Time Machine

Somebody once said that, “Time exists to stop everything happening at once”. Taken from this point of view, time appears not as a torrential downpour or an unbridled explosion of events and history but something else.  Rather, it seems to say that time is very much a control mechanism that allows events to occur sequentially, one bit at time, a bit like the mechanism of a bubblegum machine, those bubble gum machines which as every child knows appears as a kaleidoscope of colour bursting with the promise of a flavoured, chewy-sweet pleasure. 

The bubble gum machine seems designed to suggest (subliminally) a mega-hit of not one piece of bubble gum but a thousand! forget the psychedelia of the 1960’s! The ecstasy would be almost unbearable. Of course, the bubble gum machine is regulated to drop only one ball of gum at a time, a bubblegum time machine regulating the events of our lives. The penny drops, the machine clicks with a turn and out drops another day.  We live each day as it comes: a red day, a blue day, a yellow day or even a black day. We experience life like this: a series of random events like the selected lottery balls that can make you an instant millionaire - or not. Perhaps the patterns of our lives might appear more coherent when viewed from further back, using the wide-angle lens, in the wide sweep of history but we cannot predict the future with any certainty.

Nor can we be clinical analysts knowing and observing through a plate glass screen.  As St Paul puts it, “we see through the mirror darkly”.  This is because we are part of the process that is unfolding, life and death coming into and going out of existence.  In that beautiful letter to the Corinthians there is a warning against the conceit of knowledge and of intellectual prowess, “If I have the gift of prophesy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains but I do not have love I am nothing.”  This is Paul at his poetic best, freely handing out the profoundest truth, the essential truth that no scientific discovery will ever exceed.  For God’s love is the truth that permeates the universe, a love that is beyond time itself.  As St Paul says, “Now we see but a poor reflection, as in a mirror: then we shall see face to face.  Now I know in part: then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known”.

Bruce Almighty

The concept of God as somehow separate from creation and only standing outside as some kind of all powerful being either occasionally intervening in or on the other hand ignoring the passing events on earth does not accord with the words ascribed to St Paul. Quite the opposite, as Paul says, "For in him we live and move and have our being".  Here we are given a certain flavour of the proximity of God in our lives, a proximity so close we can scarcely imagine it.  It is reminiscent of the fish that wanted to see the ocean so badly but didn't know she was already in it.  We too are in that ocean; enveloped in that loving, pulsating consciousness where even the hairs on your head are numbered for in God, there is nothing that is not known. 

Jesus gave us a glimpse of our own potential to become truly the children of God and sometimes we may see in another, the flowering of that potential, a glimpse of that divine goodness that for a time may guide and inspire us. I recently enjoyed the comedy film, Bruce Almighty, featuring Jim Carey as Bruce Nolan, an egotistic and disaffected television reporter who temporarily becomes Bruce Almighty, while God has a holiday. In this production, God played by Morgan Freeman, is depicted as appearing as a wise, world weary God, a God who is very much the creator God, but a God also who knows only too well the weakness and failings of humanity.  He is a compassionate God with a sense of humour and he is a God with a filing cabinet who knows everything about Bruce Nolan. Importantly, Freeman helps us to glimpse that divine goodness that exists in others.   

Because Bruce had complained about being ignored by God, that God was not doing his job properly, God taking his holiday hands over his powers to Bruce for a while with the rule that Bruce must observe the right of all human beings to have "free will".  Bruce Nolan therefore becomes Bruce Almighty. Hilariously the whole episode ends in near disaster, with thousands of people, for example, all winning the same lottery draw and rioting, until God takes over again but in the process, Bruce learns some major life lessons.  Through his own suffering, Bruce realises that real success cannot be achieved through selfish egotism; you have to be there for other people if you want them to be there for you.  Secondly, that we do not inhabit a world that is indifferent to our existence but a world that needs us to become compassionately aware of our interdependency that we all have a role to play. 

