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Indra's Net |
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| There’s a journey that we must take now to prevent the
cataclysmic consequences of a divided world where the growing
chasm between people and cultures does not cause another
Holocaust, another metaphorical global Flood. |
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By
Debby Long |
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 Tell me a story.
“Far away in the heavenly abode of the great god Indra, there is
a wonderful net which has been hung by some cunning artificer in
such a manner that it stretches out infinitely in all
directions. …the artificer has hung a single glittering jewel in
each "eye" of the net, and since the net itself is infinite in
dimension, the jewels are infinite in number. …If we now
arbitrarily select one of these jewels for inspection and look
closely at it, we will discover that in its polished surface
there are reflected all the other jewels in the net, infinite in
number. Not only that, but each of the jewels reflected in this
one jewel is also reflecting all the other jewels, so that there
is an infinite reflecting process occurring.” Francis H. .Cook,
1977, Hua-Yen Buddhism: The Jeweled Net of Indra
What if this story, this myth from past millennia, is worth
pursuing through research, and the ideas transmitted from our
Abrahamic religions - stories that permeate and inform every
aspect of our American culture today - are merely the myths of
ancient Middle Eastern societies during the Neolithic period in
human history? Albert Einstein and Richard Feynman would, no
doubt, enjoy the former cosmology over our American,
non-scientific cosmological Theory of Everything in popular
culture today.
And what if it is true that, as Joseph Campbell noted: “The
virtues of the past are the vices of today”? Perhaps America is
stumbling because our entirely natural human curiosity is being
circumscribed by ancient catechisms – beliefs that reflect early
efforts by mankind to create civil societies among ancient
populations of nomadic tribes. The Neolithic Revolution began in
the Middle East ~10,000 years before Christ, when societies were
transitioning from nomadic collections of hunter/gatherer tribes
to communities dedicated to farming, animal husbandry, and
trade. The wisdom transmitted to us from those early neolithic
cultures appears to reflect life in the Middle East of 1,000 BCE
more accurately than it does in today’s world of quantum
physics, space exploration, advanced understanding of human
genetics, and the notion of liberal democracy. Perhaps today’s
war between Israel and Palestine best exemplifies the “clash of
civilizations” brought about by this schism between cultures and
worldviews. The question is whether the modern world we live in
can survive when its social structure lags so far behind its
technological advancements.
There’s a journey that we must take now to prevent the
cataclysmic consequences of a divided world where the growing
chasm between people and cultures does not cause another
Holocaust, another metaphorical global Flood.
The worldview of Indra’s Net reflects a cosmology quite unlike
the pyramidical design of the cosmology of our western
religions. The Bible starts with a sin. Or as Neo would put it:
“Choice. The problem is choice.” This is a profound insight that
stands the test of time. Every myth contains a psychological and
emotional significance to us humans. And we don’t have to reject
every story of past civilizations. But while we no longer fear
Zeus’s thunderbolts or Thor’s hammer, the tragic flaw of our
contemporary civilization - and the reason we are losing our
democracy - is that we have, as Joseph Campbell observed,
“…stripped the metaphorical aspect of myth from our body of
spiritual thought and memorized only the words used to convey
their meaning”.
Who can forget Donald Trump, godlike, raising his arms, and
declaring that he loves the uneducated, or Samuel Alito blaming
his wife for choosing to fly an upside-down American flag at
their home. Donald Trump appears to be channeling Moses on Mount
Sinai, and Samuel Alito, guilty as hell, is about to meet his
actual maker. We have, as Campbell noted, confused denotation
with connotation - and in so doing, we have concretized willful
ignorance in America. The Fall is among the least insightful
messages from the past. The message is that to live forever in
peace, stop thinking for yourself. And, as a consequence, we
have made the mission of our Abrahamic religions into an
instrument for learned helplessness. This biblical myth is not
congruent with the realities of a modern technological society
like ours. It is an instance where “the virtues of the past are
the vices of today”.
The late justice, Antonin Scalia, was an enthusiastic proponent
of “originalism” on the Supreme Court. He interpreted the
Constitution like he interpreted the Bible - by only adhering to
the meaning of its words at the time in which they were written.
He was a “textualist” in that he was in total opposition to
considering the history or intent of previous legislation when
passing his judgements. On Chief Justice John Robert's court —
Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney
Barrett, all describe themselves as “originalists”. They
interpret the Constitution in the same way that they understand
the Bible – as words cast in stone. They all wish to remain in
The Garden before The Fall, but their actions are anything but
holy. The consequences of their judicial philosophy and their
adherence to dogma is nothing less than “confusing denotation
with connotation”.
If the Abrahamic religions continue to define our western
societies, we will lose our nation. Christians must rethink
their tendency to believe in anything. And we, as a nation, must
outgrow God. Either we educate all Americans, or we wink out of
existence as a liberal democracy. We are sitting on a world that
is about to catch fire. The Middle East is awash in conflict -
lost in a clash of civilizations. Right wing populists appeal to
disenfranchised populations using ancient religious motifs that
echo the worst myths of the Abrahamic canon. And America – this
magnificent accomplishment of human civilization – is
simultaneously inventing the future and making itself unworthy
of its fruits. America is currently “standing on a whale and
fishing for minnows”. Because of our curious minds and the
choices we have made, we can now peer into the universe. We can
seek to answer mankind’s most profound questions: What am I, and
how did I wake up on this “sumptuous planet, sparkling with
color, and bountiful with life?”
As Lawrence Krauss, cosmologist and theoretical physicist noted:
“The laws of physics are deterministic, and since biology and
chemistry are based on physics, I have never doubted that free
will is an illusion, but have also felt that for all intents and
purposes, the world we live in is indistinguishable from a world
with free will, so we should take responsibility for our
actions.”
Thus, to stop ourselves from blowing up the world, we must use
our prodigious brains in the service of seeking the truth and
stop pursuing our old habit of worshiping ancient idols. After
all, it actually is all about choice. |
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