Ironic Idolatry

 You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or worship them  2nd Commandment, exodus, English translation

Of all the ten commandments allegedly given to Moses on Mount Sinai,this one has to be the most fiercely debated and most widely interpreted. The Catholic Church did away with it all together in the Catechism (catholic 'book of rules and interpretations') and has been making idols by the millions ever since. The Muslim world observes it strictly, forbidding any type of image or statue to be made that represents God, or any other form to be worshiped, yet elevates the words of the Quran to divine status. Orthodox and protestant religions allow the making of images, so long as they are not worshiped of themselves. Some Churches forbid representations of God, but allow images of Jesus on the grounds that they believe this is how god represented himself to humanity. Wars have been fought over it, religions split into factions, and thousands of hours of heated words have been passed because of it. It was the excuse for the violent suppression of paganism among other traditions, and for the colonisation of countries and continents.

The irony in all this is that religions obsession with this particular statement is a contradiction in terms. By giving it so much weight and import, the commandment itself has been turned into an idol, a thing of worship.  In the fight to give obeisance to the individual interpretations, the whole point of it has been lost. The question that so often goes unasked is this. Why? Why would God forbid the making and worshiping of Idols? If the purpose of the commandments is to protect his children from evil and sin, as it seems to be, how does this serve that purpose?

Answering this question leads to a couple of others, Firstly, what is God? Secondly, what is worship? The implications that this commandment has for the first question is that God is NOT anything that is made by man. The implications for the second question is that worship is a form of obeisance, of bowing down, of surrendering power and control to. Therefore to worship idols is to give power and authority to things that are not God, to invest value in things that have no intrinsic divinity. This is pretty obvious really, worshiping things made by our own hand is really quite silly. How could something that we created have more power or divinity than it's creator?The great joke is that religion itself is most often idolatry. In our seeking for divinity we so often invest our power and worship in the man made structures of religiousness - in building, books, teachings, priests, rules and regulations. In this way, religion separates us from God, leaves us chasing man made shadows and giving obeisance to a thing not truly divine.

Thus I call it Ironic Idolatry. The very thing that promises us a 'path' to Grace, leads us away into an empty worshiping of man made dreams. However, religion is not to blame for our idol worship. It is we who create religion, and we who choose to invest it with power. Why? Why did Moses's brother create the Golden Calf after the first revelation? Why does every great teacher and Prophet get turned into a religious Idol the moment they die. Why do we as a species insist on worshipping the things we create and animate, rather than that which creates and animates us? 

The problem seems to be in the worship, the act of surrendering control. While ever we are worshiping that which we have created, we  are actually (as its creator) still in control of it. It's a bit of a trick we like to play on ourselves - to pretend to give our obeisance to that which we can change and modify at our own whim. Worshipping God, on the other hand, seems terrifyingly out of control to us. Even the recognition of the existence of God as a reality, rather than a man made image or concept, is devastating to an ego who wishes to reign over what it considers it's creation. To genuinely contemplate, even for a moment, that from which we have emerged, which governs the turning of the stars and the beating of our hearts, is profoundly humbling and profoundly destructive to our image of ourselves as being able to control life.

If one sincerely answers the simple question "how much of my life, my self, my world, do I really control?", the reality of the divine becomes instantly undeniable and deeply threatening to an identity based in dreams of power. We control almost nothing, not our breath, not our brains, not our feelings, not our instincts, urges, abilities, preferences, desires, tendencies or talents.  Our SELF is handed to us whole and complete, and the only choice we get to make is whether or not we are going to go with it, or fight against it - perhaps not even that choice. Idol worship is done because it serves the purpose of keeping us from the knowledge of God, of  turning God into something that we think we have control over. "Better", says the fragile ego, "to reign in hell than serve in heaven'.

The obeisance we give to idols is a false one. We do not truly bow down before them, but create them to serve our purpose, to inflate our sense of power. How ironic that we are oppressed by our own creations, controlled and manipulated by the very things we create to try and establish control over ourselves. What a complicated little game we play, a chess board full of idols which move us around like pieces on a chess board. We pretend that we are seeking God, yet God has never been lost to us. Any instant that we forget to believe in our self made idols, if we relax our false worhip for just the slightest moment, the reality of God hits us like a truck.

So, "How much of your life, your self, your world, do you really control?"

Together we rise.

