Friday, May 6, 2016

the calipers of love

Creeping up in memory of late is the tale (no I can't find it, but I've got it here somewhere) of the South American indian tribe that accepted a Christian missionary into their midst. He was there to convert people in the style of Christians. The indians were friendly and listened to him and accepted him into their midst.

But after they asked if this missionary had actually met the Jesus of whom he spoke so warmly and after he said that no, he had not, the tribe simply declined to put any stock in the beloved Jesus. They weren't mean about it, just practical: How could anyone know what they were talking about if they had not made some face-to-face, living moment contact?

I think the indians had a good point.

Isn't it easier to love what you don't know than to love what you do? I don't mean this in a snarky sense. Just a simple question worth examining within.

In the old days, before television, people would listen to dramas on the radio. You couldn't see the protagonist or the antagonist. You had to fill in the colors and details on your own. But once television made an appearance, things got smaller and more specific and more limited... and possibly less easy to love.

Spiritual effort, among others, contains a large dollop of radio, don't you think?

1 comment:

  1. Well at least I saw your photograph, had your book autographed, and I found it a decent read, at least the grammar and punctuation were decent on each of those pages. I was actually at another buddhist sharing session today and this lady nearly a few decades your junior was telling me stories as if she met Gautama Buddha before too. She imho missed the point when she skipped the point of Gautama Buddha as being born in Nepal and made the prince born as if in Taiwan instead.

    ReplyDelete