Revisiting the Garden

Many people today miss the points of their own mythology. Interestingly enough, the Creation/Evolution debate becomes nonexistent if we examine the Biblical Creation stories in their mythological context.
Perhaps the most telling tale in the Bible is the "Garden of Eden" story. This story is unique to Judeo-Christendom, as the "6 Days of Creation" story is a copy of the Babylonian Enuma Elish. The "Garden" myth focuses on the origin of suffering, for in this story all is in balance until mankind eats of the Tree of Knowledge and is then cast out of the garden.
Sadly, many believe this story is a literal tale, and so they miss the whole point of the myth. As myths use metaphors to tell their story, much of the "Garden" story becomes very clear when we but try to understand the symbols.
The Garden, it seems, is a peaceful and perfect place. This is where the animals and plants are. Here is where all is beautiful and in balance. Here is where the Tree of Life is. Here, also, is where God walks.
The Garden represents a time when we were in balance with the animals. It is a metaphor for a time when we were no different from animals. A time when we were emotionally-driven creatures -- not the somewhat rational creatures that we are today.
In the Garden we were cautioned not to eat of the Tree of Knowledge. But the serpent, long a symbol of transformation and rebirth, encouraged us to do otherwise. And so, by eating of the Tree of Knowledge we were transformed from reactive creatures into active ones. That is to say that we went from lives of simply reacting to instincts and emotions to lives of active change. And so we began to shape the patterns of our own lives.
And so the "Garden" story represents the moment when we separated ourselves from the Animal Kingdom -- the time when we became human.

"Season of Blood"

Four birds dropped from the sky,
And the twin brothers fell.
The eagle was wounded to the heart,
And the air stank with the dark stench of death.

Stunned Silence.
Fear. Anger. Hatred.
Retribution.

Holy War: Profane Peace.
Comfortless Caves: Contemplation. Conviction.

Traitors to the Nation.
Traitors to humanity.
A torrent of tears
in a Season of Blood.

Suicide bombers
to defeat the Undefeatable.
Fear. Bigotry. Retaliation!
No Peace! And no Justice.

Mothers cry,
And their children can't play together...
In peace.

To The Terrorists

To the terrorists I say: Who gives you the right to decide who should live and who should die?
You claim to be killing infidels, but in fact you are killing your own siblings! You claim Holy War, yet there is nothing holy about war.
You kill those you believe do not share your beliefs and yet the dead can never learn your beliefs.
You do not see the sacredness of life or understand its gift. And so you make yourselves, not the holy martyrs, but the damned!

Religion is Not the End-all

Religion is not the goal: it is the journey.
Religion is not the answer: it is the process.

Religion is the discipline we use to answer the great question of "Why?" It is a toolkit with which we try to get at spirituality. And the spiritual moment is the goal of our whole endeavour.

Religion and Spirituality

There is one question we all ask: "why?" This is one of the great questions of humanity. We want a reason for our existence. We want to know what our place is in the universe. And so we create religion as a methodology -- a tool -- to help us find this answer.
Spirituality is the meaning we seek. Religion exists to help us find spirituality. And this answer is an experience which cannot be fully described by words. It is the answer we find when we "plug in" to our proper place.
The problem in religion comes when people become blind-sighted to the machine -- religion. They look to their religion as the "end-all". They get caught up in the behaviors and habits of their religion, and they miss the spirituality altogether! They behave in certain ways because the believe they are supposed to. They live their lives as though they are following some sort of cosmic checklist. And they believe that their actions can purchase their spiritual goal for them.
In sharp contrast, spiritual people find the same experience no matter what their religious tradition. They behave in certain ways because they feel moved to. And they are much happier people. Although they may differ as to the specifics of their religious practices they agree on matters of the spirit. They find the same strengths and the same faults in humanity.

The Religious Machine

We all ask the great question: "Why?". We want to know why we exist, why things are the way they are, why the sky is blue... And we create methods to help us find the answers.
The moment when we find the answers we seek is something we call Spirituality. This is a moment of epiphany -- "born again" -- "enlightenment". Suddenly, everything makes since, although we have great difficulty explaining to others what these answers are. This is a state William James described as "mysterium tremendum" -- the great mystery, where we are "filled with the Holy Spirit" -- "the lights come on". Spirituality is the goal of our search for meaning.
The tool we use to find Spirituality is something called "religion". Religion is the method, the machine, which helps us find Spirituality. Now, religions are made by people, each from the perspective of its creator or creators. There are so many different religions in the world because we each see and understand the world a little bit differently. Yet each religion can lead to Spirituality.

The Religious Toolkit

Many of our religions hold the idea that things were once harmonious and perfect. But something happened which upset the balance. And so today, they maintain, we are constantly searching for some way to recapture the peace which we've lost.
From a purely scientific viewpoint, we lost the harmony the moment we came down from the tree, stood upright, and began to reason. Previously, we had been like every other species on the planet: governed primarily by passions. And so, when we stop behaving primarily by our passions, we upset the balance. We "ate from the tree of knowledge" and separated ourselves from the natural order. We stopped being animals and we became human.
And so we are forever on a quest to recapture what we've lost: the peace, the harmony, the balance. We search for it as a species and we search for it as individuals. And because we are a reasoning people, we ask a great many questions in order to try and make sense of it all.
Our search follows the pattern of six very basic questions: who, what, where, when, how, and why. Since we are very young we ask these basic questions. And we have very specific tools to try and answer them.
We have created disciplines -- special thinking tools -- to help us answer these basic questions. If we wish to know who we are we consult a biography or family tree. To understand what life is we have created philosophy. Where we are is explained through cartography and astronomy. When we are is handled through the elaborate histories we write. In order to understand how things works we have created biology, chemistry, and physics, among others.
Religion is the discipline we use to understand why. Religion is simply a toolkit for opening the soul. And the meaning we find is what we call spirituality.
Spirituality is the moment when we "plug in" -- when we become enlightened, or "filled with the Holy Spirit" -- when everything falls into place and makes sense. Spirituality is not a thing which can easily -- if at all -- put into words. Spirituality cannot be taught, only discovered. It is a thing which can be pointed to, but never fully described. This is the moment when we regain the balance we so desperately seek.
No one religion contains "all the answers" and no religion should have its myths taken at face value. Religion is a set of tools which can lead us to spiritual freedom and rebirth, but only if we use these tools correctly. There is no guarantee that we will find spirituality if we only practice our religions for what they, at first, appear to be.
Myths are specialized stories meant to teach us spiritual truths. Since spirituality cannot be easily put into words, we rely on myths to help us find some spiritual meaning. At first glance, myths appear to be miraculous stories of gods or messiahs performing impossible tasks by supernatural forces. Modern-day skepticism teaches us that myths are simple "grand fairy-tales" which are entertaining, but best ignored. But for those who study myths they are treasure chests full of spiritual gold.
Myths are central to religions. They are written in a special form known as mythological language. In mythological language very little is what it appears to be. Symbolism is the language of myth, with many items being representative of something much greater. And often mythological images are the same as dream images. For example, in myth water often represents the situation of the world. "Troubled waters" represent turmoil -- an image we use even in our every-day language! When someone rises above these waters, either by boat or by foot, they transcend the problems of the world. Often, there are signs that the myths contain hidden meanings and are not to be taken literally -- either through their use of "miracles" or even through statements such as "the people did not understand what had just happened."