The Fine Art of Surrender

I had to laugh. I was listening to a radio broadcast interviewing one of the authors of a book called 'innovate like Edison'. The author had talked extensively about how Edison's genius (think light bulbs) came from the way he was utterly surrendered to his own own nature. How he refused to be constrained by the ideas of others and deeply trusted his 'gut' and the inpirations he found in his own inner world. He then went on to say that you too could innovate like Edison if only you followed the books amazing five point plan which would teach you how to be just like him.

So which is it? Am I supposed to be like Edison and trust myself, or am I supposed to do like Edison and follow your five point plan?

The new age is full of these, thousands of books outlining an infallible 3,5 or 7 step plan to ultimate success, all of them modeling the path of 'this or that' great achiever in 'whatever' field. I once went into a second hand store where there was a table with over fifty of these books on it. They had all come from the same deceased estate. Apparently this persons great achivement for their life was that they had read every book ever published on how to achieve greatness. For me these are both great examples of the problem that arises where ideation tries to take over life,or in other words, where we fail to trust in what's inside of us.

Such ideations, whether they be the latest system for success or the most ancient religion, are all based on one assumption - that what you need to achieve success/happiness/fulfillment is outside of you, something that needs to be learned. Opposed to this of course is the idea which I subscribe to, that what you need is actually inside of you and trying it's hardest to express itself. That's not to say that we do not need to acquire knowledge and skills, or that we cannot learn from and be inspired by others, but our path in life is unique and we cannot walk it by following the path of another. To try do so is to deny the life force, the grace, that is the foundation of our being.

The truth is that not everyone is going to be a Thomas Eddison, or an Albert Einstein, Jesus Christ, Krishna Murti, Abraham Lincoln or Marilyn Monroe. This is a good thing. Our world really only needs the occasional genius, prophet or great leader to continue on it's path of evolution. If everybody was a movie star, who would watch the movies? It would be like every cell in your body deciding it needed to be a brain cell. Being a brain cell might seem more glamorous than being the lining of the stomach, but if the stomach lining wasn't there the brain wouldn't last too long.

Fortunately our cells don't often complain about their lot in life. Also fortunately, not everyone needs to be a high flier. Most people simply don't have the motivation, passion or desire to dedicate their life to some great cause, being happy to do a job they don't hate too much, pay their taxes, have a BBQ on the weekend and love their children. These are the everyday heroes (cause lets face it, family life isn't easy) that make life possible. These are the people that keep our society going, the plumbers, cleaners, receptionists, hairdressers and so on. They are the people that great achievers exist to serve, who's lives are made better by the works of great minds, but without whom great minds would have no existence and no purpose.

One of the greatest crimes of the modern media is the constant adulation of celebrity, that leaves so many feeling that an ordinary life is somehow unworthy or second rate. We don't look down on our foot (metaphorically speaking) and criticise it for not being our nose, yet we often look back at ourselves with accusations of not being as worthy as someone else. Such thoughts leave us feeling ashamed and unsatisfied, unable to recognise the wonder and the miracle that we truly are. Unable also to recognise the beauty and opportunity of our life.

The picture accompanying this blog is the Tarot card called the wheel. It represents the third Kabbalistic gateway to grace, the fine art of surrender. Pictured are three women (the three 'fates' of Greek mythology) grouped around the wheel of fortune. It's teaching is that life has it's own order, of which we are a small piece, yet each of us has a fate, a particular part to play in the grand scheme. It is through surrender to this fate, to our own nature, that we find happiness, peace and prosperity. When we stop demanding that life be different than it is, we discover that every moment becomes an opportunity to express the uniqeness of ourselves. Every day, whether difficult or easy, is an opportunity to grow, learn and become more truly who we are. It teaches that when we stop fighting our fortune we discover that it contains our unique path to fulfillment.

How do we know what that path is? That's easy - we are driven to wards it in every moment by our passions, desires, instincts and feelings. We are pulled towards it every day by the opportunities that life presents us to engage with it. When we stop complaining, resisting and generally throwing a tantrum because it doesn't look quite how we think it should, we discover that everything we need is right there.

Every one of us has a unique path, but only we can know what that is. Surrender is the art of trusting the grace inside of us and letting it lead us to a life worth living. I say throw away the books that propose to tell you the path to happiness, success and power - at best they are nothing more than the path the author has taken (maybe) on their unique journey. At worst they are the rantings of of deluded and unhappy seekers trying to sell you their desperate illusions, and make a few easy bucks on the side (i.e. "I got rich by writing books on how to get rich").

Or not, after all, that's just my opinion. What's yours?