Friday, May 14, 2004
Eternal love in the modern world
Have you ever promised to love someone forever, and/or had someone make that promise to YOU? Did it ever occur to you that, without a corollary promise to endure a great deal of unhappiness over the years and not give up on the relationship because of it, promising eternal love is meaningless in a culture where it's so easy to walk away from our partners?
The cold hard truth is that these days all too few people have the will, or even the desire, to continue to dedicate themselves to a person for whom the first bloom of mindless love has faded; once the intense, early feelings wither, most people just walk away no matter what they promised or how good they are at keeping all other sorts of promises.
True, deep, lasting love DOES exist, but in order to get it you must prove worthy; you must stick by your partner through the times when you hate them, or, worse, are indifferent to them, through the times when you're stressed, or bored, or are wildly attracted to other people, or have to make sacrifices if you want to stay in the relationship, or have tragedies happen that make you want to run for the hills and never come back. Are YOU willing to do that? If you said "yes," ask yourself: Have you stayed in all your PAST relationships until you were either abused or abandoned, and done your very best until that moment? If not, why would that change in the future? The initial infatuation, which most people wrongly call love, ALWAYS burns out, as we're biologically incapable of keeping it forever, so won't you always act the same way? Won't every partner you pair up with act the same way?
Statistically... YES. But WHY? Why are we losing out on what our grandparents' generation, and every generation before them, took for granted, that we'd be able to love someone "until death do us part"? As with most relationship problems these days, the sexual revolution and the women's movement are partially blame, for making it acceptable to engage in behaviors that are NOT to our long-term benefit, but there's even more to it than that. It used to be, not that long ago historically speaking, that we wouldn't stand to gain much by abandoning one partner for another, even if we moved away so that those around us were unaware of our past, because life was hard, and life was short, and once the flush of romance wore off we would just have exchanged one hard, short life for another in a different place, and withOUT the benefit of family, friends and familiar community... so why bother?
Nowadays, we have much longer lives, and way more free time, so even taking community approval out of the equation it's become much more "worthwhile" to switch to a new partner... at least, from the perspective of the sorts of effortless pleasures we value today.
The final culprit is the media: "Pre-media" people had what we'd think of as low standards for what was considered attractive, because they never SAW that many people, and those they DID see were unenhanced by surgery, makeup, hairstyling products and, more importantly, the special lighting and airbrushing that makes modern hotties look FAR better than they ever could in real life; this allowed them to be happy with anyone they married who seemed attractive to them, because they'd probably never seen anyone who looked significantly better. Furthermore, cultures which focus on survival are rarely "sexual" outside of what happens in the beds of married couples, which prevents them from walking around with sex on the brain all the time and so from looking at everyone as a potential sexual partner; OUR culture, on the other hand, is permeated with sex on every level, with every newspaper, magazine, song, TV show, movie, ad and store display using the simple truism that "sex sells" to blast our brains with erotic imagery every waking moment, which means that WE think about sex CONSTANTLY. The net result is that we've become maniacally obsessed with the eternal search for that ideal partner, possessed of unnaturally-perfect face and body, agreeing with us on everything, and inexplicably eager to have frequent sex with our totally-normal-looking selves. Once we cease to be enraptured with whoever we're with, even if we're married to them, we hear the siren song from every side that tells us that we have the "right" to be happy every moment, the "right" to be treated in whatever unrealistic way we've decided is what we really want, the "right" to have sex on tap with someone so hot that we don't need to love them to find them desirable, and it all seems so easily available that it makes it seem ridiculous to make unpleasant effort for, and endure unhappy times with, someone we're not madly in love with rather than bailing so that we can "trade up."
The only problem is that it's NOT ridiculous, it's the ONLY way to get to the sort of "eternal love" that so many songs and movies dangle before us, and that we all claim to want, and SHOULD want, but no longer have any idea how to GET. We have to accept that, although no one should have to stay in a relationship where they're being beaten or otherwise mistreated, we in general need to look at relationships in the traditional way, as things that we MUST grit our teeth and endure sometimes, the same way we do to train to run a marathon, or get a business started, or do anything else that is indescribably sweet when it has been achieved... we need to go back to what has always worked in the arena of love, and stop pretending that playing with emotions and sex like kids do with tinkertoys leads to solid, lasting relationships.
Forget promising to love someone forever; promise to be willing to work through the bad times forever, and to still treat them well, and then DO IT... eternal love will follow.
