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Wednesday, 12 July 2006 12:45 |
 | | Marc Mullinax |
?®Beliefs are not what we see, but the light by which we see.?∆
?± Flannery O??Connor
?ÿ
SEOUL, South Korea ?± Imagine a gloriously complex spaceship, on a mission already thousands of years old, not ending anytime soon. Inside this spaceship are many, many rooms, each one with its own window looking out into deep space. The faint light of billions of stars plus the searing brilliance of one close-by star illuminate each room with clean, crystalline light. Each room is thus available to the vitality, energy, warmth and brilliance of this light.
Many
human beings have lived in this vast spaceship for as long as they can
remember, and they have divided themselves into cultures and
civilizations. Each one has furnished its rooms with wonderfully rich
accessories, artwork and statues. Some of the rooms are closed; their
cultures have died out. But in the ?®living?∆ rooms we find, for example,
statues of Siva, Vishnu and Brahma. In another room, Buddha lies in
repose, eyes at half-lid, inviting meditation and enlightenment. Nearby
are rooms containing: menorahs, masks from Africa and Korea, drums of
Native American or Asian origin, paintings of Confucian officials,
Shinto Torii, and windows etched with crosses ?± either plain or laden
with a near-naked figure.
Each sculpture, window and other objects open out to the light, and
through them and upon them the crystalline light shines. Thus, every
room sees the light through its own unique culture, objects and window.
The light, of course, is one. The differing windows, each diversely
dappled and patterned, admit various hues and shapes and spread a
diversity of shadows. What one room illuminates may be darkened in
another. The Hindu inhabitants call the light pouring through their
windows ?®Brahman.?∆ Christians call their light ?®God,?∆ and Jews ?®G-d.?∆
Others call the light by which they see ?®Unspeakable Tao,?∆ ?®Great
Spirit,?∆ ?®Great Void,?∆ ?®Shekinah,?∆ and ?®Allah.?∆
Each room??s practices differ as well. One stresses belief and faith; in
others service, or meditation, or dancing, or prayer. Each spiritual
technology aids the particular room??s inhabitants transcend their egos
and realize who they are in light of the greater light beyond.
As you might imagine, some people in this spaceship have felt that
their windows were the sole lens through which the light shone, and
only their shadows cast any care. Indeed, most people have thought that
their rooms alone were special.
This is no allegory. We already live in just such a spaceship, called
Earth. And we have lived in separate rooms over most of our history,
with seemingly impenetrable walls. For most of our history we have
lived in the dream world that our culture alone had the real truth,
that our symbols alone revealed the infinite.
However, human experience is all-capable of experiencing the Ultimate,
or the Divine. Using the language, symbols, and meanings generated by
and unique to each culture, each ?®room?∆ models a unique way human
experience gets indexed to transcendence. Many paths to, and many words
for life-transforming light. None can contain all the light, nor can
each filter it all out.
We now have a choice. We can continue to be threatened by religious
diversity and deny all other rooms?? validity, and slam our doors shut,
shouting that our room is the only way, The Truth.
OR, we can engage with the recognition of the shared, common light, and
while remaining ?®at home?∆ in our own rooms, forge new links and knock
down doors (or at least unlock them) and replace walls with windows.
Can we free ourselves from age-old inheritances of our differences?
The choice: the greater light, or one??s particular slant of it. What??s at stake if you stay in one room?
What??s at stake if you don??t? Which will enrich our experience of being alive, and help us all become freer?
?ÿ
Dr. Marc S.
Mullinax, chairman of the philosophy and religion departments at Mars
Hill College, can be reached at mmullinax-at-mhc.edu.
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