I've posted this before, but a couple of people requested I repost it so they can find it. I urge you all to write your own personal manifesto, and to update it as needed. Don't be afraid to change.
Rabbi Rami's Manifesto
* Everything is a manifestation of the one thing I call God.
* God is not good; good and bad are human categories about which God cares not one bit.
* Life is not controllable, but you can learn to navigate it, and do some good in the process.
* Thoughts and feelings are not controllable directly by the will, but you can do what’s right regardless.
* Religion is a human invention designed to give us the illusion of control from which we can then create a sense of meaning and purpose without admitting we are creating it. In truth, we have no control, we invent what meaning there is, and purpose is only a story we tell to hide from the specter of randomness that haunts us.
* Life has no purpose; life is purpose.
* Sacred texts always reflect the bias of their authors and intended audience. Don’t be surprised that the Torah’s Jews are God’s Chosen; that the Gospels make Jesus the Christ; that the Bhagavad Gita sees Krishna as God; that the Qur’an holds Mohammad as the final Prophet; or that Harry Potter makes Harry rather than Hermione the hero.
* Priests, rabbis, pastors, imams, swamis, lamas, and gurus sometimes have your best interest in mind, and always have their best interests at heart. Learn from them, but never turn your life over to them.
* At its best religion is about personal freedom, social justice, and compassion for all living things. At its worst it is about power and control. Religion is rarely at its best.
* Human beings can be taught to see through propaganda—religious, political, commercial, etc.—overcome its divisiveness, create loving communities, and glimpse the truth through science, art, music, literature, and spiritual practice. What we lack are the teachers to do this.
* Spiritual practice cuts through self and selfishness, reduces conflict, and increases compassion. And that is the best we can do.
5 comments:
hey mr i like your blog! i understand your reluctance in your manifesto to state the "how it is" of god (presumably out of not wanting to create yet another religion), nevertheless i thought i'd present an alternative idea for this one: "God is not good; good and bad are human categories about which God cares not one bit.". i agree that good and bad are relative human value judgements, nevertheless the most "trans" religious perspective i've found is that "god" is a process dialectic of Beauty, Goodness and Truth (the integration of which is Love). a particular human's perspective of goodness (small "g") is not the absolute but Goodness itself IS a dimension of the absolute. let's see how that looks against your qui bono idea (http://rabbirami.blogspot.co.uk/2008/02/qui-bonowho-benefits_28.html), so if we believe this, qui bono? well - Beauty, Goodness and Truth benefits. could be worse, couldn’t it? ;) this idea does align with another of your assertions: "Thoughts and feelings are not controllable directly by the will, but you can do what’s right regardless." because here, "will" maps to Beauty, "feelings" map to Goodness and "thinking" maps to Truth (Beauty, Goodness and Truth can also be stated as the perspectives of I,WE,IT). so you can't reduce either feelings or thoughts to will, because each are essentially separate and primordial perspectives onto the absolute. doing "what's right" is perhaps defined as enacting behaviour that's always beautiful, good and true, to fail to do this is to "sin" (miss the mark in one way or another). usually sinning involves sacrificing the WE and IT perspectives for the I perspective, but not necessarily! (e.g. codependence can instead sacrifice the I for the WE). i think this perspective does provide the basis for quite a seamless integration of all the world's religions btw. phil X
Thank you Rabbi.
I find many messages in including "Harry Potter" in "sacred texts". I love them all. It sums up your manifesto nicely.
Shalom Rav,
You wrote: "Priests, rabbis, pastors, imams, swamis, lamas, and gurus sometimes have your best interest in mind, and always have their best interests at heart..."
The way you ascribe "sometimes" and "always" above is a bit too cynical for me. Otherwise very thorough and perhaps lonely (Thoreau) sounding. "Im kol zeh, ani ma'amin" Inspite of it all I believe, that you may be right (and left).
Biv'racha,
Jordan
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