This God of love calls us into the fullness of the one life and knows our weakness and our potentialities so God says to Bruce Nolan, "Bruce, you have the divine spark, you have the gift for bringing joy and laughter to the world - I know, I created you".  Jack Kornfield, teacher, psychologist and Buddhist tells a story of the Buddha who shortly after achieving enlightenment was approached by a man who had noticed that there was something special about him.  The Buddha seemed to exude a remarkable energy.  The man wondered if he was a god, a wizard or a magician.  The Buddha simply replied that he was 'awake'.  In the same way, Jesus exhorted the crowds to wake up, he said, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God then all things will be added".  On our own journey, we may sometimes be given insight and moments of inspiration. Our spiritual path if we choose to take it is a journey not an end.  However, it is the only response to despair and cynicism as Bruce Nolan discovered. May you take your journey with courage and faith.

If We Can Understand Who We Really Are

The twentieth century comedy actor, Jimmy Edwards, once remarked, “If there was any good advice he could give it would be, “don’t take good advice!” There’s a message there somewhere.

A few weeks ago, The Guardian carried an interesting review by Susanna Rustin of a book entitled, “The Social Conquest of the Earth” by Edward Wilson. Since I have already touched on the subject of advice, I can tell you that the writer and atheist Richard Dawkins has advised that we shouldn’t read it, “Potential readers should throw the book aside with great force” he says.  Should we take such advice?  What is so objectionable about the book in the first place?  First, we should remember that back in 1976 Professor Richard Dawkins published a book on evolution entitled “The Selfish Gene”.  The premise of this book is that our genes drive evolution, and that our genes drive us to do the things that give us most chance of survival and of replicating those same genes.  Our actions may appear to be unselfish, but basically, the genes are driving us in one direction – the survival and replication of our genes.

However, the Harvard biologist and professor Edward Wilson has scientifically challenged this rather bleak view of humanity, much to the annoyance of Richard Dawkins. From his research, Wilson has proposed the alternative view; he said, "I think if we can understand who we really are then we could reach a much better world."  His work and research on social insects such as ants has led him to conclude that their high level of organisation through close co-operation has promoted the replication of their own genes. Through such co-operation, there has been altruistic evolution that has ensured group survival and so these insects have become one of the most successful species on earth.

For Wilson, the lives of the ants provide a lesson for humanity.  He sees our own selfish striving is continually at war with our more generous co-operative and compassionate instincts.  He says it is a conflict between the poorer and better angels of our own nature.  He warns us about the contradictions of human society, a society he says that is a "star wars civilization with Stone Age emotions, medieval institutions and god-like technology.  We thrash about terribly confused by the mere fact of our own existence and the danger to ourselves and the rest of life".

But Wilson, through his own take on evolutionary theory offers us hope. He says, "I think we have the qualities to come through and staunch the haemorrhage of species extinction I just think people are capable of being better than they have been. Why would you risk your life to save the life of a stranger? Why would you give up one of your kidneys? We really are a wonderful species, and I think if we can understand who we really are, then we can reach a much better world, and a much better arrangement than we have now."

On the other hand, Professor Dawkins has said the threat of extinction was real and very disturbing he has stated, "Humans may be unique in having the consciousness and ability to look into the future. Ninety nine per cent of species have become extinct. I don't think there has been a mechanism by which a species took steps to halt a headlong rush to extinction."

Against the advice of professor Dawkins, to throw professor Wilson's book "aside with great force", perhaps we might consider that Wilson’s perspective holds out the hope for humanity that in the end our better angels can defeat our poorer angels and that ultimately we can create a better world.  These two opposing views may be dressed up in scientific verbiage but the decision to choose hope over despair lies within you alone, no one can think for you, you have to decide.

We struggle with the dark side our own human nature there is uncertainty and we have to live with that. However, Psalm 23 exhorts us to acknowledge God, to live with the faith, courage, and determination:

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
    all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
    for ever. Amen

Our beliefs and attitudes make us who we are and will ultimately create the world in which we live.

Madness

Last year, in Norway on July 22^nd 2011, Anders Breivik a declared ultra nationalist, launched a bomb attack on government buildings in Oslo where he killed eight people, and then travelled to a Labour party youth camp where he killed 69 young people, one of whom was only 14 years old.   He shot them using a handgun at close range, or if they were further away, he used a semi-automatic rifle.  Breivik justified his cold-blooded slaughter by saying “I see all multi-cultural political activists as monsters, as evil monsters who wish to eradicate our people, our ethnic group, our culture, and our country.”