The cold hard truth is that these days all too few people have the will, or even the desire, to continue to dedicate themselves to a person for whom the first bloom of mindless love has faded; once the intense, early feelings wither, most people just walk away no matter what they promised or how good they are at keeping all other sorts of promises.
True, deep, lasting love DOES exist, but in order to get it you must prove worthy; you must stick by your partner through the times when you hate them, or, worse, are indifferent to them, through the times when you're stressed, or bored, or are wildly attracted to other people, or have to make sacrifices if you want to stay in the relationship, or have tragedies happen that make you want to run for the hills and never come back. Are YOU willing to do that? If you said "yes," ask yourself: Have you stayed in all your PAST relationships until you were either abused or abandoned, and done your very best until that moment? If not, why would that change in the future? The initial infatuation, which most people wrongly call love, ALWAYS burns out, as we're biologically incapable of keeping it forever, so won't you always act the same way? Won't every partner you pair up with act the same way?
Statistically... YES. But WHY? Why are we losing out on what our grandparents' generation, and every generation before them, took for granted, that we'd be able to love someone "until death do us part"? As with most relationship problems these days, the sexual revolution and the women's movement are partially blame, for making it acceptable to engage in behaviors that are NOT to our long-term benefit, but there's even more to it than that. It used to be, not that long ago historically speaking, that we wouldn't stand to gain much by abandoning one partner for another, even if we moved away so that those around us were unaware of our past, because life was hard, and life was short, and once the flush of romance wore off we would just have exchanged one hard, short life for another in a different place, and withOUT the benefit of family, friends and familiar community... so why bother?
Nowadays, we have much longer lives, and way more free time, so even taking community approval out of the equation it's become much more "worthwhile" to switch to a new partner... at least, from the perspective of the sorts of effortless pleasures we value today.
The final culprit is the media: "Pre-media" people had what we'd think of as low standards for what was considered attractive, because they never SAW that many people, and those they DID see were unenhanced by surgery, makeup, hairstyling products and, more importantly, the special lighting and airbrushing that makes modern hotties look FAR better than they ever could in real life; this allowed them to be happy with anyone they married who seemed attractive to them, because they'd probably never seen anyone who looked significantly better. Furthermore, cultures which focus on survival are rarely "sexual" outside of what happens in the beds of married couples, which prevents them from walking around with sex on the brain all the time and so from looking at everyone as a potential sexual partner; OUR culture, on the other hand, is permeated with sex on every level, with every newspaper, magazine, song, TV show, movie, ad and store display using the simple truism that "sex sells" to blast our brains with erotic imagery every waking moment, which means that WE think about sex CONSTANTLY. The net result is that we've become maniacally obsessed with the eternal search for that ideal partner, possessed of unnaturally-perfect face and body, agreeing with us on everything, and inexplicably eager to have frequent sex with our totally-normal-looking selves. Once we cease to be enraptured with whoever we're with, even if we're married to them, we hear the siren song from every side that tells us that we have the "right" to be happy every moment, the "right" to be treated in whatever unrealistic way we've decided is what we really want, the "right" to have sex on tap with someone so hot that we don't need to love them to find them desirable, and it all seems so easily available that it makes it seem ridiculous to make unpleasant effort for, and endure unhappy times with, someone we're not madly in love with rather than bailing so that we can "trade up."
The only problem is that it's NOT ridiculous, it's the ONLY way to get to the sort of "eternal love" that so many songs and movies dangle before us, and that we all claim to want, and SHOULD want, but no longer have any idea how to GET. We have to accept that, although no one should have to stay in a relationship where they're being beaten or otherwise mistreated, we in general need to look at relationships in the traditional way, as things that we MUST grit our teeth and endure sometimes, the same way we do to train to run a marathon, or get a business started, or do anything else that is indescribably sweet when it has been achieved... we need to go back to what has always worked in the arena of love, and stop pretending that playing with emotions and sex like kids do with tinkertoys leads to solid, lasting relationships.
Forget promising to love someone forever; promise to be willing to work through the bad times forever, and to still treat them well, and then DO IT... eternal love will follow.
