Tulisan yg bagus & mengena, thus saya forward...
Dear Dharma Friends,
Greetings in Peace!
PLEASE LEAVE GOD ALONE!
This week the signs are very clear. Let me list three dramatic ones: a women’s
group, a jailed sectarian assassin and a TV crime story. They all evoked the
same message: religion can be bad for health, both mental and physical health,
that is. To be fair, I need to be more specific: the God-idea can make people
do the worst things.
AWARE (Association of Women for Action and Research) is a leading secular
women’s organization in Singapore. At its 28 March annual general meeting, 6
new members of its 11 executive council came from the same church, and have the
same “feminist mentor.” They had successfully ousted the “old guards” and were,
amongst other things, all against lesbianism and homosexuality.
The Straits Times of 29 April reported that an Islamist terrorist from
Singapore has been sentenced to 18 years’ jail in Jakarta for killing a
Christian school-teacher in Palembang, the attempted murder of a few others,
and planning terrorist attacks against Westerners in Indonesia. He showed no
remorse and refused to appeal, saying, “We don’t believe in the judicial
system, and we don’t recognize it” because it is not in accordance with his
beliefs.
This week’s episode of “Criminal Minds” (the third of season 4, “Minimal Loss”)
is about a sequestered Christian cult in the US whose leader, “a prophet”
practised “inappropriate behaviour” with minors. FBI agents Reid and Prentiss,
and another officer investigating a report of child molestation were held
captive by the cult. After a dramatic Waco siege-like standoff (including
shootouts between heavily armed cult members and the police), the followers,
mostly women and children managed to escape. That is, they barely escaped the
cult leader’s bombing their stronghold.
The common terrifying thread running through these three accounts is the same:
they all believed that their faith is above everything else, that their God is
the one and only true one. Unbelievers or those outside the “tribe” were
expelled or killed without compunction, indeed, with a sense of religious
fulfillment. As we well know, this is only the tip of the iceberg, as we known
much of the religious history of God-religions is written in blood and tears of
non-believers.
The lesson from these three accounts (and many other like them) is clear: we
are each a religion unto ourselves. The self and the group (the tribe) for the
most dangerous religion, deluded by the duality of self and other, that if you
are not with us, you are against us. And when this is nuclear-powered by a
God-idea, the situation reaches critical mass.
I do not think any of us human are ever qualified to speak for God. Let us
neither speak for God, nor God for us. The point is God has never ever spoken
for himself. We only hear of God in stories and parables. If God is in Heaven,
it is best to leave him there, and not drag him into our petty humanity or lack
of it. We should understand the parables and stories for what they are: we
should not mistake the finger for the moon.
God-centred religions easily start and fuel sectarian violence, male chauvinism
(God is male, after all) and sociopathy, just as self-centred faiths do. The
main reason for this is clear: God has been externalized, separated from us. In
such strife and violence, we can never find time to bow to God, and bow low
enough to see God.
But there is a much better way to see God, that is, in the stillness of our
hearts. The recollection of God’s goodness should bring joy, peace and
unconditional love in our hearts. And in that openness, we find true wisdom.
With that joy and wisdom, we are rightly ready to help ourselves and to others
help themselves.
We should help others not out of a religious duty, nor out of moral
superiority, nor for propaganda, nor for martyrdom. For then, we are doing it
only for ourselves, a most selfish act; for we are really using others for our
own glory.
Let me end with a parable. We extend a hand to others because we have two. One
to hold on to safety and the other to pull out another out of trouble. And we
have two arms with which to embrace one another warmly in unconditional
acceptance.
Piya Tan ©2009
090501
