Religion vs. Religion

[Thunderbird]

Religion is not about what is measureable , its about how a story can create a future and put our past into perspective. Its a theme, a narrative, its the reason we like fiction or a painting rather than a photo.

The first person to send men to the moon before NASA was Jewels Vern., anyway you get my point.

We do turn time on its head though the power of thought and imagination. Think about cause in effect.

What we Imagine is the cause of what we create. This is not in the realm of natural sciences. This is in the realm of the story, the myth. Its what keeps us alive and moving forward. The following is a story I wrote cobbled together from personal experience, condensed and placed back in time to recreate and re-enchant the world for myself and others. Yes its a myth , but weigh the truth in it for yourself.

 

The Hunters Heart

by Christopher Humphrey

 

In the dawn of prehistory, there was a story told by every father to every son for thousands of generations.

Before this time of record was the hunter’s story told to the hunter’s son. The only remnants of that story exists in a few cave paintings from that forgotten time. From this original archetypal myth a seed was planted to create our universal ideals of man’s place in the world today.

The following is a version of that legend.

It begins with an elderly man and his grandson observing a herd of buffalo in the valley below.

The grandfather comments that man has survived by hunting the buffalo. He explains how they follow a migratory pattern though the seasons that could be mapped across the land. Once this pattern is mapped, traps could be set, so the creatures own cycles become its venerability. But he warns his grandson, “As you follow these cycles you are making yourself vulnerable . Remember this well, you are also being observed, so someday a predator may be waiting for you along your well worn path.”

 

 

He continued on to say there existed in man a potentiality, an ultimate balance between knowledge of these movements of the earth, and a spontaneity of action in oneself. An awareness of the spirit.

Once this balance is achieved the hunter becomes the “ Scout ”

 

 

Scouts are no longer bound to cycles of the world, but of the spirit. If this state can be maintained the man would never die. Death itself the supreme predator would acknowledge that the man was no longer of the world but of the spirit, so death was not death, only another path.

 

The grandfather then spoke of the “Immortals,” that have achieved this balance long ago. A man’s familiar path would never cross the path of a Immortal Creature. The Scout’s may however, if his path was worthy . At this supreme moment in a scouts life the immortal creature would divulge the secret to the riddle of life.

 

The grandfather recounted he was a natural scout as a young man, therefore a very artful hunter, until that one day on a new game trail It happened.

 

A faint musical vibration from above, then the light…..

 

An alarming chill ran up and down his spine. He knew…

He was to have his encounter with an immortal creature.

Frozen like the rabbit. There she was on the trail….. “White Buffalo Woman.”

 

 

Old as the mountains and as bright as the new dawn. He reacted unexpectedly for such a seasoned scout. ….He fainted.

 

Dreaming,.. floating in a sea of pure love light.

A memory,.. an ancient dream surrounding all of life. How could he have missed this, so familiar, and yet,.. so forgotten.

 

Eyes opening now to see above the most beautiful creature imaginable.

Draped in white buckskins, glowing with a light of fierce nobility she spoke. “ Why are you sleeping in the middle of the day young scout ?” "I... I am not worthy of such light , such...pure... love. ”

The woman’s eyes like emerald jade smiling knowingly.

“Some day you will my son, but alas it is not this day.”

He then did wake up, cold, alone in the forest .

“I will be prepared when next we meet.” he vowed. “I will become worthy of that light!”

 

The grandson blinked his eyes. “ Did you become worthy grandfather ! did you have another chance?....“ I found love yes, and so did my daughter. How do you think you got here?” The old man laughed as he tussled his grandsons hair.

“But no, I never saw that perfect creature again” “I’m so sorry grandfather.” “ Don't be sorry, I understand now the riddle of life! Its in the art of the hunt that we find the best in ourselves, not the kill, nor the feast. That longing of what is possible drives us toward that one perfect path with heart.

