The Law

I'm no Biblical scholar, not even a Christian. Not a member of any particular sect or denomination of anything...don't claim or deny anything...just a rolling stone I geuss.

But I'm confused as hell. I'm at a loss to understand. For I have read the Bible...once all the way through, and many times over as a guide.

I have read the Bagahvad Gita, the Art of Zen, the Tao Te Ching, and when I was younger, anything and everything Native American...in fact,I still like to think of God as The Great Spirit, The Creator.

But one thing I do remember-- one thing I know is this: According to the New Testament, Jesus said, "You shall love your God with all your heart and soul and strength of mind. And you shall love your neighbor as yourself. This is the whole of the Law."

That's it. That is your duty as a Christian. Seems simple enough. None of that Ten Comandment stuff that no one ever follows anyway. No ridiculously impossible goals to strive for...just a simple idea: Love!

So what is the problem? This seems simple enough. Love God, treat others as you would like to be treated. The end. Period.

Why doesn't this happen?

I have a mixed-race grandson--yeah, just like president Obama!, and there are two brothers who live up the street. To this day...still, in 2010, they call my grandson a nigger. Little kids! 8 and 11 years old. What is going on here? Are we in some kind of time warp? And I know that they go to church every Sunday. So...something is missing. Something is not connecting. Somehow they are not getting the message. System malfunction! It leads me to wonder, Where does the dis-connect occur? Why is the message getting scrambled and ignored? What is blocking us from this simple imperative?

After years of soul-searching and teeth gnashing of my own, I Think I have come up with the answer: The fault for all of this mess is in that nasty three letter word: E-G-O.

Yes, Ego.

Eyes/Glaze/Over.

Those boys can't get their own ideas out of the way and let the ideas of the Bible sink in! And I'm no different. If you tell me I must treat Cheney, Bush, Rumsfeld and Rove as I would like to be treated, it would kill M-E!

I try to tell my grandson to take it in stride....they know not what they do, that sort of thing. But really, I would love to tell him to knock the piss out of them! You see? The eternal dilemma. Lord, Lord, have mercy on my soul...

But I do think I'm right on the E-G-O thing.

Listen to Rumi, the Sufi poet:

One morning, a woman asked her lover, as a test, "Do you love me more than you love yourself?" He replied, "I love you so much that I am full of you from head to toe. There is nothing left of my own existence except my name." If you love God, you will feel towards Him as that lover felt towards his beloved.--Masnavi V: 2020-4

That is it in a nutshell....

When there is nothing else but love, what else is there?

Read This!

http://terebess.hu/english/tao/bynner.html