Category Archives: Religion

Special Day

Religion, Traditions

Today is a special day for me.

Four years ago on this day I woke up in the early morning with an urge to write a book about religion. In the bio on this website I already wrote about this. The illness of my father was a shock to my world. It worked as a wake-up call. I was full of ideas and felt an urgency to write I had never felt before.

In the end I did not write the book within the deadline I had set for myself (three years, three months and three days), but I started this website.

In my life I have made a transformation from a strong opponent of religion to a careful defender of it, even though until this very day I never formally entered any specific tradition. Sometimes this transformation felt like swimming against the tide. Scientific research challenges religious claims with more confidence than ever before and religious extremists seem eager to prove to the world that religion is the most destructive force in human history.

I love science and detest religious extremists. At the same time I am attracted to religion (especially to the mystical side of it, but that goes beyond the gamma way). I reject the idea that many religious people seem to hold that an ethical life is impossible without religion, but I fully accept that religious traditions have a lot to offer to people who want to live a good life.

“Prove all things; hold fast that which is good” (Thessalonians 5:21)

When I look at the notes I made during those days in 2012, this text of Paul the Apostle describes my attitude towards religious traditions very well. I set out to find a common ground in them, a few basic principles that are easy to understand and can create some harmony among them while upholding their unique place and value within cultural diversity.

About three months and three days later the gamma way symbol and its basic principles were created on my computer and in my mind. This period was also more or less the time span between Christmas and Easter that year.

That is why today is a special day for me and probably will be for the rest of my life.

Paths of the Soul

Religion, ,

Last week I saw the film Paths of the Soul by Zhang Yang. The film follows a group of Tibetan pelgrims on their way to Lhasa and Mount Kailash.

Every few meters the pelgrims prostrate themselves to the ground. In this way they travel thousands of kilometers. The film documents in a partly fictional, partly documentary style the whole organisation and execution of this peaceful Buddhist ritual.

Very impressive and highly recommended!

 

Sacred reading glasses

Compassion, Gratitude, Proportion, Religion, , , ,

gamma glasses

How to read sacred texts? Whether you believe in them or not, reading sacred scriptures requires some skill. Not an expert myself, last week two writers on religious thought made it clear to me that the need for this skill may be higher than ever before. It made me think that imaginary “gamma glasses” may be a useful companion to these scriptures, especially for beginners.

“Vacuous literalism” (Maajid Nawas)

Concerned with the rise of extremism, I read “Islam and the future of tolerance” a dialogue between Sam Harris and Maajid Nawaz. Nawaz, former Islamist radical and now advocate for a moderate Islam, stresses in this book that in order to interpret any text one must have a methodology.

According to him the rise of the internet has facilitated “populist” interpretations of Islamic texts. He calls this “vacuous literalism”, a method that accepts a holy text word for word, without bothering at all about contradictions within the text.

Unparalleled literalness (Karen Armstrong)

A few days later I heard Karen Armstrong saying something similar in Salt Lake City at the Parliament of the World’s Religions in a video stream of a session with the ominous title “Killl them (Qu’ran), Do Not Spare Them (Torah), and Cast Them Into Everlasting Fire (New Testament)”.

Representing the Christian tradition Armstrong said that “we are reading our scriptures these days with a literalness that has no parallel in the history of religion.”

She went on to talk about Augustine of Hippo (354-430) who was convinced that all scripture should teach only charity. “If a scriptural text seemed to preach hatred, you had to find an allegorical interpretation and make it speak of charity”.

She reminded that Origen (184-254), one of the first Christian exegetes, had already concluded that you cannot take Bible texts literally, because they are so contradictory. Origen introduced “a method whereby you interpreted scripture in four different ways, starting with the plain text, then moving on to the allegorical text, the moral text and finally the mystical text”.

Is true reading even possible?

Maajid Nawas refers in his dialogue to the essay “Meaning and Understanding in the History of Ideas” of Quentin Skinner. In this essay Skinner addresses “the danger in assuming that there is ever a true reading of texts and asks the question: does any piece of writing speak for itself? Or do we impose certain values and judgements on that text when interpreting it?”