Karma on Dr. Phil
One of Dr. Phil's guests today was a man who had had an affair some time ago with a woman who lives in his area. Recently, he ran into the woman, whom he hadn't seen in a long time, at the gas store and talked to her... and never told his wife. When it was revealed on the last show they were on that this had happened, all hell broke loose, and the point was driven home to him that he HAD to tell his wife when something like that happened, and not treat her like a parent from whom things had to be hidden; he agreed, somewhat reluctantly, to do so. On today's show, he revealed that he'd run into the woman AGAIN; he was so stunned that it had happened again, and with that sort of timing, that he was almost babbling when he tried to describe what had occurred.
He was able to talk openly, if somewhat incoherently, about it because he HAD told his wife this time, thus showing that he had learned his lesson; the REALLY interesting thing about all of this is how karma had provided him with a chance to demonstrate his new behavior patterns as soon as he'd promised to adopt them. HE was amazed that that woman showed up again right then, but *I* wasn't, because I've long recognized that every time *I* have an epiphany and make a change, karma immediately throws ME a test with just that sort of eerie timing, and so of course I EXPECT it to happen to other people to... karma doesn't make special rules just for ME.
When you have a major, life-altering revelation, when you've learned something BIG about yourself or how the world works, you release a HUGE surge of energy, and, as always, karma responds by sending you something similar to what you were projecting (and usually SOON). Be aware that this is going to happen, because, if you FAIL to implement your new concepts to deal with what karma sends you, karma gets into a loop where you'll keep getting the same sort of chance over and over again until you get it right... only then do all the energies balance out and "close the case."
He was able to talk openly, if somewhat incoherently, about it because he HAD told his wife this time, thus showing that he had learned his lesson; the REALLY interesting thing about all of this is how karma had provided him with a chance to demonstrate his new behavior patterns as soon as he'd promised to adopt them. HE was amazed that that woman showed up again right then, but *I* wasn't, because I've long recognized that every time *I* have an epiphany and make a change, karma immediately throws ME a test with just that sort of eerie timing, and so of course I EXPECT it to happen to other people to... karma doesn't make special rules just for ME.
When you have a major, life-altering revelation, when you've learned something BIG about yourself or how the world works, you release a HUGE surge of energy, and, as always, karma responds by sending you something similar to what you were projecting (and usually SOON). Be aware that this is going to happen, because, if you FAIL to implement your new concepts to deal with what karma sends you, karma gets into a loop where you'll keep getting the same sort of chance over and over again until you get it right... only then do all the energies balance out and "close the case."
Thursday, May 13, 2004
A couple more synchronicities
I was doing a search today to research a possible blog topic, and the engine I was using apparently gives you a quote to look at while you wait, because the following popped up:
"A great attitude does much more than turn on the lights in our worlds; it seems to magically connect us to all sorts of serendipitous opportunities that were somehow absent before the change. "
~Earl Nightingale
Sounds like Earl is a believer in karma, doesn't it? Positive attitude creates positive energy, which leads to good karma, which brings good things to you seemingly out of nowhere... and it DOES often seem like magic. I've never seen a quote like this before, and it gave me a chill to see this nod to how karma works; even though I know Earl probably never thought of that word when he said this, he sure has the concept down.
My husband and I just purchased plane tickets last night for an upcoming out of state trip. Today, I was using eBay, and it started doing this weird thing of giving me random search results instead of results for the search I was trying to do. I was thinking about the trip as I retried my search, and the search result came up with the name of the place we're going to!! What kind of search would anyone DO on eBay that consists only of the name of a state... do they expect the government to be auctioning off states now, lol? I hit my back arrow to see if *I* had inadvertently entered the state name because I was thinking of it, but I hadn't-there were my search parameters just as I thought I'd entered them.
I find myself wondering if these 2 things are connected, as my attitude about this trip has been one of grim resignation. I'm going to try to focus on some little thing about the trip that will be good, like the likelihood of several good restaurant meals, and see if that brings me a little serendipity.
"A great attitude does much more than turn on the lights in our worlds; it seems to magically connect us to all sorts of serendipitous opportunities that were somehow absent before the change. "
~Earl Nightingale
Sounds like Earl is a believer in karma, doesn't it? Positive attitude creates positive energy, which leads to good karma, which brings good things to you seemingly out of nowhere... and it DOES often seem like magic. I've never seen a quote like this before, and it gave me a chill to see this nod to how karma works; even though I know Earl probably never thought of that word when he said this, he sure has the concept down.