Death will come to my body I know this. This light in my heart however.. This light will never be extinguished. What a gift! What a perfect gift....” :eek:

[Moontanman]

I love the stories of the olds ones T-bird. Nothing can make your heart feel stronger or allow your spirit to soar higher than those stories but we both know we live in world where such stories are meaningless to the people who would tell us how we have to live. I think it's very sad religion has degenerated from that high ideal. Now it's nothing but a self perpetuating control mechanism that craves power and the money to make sure that power is not contested.

[Thunderbird]

I love the stories of the olds ones T-bird. Nothing can make your heart feel stronger or allow your spirit to soar higher than those stories but we both know we live in world where such stories are meaningless to the people who would tell us how we have to live. I think it's very sad religion has degenerated from that high ideal. Now it's nothing but a self perpetuating control mechanism that craves power and the money to make sure that power is not contested.

Hey, I'm only 48. I thought the story after 20 rewrites originated from one of Castaneda’s books but when I read it over its was not there. What does this tell you ? Individually we create our own story, or should that is. The perversion is when someone tells you have to believe my story or a story as history . Religion is personal. A story should have integrity in context to ones life. Knowing the difference between illumination and fantasy.

[Moontanman]

Hey, I'm only 48. I thought the story after 20 rewrites originated from one of Castaneda’s books but when I read it over its was not there. What does this tell you ? Individually we create our own story, or should that is. The perversion is when someone tells you have to believe my story or a story as history . Religion is personal. A story should have integrity in context to ones life. Knowing the difference between illumination and fantasy.

 

We are on the save wavelength on this T-Bird, your story touched me strongly very similar to the way stories told by my grandfather and the stories I've read of the religion of our forefathers felt.

 

To me one of the worse "sins" of "some" organized religions is the way they stomped out the more primal basic emotional based religions. Religion is a word used to describe belief systems but the word is also used to exclude belief systems that are not approved or different from the dominant belief systems.

 

I have heard many times that the beliefs of our Native American ancestors were too juvenile to be real religions or not organized enough or somehow inferior due to the lack of sophistication. But sophistication and or complexity does not make something superior nor does the lack of those things make something inferior.

 

I really don't think such stories were ever meant to be taken literally, they were always fantasies used to describe the way life and the good and bad of life work. Such stories were not only easier for societies who didn't have the written word to pass down they were easier to understand and needed little in the way of fancy interpretation to be understood.

 

A man or woman could tell their children such stories to pass wisdom to their offspring with no huge religious network or complex to support. Often the stories were different for men and women but the wisdom was the same, a basic no nonsense look at life and how things work.

 

The idea of creation wasn't supposed to be a literal thing to brow beat everyone with but an exercises in wisdom and how decisions are made and how they have consequences.

 

Fantasy images figured strongly in these stories and to me modern fantasy stories often touch my inner being very strongly. Many people look down at modern fiction (what others call science fiction) because the situations are nonsensical or obviously not true. But sometimes fantasy is the best way to deal with things we cannot look at in a neutral way in real life.

 

Does anyone here remember the time that Captain Kirk Kissed Lt. Uhura on Star Trek? This happened at a time when race mixing was a big deal and that kiss was the first interracial kiss on TV but it passed the censors not because they though a ban on interracial sex on TV was past it's time but because it was on a Science Fiction show it somehow didn't matter. But to a young boy who lived in the mountains of WV who seldom saw black people is was an Epiphany.

 

Fiction, especially Fantasy and Science Fiction are great vehicles to display life on. I still remember the first real novel i ever read "Chip the Damn Builder" it was about a family of beavers and how they coped with the joys and hardships of life. But they book was really about people and how we should interact with each other.

 

Books often leave a big imprint on me, often they help me deal with things that i cannot understand in the context of real life. The story type religions of the distant past were the vehicles that allowed the elders to transfer their knowledge of the world to the next generation, not dogma to condemn others and fight wars over.

 

There are many people of the religious persuasion who condemn fiction especially fantasy and science fiction because they say it undermines the influence of the church. I say good, the church can use all the competition it can get.

[Southtown]

Attack the evil in everything by appreciating the good in anything.

[Thunderbird]

Attack the evil in everything by appreciating the good in anything.

 

I like that one. should be in the Quotes thread. :eek_big: