What if we got it all wrong ?

If you are among the people on the quest of finding truth (read ‘are we seeking God’), you may have been bombarded with 1000s of different messages/interpretations/theories on what is right and what is wrong.  At least, I have been overwhelmed with the parity in messages from different teachings. I do not claim to be a conventional spiritualist whose aim is to be chastised but I definitely want to know the truth.

My friend sent me an email which I have included below, it is a joke (I do not claim the credit for it because I am not the author, if you know the author, please feel free to add it as a comment):

A young monk arrives at the monastery. He is assigned to helping the other monks in copying the old canons and laws of the church by hand.

He notices, however, that all of the monks are copying from copies, not from the original manuscript. So, the new monk goes to the head abbot to question this, pointing out that if someone made even a small error in the first copy, it would never be picked up! In fact, that error would be continued in all of the subsequent copies.

The head monk, says, ‘We have been copying from the copies for centuries, but you make a good point, my son.’

He goes down into the dark caves underneath the monastery where the original manuscripts are held as archives in a locked vault that hasn’t been opened for hundreds of years. Hours go by and nobody sees the old abbot.

So, the young monk gets worried and goes down to look for him. He sees him banging his head against the wall and wailing.

We missed the R! We missed the R! We missed the R!

His forehead is all bloody and bruised and he is crying uncontrollably. The young monk asks the old abbot, ‘What’s wrong, father?’

With A choking voice, the old abbot replies,  ‘The word was … CELEBRATE‘

I found this joke rather intriguing than just funny.  What if in reality the teachings that we know of have missed an ‘R’?  In his ground breaking book, God without religion, Sankara Saranam talks about the cycle theory and how humanity almost lost all the great scriptures during the dark age (around 500 CE) and how scriptures, holy books, great teachings as we know of them today have been subjected to amendment after amendment to adept to the trends and expectations of each generation have lost their real essence.  What we are taught may very well be vastly different from the original teachings/message.

I am born into a conventional family, in my world or society if you will, questioning about religion, sex, traditions, jobs is not only considered unacceptable but can easily make you an social outcast.  Rituals are followed even if it defies the logic, sex with anyone other than your life partner is the biggest sin, traditions are passed on to you – it is like the DNA so to speak – you don’t ask for it but you will be left to live with it AND you just carry on a job (it does not matter if it is a dead end job) since being in job is considered to be a ‘man’ thing.

I was never convinced or contended with blindly following what others accepted as the ‘norm’.  I found ‘questioning’ thrilling.  I wanted answers about life, like most of you. These questions lead me to different schools of thought, I read books, heard teachings.  Did I find the answer that I am looking for?  Not yet.  I was miserably confused (I said I ‘was’ for a reason). I cursed myself for not being among the ‘norm’, as it seemed so ‘easy’ to be part of the ‘norm’ and go with the flow.

Then it dawned on me, this confusion that rattles my mind is indeed a step towards ‘un-conditioning’ myself from the deeply woven beliefs, because, as long as I carry them with me in my search, I will never get an unbiased answer, as all the answers I receive will always be judged against the deepest beliefs already ingrained in me. I don’t even know how most of these beliefs ‘got their in the first place’.

I am not enlightened, yet, I am not even sure if I want to.  All I want is the unbiased truth, the truth that will make my non-egoistic ‘SELF’ say ‘yes’.

I want to know why ’spirit’ (I find that word neutral and un-associated with religion) gave us parts in our body that some say are hurdles towards our enlightenment.  Is ’spirit’ so unwise to endow us with something that stops us being in and with the spirit?, Why did ’spirit’ make things so complex?  Or is it humanity in the name of ’spirit’ that made things the way they are now?  May be when everything started life was not so complex, may be it was all about ‘living until you die’ and NOT ‘living to die’. How can I know the truth?  How to understand the unfathomable? How to be with & in the ’spirit’? Should there be a purpose to life? If so what is the right purpose? Is there an agenda pre-written for my existence or do I make it as I go? and the list goes on…

It is the question that determines our answer.  It always begins with the RIGHT question.  I am still at the stage where I am framing my questions.  I am in no rush, there is whole life ahead of me.  I don’t want to end up asking the wrong question only to get the wrong answer, so I am taking my time, so should you.  There is no rush to know the truth because truth always prevails.

What I found helpful is to STOP judging everything through our conditioned minds AND more importantly, never stop questioning.  Asking the questions and having an open mind for the answer without letting our egoistic self get in the way. This is probably the toughest thing to do.  May be and just may be, that is all we may need to find the answers we are looking for (we are all not looking for same answer because we do not have the same questions).

I don’t know if finding the answers I am looking for is easy or tough, but as long as I am on that path, it doesn’t even matter!