Jars of Clay again! when i went to koorong i got that with christmas money from Uncle George :D
I have no fear of drowning
its the breathing thats taking all this work...
And dear Suchu - thankyou for your very pretty and lengthy comment :D I lost the linkt oyour blog, which reminds me that i must find gen's to and add it to the list...if im abel to that is- all that coding is frightening.
And dear Meegs- thankyou for your very pretty but not lenthy comment, it was beautiful :D
Carry me-
im just a dead man
lying on the carpet
can't find aheart beat
Weeeeee :D
Make me breathe
i wanna be a new man
tired of the old one
out with the old plan
Anyway, i DO have something to blog about so i better turn my music down or i can't articulate it.
IT alll started one bright and sunny day when i was taking a train to the city to meet Ms Innuendo to watch Happy Feet. To pass the time i took along my handy dandy MP3 and the book Life of Pi.
I came upon chapter 16 (slow reader :D ) and i think its one of the most thought provoking passages i have ever read in a book. I really encouage you all to read it. Apparently, i might have dreamt it but i think it muight be an english text, but read it anyway!
In the book, young Pi, a very devout hindi boy, is finding himself stumbling into various holy houses- temples and churches and mosques.
I confess, that the chunk of passage that caught my thinking-ness the most was when he was looking at christianity from a Hindi perspective-because im bias, naturally :D Ill put it here:
"I was quiet that evening at the hotel. (he had just visited a priest and had been told the gosple)
That a god should put up with adversity, I could understand. The gods of Hinduism face their fair share of thieves, bullies, kidnappers and usurpers. What is the Ramayana but the account of one long, bad day of Rama? Adversity, yes. Reversals of fortune, yes. Treachery, yes, But humiliation? Death? I couldn't imagine Lord Krishna consenting to be stripped, naked, whipped, mocked, dragged through the streets and, to top it off, crucified- and at the hands of mere humans, to boot. I'd never heard of a Hindu god dying. Brahman Revealed did not go for death. Devils and monsters did, as did mortals, but the thousands and millions-that's what they were there for. Matter, too, fell away. But divity should not be blighten by death. Its wrong. The world soul cannot die, even in one contained part of it. it was wrong of this Christian God to let his avatar die. That is tantamount to letting a part of Himself die. For if the Son is to die, it cannot be fake...Father Martin assued me that it was (n't). But once a dead God, always a dead God, even resurrected. The Son must have the taste of death forever in His mouth. The Trinity must be tained by it; there must be a certain stench at the right hand of God the Father. The horror must be real. Why would God wish that upon Himself? Why not leave death to the morals? Why make dirty what is beautiful, spoil what is perfect?
Love. that was Father Martin's answer."
let me put one more paragraph..please... :D
"There is a story of Vishnu incarnated as Vamana the dwarf. He asks the demon king Bali only as much land as he can cover in three strides. Bali laughs at this run of a suitor and his puny erquest. he consents. Immediatly Vishnu takes on his full cosmic size. with one Stide he covers teh earth, with teh second the heavens, and with the third he boots Bali into the nether world...
That is God as God should be. With shine and poer and might. such as can rescue and save and put down evil.
This SOn, on teh other hand, who goes hungry, who suffers from thirst, who gets tired, who is sad, who is anxious, who is heckled and harassed, who has to put up with followers who dont get it and opponents who dont respect Him- what kind of God is that? its a god on too human a scale, thats what...What is there to inspire in this Son?
Love, said father Martin. " He becomes a christian- and says: "Then i raced down the hill on the left and racedup the hill on the right- to offer thanks to Lord Krishna for having put Jesus of Nazareth, whos humanity I foudn so compelling, in my way." Hehehe- He becomes a totally devoted Hindu, and Christian, Muslim and Islamic and his house is full of shrines and crosses and candles and words and books.
" He brought his hands next to his ears, thumbs touching the lobes, looking as if he were straining to hear Allah speaking. He bent forward. he stood straight again. He fell to his knees and brough his hansd and forehaead to the floor, he sat up. he fell forward again. he stood. He started teh whole thing again...I challange anyone to understand Islam, its spirit, and not to love is. It is a beautfiul religion of brotherhood and devotion. The mosque was trily an open construction, to God and to breeze."
"He was a Sufi, a Muslim mystic. He sought fana, union with God, and his relationship with God was personal and loving. "If you take two steps to God," he used to tell me, "God runs to you!"
Quota rama- and i havent even made my point. Its coming 8D
It really made me think about a lot of things-
Firstly, how little i know about other religions.
Secondly, how much i SHOULD really know about other religions. Because in truth, the same God is central in all of them, wether polytheistic or ..the 'one' one. I think anyway.
I remember learning somewhere that from the ancientest more ancient human civilisation, all civ9ilisations have had a belief system and religion. Its because God- the only creator of everything has always revealed his authority and power as God to humans.
Though for some reason, he has revealed hismelf in many different ways, that or Humans have taken these revelations a different way to everyone else. I mean, everyone has their own account of how the world and universe was created. and each centers around a power God- that someone of spiritual nature intended us to live (as appose to us being the products of nothing but a chemical reaction with no meaning or purpose- as athiests say)
Why do we all believe that its a God that put us here? It is my belief that God the creator hard wired our little human brains to seek him. It makes sence- for if our craetion has a purpose, surely God would want us to know who he is so we can worhsip him and love him as God.
SO- why are all these interpretations of God so different?
perhpas its like a multifaced diamond. Maybe in a polytheistic religion, there is a God who is characterised by his anger and wrath, a goddess for the miracle of birth and furtility, another for kindness and love. In a ...monotheistic religion (?) God embodies all thse things. Perhaps, these aspects of gods are all parts of Christian God's very large character ( no disrespect to polysthestic religions- just saying how other religions are not so different to Christianity)
Grr...
I MEAN- i find that from my glimps at other religions throughthet Life of Pi that they seem to focus on the might of God the creator- the wonders of his POWER and AUTHORITY- and you always get this sence in how hardcore muslims and Islamics and hindus and other realigions stick to firmly to their rituals and things because it is deeps nar eal FEAR of God- not terror but that True, unshakable respect.
Christianity focuses on the LOVe of God. we now of Gods power and authirty and righteous wrath like everyone else, except our whole belief and lifestyle is in the fact that God IS love. he is the epitome of love in all its aspects and it is what compelled him to die. This love is greater than his authority and power in a way because it is the driving force in how he has used it to creat e the world, us, how he sustains us, and how he will live with us after the world dies.
Its a very beautiful concept and reality- but i find...
As christians, because of this very strong Focus on LOVe- we seem to get a bit- Fatty, pudjy around teh edges...spiritually Tubby when it comes to Reverant fear to God. We are so layed back in the 'softiness' of lvoe and forgiveness that the other sides of the multiface diamond are ignored. We can't possibly worship God propperly if we can't climb the giant hill of self-sacrifice when we are so unfit. These rituals of other religions, if done with the right attitude rather than done out of habit, are so beautiful and true, maybe we shodl take a leaf from their books? .
so- if all these religions are so similar in a way that all religions point to God, then why is there so much conflict? Its because we all have different paths to God- paths to salvation. Because salvation is so crucial, yet we're all so different, thats where our conflict is, and you find that most religions are totally identical save fo the way you are 'saved'. Is it karma or Christ? works or love? Chance? Pleaing for your soul? forgiveness?
Yea ive run out of D&M juice long ago...blurg *ded*
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2 comments:
Hmm. You ask good questions.. evidently proving that you have a lot stuffed into your brain xD unlike me. mine has all rotted away till i just have cold and flu tablets stashed away in there xD xD but let me try and give my 2 cents!
I dont think all religions point to God.. cos if you look at it, "religion" in a sense is all about saving your own skin. We ask for forgiveness, or do good works, or something something, SO that we dont burn in hell forever more. which would suck. BUT whilst we may "FIND" God along the way, religion is not 'looking for god' i think.
i was thinking about that.. and i was thinking from a purely maddness-of-my-head perspective, that religion can be alot like butt-kissing =D "please dont make me burn in hell, i'll be a good devotee". hmm. maybe with more reverance than that.. but you get the idea?
BUT let me rant my rant! Christianity is the only religion where one does not save oneself. If we look at Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam: its all works that will inevitably get one to 'heaven'. Christianity is the only religion where we're helpless. We're FROG =) Fully Reliant On God. i like FDOG but thats not a word. (replace the reliant with dependant)
I think thats why Christianity is rejected sometimes.. we has humans dont like to be dependant on anything. lookit babies =) if they can do something themselves they would rather do it themselves, rather than have someone.. i dont now.. feed them. LIKE NATE! at bathtime?? when you dress him, he will only wear pants, if he can put them on himself. not if we try and put them on him! hahaha
but... i've run out of steam. there's my 2 cents. or rather 26452639472648 cents *grin*
Hey taa, thats great. I think you've hit the whole thing right on the noggin...or at least as close to that elusive noggin that we as humans can possibly get :D.
One thing- muslims follow the religion of islam. There is no such thing as an "islamic". They are the same.
Although, in respnse to the previous comment (soorry, matey, nothing personal :D) I don't think its fair to say that christianity is the only religion that isn't selfish. Human's do everything through selfishness, and christianity has not escaped that affliction. Think of them southern usa baptists in the olden days who saw life as one long period of "building your house in heaven"- each good deed is another brick in your mansion, another star on your godly star chart, and you beat everyone else's stars. And anyone who doesn't have enough stars is going to hell.
Not that I have anything against baptists, of course. I'm just using that as an example, and there are plenty other examples. I just wanted to make the point that as soon as we start thinking we are superior to other..stuff, it leads to smugness, which leads to the unfitness that taa describes.
I loved life of Pi :D
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