Religious Scholar

As PoetOfZen on Twitter, I once tweeted the eight branches of Yoga. The original eight branches were recorded nearly 2,000 years ago by the Indian sage, Patanjali, in a text known as the Yoga Sutras. They provide a tool to help people lead better lives, regardless of their religion or worldview.  Here is my take on the eight branches of Yoga as 140-character tweets (based on my 1993 transliteration of the Sutras):

• There are 8 branches of Yoga. 1st Yoga Branch: Social ethics. Be harmless, truthful, don’t steal, be sexually responsible, don’t be greedy.

• 2nd Yoga Branch: Personal ethics. Be clean, content, streamlined, know yourself, surrender to your idea of a Higher Power.

• 3rd Yoga Branch:Take care of the body. Have good posture, take regular, gentle exercise; know that body/spirit/mind are integrated & whole.

• 4th Yoga Branch: Breathe. Be grateful for breath, which sustains us all our days. Be aware: respect the breath we share as living beings.

• 5th Yoga Branch: Our senses are our servants. Don’t let them tell you what to do. Be a loving master: know when to turn them off.

• 6th Yoga Branch: Learn to concentrate. Sunlight focused through a lens can set a field on fire. Power lurks in concentration.

• 7th Yoga Branch: Meditate. Go beyond concentration on a single object. Clear your mind, open your heart: be there.

• 8th Yoga Branch: Experience the unity of your own soul with something great. Call it God, Nature or Humanity: this is the goal of Yoga.

I used to think that tolerance was a lazy person’s game. What could be more passive than tolerance? Envision a country bumpkin gnawing on a straw and lounging under a tree. Tolerance (I thought) took no effort and made no waves. It was the big “Whatever!”

In the past two centuries, many governments throughout the world embraced the concept of tolerance in matters of religion. Our Constitution states, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,” implying a tolerant attitude. But lately, it appears that tolerance must be worked for, pro-actively, especially when it comes to matters of faith. Many of those with a white-knuckle grip on religious dogma have embraced a worldview in which tolerance is a devilish ploy to lead believers down the path to eternal damnation.  But there is an even more disturbing trend.

Recently, one of my students cited a Web site in a paper that led me to seek out its source. Like many sites with the appearance of authority, this one was a shaky construct at best, run by a person with weak credentials in the subject matter and besotted with delusions and prejudice. While I didn’t tarry long at his site, my eye did catch one provocative opinion: the ancient Greek god Zeus, he raged, was Satan!

Oh? Really? In many years of reading and teaching about ancient cultures, I had never run into that concept before, though I’m sure it must have festered long in the nether world of uncritical thinking. It reminded me of a similarly startling declaration made in confidence to me by a priest last year. Without blinking an eye (except, perhaps, to look over his shoulder for eavesdropping aliens), the priest said in low, solemn tones, “The gods of Ancient Egypt were Satan!”

Oh-kay, hmmm. Let’s see. You don’t belong to someone else’s religion…you don’t like someone else’s religion…therefore, you brand that religion’s idea of the Deity as Satan?  Snap! Was that someone’s mind closing, like a steel trap?

Humanity has come a long way since the Dark Ages when people lived in fear of The Other. Most of us just want to get along. One of the ways to do that is to accept that people have different ideas of God, and as long as they don’t hurt anyone, they should be free to believe and practice what they choose. In a world in which a small percentage of fanatics of every faith threaten discord and destruction, doesn’t it make sense not to take potshots at other people’s religion?

Shrugging our shoulders, smiling kindly, and going on our way is the lowest form of tolerance, for sure, but better than calling names, wrapping ourselves in a mantle of self-righteous superiority, and fearing the unknown. The highest form of tolerance flows from understanding, learning to appreciate other viewpoints, listening to what people have to say.

When it comes to matters of faith, the best approach is to just say, “Know.”

My article on writing poetry on Twitter is appearing in the Fall 2011 edition of the International Journal of Humanities and Social Science. Since writing this article, I have discovered that, independently, other poets have begun using the word "Twitku" to identify a certain form of online composition. This is not plagiarism on their (or my) part, but a happy coincidence of several individuals coining the same word at about the same time.

http://www.ijhssnet.com/journals/Vol_1_No_16_November_2011/29.pdf

We must all become critical thinkers: discovering the truth for ourselves, based on research and analysis, complementing our innate sense of knowing, intuition and "gut feeling."

I fear, though, that the field of critical thinking is being usurped by conservative sceptics (Christopher Hitchens springs to mind). Why can a person not follow a belief system such as an organized religion and still be a critical thinker? I often recommend that my students read Erasmus if they want to discover a powerful intellect supported by a believing heart, or, in our time, the Dalai Lama or Pema Chodron. 

The conservative sceptics who extol critical thinking are often men, citing examples of female behavior and practices as the disastrous consequences of uncritical, hysterical minds. I sometimes wonder, reading these men's works, whether we have gone back to the Dark Ages when women were considered unruly beasts at the mercy of devilish forces (which today we would label "hormones").

Critical thinking is what will save our planet. But only if it is balanced with inner reflection, study and cultivation of wisdom, and emotional warmth (called love by some believers, compassion by others). Critical thinkers may be believers or sceptics, men or women. There is no reason to force this separation. Both impulses, joined in harmony, will lead to greater understanding and a more peaceful, happier world.

Abundance is Impediment;

Emptiness: A Receptive Mind;

Acquisition? Enslavement to Appearances;

Poverty of Spirit: Welcomes the Divine.