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The Battleground
by Michael Maciel
In January 1996, a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist wrote that the commonly
held belief that people are affected by the full moon had been proven statistically
to be false. Most of my friends reacted to the article, claiming that they had experienced
the phenomenon firsthand, and, therefore, believed, as I do, that the full moon does
affect us, and therefore the article had to be wrong.
According to science, however, our claims were only "anecdotal" -- not
supported by hard evidence. Science says that merely believing in something does
not make it true. Their argument, however, did free us from the worst kind of religious
dogmatism that was rampant during the Middle Ages. Knowledge then, as it is now,
was power, and the Church had all the power. It was hard to argue with an institution
that claimed that its "facts" came straight from God. Today, science views
the entire New Consciousness movement with suspicion, because, like the Church during
the Middle Ages, "facts" appear to be based on belief and not empirical
evidence.
It's hard to see the truth while looking through a belief. Beliefs, even well-intentioned
ones, tend to be opaque. Does the moon have power over us? Believing that it does
ensures that it will. Attachment to this belief can prevent us from asking the deeper
question, which is, "Should it?"
Here is an example of what can be known if we look past the mere belief in the power
of the moon. In Roman Catholicism, Mary is sometimes depicted as subduing a serpent
under her foot and at other times a crescent moon. Both serpent and moon are pre-Christian
symbols for the cycles of time, of death and rebirth, and the forces that keep them
going. In the East, they are referred to as Samsara and the Wheel of Karma. Mary
(also called "Mara" or sea) represents the soul that has awakened
to the realization that it is not under the dominion of these forces, but in fact
directs them. Like Venus rising out of the waves, she has risen above the tumultuous
passions of the senses. Anyone who attains to this level of realization is thus liberated
and empowered. She is the Christian equivalent of the Buddha, the Compassionate One,
who also achieved liberation from the tidal forces of the senses.
According to Buddhism, the main obstacles to Truth are desire,
fear and duty. As humans, we all have these in common: our tendency
to look for evidence that will substantiate our beliefs, our avoidance
of anything that contradicts them, and the sense that we are obligated
to stick with our story. While we can say that this is human nature,
we cannot say that it is spiritual. A scientific approach to spirituality
would demand that we hold our beliefs in abeyance while we ask
the questions that lie on the other side of those beliefs.
What can we learn from the scientific approach to Truth?
The key element of the scientific method is evidence. In its early struggles to distinguish
itself from religion, Science moved toward materialism. Therefore, evidence had to
be material -- it had to be objectively observable by the physical senses. Going
to that extreme led scientists to distrust all inner experiences, because inner experiences
cannot be objectively verified.
In disallowing the validity of the inner experience, scientists
immediately lost the trust of the Spiritual Community,
who in turn went to their own extreme -- the denial of the validity
of the world. This world became a place of trials and tribulations
to be endured, but not loved. Heaven became the only real "place"
worth striving for, and the world, no longer considered spiritual,
was left to the materialists who could use or abuse it as they
pleased.
Out of this, we have a toxic environment, a hard-edged dehumanizing
culture, an escapist spirituality,
an economy driven by fear and greed, ethnic hatreds, prisons based
on revenge, schools for memorization, drive-thru nutrition, men
and women virtually at war with each other, obese children, disposable
everything, and an entire generation whose idea of ecstasy is
looking good on television. We view our bodies as something to
be gotten out of, our homes as the gray spot at the end of the
driveway, the solar system as our local junkyard, and our automobiles
as the definitive statement of who we are.
Maybe our spirituality
needs to be brought down to Earth.
I have tried to show by the above description of Mary that Judeo-Christianity
is not about the subjugation and destruction of the Earth, but
rather the subjugation and ultimate transformation of our own
negative tendencies. It is not Nature but human nature
that needs fixing. The split between Science and the Spiritual
Community
has given us the belief that we are our physical bodies.
Science says that there is no such thing as soul, and the Spiritual
Community
says that the physical body is an illusion. The net effect of
these two beliefs is a physical body that is totally despised
-- by Science because it is powerless in the face of random dangers
and by the Spiritual Community
because it is the source of evil. The split between Science and
the Spiritual Community
has led us to a split within ourselves.
To heal our bodies, our planet and ourselves, we must heal the misconception that
God is separate from matter.
Battlegrounds are dangerous places and should be avoided whenever possible. We need
to recognize our own tendencies toward error and not be so keen to the errors of
others. Science's problems with inner realities are really its problems, and
scientists love problems. We should leave them alone to solve this one. Anyway, most
of them now realize that the very underpinnings of their materialistic worldview,
namely mathematics and logic, are themselves absolutely intangible. It's pretty
hard to hold up the physical universe as the ultimate reality when you know that
the mechanisms that drive it are non-physical!
Michael Maciel lives in Omaha, Nebr., and is the author of the website INTU, located
at www.intu.org. Ordained in 1972, Mike has led seminars and classes in Omaha and
Kansas City for the past 10 years. He specializes in the interpretation of ancient
spiritual teachings in the light of contemporary scientific understanding. E-mail
him at rmmaciel@earthlink.net
Copyright (c) 2002 Michael Maciel
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