Personally I think this is inevitable. We always bring our own sensitivities into the texts we read, whether we are conscious of this or not. Our own experiences are also necessary, because they enable us to relate or identify ourselves with a text.

“Gamma glasses”

It is often said that reading, especially reading of literature, increases our empathic capacities. We can ask ourselves how many people are still influenced by this positive effect. Probably a lot of inexperienced readers nowadays turn directly to holy scriptures.

Therefore imaginary “gamma glasses” could be a great companion. How does this work?

Imagine that you put these “gamma glasses” on and start to read the scriptures from a perspective of gratitude and with only one objective in mind: to become more compassionate. Then consider carefully how to apply what you have learned in just proportion.

These “gamma glasses” will, as glasses always do, at least correct some shortsightedness.

If you do this consciously, there is another advantage: as long as you are aware that you are wearing imaginary glasses, you also know that you are not necessarily reading the truth.

“Gamma glasses” are a bit like coloured glasses that make you read with a rosy view.

They may not help to find the “truth” in sacred scriptures, but they certainly can show you their true colours.

self-help religion

Religion, , ,

IKEA

This site offers a few basic tools to build a personal religion or philosophy.

If you take all parts and put them together, you may find a useful base for a personal religion. It is also possible to take only a few separate parts and use them in your own way. Feel free to pick and choose. Just help yourself.

I have always been a supporter of self-help. I like to read books on self improvement, especially in the fields of psychology, philosophy and religion. I am not denying the importance of teachers or authority, but I prefer to make up my own mind as much as possible .

The gamma way is basically a do-it-yourself religion. It is like a cabinet from IKEA that you can tailor to your own personal needs and taste. All parts are continuously tested by me, but that fact alone should not convince you. You have to find out for yourself.

Most of the elementary parts you will find here are not exclusive to the gamma way at all. How could it be otherwise? Countless human lives have been lived before us. All human traditions offer an almost unlimited source of wisdom. You can find the basic elements of the gamma way in many other places, often in more familiar, durable and sacred forms.

The gamma way is only a new way to put these basics together and it should be clear that the whole is much bigger than its separate parts. Put together the parts will become interconnected so they can start to interact in your mind. And that is where the real magic begins.

The complete version of the gamma way is a starter kit for a temple in your mind.

You can use it for the basement only and leave the ground floor for any religious or philosophical tradition you prefer. You will probably discover that the gamma way in the basement matches quite well with whatever you will have on the ground floor.

The ground floor is the main floor. You can even construct several floors. Your mental temple can take the form of a church, a mosque or a shrine.

In the gamma basement you can store and experiment with all ideas that have no place in the main temple.

The temple in my own mind contains elements from many different religious and philosophical traditions. They are arranged according to my own personal experiences and taste.

Part of my mental temple is private space and other parts are permanently under construction. All building materials for these constructions are stored in the basement.

Recently I have started to use the gamma basement as the second ground floor of my inner temple.

As you can see, I even receive visitors there.

Socrates & chameleon

Open mind, Philosophy, Religion,

dual mindset

 

In most bookshops the section for Philosophy and the section for Religion are not far apart from each other. That is very convenient for me, because I like looking for interesting new books on both subjects.

In my mind philosophy and religion complement and correct each other.

In my philosophical mindset I always try to be like a Socrates. In his time Socrates was critical and always questioned everything and everybody in order to come closer to the truth.

In my religious mindset, on the other hand, I try to be more like a chameleon. I follow the ideas of others with patience, trying to blend in and find out what I can swallow.

My philosophical mindset is like a comfort zone. As long as I question everything and everybody, I cannot go very wrong.

In my religious mindset I have to rely on personal experience and trust. This trust is the benefit of the doubt and I try to be as generous as possible with it.

Here the gamma symbol is also a safe compass I can rely on.

So I read books and listen to talks of philosophers and spiritual teachers alike.

The Socrates and the chameleon in me are always open for new ideas.