My husband and I just purchased plane tickets last night for an upcoming out of state trip. Today, I was using eBay, and it started doing this weird thing of giving me random search results instead of results for the search I was trying to do. I was thinking about the trip as I retried my search, and the search result came up with the name of the place we're going to!! What kind of search would anyone DO on eBay that consists only of the name of a state... do they expect the government to be auctioning off states now, lol? I hit my back arrow to see if *I* had inadvertently entered the state name because I was thinking of it, but I hadn't-there were my search parameters just as I thought I'd entered them.
I find myself wondering if these 2 things are connected, as my attitude about this trip has been one of grim resignation. I'm going to try to focus on some little thing about the trip that will be good, like the likelihood of several good restaurant meals, and see if that brings me a little serendipity.
Wednesday, May 12, 2004
When Metal Ruled the World
Apropos of nothing, one of the "glam metal gods" that I idolized in the 80's popped into my head today. I found myself trying to remember where and when I'd seen him, and then started thinking about what other bands I'd seen, and musicians I'd adored; I was amazed at how hard I had to think to remember some of it, considering how that scene was the center of my life for a decade. I kept turning it over in my mind, as the day and then the evening progressed, not knowing why I'd suddenly fixated on it... until I was looking at the TV guide at midnight and the abovementioned show was just starting on VH1.
I watched the screen, transfixed, as bits of videos I hadn't seen in nearly 15 years were shown. It was nonstop deja vu as I found myself lighting up like a pinball machine over the heart-attack-inducingly gorgeous guys that had rocked my world in my late teen and young adult years, re-experiencing them in their prime, all long hair and tattoos and lace-up leather pants... AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!
You know that scene in "The Big Chill" where they're teasing the friend who won't listen to any music except 60's stuff? I'm like that with 80's music. I gave up watching videos and going to shows in 1990, and, as radio in my area had never played anything I wanted to hear, I never got exposed to any music after that. Oh sure, you can't help but hear a LITTLE bit of everything that gets popular, but none of it ever interested me in the slightest; the 80's sound was "my music," and everything else is just Musak to me.
What made me suddenly think of those bands, and those MEN, today, the same day that I'd stumble over a show about them in the TV guide? A final flicker of the same thing that used to wake me up out of a dead sleep knowing that whichever metal video I was obsessed with was just about to start on MTV, the same thing that used to tell me without fail if a band I was going to see had finished soundcheck and left yet or if they'd still be there when my friends and I got to the club; aaaaaaahhhhh, for the long-gone days of my youth, when I was obsessive enough about music to kick my telepathy into overdrive.... heck, I'd settle for a few guys who look like 80's musicians and find older, married women attractive. ;-)
I watched the screen, transfixed, as bits of videos I hadn't seen in nearly 15 years were shown. It was nonstop deja vu as I found myself lighting up like a pinball machine over the heart-attack-inducingly gorgeous guys that had rocked my world in my late teen and young adult years, re-experiencing them in their prime, all long hair and tattoos and lace-up leather pants... AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!
You know that scene in "The Big Chill" where they're teasing the friend who won't listen to any music except 60's stuff? I'm like that with 80's music. I gave up watching videos and going to shows in 1990, and, as radio in my area had never played anything I wanted to hear, I never got exposed to any music after that. Oh sure, you can't help but hear a LITTLE bit of everything that gets popular, but none of it ever interested me in the slightest; the 80's sound was "my music," and everything else is just Musak to me.
What made me suddenly think of those bands, and those MEN, today, the same day that I'd stumble over a show about them in the TV guide? A final flicker of the same thing that used to wake me up out of a dead sleep knowing that whichever metal video I was obsessed with was just about to start on MTV, the same thing that used to tell me without fail if a band I was going to see had finished soundcheck and left yet or if they'd still be there when my friends and I got to the club; aaaaaaahhhhh, for the long-gone days of my youth, when I was obsessive enough about music to kick my telepathy into overdrive.... heck, I'd settle for a few guys who look like 80's musicians and find older, married women attractive. ;-)
Tuesday, May 11, 2004
Sometimes I despair of the human race
There's no criminal so despicable that they don't have people visiting them in jail, sending them letters, calling them, and telling the media how swell they really are (aside from those few moments they spent butchering an entire family, raping a child, or whatever)... and meanwhile, our nation's elderly are stuck into horrific nursing homes and forgotten about by the families that they spent decades taking care of.
Our everyday lives are filled with far less dramatic, but still aggravating, examples of this warped mindset; with far too many people, those who are good and nice are too "boring" to get noticed, those who are having bad times or, even worse, have been dissed by someone, are cause to head for the hills, but anyone who screws up or does the dissing will have their admiration.
