D
Deleted member 1606
There are many pitfalls on our way to recovery. Sometimes we become trapped in words; sometimes words can give us new perspective.
Some Hindu and Buddhists believe that the cause of all suffering is maya. Fortunately, tthe concept of maya is nondenominational and you can explore it if you are Christian, Muslim, atheist, etc. And one of the things I like about it is that the word seems stupid at first.
Maya means to mistake the symbol of the thing for the thing itself. Would you confuse an actual shoe with a picture of a shoe? Of course not. So it sounds silly.
But let's go a little deeper. How does a religious person, as a member of a religion that promotes peace, kill in the name of God? Jesus was said to be the Prince of Peace, for instance, but millions have been killed in his name.
This happens because the killers in question have stopped worshiping God and started worshiping religion. The change is subtle enough that they don't notice it, and yet it changes everything. Once you worship religion instead of God, killing in his name becomes much easier.
And the examples of maya go on and on. When I was a sex educator, we got a call from a girl about 13. She said that she was starting to realize that she was primarily attracted to women. "Do I have to cut my hair short now?" was her question.
This is maya, of course. I told her that her mission in life is to discover who she is and become comfortable becoming that person. I told her not to cut her hair short unless she wants to.
Maya permeates our lives at multiple levels. We've watched for eight years as people have cooperated in giving up our freedom to save our freedom. To protect our way of life, we must let our government listen to all our conversations. But what is left of our way of llfe if we nulify the Constitution? The flag is a wonderful symbol of America, but the Constitution is America. Why would a person get upset at the burning of the flag and yet not be troubled by the trashing of the Constintution?
Bob Dylan has witnessed his fans turning on him because once they started to "love" him, they started demanding he be a certain person for them. That's the audience's maya. On the other hand, what if a famous person became attatched to fame and feels unloved when the fame fades? That would be the performer's maya.
Maya points out illusions we live with. And it begs the question, how much of what we feel is vitally important is merely illusory?
There is an ancient Hindu story meant to illustrate maya. This story is at least 2500 years old.
The Gods owned a boon to a student named Narada. A God (I think it was Vishnu), asks him what he would like.
"I would like to understand maya."
"Um, no you don't. Pick something else, trust me."
But Narada was insistant, so Vishu points to a lake and says, "Dive into that water."
Narada does and immediately becomes a beautiful woman. Soon the King comes along and is so intranced, that he marries her. They live in spendor and as the years go by, the kingdom grows larger under the King's leadership. She gives birth to three healthy sons and the King and all the people are delighted. All live at ease and age gracefully.
One day the King, now very old, dies. Immediately, the three sons begin quarreling over who will lead the kingdom next and finally war breaks out between them. The war smashes and scatters all the beauty of the land, leaving it scarred and the people dead or driven out. There is starvation and more war until all 3 brothers die in battle.
The queen orders the traditional burning of the bodies and attends the funeral in despair. She is inconsolable in her desperate weeping, but watches the flames and the heat grow higher. Everything of importance is burning away.
As the fires grow toward their peak, she throws herself in and Narada breaks the surface of the water. Vishnu is standing before him and helps him out of the lake.
They sit and Vishnu asks, "Who is it you weep for? What do you mourn?" But Narada is still too stunned to answer, so Vishnu brings his face close. "Those were but the shallow reaches of maya. Not even the Gods understand it's depths."
Some Hindu and Buddhists believe that the cause of all suffering is maya. Fortunately, tthe concept of maya is nondenominational and you can explore it if you are Christian, Muslim, atheist, etc. And one of the things I like about it is that the word seems stupid at first.
Maya means to mistake the symbol of the thing for the thing itself. Would you confuse an actual shoe with a picture of a shoe? Of course not. So it sounds silly.
But let's go a little deeper. How does a religious person, as a member of a religion that promotes peace, kill in the name of God? Jesus was said to be the Prince of Peace, for instance, but millions have been killed in his name.
This happens because the killers in question have stopped worshiping God and started worshiping religion. The change is subtle enough that they don't notice it, and yet it changes everything. Once you worship religion instead of God, killing in his name becomes much easier.
And the examples of maya go on and on. When I was a sex educator, we got a call from a girl about 13. She said that she was starting to realize that she was primarily attracted to women. "Do I have to cut my hair short now?" was her question.
This is maya, of course. I told her that her mission in life is to discover who she is and become comfortable becoming that person. I told her not to cut her hair short unless she wants to.
Maya permeates our lives at multiple levels. We've watched for eight years as people have cooperated in giving up our freedom to save our freedom. To protect our way of life, we must let our government listen to all our conversations. But what is left of our way of llfe if we nulify the Constitution? The flag is a wonderful symbol of America, but the Constitution is America. Why would a person get upset at the burning of the flag and yet not be troubled by the trashing of the Constintution?
Bob Dylan has witnessed his fans turning on him because once they started to "love" him, they started demanding he be a certain person for them. That's the audience's maya. On the other hand, what if a famous person became attatched to fame and feels unloved when the fame fades? That would be the performer's maya.
Maya points out illusions we live with. And it begs the question, how much of what we feel is vitally important is merely illusory?
There is an ancient Hindu story meant to illustrate maya. This story is at least 2500 years old.
The Gods owned a boon to a student named Narada. A God (I think it was Vishnu), asks him what he would like.
"I would like to understand maya."
"Um, no you don't. Pick something else, trust me."
But Narada was insistant, so Vishu points to a lake and says, "Dive into that water."
Narada does and immediately becomes a beautiful woman. Soon the King comes along and is so intranced, that he marries her. They live in spendor and as the years go by, the kingdom grows larger under the King's leadership. She gives birth to three healthy sons and the King and all the people are delighted. All live at ease and age gracefully.
One day the King, now very old, dies. Immediately, the three sons begin quarreling over who will lead the kingdom next and finally war breaks out between them. The war smashes and scatters all the beauty of the land, leaving it scarred and the people dead or driven out. There is starvation and more war until all 3 brothers die in battle.
The queen orders the traditional burning of the bodies and attends the funeral in despair. She is inconsolable in her desperate weeping, but watches the flames and the heat grow higher. Everything of importance is burning away.
As the fires grow toward their peak, she throws herself in and Narada breaks the surface of the water. Vishnu is standing before him and helps him out of the lake.
They sit and Vishnu asks, "Who is it you weep for? What do you mourn?" But Narada is still too stunned to answer, so Vishnu brings his face close. "Those were but the shallow reaches of maya. Not even the Gods understand it's depths."
