I've been giving some thought and experiencing some interesting results from looking into Buddhism. Quite honestly, some aspects of Buddhism describe the universe and my experiences far better than the Christian tradition I was raised in.
Homebrewer brought up an interesting point in the last post about the ego that I'd like to flesh out here.
My understanding of the ego is that part of my mind which is primarily and ferociously concerned with survival. It is concerned with the past and future and knows nothing of the Now. It identifies and labels form and experience and shoves it in a box (nationalism for example). It attaches my identity to various forms (could be a particular car, designer label, brand, role, job etc.) It causes an endless stream of thinking which feeds physical reactions (emotions) which then fuel more thoughts. It tells me that I am separate, different, and essentially alone. It produces confusion, pride, separateness, self-centeredness, greed, defensiveness and desire, all which lead to suffering.
I am thinking that this is what is called sin in Genesis. The OT writers were trying to describe the reason that our best intentions turn to crap. Why would we forsake a perfect existence with God in a beautiful garden? The ego. Instead of resting in perfect union and peace Adam and Eve viewed themselves as separate from God and made their own judgments and decisions. They wanted an identity of their own.
And what happens? Their "eyes were opened", they "knew they were naked", and they "hid themselves from God's presence". They chose their ego over God and God let them have the consequences of that choice. A life dominated by the ego and separate from God. Not only are they separate from God, but Cain and Abel show us that we are separate from each other too!
Perhaps we are not trapped by our ego. Perhaps Jesus was describing a new way to live that we turned in to theories of salvation. Perhaps we are not separate from God and each other. Perhaps the ego is an illusion that is kept alive by our overactive minds.
I'd love to hear your thoughts....
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5 comments:
thats some interesting waters you are walkin on, eh?
been musing thru some of those Eastern religions myself and seeing what i can keep and what Dad says "no" to.
i totally have to get over the whole religiousity of my upbringing to peek around the corners though. haha
Good comments Maryann.. I think it's really important for us to "peek around the corners." I know for me that most of my life we've been taught to fear other perspectives and what I've found is there are more similarities than differences and some of the differences are enbraceable for me.
Dang Grateful Girl, you're smart as well as hot! Lucky me!
I almost lost you at the end there. I'm SLOWWWWW.... But what I think your last paragraph is saying is that perhaps Jesus is showing a way to live without being trapped by ego and that we can follow that example.
If so I would agree that Jesus shoewed a way that we should be walking w/o ego but that, since the fall, we old Adams are unable to LEGGO MY EGO.... ;)
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