Buddhism and God.
At one time, we were all connected, so to speak. Actually, I hate the phrase “we were all connected.” I prefer, “we weren’t separated.” There was an intuition of being. We were aware that we were awareness. “God” wasn’t over there; it was at the core of who we were. There was a rawness about us—we were open and willing to be embarrassed. Furthermore, this way of being was so natural, so instinctual, that we didn’t even think about it. But somehow we caught the sickness that was being passed around.
Society was intimidated by our freedom and confidence.
Societies are dependent upon conformity, and neither freedom nor confidence
conforms to external expectations. Caught in the psychological momentum that
installed the very insecurity that now compelled them to act, they transmitted
their pervasive sense of dis-ease—they taught us that we were separate or other
than the immediacy of direct experience. First, they assured us that the power
of being, from which our life emerged, had a name and that name was “God.”
Then, they drove home the idea that God was out there. In subsequent lessons we
were taught shame—that grace was afforded only to those individuals who
achieved a standard of perfection that was situated just beyond our grasp. This
is “The Fall.” This is what happened. This is how we came to be ashamed of our
own existence. This is how “we” became “they.” Sad.
How does one unlearn such violent and deceptive propaganda?
Well, first of all, we cannot employ the problem as a solution. We cannot
expect the culture that created the pain and the confusion to offer us a way
out. The path to freedom is a lonely path or as Krishnamurti said, “truth is a pathless
land.” One has to practice radical hopelessness. Without reservation, we have
to let go of the idea of getting some place—heaven, enlightenment, becoming a
good, better, or perfect person.
This is a completely different way of working with oneself.
It is an invitation to reconnect with our basic humanity and unfold in
accordance with our human nature; rather than trying to conform to our
inherited ideas of perfection, which are impregnated with shame and insecurity
and require the use of self-aggression to implement. In this way, we relate to
where we are at. This relationship is meditation.
