Who is Salieri Really Worshiping?

The 1984 Oscar bagger  Amadeus is one of my ten favorite movies. It is of course a showcase of Mozart's timeless music, but it also asks some deep questions of our inner motives when we worship God. 
     It is too easy to dismiss the Austrian court composer Salieri (albeit partly fictitious) as evil, but those who carefully watch the inner workings of his mind will realize that something deeper and universal is at play here. This movie asks each of us a personal question we all want to avoid:  What is it that I really worship?

The YouTube clip I have linked here is one of the key scenes which explore this theme. Maestro Antonio Salieri the Composer to Emperor Joseph himself, had as a child bequeathed his life to the glory of God, and prayed that he would become composer who celebrated God, and be celebrated himself. But in comes a "smutty, infantile boy" Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Salieri's world turns upside down.

The scene is not only funny but the precursor of revelation of a profound truth -- are we worshiping ourselves when we think we are worshiping God? Is it an ego trip? Is that the cardinal error Salieri committed? When he realizes that God chose an indisciplined boy as His instrument, why otherwise did he become another Count Dracula? Wasn't it because he using his belief as an "investment?" Isn't it what we all do when we believe? In that case what is spiritual about such an ego trip? How is it different from running after money, fame, wealth, glory, pleasure, power? I cannot see any difference at all. What about you?

Parable of the Sower -- Revisited

ARE RELIGIONS really fair to individual differences in spiritual aptitude between people? This thought struck me while recently reading the Parable of the Sower. After telling the parable in public, Jesus gives a private explanation to his disciples, which struck me as rather unfair.  The parable itself is fine:        
       As the sower goes to his field, some grain spills and falls on different types of terrain such as rocks, fallow land and fertile land. Only those grains that fell on fertile land take root and yield fruit. 
     Jesus is pointing out that only those who are ready will be able to take advantage of his teaching. As for the unfortunate majority, Jesus says,
                   “Though seeing, they do not see;
                     though hearing, they do not hear or understand".
Here's the theological problem: Is Jesus accepting the listener’s weakness, or is He is shifting the responsibility to his listener? Is the average mans Mainstream Christianity, however, has used this parable to put the burden on the flock. “You don’t listen because you are a sinner and will be burnt like chaff during harvesting.” The fearful followers chant “Mea culpa, Mea culpa, Mea maxima culpa” and try to force themselves into the supposed path that might lead them to heaven. But they continue to suffer spiritually.

The Parable of Talents -- Retold

JESUS SAID TO HIS SELECT DISCIPLES:  A certain rich man had a vision of the ultimate wealth. Before embarking on his quest, he divided all his money among his three servants -- ten, five and one talents according their capacity and asked each to use his share wisely.

After years of travels the rich man found ultimate wealth and joyfully returned home with it. Upon nearing his village he saw people living in unprecedented poverty and squalor. For there had been a terrible famine there.

Perils of Questioning Everything

LAST MONTH I became one of the moderators of a bustling Internet community, Philosophy of Religion. With nearly 19,000 members worldwide, we keep getting a lot of new topics for discussion, mostly from believers in different religions. Many are dogmatic quotes from holy books, inviting the readers to accept them as such.
 

That gives us a problem --- because the motto of our community is "QUESTION EVERYTHING." This  is seldom noticed by contributors who seem to equate religion with philosophy of religion. In fact they are diametrically different. While religion needs dogma and belief, philosophy thrives on the opposite –- free thinking, reasoning, encouraging healthy skepticism. Anything unfalsifiable and not amenable to reason and logic is unsuitable as a philosophical topic.

Your Friendly Neighborhood Psychopath

(by Sajjeev Antony)

HAVE YOU EVER COME ACROSS A PERSON who exudes goodness at the first acquaintance, but turns out to be unbelievably the opposite later on? If so, chances are you had an encounter with a psychopath or an antisocial personality. Psychopaths comprise about 1% of human population so they are not so rare.

There is a higher proportion of psychopaths among criminal population so the US judicial system defines antisocial personality disorder in a person over the age of 15, as having three or more of the characteristics below:

Gospel of Thomas: A must-read for Christians

(Illustration sourced from the Net)

GOSPEL OF THOMAS, a collection of 114 sayings attributed to Jesus Christ, is well-known among theologians, historians and academics, but for most ordinary Christians it is news that such an important gospel even exists. This is understandable because these sayings are not for those who seek feel-good answers. Here Jesus' key theme is self awareness and expands on "Kingdom of God is within you." Jesus hints about absolute freedom --- freedom from everything, perhaps freedom even from Jesus himself. Jesus is asking us to look into ourselves -- the very last thing we want to do.

