The metaphor has become a cliché; the forces of light battling the forces of darkness. But the way this metaphor has been understood has sent Christianity, and perhaps even other religious groups, down the garden path, as they say; precipitating courses of action that are completely antithetical to their core beliefs.
The metaphor of light and darkness, especially as it finds a place of expression and influence in religious rhetoric, gets its explanatory force, as do all metaphors, from the way that light and darkness actually relate to each other in our everyday experience. The image in this metaphor, as it is brandished by some, is used to evoke the picture of battle and struggle; indeed, it is used to produce a sense of urgency under the threat of, not just mere failure, but eternal damnation; a literal war, if you will. It is no surprise, then, to discover groups who have taken up this metaphor in their own religious beliefs, treating their religious zeal as a kind of preparation for war and battle.
The story that usually goes with the metaphor is that unless the forces of Light are fully committed, then the forces of darkness (evil) will win the battle. This battle, as it is played out in the lives of individuals, is seen as a microcosm of the greater cosmic battle between God and Satan; God as the commander of the forces of Light, and Satan as the commander of the forces of darkness. It is, therefore, incumbent upon every believer to "fight the good fight" of faith so that this failure, and consequential damnation, does not occur. Indeed, the whole theological problem of good and evil sprouts from the seed of this very understanding of the metaphor. Austin Farrer's God Almighty and Ills Unlimited was written as a testament of faith grappling with the intractable, inherently illogical problem of evil and the title articulates the problem in nux.
In the face of these ills we are driven to ask: "where is God with so much evil in the world?" "Where is God with so much sickness and death; so much natural calamity; so much economic upheaval and political unrest?" "Where is Love?" We have ills unlimited, yet God is almighty; as they say these days, "what's up with that?" "Why isn't something being done?" This, briefly, is the problem of evil; and I maintain that the source of this problem resides in the way the metaphor of light and darkness has been understood; or, rather, misunderstood. The way that this problem has been addressed in orthodox theology is a very good example of individuals ignoring Einstein's observation that we cannot solve our problems from within the same consciousness that created them.
The explanatory force of a metaphor comes from actual experience; thus, when the poet says that "the fog comes on little cat feet," we understand this to mean that the fog creeps in silently, as do little cats. This is an important relationship to keep in mind when taking up any hermeneutical endeavor involving metaphorical images in texts. And if we are to properly understand this metaphor we must look at that in our everyday existence upon which the metaphor rests, namely, the very ordinary and obvious relationship between light and darkness.
Perhaps the most astonishing demonstration of exactly what this relationship amounts to occurs when you enter a fully darkened room and turn on the light. There is no partial retreat of the darkness, only to rally and advance once again on the light; there is no recession of light in the face of an advancing darkness. Once the light is turned on, the darkness is immediately and summarily vanquished. There is no struggle, there is no battle, there is no resistance of any kind. This is the message of the metaphor. As children of God (the Light) we do not have the spirit of fear because the Light has no opposite; and because "greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world." Indeed, there is only Light. The message that is conveyed by the metaphor is that, just as the darkness has no power against the light, so neither does the "darkness" of this world have any power over you. The corollary to this, which many religionists are loathe to accept, is that there are no armies of evil nor is there a commander of the "forces" of darkness, because darkness has no force that can be commanded. This is the true meaning of One God.
When Isaiah says "Hear O Israel, the Lord thy God is One God..." he is saying exactly that. There is no other God; God is all-encompassing; and what is all-encompassing can have no opposite. The Light and God are One; the Light and Life are One; Love and God are One; and the name of that One is "I AM." This means there is only One "I AM," God. And we are instructed further on this when we learn that " 'I' and the Father are One." When we learn that "the kingdom of God is within" us, we should be able to see that it is the "I" of us that is the Kingdom of God, not the ego of us. Our name is the name of a location of God; it is where God acts to take dominion of creation. This is what the scripture means when we are promised that we will be "filled with all the fulness of God"; and this is why there was a crucifixion, Jesus dared to defend this very claim by quoting David, who had said "ye are gods" and by speaking of himself as being God in that he undertook to forgive sins.
The next time you turn on the light in a fully darkened room, just look and see how much struggle there is; look and see if the darkness has any power. And then in stillness find the "I AM" of you to begin your life afresh. The legions of Light move across the face of the earth and all human darkness disappears.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
The Hunger
Sometimes I just ache for meaningful conversation; conversation about deep things, important things, spiritual things. But I ache to hear from a vantage point and perspective on these things that is not from my gender. I don't want glib meanderings or cavalier pronouncements; I want carefully considered insights. I want "wit and grace and love and beauty" to shine in one constellation. I want to speak meaningfully about the kinds of anxieties and cares; the problems and pressures; the stresses and sorrows that beset me; indeed, that beset most of us. I want there to be tenderness beneath the honesty; compassion mixed with incision. Bravado is just another hollow, superficial, cacaphonic noise where what is wanted is real music.
It is enough now to have just expressed this longing; to have voiced this care; and to have cried aloud for help.
There is a great weight upon me just now; the earth itself is groaning under the same terrific burden...but it will not be long before we find relief. It approaches by the second. I feel spent in my life right now; not so much wasted as depleted. I must deliver a great gift before my three-score years and ten arrive and I am frustrated in this task by my own demons.
It is enough now to have just expressed this longing; to have voiced this care; and to have cried aloud for help.
There is a great weight upon me just now; the earth itself is groaning under the same terrific burden...but it will not be long before we find relief. It approaches by the second. I feel spent in my life right now; not so much wasted as depleted. I must deliver a great gift before my three-score years and ten arrive and I am frustrated in this task by my own demons.
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Valentine's Day
It's often a tossup for me in the word association game as to whether "massacre" or "massage" comes to mind first after hearing "Valentine's Day". In either case, "love" and "romance" seem to struggle to stay in the top 5; and I think this is due to what I see as both the trivialization of love and its commercialization, forces that go hand in hand.
My views on love have been forged between the anvil of necessity and the hammer of anguish; and further qualified by my intellectual and spiritual education. All-in-all, my views put me pretty far afield from the mainstream account of love and romance that appears in the idealized images that gush forth in today's celebration. But I'm not without a firsthand understanding of it...what is it..."been there, done that"?
To me, the following experience seems to have been set from before the foundations of the earth, but to others, no doubt, it is nothing more than a mere coincidence. The experience in question occurred this past Thursday, about three days after I received the Oneness blessing in a nearby city. (Google "Oneness Blessing" to find out more.) To be sure, this is not the first time that I experienced some definite result from having received this blessing; it just seemed appropriate that the result came into place just in time for "the day of love and friendship," as some of my Latino/a friends call Valentine's Day.
The experience itself defies categorization and seems to be a kind of hybrid between dream, vision, and imagination. I was given to see myself in the third person, as it were. In this view I was able to see within my body to my heart space where there was a glowing, even dazzling, center of very white light. My perception then took me closer to that nebular presence and, as I approached, I could see that it was dancing, shimmering, scintillating. I continued the approach until I was inside the nebula and could feel the light; it felt actually substantial; it was soothing and comforting and brought me to look upward, where I saw a much more enormous nebula of the very same light, connected with the smaller nebula in my heart space. I felt drawn up into that light and felt myself at home and at one; there was a kind of rainbow around this nebula and when I looked at the rainbow, I immediately felt uplifted, supported, and...glorified. My view then returned to the more distant view where I could take in the "smaller" and the "larger" nebulae in one glance. I then "heard" myself saying "I AM the Light of the world." And this is where begins a connection with today.
The Light of the world was "I" but "I" wasn't the form, or body that I was looking at; the "I" was the Light and the center of consciousness articulating the announcement. I seemed to be focused "outside" the scene but yet speaking from within it. I then realized that the Light is self-luminous, self-conscious, intelligent, substance and that all was literally in the Light because it was out of that Light that everything came. I strangely didn't want anything more than just the Light at the time; resting in a serene repose within it, I felt completely at peace and fulfilled; I now wish I had given a little more thought to my day-to-day existence, as I could use a little stimulus package of my own...and not one of those measly little $780 billion ones either.
In all of this there was a supporting feeling of love that I noticed only afterward upon reflection; the Light was Love and Love was Light. But this Love seemed a far distant relative to the cupids and sirens we usually see performing the ambassadorial role in Love's stead; indeed, the difference between the two was like night and day. On the one hand there was the continually out-pressing, self-forgetful push of Love's Presence and, on the other hand, the opportunistic efforts designed to sate the body, feigning selflessness and adoration in the disguise of an economy of equal emotional exchange. In the same way that there is the tiniest detectable difference between naturally occurring vitamin c and that which is commercially made, there is a detectable difference between how these two competing loves feel to the participants; that is, if they can ever get to the level of self-consciousness where such a feeling looms prominent. I say "competing" but that is not technically true; Love never looks back to see what's behind because it acknowledges nothing but itself, so it is not in competition with anything; it knows only giving; and when it gives, it gives the Light, from which all blessings flow.
