this began as a short reply, but it became long, and so much time has elapsed between now and then that i'll leave it as a new post. besides, no one would probably think to check for my comments, i've been out of circulation for too long.
i'm sorry guys, i haven't written on this for a while. i kind of forgot about it entirely. however... yeah leonard crow dog is native. he is responsible for a bunch of native rights movements in the states. something of a social and political, and religious leader and activist. the quote is from this narrative that he wrote about his first vision quest. i just thought that the spirituality of it made a lot of sense, and ought to be heard and ought to inspire. there is a part cut out in between the halves of the quote: "He lets the white people do it, who have one way of behaving on sunday in church and another for the rest of the week." but i didn't really want the quote to have a feeling of condemnation, just encouragement. and besides if you fixate yourself on that part then you'd probably miss the impact of the rest of it taking it as something entirely unoriginal.
as for the bhagavad gita and the vedas.. the vedas are pretty dry, and honestly pretty messed up most of the time, but they are pretty important, and that quote refers to god basicly. and you could break it down more than that, i mean it's hindu, so one god with many faces obviously, but i thought you might apply it in a broader sense.
and the bhagavad gita quote.. simply look for holiness everywhere. although you can also read it as scripture is a guide, but it can't exist on it's own. look elsewhere and you'll find what it says, just in life, and you'll learn it for yourself, and perhaps things that aren't in writing. it's a common lyric that something like god can't be contained in any capacity.. like that song about if the skies where made of parchment and the oceans ink. well people try and do it all the time. they take the bible, they take whatever, and they say god is in this book. this is what we need to know about god. i won't get started on how i feel that it's read horribly inaccurately and narrowly, but it doesn't make sense, does it. and it's like fixating yourself on this book and being like... this book is holy.. well no.. everything is holy, it's like being really lazy in a room full of cake, and sitting thinking, i wish i had cake, but never getting out of your chair, made of cake, to go cut yourself a slice from a cake that sits on a table in the middle of the room. find god in life's every day stuff. hardly anyone reads their bible anymore (something i've decided i'm more than fine with). and it's the cool thing to do now to be fine with secular opinions and social norms, while keeping up a faith, so the bible is losing it's relevance to people. it disagrees with so many things that we know are right nowadays, that people don't know what to believe anymore, there just exists this dual acceptance of things that seem to contradict each other, but they're in the bible, so people have to respect them, and things they know are right, they won't fully accept because the bible disagrees with it. and that's our culture, it's slowed down socially by accountability to this book that really doesn't apply anymore. it's like the ultimate weapon of the past, and the slowing of social change, acceptance, the betterment of life, and the action of the people for what we know is good. it's because it holds this paradigmatic value on such an enormous scale, so it has such power over entire nations, and it doesn't lose it's application only because it's been so important for so long to so many people. it carries through times it shouldn't have.
i know that will require a deeper explanation, but my point so far is simply... be discerning in your own mind. decide what is good for yourself. you have been given a conscience, and a good deal of reason. if you should choose to use it responsibly and honestly, then that is where you find what is right; that is where god speaks, where he holds you to what is good.
posted by Paul @ 9:25 AM
Comments: 1