Here's an excellent video version of the gospel.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqQUHXfqR6I 

As we listen to the startling message in Thomas, we begin to understand this is not the stuff that make organized religions, which was probably why it was not accepted part of the canon, though some historians argue that it nearly made it.

Is Seeing Believing?

I had just been initiated into Transcendental Meditation and was very enthusiastic about it. So when during a train journey in India I found myself sitting beside a saffron-clad Hindu monk, i started a conversation with him hoping he would have some insights to share. The swami, who happened to be an ayurvedic physician too, instead began a lengthy discourse on the Indian system of medicine while I impatiently looked for a chance to interrupt. When he stopped for breath I pressed in my favorite topic.

   "Swamiji, what do you think of Transcendental Meditation?" 

He replied gravely, "It is a serious disease but ayurveda has very good medicines for it." Then he continued about the cases of tuberculosis he had treated.

Persistence of Idols: A lesson from the Book of Exodus

"I Am That I Am" (Don't label me!) God admonished Moses who had dared to ask the name of this new deity.

But that did not work. It never does. Israelites could not resist their labeling urge so they made an abbreviation of the original no-name status of God, which itself became the name. Thus the name Yahweh eventually struck so much fear and awe in those ignorant people,  they trembled to utter it. This shows how the harder we try to discard the  image in our minds, the stronger it becomes.

Byzantine Christians removing images from the Church.
Valiant but useless because idols are all in the believer's minds.

By Chludov 9th century - Detail of , Public Domain, Link


This is the problem with iconoclasm. Iconoclasts (idol breakers Christian, Islamic, Jewish...) fiercely propagate their "no-image" version of God, as the real idol grows diabolically stronger in their minds, consuming them, inflaming them. This equally applies to the  newest brand of iconoclasts, the"militant atheists."

Crowd frenzy = Turnaround

 EMOTIONAL REACTIONS FROM SOCIETY --- especially when they reach frenzied levels --- is almost always disproportionate to the actual problem. I would even claim that the greater the popular frenzy, the lesser the actual problem.

In the early 1980s the biggest fear among people in the Western world was about Soviet communist annexation and bombing of the "free world". But the reality was that communism was crumbling and the physical threats were receding.

Islamic fundamentalism started in the 1970s and grew to frightening levels for about a quarter century but the world never paid attention. The 9/11 attack probably marked its peak. Islamism, in my view, started to flatten out since then and now it is actually receding. But the community at large is most frightened of Muslims now than ever before! I consider this as a sign that Islamic fundamentalism is on the wane and no longer needed to be frightened about.

Homophobia was rife throughout the world. It peaked, fell drastically, and is moving towards the other extreme -- it has become fashionable to to accept any sexual behavior that used to be considered abnormal earlier. So homophobia has turned the bend and is becoming a fashion of homophilia. Perhaps one day the pendulum could swing back and the crowd could become anti gay again.

Pedophilia was seldom a headline issue till a decade or two ago. Now it the biggest target of witchhunt. And Catholic Church is the favorite target because the Church is huge and institutionalized. It is already weakening due to spread of secularism. Going by the other examples I cited, I would expect that the pedophilia issue in Catholic Church has peaked and is receding.

(Illustration sourced from the Net)

In short, crowd frenzy is usually an indicator that the problem has passed its worst stage. We can compare these to stock market bubbles. The legendary banker JP Morgan is reputed to have sold entire his stock holdings in 1929 when a shoeshine boy gave him market advice, and thus escaped the October 1929 stock market crash and the Great Depression that followed.

Crowd frenzy is a good rule of the thumb to start going in the opposite direction. If everyone seems obsessed about something, turn away from it. Easier said than done. We are social animals!

Have Spiritual Masters and Sages Helped Humanity?

The highest level of all spiritual quests is considered to be emptying the mind of thoughts without losing alertness of the mind. Seers with no political or social agenda have tended to  point to that simple fact and little else. Even when we examine the writings of some masters who were constrained by their religious persuasions, if we look below their theological talk their message had this one common thread -- Observe yourself. Empty your mind. We’ve had millions of holy sayings, saints and holy books, all pointing to the same singularity. But I doubt whether the Masters could change anyone by their writings or talks. If any change occurred to anyone, my hypothesis is that it would have due to that person’s existing readiness. The best a master can do is to encourage that existing spark, which may be exceptions, not the rule.