|
Docta Ignorantia VIII Letter for Lucie It's Sabbath eve and I wanted to call with following but am not sure that is appropriate, so am mailing instead. Thank you for lovely note and article. And year (above). Of course, I agree with your comments. Rabbi 'Schwartzee' and I have a lot in common. I am aware of what is driving him and admire and sympathize with his intent, also his methods. At the University of Redlands (1967-68), as Assistant Chaplain, I published a humor and theology magazine named CHUTZPAH. My first such effort. The president shut me down after the second issue, which contained some 'irreverent' remarks about a person he felt strongly resembled himself .... Purchased a Stockman's oilskin vest and lid (hat) while you were buying. Love them, especially vest. I've long felt 'young' and 'old' are wasted resource. I never mixed with peers. Always younger or older. Also, I never enjoyed the company of men. But that's personal. 'Schwartzee,' like myself, is feeling the need to clean up and reestablish the ritual life and activity of the community. This is something persons called as clergy intuitively regard as the base of everything else. It is something which appears insignificant compared to the hot and cold blasts of economics and politics but which is more significant than these areas, especially when it is polluted, profaned, neglected, etc. Elijah said, 'I, only I, am left.' This is something every genuine clergy feels in their socks and wonders what they should do to correct, just as Elijah, also, wondered and even despaired. The way out is not given to merely human capacity and strength. It can get so bad, as it is today, that only Divine intervention, in myriad ways, can bring order out of the chaos, can reestablish peace. So it was with Elijah and the theophany he received, which gave him direction. I am sure 'Schwartzee' has felt something like this and is proceeding with all deliberate speed in the manner directed by the theophany he has experienced. It shows even through the customary hype of a magazine article. The enclosed, La Messe Sur La Monde, is a step in the direction I am feeling compelled to take. It is in this very specific area of the ritual life and activity of the community. 'Schwartzee' will approach it from his background and I from mine. The intent is identical. The means vary for the context. Peace is the goal (intent) and also the condition. Now, the church has promoted and defended very much that is not true and that has caused terrible suffering among many peoples. Nor is the church anxious to correct what is not true in its teaching. In fact, I have given up waiting. On the other hand, it would not be correct to assert that the church is not a means of Grace. (It is one among several such means, including also Synagogue, Mosque and Temple, among none of which do I distinguish.) So I am left feeling the need to throw out what the church teaches that is not true, save what is and then reconstruct as I am given light to do that. This is not an unprecedented thing to do, historically speaking. It just usually seems irreverent to the promoters of what is not true -- i.e., in this case, most Christian clergy. Now, getting to the truth of Christian religion means getting to the truth of who Jesus was. And on this central focus the answer is that he was exactly who Jews and Moslems always have said that he was: Jesus was an aspirant, like the rest of us, a mortal, born so, a seeker of God, as we all are, one looking to 'go home.' To say this sets masses of 'Christian theology' in the File 13. This has to be done carefully, while one is fully aware of the significance and consequences (like being shot or otherwise made dead) and has firmly in view a happy, true and thorough-going alternative. Obviously, I have spent years doing this. It has comprised my 'professional' labor, so to speak. In the specific area of ritual life and activity, a result of that labor is the enclosed Mass on the World (La Messe Sur La Monde). The phrase and concept are a construction of Teilhard de Chardin's. After consulting with a member of the Vestry of St. Thomas Episcopal Church, Medina, WA, where our membership resides, and with Mary, the children and Sathya Sai Baba (Swami), I have felt compelled to say this Mass (or others that appear) five times per year. This is in furtherance of cleaning up and reestablishing that aspect of our community's ritual life and activity which, until now at least, has been denominated or called 'Christian.' God knows I yearn to associate with a Rabbi who would approach the same task from that aspect of our community's ritual life and activity which, until now at least, has been denominated or called 'Jewish.' In fact, I have asked an aging Holocaust refugee (his parents and he made it to Sweden from Vienna) to give it a try. But he is not a Rabbi -- his background is Esalen Institute -- and he almost just died of liver cancer. I think 'Schwartzee' (I like that, like Swami: i, ee, is the feminine, motherly suffix in Sanskrit) is in the area. Hard to see how self-consciously, from this distance. 'Christians' have a bad habit of wanting to 'convert the Jews.' This Mass is an alternative to that nonsense. An accurate appraisal of Jesus' nature is the key to de-fanging 'Christians,' who, of course, should not have fangs at all. Following on that, I feel, is a view of Messiah which treats that hope and concept as the actual, true nature of each one of us, not of just one individual in 4th Millennium Palestine (3745, right?, @). Some of the Hassidic Shekinah theology took Messiah in this sense, or towards it, and I suspect Maimonides did also. It is an unavoidable consequence of non-dualistic experience, which Maimonides and Hassids had and which is the gist of the Shema. The Shema says, God is one, meaning, He has no second. As this Truth is experienced, every bird and blade of grass is Messiah. So one feels, so near is God. I hope this hasn't been tedious. The career we are embarking upon by saying this Mass is so important to us, for our sense of purpose and destiny, and my affection for you is so keen that I cannot let the moment go by without asking you to share it with us. However, I could not give it to you without explanation, so that you can see what is meant and intended. So this length .... Please do not feel obliged to come. But please accept my thanks for being here so that I can share this news -- a major 'career decision' -- with you. It is not to start a 'congregation,' heaven forbid. There are too many and I am not parochial clergy. It is to clarify and reestablish the ritual life and activity of our community. It is an hermitage doing this, not a church.
Adwaitha Hermitage
|
