What One Is Not . . .

By Sajjeev X. Antony

 

During philosophy debates I am often asked what "camp" I am in. When my interlocutors learn that  I don't belong to any camp or philosophy, they don't know what to do with me -- whether to love me, hate me, avoid me. This is an attempt to answer them.

I started off as a Roman Catholic, later became a Born Again Christian full of zeal to save souls, and even led our parish Charismatic choir. But as I read the Bible -- in detail, not merely the parts preachers asked me to -- followed by inquiry into other faiths and philosophies, I realized that the wonderful experience and gifts of Holy Spirit were not uniquely Christian. These were part of  humanity, irrespective of faith or philosophy. It became slowly (and painfully) clear that all our quests, spiritual or otherwise boil down to our seeking happiness. Religion had miserably failed in providing the succor that humanity is searching despite thousands of years of refinement. This is not a fault of religions or philosophies, but that of human mind.

Science is likely to ultimately crack the mystery of religion and mysticism and absorb their roles. Meanwhile one respects and enjoys the historical, cultural, social and spiritual anchorage these ancient faiths provide to the society --- so they cannot be discarded. They represent our ancestors' attempts to make sense of their world and themselves. These  are in our genes. They are us. So we can't throw them away (in my case the ceremonies of the Catholic Church). I love Pope Francis for his abundant, natural love. People like him who wield tremendous power over the minds of billions of people could accelerate the changes towards ecumenism beyond Christianity and ultimately encompassing all humanity. These changes are already in motion. It is understandable that the tradition-ridden Catholic Church is still far behind "scientific" religions such as Buddhism in embracing the change. Dalai Lama says, "If science is to prove any of Buddhism's tenets wrong, Buddhism will have to change." Only such humility and acceptance of truth will enable any religion to survive 21st century.

NOR need one buy into the other side -- the fire-and-brimstone tactics of certain scientists and philosophers like Richard Dawkins or the late Christopher Hitchens. One abhors their call for "militant atheism," and (In Hitchen's case) trying to propagate a dangerous "hatred of religions," which are likely to be misunderstood by the masses and misused by politicians. Even though Hitchens keep warning his readers not to equate ideologies with people, that won't work in practice. Mobs ALWAYS end up destroying human beings rather than philosophies. Already there are stray reports of violent atheists beating up clergymen. And that may only be a starter. Such physical violence and exchanging bad words will only cause both sides to harden their hearts further.

Shades of truth are everywhere -- whether in Pope Francis, Dalai Lama, meditation, experience of the Holy Spirit, in  clouds, in a leaf, in the rain, in Qur'an, Bible, Gita, Origin of Species, Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. . . . When we typecast ourselves into a label, we tend to attract "believers" in that label and repel those who are "disbelievers" (which is also belief in another name).

So why do we want to label or pigeonhole people? To  know whether to love, hate, admire or ignore a person -- so that our brain relapses into a stupor because it doesn't have to grapple with the changing reality.

This persistence of this image-making in our minds shows the inherent human urge to label everything and attach emotions to it. No one is free from its grip. There may be a way out of its death-grip -- clearly understanding both intellectually and experientially, that such image/idol making is our weakness and not our strength. Tragically, that path appears to be  so counter-intuitive and non-commonsensical that it is the one path that is always ignored.


This work (text only) by Sajjeev Antony is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.