This gift to me was not a "pat on the back" for being devoted; it was the removal of a veil which kept my oneness hidden from me. The Light in my Heart space is the Light in your Heart space; the Love in my Light is the Love in your Life; and the Life in my Heart is the Life of your Love.
To those who have just started a new relationship, just ended one, are sustaining one, or struggling with one I say: find that Light within yourself by pushing your self-consciousness back to the "I" and you will not only find yourself, but you will have all else you need. The Light in your Heart is the Law of your Life.
My Love to All
My views on love have been forged between the anvil of necessity and the hammer of anguish; and further qualified by my intellectual and spiritual education. All-in-all, my views put me pretty far afield from the mainstream account of love and romance that appears in the idealized images that gush forth in today's celebration. But I'm not without a firsthand understanding of it...what is it..."been there, done that"?
To me, the following experience seems to have been set from before the foundations of the earth, but to others, no doubt, it is nothing more than a mere coincidence. The experience in question occurred this past Thursday, about three days after I received the Oneness blessing in a nearby city. (Google "Oneness Blessing" to find out more.) To be sure, this is not the first time that I experienced some definite result from having received this blessing; it just seemed appropriate that the result came into place just in time for "the day of love and friendship," as some of my Latino/a friends call Valentine's Day.
The experience itself defies categorization and seems to be a kind of hybrid between dream, vision, and imagination. I was given to see myself in the third person, as it were. In this view I was able to see within my body to my heart space where there was a glowing, even dazzling, center of very white light. My perception then took me closer to that nebular presence and, as I approached, I could see that it was dancing, shimmering, scintillating. I continued the approach until I was inside the nebula and could feel the light; it felt actually substantial; it was soothing and comforting and brought me to look upward, where I saw a much more enormous nebula of the very same light, connected with the smaller nebula in my heart space. I felt drawn up into that light and felt myself at home and at one; there was a kind of rainbow around this nebula and when I looked at the rainbow, I immediately felt uplifted, supported, and...glorified. My view then returned to the more distant view where I could take in the "smaller" and the "larger" nebulae in one glance. I then "heard" myself saying "I AM the Light of the world." And this is where begins a connection with today.
The Light of the world was "I" but "I" wasn't the form, or body that I was looking at; the "I" was the Light and the center of consciousness articulating the announcement. I seemed to be focused "outside" the scene but yet speaking from within it. I then realized that the Light is self-luminous, self-conscious, intelligent, substance and that all was literally in the Light because it was out of that Light that everything came. I strangely didn't want anything more than just the Light at the time; resting in a serene repose within it, I felt completely at peace and fulfilled; I now wish I had given a little more thought to my day-to-day existence, as I could use a little stimulus package of my own...and not one of those measly little $780 billion ones either.
In all of this there was a supporting feeling of love that I noticed only afterward upon reflection; the Light was Love and Love was Light. But this Love seemed a far distant relative to the cupids and sirens we usually see performing the ambassadorial role in Love's stead; indeed, the difference between the two was like night and day. On the one hand there was the continually out-pressing, self-forgetful push of Love's Presence and, on the other hand, the opportunistic efforts designed to sate the body, feigning selflessness and adoration in the disguise of an economy of equal emotional exchange. In the same way that there is the tiniest detectable difference between naturally occurring vitamin c and that which is commercially made, there is a detectable difference between how these two competing loves feel to the participants; that is, if they can ever get to the level of self-consciousness where such a feeling looms prominent. I say "competing" but that is not technically true; Love never looks back to see what's behind because it acknowledges nothing but itself, so it is not in competition with anything; it knows only giving; and when it gives, it gives the Light, from which all blessings flow.
This gift to me was not a "pat on the back" for being devoted; it was the removal of a veil which kept my oneness hidden from me. The Light in my Heart space is the Light in your Heart space; the Love in my Light is the Love in your Life; and the Life in my Heart is the Life of your Love.
To those who have just started a new relationship, just ended one, are sustaining one, or struggling with one I say: find that Light within yourself by pushing your self-consciousness back to the "I" and you will not only find yourself, but you will have all else you need. The Light in your Heart is the Law of your Life.
My Love to All
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