It even happens online; people who post politely get no replies, while those who are blatantly trying to cause trouble get chatted up right and left. If someone gets flamed, people will come charging in to add insult to injury and kiss up to the attacker(s). If someone is trying to share something good, like their writing or art, people yawn, but if someone puts up something mean-spirited, or perpetrates a hoax, people will come out of the woodwork to support their right to do so, post friendly messages to them, and scold anyone who dares to suggest that doing something wrong is, um, WRONG... it's truly terrifying how much less nice, or even logical, or even SANE, people show themselves to be when they go online and become anonymous.
What is this love and admiration that some people harbor for the wrongdoers among us? Why do they think that nice folks don't deserve their attention, concern or support? What caused these demented individuals to decide that those who thumb their noses at the rules, and give the finger to the well-behaved masses, or even break the law, are worth their time and effort, but those who are nice, who are victims, or are even related to them but "inconvenient," are NOT worthy?
I know, I know, none of the above applies to most people, but I ardently wish that I could gather up those who treat their elderly relatives like garbage and hand them over to the criminals that are getting plenty of attention... and have a zapper button on my keyboard that I could use to send an electric shock to anyone I encounter online who likes to use the internet arena to be a jerk.
Our everyday lives are filled with far less dramatic, but still aggravating, examples of this warped mindset; with far too many people, those who are good and nice are too "boring" to get noticed, those who are having bad times or, even worse, have been dissed by someone, are cause to head for the hills, but anyone who screws up or does the dissing will have their admiration.
It even happens online; people who post politely get no replies, while those who are blatantly trying to cause trouble get chatted up right and left. If someone gets flamed, people will come charging in to add insult to injury and kiss up to the attacker(s). If someone is trying to share something good, like their writing or art, people yawn, but if someone puts up something mean-spirited, or perpetrates a hoax, people will come out of the woodwork to support their right to do so, post friendly messages to them, and scold anyone who dares to suggest that doing something wrong is, um, WRONG... it's truly terrifying how much less nice, or even logical, or even SANE, people show themselves to be when they go online and become anonymous.
What is this love and admiration that some people harbor for the wrongdoers among us? Why do they think that nice folks don't deserve their attention, concern or support? What caused these demented individuals to decide that those who thumb their noses at the rules, and give the finger to the well-behaved masses, or even break the law, are worth their time and effort, but those who are nice, who are victims, or are even related to them but "inconvenient," are NOT worthy?
I know, I know, none of the above applies to most people, but I ardently wish that I could gather up those who treat their elderly relatives like garbage and hand them over to the criminals that are getting plenty of attention... and have a zapper button on my keyboard that I could use to send an electric shock to anyone I encounter online who likes to use the internet arena to be a jerk.
Monday, May 10, 2004
What is American culture?
When we talk about a country's culture, not its modern lifestyle but its CULTURE, we generally mean those things that all its citizens have in common that go back many generations, such as songs, dances, stories, artwork, clothing, and traditions.
What songs do WE still sing that our forefathers sang? What dances do we do that go back that far? What stories are there that have been passed down from those days? What can we point to that is "our art" (and no, we can NOT take credit for what the Native Americans were doing before we got here)? What's the identifiably "American" clothing that harks back to our earliest era? What are our traditions that have been passed down for the paltry 2 centuries that we've been a nation, while other countries have had, and cherished, all of these things as part of their national identity for far, far longer?
The sad truth is that cultures evolved all the way back in each nation's tribal times, and we as a nation never had that, so we never got a culture; we had Great Britain's, sort of, in the early days, but we rejected much of that early on, and did things our own way as soon as we became a nation. We've always wanted things to be bigger, better, faster, and newer, so we had rapid evolution, which, although leading to many wonderful things being invented and perfected here, is the OPPOSITE of the long-term sameness that leads to a culture being developed.
Unlike other countries, which had been established on all the land they would ever have for centuries, we had a huge continent to spread out onto, and so we developed our pioneer spirit, our thirst to have and work our own land, our willingness to brave the unknown for the hope of making a better life for ourselves, and our eagerness to work hard because what we created was OURS... and, while these things are what made us the richest, most powerful nation that has ever existed, and made the American worker the most productive worker in the world, this didn't give us culture either.
