Malibu morning picture of the day - Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Dear Family, Friends, and Gentle Readers,

It's midweek and here is the view on the coast.

Kind of a repeat of the last few days. We'll see if there's a break in store, but no 2nd look today. It all looks like that.

Since the visual offering is kind of sparse today, here's something for you adaptive religionists:

In the hymnal Sound the Bamboo, the editors have collected many hymns that are sung in Christian communities in Asia, both in original languages and in English. Here are the words to "From the Unreal, Lead to the Real":

From the unreal, lead to the real. (call)
From the unreal, lead to the real. (repeated response)
And from dark night lead us to your light.
And from dark night lead us to your light.
From death lead us to fullness of life.
From death lead us to fullness of life.
Om shantii, shantii, shantii.
Om shantii, shantii, shantii.


Shantii = peace


The Sanskrit words in transliterated roman script:

Asa tomaa Sathgamayaa.
Tama somaa Jyotiir gamayaa.
Mrithyomaa Amrutham gamayaa.
Om shantii, shantii, shantii.

This one is interesting because this is a direct lift from the ancient Hindu scripture the Upanishad. Those who have adopted it say that since no deity is named, it works fine.

I suppose that your willingness to adapt words from one belief system to another depends on how much you belief in "word magic." That is, you believe that certain actual words or sounds when made, activate not a praise or plea to your god, but are the "on switch" or a spell really, to spurring some other deity or demonic force into action. This presumes that you believe such other deities exist and that they're pretty malleable to your will. I mean, why would a being of such power be subject to anybody who can buy a copy of the Upanishads in paperback for a few bucks? And anyway, if you're asking for enlightenment and peace, wouldn't an evil god be the wrong one to ask? (Unless your nation is at war. And the U.S. not currently at war with anyone ... are we?)

Is there something inherently bad or evil about words of beauty that a poet produced, who happened to belong to a discredited system, but expressing a univeral, human longing for truth? Or, can you redeem any fruit that comes from a "poisonous" tree. This concept can be adopted in many ways. We have data gathered about the resiliency and limits of human life which Nazi scientists measured on human (Jewish prisoner) subjects. But nobody thinks they can ethically use that data.

Those Nazis sure are handy rhetorical instruments for all of us aren't they? If they didn't exist, I suppose we'd be still demonizing ethnic groups like the Huns (basically Tatars, Kazahks, Afghans, Turkmen, Uighurs, Mongolians ... and other Asian steppes people).

Now of course, there are people who will say that white people enjoying their majoritarian privilege in American society are enjoying the fruits of the poisonous tree of American chattel slavery. And that current blacks suffer from those fruits as well. Is that taking the "fruit of the poisonous tree" ethical argument too damn far? I wonder. How would someone ethically disclaim that fruit? The Khmer Rouge of Cambodia thought just wiping history clean and starting from Year Zero from an equal and just place was the right way to go. Of course, we know that experiment did not go so well, especially when a lot of people refuse to forget--so they MADE them forget.

Me? If some talented person, who led a reprehensible life, came up with something wonderful, I have no problem acknowledging and using the maybe one gift they were able to give the rest of us. Because my core belief is that God is able to redeem what's good in me, so should I be able to do that in others as well.

See you tomorrow.

Love,
Pops