Spiritual: February 24, 2016 Issue [#7494] |
Spiritual
This week: Bringing Order Into Chaos Edited by: NaNoKit More Newsletters By This Editor
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Life is chaotic. Humanity is chaotic. Can religion truly bring us the order we desire, or is it a lost cause?
This week's Spiritual Newsletter is all about those things that make it difficult to follow the rules.
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I tidied my room today. It had reached the stage at which not even I could claim that the chaos was organised. A course book here, a deodorant there, plush toys and books I actually enjoy reading everywhere. I have still not managed to find my third pair of Merino wool socks, nor the second pillowcase for my long pillow. They have to be somewhere, surely, but for now, it remains a mystery.
Whilst I was tidying, I thought that this is what religion does, or attempts to do. It tries to bring order in chaos.
Life is chaotic. There are all these internal and external forces, many of which we cannot control, and plenty of which are in conflict. To try bring some structure to life, then, societies have developed laws, and religion has religious rules. The key ones are similar, and they basically come down to: don't harm the other, help the other out, be good and be kind. They are rules that make sense.
There are some tricky ones, though. For example, we shouldn't judge others. Yet, we constantly do so. We judge each other's words, and actions, and appearance. In elections, we use our judgement to decide which party or candidate to vote for. In trials, we judge whether someone is guilty or innocent of the crime that they are accused of. We even judge when we befriend people, and choose our partner. It is a positive judgement, but a judgement nevertheless. To navigate one's way through society, one has to judge. And if you either agree or disagree with my opinion on this, you are judging me and my words. See?
Another tricky one is that we should always speak the truth. I think that we all know how difficult that is. I try to be truthful – I do not like to lie – but sometimes it's better to not be entirely truthful as to be completely truthful would hurt someone's feelings unnecessarily.
Then, we should not covet. That, too, is difficult. I don't so much covet people's belongings. I don't care about cars, or the latest gadgets, or designer clothes or jewelry. Some people have skills and talents that I would love to have, though. And if I am being entirely truthful, there are times when I participate in a contest that I really want to win, and if I lose, and congratulate the winners, I may not wholeheartedly feel joy for them, as it's tinged with some sense of disappointment. Fortunately, that does not happen often, but it has happened a few times on a website of a band that I like, where the prizes were items like concert tickets or autographed goodies personalised for the winner.
It is difficult to be the perfect human being. Most likely, it is impossible. It would be nice if we didn't have to judge, if nobody ever lied, if nobody ever wanted what someone else has, but we do, and it's part of being a member of our species.
Put a few children together and there will soon be a hierarchy, with decisions made about who should have what, and kids wanting what the other kids have, and drama erupting, and a kid claiming they didn't do “it”, whatever “it” is, even though they did. We never grow out of that.
I have the feeling that so long as humanity exists, there will be chaos. Any attempts to bring order into that chaos will only go so far. We can try our best, of course. I guess that's the whole point – to try our best to be the best human being we can possibly be.
For now, I have found my pillowcase. It was at the back of my wardrobe. It's a start...
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The Spiritual Newsletter Team welcomes any and all questions, suggestions, thoughts and feedback, so please don't hesitate to write in!
Zeke - Helping someone does not come with entitlement for thanks in my opinion. We do it because it is right.
Zeke
I agree with you, Zeke. It is nice to receive a thank you, but that doesn't mean that we are entitled to it, nor should we help someone just to be thanked. As you say, we do it because it's the right thing to do.
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Wishing you a week filled with inspiration,
The Spiritual Newsletter Team
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