What it DID give us is what we have INSTEAD of culture; our work ethic, our love of $ and of the things it can buy-this is what we all have in common, as any foreigner can tell you (they might not give us credit for the work ethic part, of course). Don't get me wrong, I think that working hard is a major virtue, and that there's nothing wrong with being paid for your work, or with taking the $ you earn and spending it on whatever pleases you... but, it's NOT a replacement for having a culture.
People from other countries, especially younger people, often turn their noses up at the foods, costumes, and traditions with which their ancestors celebrated their connection to each other and the past, and, while it's their right to embrace the "modern" if it suits them, it still makes me sad, because these things have a richness and a wonderfulness which no technical doodads can ever replace. Wouldn't it be nice if there was a way that some of their traditions could magically become ours, so that we could tell stories, dance dances, and do things in special ways all together and feel a connection to past generations?
Maybe I'm just old-fashioned, to want these things when those that have them often don't value them, but paychecks and credit card bills just don't produce those same warm feelings, that sense of belonging to something more long-lasting, that feeling of being HUMAN, that comes from having a culture...
What songs do WE still sing that our forefathers sang? What dances do we do that go back that far? What stories are there that have been passed down from those days? What can we point to that is "our art" (and no, we can NOT take credit for what the Native Americans were doing before we got here)? What's the identifiably "American" clothing that harks back to our earliest era? What are our traditions that have been passed down for the paltry 2 centuries that we've been a nation, while other countries have had, and cherished, all of these things as part of their national identity for far, far longer?
The sad truth is that cultures evolved all the way back in each nation's tribal times, and we as a nation never had that, so we never got a culture; we had Great Britain's, sort of, in the early days, but we rejected much of that early on, and did things our own way as soon as we became a nation. We've always wanted things to be bigger, better, faster, and newer, so we had rapid evolution, which, although leading to many wonderful things being invented and perfected here, is the OPPOSITE of the long-term sameness that leads to a culture being developed.
Unlike other countries, which had been established on all the land they would ever have for centuries, we had a huge continent to spread out onto, and so we developed our pioneer spirit, our thirst to have and work our own land, our willingness to brave the unknown for the hope of making a better life for ourselves, and our eagerness to work hard because what we created was OURS... and, while these things are what made us the richest, most powerful nation that has ever existed, and made the American worker the most productive worker in the world, this didn't give us culture either.
What it DID give us is what we have INSTEAD of culture; our work ethic, our love of $ and of the things it can buy-this is what we all have in common, as any foreigner can tell you (they might not give us credit for the work ethic part, of course). Don't get me wrong, I think that working hard is a major virtue, and that there's nothing wrong with being paid for your work, or with taking the $ you earn and spending it on whatever pleases you... but, it's NOT a replacement for having a culture.
People from other countries, especially younger people, often turn their noses up at the foods, costumes, and traditions with which their ancestors celebrated their connection to each other and the past, and, while it's their right to embrace the "modern" if it suits them, it still makes me sad, because these things have a richness and a wonderfulness which no technical doodads can ever replace. Wouldn't it be nice if there was a way that some of their traditions could magically become ours, so that we could tell stories, dance dances, and do things in special ways all together and feel a connection to past generations?
Maybe I'm just old-fashioned, to want these things when those that have them often don't value them, but paychecks and credit card bills just don't produce those same warm feelings, that sense of belonging to something more long-lasting, that feeling of being HUMAN, that comes from having a culture...
Sunday, May 09, 2004
Is religion just the anthropomorphization of karma?
Where does religion come from? Much of it is clearly based on the desire of adults to still have a parental figure or figures out there that will handle things, dispense rewards and punishments, and make there be more to the world than just what we see. Very primitive people tend to see every major force or aspect of nature, such as the sun, lightning or the sea, as being a god; it's the only way they can explain things that are particularly large and powerful.
With that said, I personally have found it hard to talk about karma without using terms that make it look like there is some sort of central entity involved, even though I KNOW that it's a force that's spread throughout everything; it's not much of a leap to imagine tribal people going from the unconscious perception that there are hidden forces at work to believing that there is a "magical" entity or entities involved.
When you see documentaries about "simpler" peoples, doesn't it always seem as if they have deeper perceptions than we do about spiritual matters? It makes sense that they would, because these sorts of people live in harmony with nature, and with an awareness of the importance of taking only what you need, showing gratitude for it, and giving back when you have received in abundance... which sounds just like how you keep your karma clean, doesn't it? These people don't have western morality or religions teaching them this stuff, so where do you suppose they got it, on every continent, in every culture? They have an instinctive understanding of the forces that they live with so intimately.
