Something tells me I should just keep writing, even if I don’t really have anything to say. So, I’ll keep it up until either I get bored or you all do.
Today is Sunday which, at least here in North America, means “church day” for a lot of people.
Yesterday I wrote this:
much like God, it’s easier for me to define love in what it isn’t instead of what it is.
Now that I really consider it, when trying to state what they are, I often define God and Love in almost exactly the same way.
Despite religious upbringing of several different varieties, with exception of a few pockets here and there, I’ve never been a very religious person. Don’t confuse “religious” with “spiritual” however, as I am a very spiritual person. I just never could get into the doctrine and dogma that comes with “religion”. If you consider for a second that even if you only selected 50% of the people of this planet to consider as genuinely good natured, we are all, every inhabitant of this planet, still damned to some less than ideal afterlife by at least one of them.
I love the concept of religion. I love ritual and tradition. I love meaning. I love using smaller, simpler tools to explain larger, more difficult concepts. What I don’t like about religion is that fact that they are all so eager to decide that everyone else is wrong.
I recently answered a silly poll question with a very serious answer. The question was “Do you really believe in the ‘bad things come in 3′s’ thing?”. I wrote:
I think we perceive things in ways that help us to understand them. By grouping things into threes it helps us understand that there is more to come, but also that there is an end. We see patterns because patterns help us understand.
Take this from Hinduism if you will: Brahman is the infinite, transcendent reality which is the Divine Ground of everything. In other words, Brahman is the highest and truest “God”. But understanding such a profound concept is difficult for even the most devout and learned. So, put simply, Hinduism has many, MANY Gods: personifications of various aspects of the infinite Brahman. Patterns detected in the whole of divinity and put into a shape and size that we humans can absorb and interpret and apply.
Hinduism uses two different words here. Saguna Brahman to indicate the “God” with form and traits and therefore, often, doctrine and dogma. And then there is Nirguna Brahman, the formless “God” that represents all things. Yet even Hindus with this great understanding of the true nature of “God” often focus more on the Saguna Brahman because it is so much more accessible and identifiable.
Which leads me to why I am so happy to have found a Unitarian Universalist Congregation. Don’t worry. This isn’t a pitch. I’m not trying to sign anyone up. I don’t get points with God for bringing you to the light nor do I get some kind of eternal credit for saving your soul nor do I believe that most souls even need saving.
We UUs are bounded together by our spirituality. However, we also collectively recognize the purpose of dogma and the personification of God. We don’t deny the usefulness of that personification, nor do we try to discourage it’s use or practice. Instead, in fact, we take from the stories and teachings of many religions and incorporate them into our own teachings, allowing each person to pick and choose which stories mean the most to them. In the end, we’re all left with a shared sense of love, community, and belonging, and a melting pot of “I believe” to share with one another.
It’s not perfect, of course. Nothing is. We all carry so much dogma and such a great sense of competition and righteousness that it’s often hard to let it all go. But we try. When it comes to discussing spiritual matters and matters of the heart, it’s one of the most comfortable places I’ve ever spoken up and felt accepted.
I hope that whoever you are, where ever you are, if you’ve learned anything at all about God, the most important of all of it can be summed up in these Beatles lyrics:
There’s nothing you can do that can’t be done.
Nothing you can sing that can’t be sung.
Nothing you can say but you can learn how to play the game.
It’s Easy…There’s nothing you can make that can’t be made.
No one you can save that can’t be saved.
Nothing you can do but learn how to be you in time.
It’s Easy…There’s nothing you can know that isn’t known.
Nothing you can see that isn’t shown.
There’s nowhere you can be that isn’t where you’re meant to be.
It’s Easy…All you need is Love.
All you need is Love.
All you need is Love, LOVE!
Love is all you need!