It is natural to think that anyone who could carry out such atrocities is insane; certainly, they must be!  Anders Breivik is clearly a madman yet he too was ruled eligible to stand trial because psychiatrists had declared him sane.  Apparently this had overruled a previous psychiatric evaluation in which he had been described as “living in a delusional universe” - a paranoid schizophrenic who had lost touch with reality.  The state prosecutors lost their campaign to have Breivik declared insane while 72% of the Norwegian population wanted him declared sane so that he could stand trial.  Breivik wanted the same thing and he got it. The New Statesman magazine commented, “Breivik’s actions are not rooted in mental imbalance, but in political belief, and we must study and negate his beliefs – and those who adhere to them, to stop future slaughters.”  Actually, all we see here is the beginning of the operation of the law of unintended consequences.  In giving such evil the credibility and status of political belief, we end up allowing the power of darkness to dictate the terms of our existence. We unwittingly give it power.    For now we have unintended collaboration and the boundaries have become blurred.  One person said, “I believe he is mad, but it is political madness, not psychiatric madness”. The question is what is the difference? 

The Catholic priest, Thomas Merton said, “The generals and fighters on both sides in World War 2, the ones who carried out the destruction of entire cities, these were the same ones.  Those who have invented and developed atomic bombs, thermonuclear bombs, missiles – who have planned the strategy for the next war; who have evaluated the various possibilities of using viral and bacterial chemical agents – these are not crazy people, they are sane people.  The ones who coolly estimate how many millions can be considered expendable in a nuclear war, I presume they do all right with the Rorschach (ink blot) test.”

In Struggle We Can Find Truth

Years ago there was this famous TV advert for a brand of cigars, known as Hamlet.  There were many versions of these advertisements that would begin with various scenes involving an attempt of sorts that would go wrong.  Famously, there was one advert where a man in a photo booth is vainly attempting to hide his baldness with only a few strands of hair before the camera flashed to take his photograph, but the unpredictability of the camera turned his vain attempts into disaster.  Disappointing, is the word that comes to mind.  At the point of deepest despair, Bach's Air on a G String is played and our dismayed friend consoles himself by lighting up a Hamlet cigar.   Such was the popularity of this advertisement at the time that if you referred to any story of failure or disappointment as 'Hamlet time', it would be likely to receive a knowing smile from the hearer of the tale. I can't help feeling that the Hamlet advertisements inadvertently not only pointed to consolation but also to the potential for new understanding that can arise from disappointment. The Zen Buddhists call this form of personal insight Satori.   

Life as we know can be full of disappointments or to put it another way, 'Blessed are they that expect nothing for they shall not be disappointed' which in a way is again very Buddhist when we consider the four noble truths, of its teaching that tells us that life is suffering and that our suffering arises from desire or attachment or wanting; and no doubt, disappointment. If we look at the New Testament there is of course, the story of Jesus and an expectation that following his death and crucifixion that he will return within the lifetime of his followers and bring God's kingdom to earth:

And then they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory: Mark 26: 13

Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass a way before all these things take place:Mark 26: 30

The literal message, the eschatology, was of course not realised and yet the faith of the Church, sustained by the spiritual truths of the teachings of Jesus, continued. 

It seems that there has to be new revelation when events, outcomes do not concur with our expectations.  There is more on the ground than there is on the map and we have to accept surprise and disappointment and move on in the light of new knowledge, in revelation, so that we can continue our journey. In an article published by the National Unitarian Fellowship 'Book Believers' by the Rev. Bill Darlison he tells us that, 'We must constantly bear in mind, that in the main the Bible is a book of poetry, and poetry depends for its power on ambiguity, on nuance, metaphor and similes. To translate poetry into history or into prosaic doctrinal formulations is to destroy it. There is no one way to interpret a poem.'

In the Bible, we are challenged and confronted by the contradictions and mixed messages, and even Jesus is not always presented as a serene mystic who can face his own death with equanimity but is actually presented as someone much more human who knows pain and fear and openly expresses anguish and his own anger as he argues and remonstrates with the teachers of the law.  The characters in the Bible, as well as Jesus, have faults and many commit all kinds of crimes and take issue with God.  Perhaps the Bible exists to say to us 'life isn't perfect and neither am I, look upon me as a person and then show me a person who never made a mistake.' Or we could remember the words of Theodore Roosevelt, who said, 'It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again . . .'  In struggle we can find truth.