If you don't think that primitive cultures think differently than we do, read some studies on their languages, and you'll see that they tend to have far fewer words than we do, and I don't just mean because they don't have words for computers and such; they don't even have words for things we see as basic, like COLORS. The simpler a culture is, the fewer words they have to differentiate colors, all the way down to having only TWO color words in their entire language... but they all have words to describe their spiritual view of the world. And what do people think about? Things they have words for.
Why do they always have animism involved in their belief systems? Sometimes they see a god in every rock and tree, sometimes they think it's spirits, and sometimes they just think that there is some sort of sentience and feeling in every part of nature... what are they perceiving that leads so reliably to that sort of worldview? You can see my essay on the connection between science and animism here:
http://omniverse.blogspot.com/2004_03_14_omniverse_archive.html (scroll down)
but what it boils down to is that for consciousness, sentience, thoughts, feelings, to exist, the matter of which we are constructed must contain a precursor of those things, in other words that some tiny fragment of thought and feeling MUST exist in EVERYTHING... and our so-called "primitive" cousins are still in tune enough with the world around them to perceive it, and their spirituality reflects it.
Is it so different when a Christian says that God is everywhere and in everything? How about the New Age concept of Gaia, that the Earth itself is alive, and maybe even a "goddess" if one has a wiccan inclination?
We nearly all have some degree of perception of the energy that's at the base of everything, on which our reality is constructed and which controls everything that happens; does that perception automatically lead to the idea of there being a deity or deities involved? Do we have to give some sort of human-like form and motivations to EVERYTHING, not just to animals? Do we have to imagine a greater being or beings so that we don't have this omnipresent energy left unexplained? Does our perception of the energies of karma make it necessary for us to have religion? Could it really be that simple?
With that said, I personally have found it hard to talk about karma without using terms that make it look like there is some sort of central entity involved, even though I KNOW that it's a force that's spread throughout everything; it's not much of a leap to imagine tribal people going from the unconscious perception that there are hidden forces at work to believing that there is a "magical" entity or entities involved.
When you see documentaries about "simpler" peoples, doesn't it always seem as if they have deeper perceptions than we do about spiritual matters? It makes sense that they would, because these sorts of people live in harmony with nature, and with an awareness of the importance of taking only what you need, showing gratitude for it, and giving back when you have received in abundance... which sounds just like how you keep your karma clean, doesn't it? These people don't have western morality or religions teaching them this stuff, so where do you suppose they got it, on every continent, in every culture? They have an instinctive understanding of the forces that they live with so intimately.
If you don't think that primitive cultures think differently than we do, read some studies on their languages, and you'll see that they tend to have far fewer words than we do, and I don't just mean because they don't have words for computers and such; they don't even have words for things we see as basic, like COLORS. The simpler a culture is, the fewer words they have to differentiate colors, all the way down to having only TWO color words in their entire language... but they all have words to describe their spiritual view of the world. And what do people think about? Things they have words for.
Why do they always have animism involved in their belief systems? Sometimes they see a god in every rock and tree, sometimes they think it's spirits, and sometimes they just think that there is some sort of sentience and feeling in every part of nature... what are they perceiving that leads so reliably to that sort of worldview? You can see my essay on the connection between science and animism here:
http://omniverse.blogspot.com/2004_03_14_omniverse_archive.html (scroll down)
but what it boils down to is that for consciousness, sentience, thoughts, feelings, to exist, the matter of which we are constructed must contain a precursor of those things, in other words that some tiny fragment of thought and feeling MUST exist in EVERYTHING... and our so-called "primitive" cousins are still in tune enough with the world around them to perceive it, and their spirituality reflects it.
Is it so different when a Christian says that God is everywhere and in everything? How about the New Age concept of Gaia, that the Earth itself is alive, and maybe even a "goddess" if one has a wiccan inclination?
We nearly all have some degree of perception of the energy that's at the base of everything, on which our reality is constructed and which controls everything that happens; does that perception automatically lead to the idea of there being a deity or deities involved? Do we have to give some sort of human-like form and motivations to EVERYTHING, not just to animals? Do we have to imagine a greater being or beings so that we don't have this omnipresent energy left unexplained? Does our perception of the energies of karma make it necessary for us to have religion? Could it really be that simple?
