[Update: See note at end of post for more details.]
Attention, all! See the marvels of God! He plants flowers and trees all over the earth, bans war from pole to pole, breaks all the weapons across his knee.“Step out of the traffic! Take a long, loving look at me, your High God, above politics, above everything.”
- Psalms 46:8-10, the Message translation
Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.
- Psalms 46:10, King James Version.
This bible verse gives me pause - and I know I will more likely than not take it out of context, sometimes words out of context tell you more than books with context because of the real secret to the world, we give these things context - "with our thoughts we make the world" it is claimed the Buddha said.
We may find a moving image somewhere be it from another culture or another place and time and have that speak to us as people, shape us in ourselves to only find the original text meaningless, does that make our life before a fiction and this is reality?
This is a complicated question well out of the scope of my intention right now - but let me say that I think that the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves shape our lives, they inform the way we see the world and the way we think - this changes the way we relate to other people, events, ideas and situations.
As a species I think we have an idea of what the "best" we can be as people that can exist - an idea of God, Jesus, Buddha, Allah, Krishna, et al. The idea of the optimal person, always able to think clearly yet able to be embodied as pure compassion - or something along those lines. We know we can backslide emotionally, psychologically, spiritually or physically on an individual scale so we can have a vague sense of one who doesn't - one who is "eternally lucky", every back step we made was a step forward to them - and they progressed just as we did when we could. I imagine all these ideas and dreams being projected as a form - like an image of a person being displayed by a projector. I tend to call this idea Amitofo/Amitabha - as that is the name of the Buddha of infinite light and infinite life, fitting I think; infinite light because it is a mass projection of each individual's light and infinite life because ideas of people and projected images cannot die.
[Quick aside: is there a being at the center of this projection being projected upon? I am not sure, if there was I believe they would not care too much, they just happen to be neverendingly lucky and the furthest progressed being they would presumably just deal with it as it was just another thing to deal with like most people have to "deal with" following the social contract. Whatever is there reflects most of what it receives, perhaps as a skillful mirror.]
The Psalms were originally songs to be sung, so their lyrical quality is intentional - and even after translation their ability to put a lot of thought in a small space makes them poetical.
So back to the bible - where would this idea be? I think calling it God would be a pretty safe statement, Jesus would then be an earthly manifestation of such a being - God made flesh to feel our pain and suffering first hand. Then what about Psalm 46:10? It was sung by those suffering, those in pain - it was sung by us, by all humanity. "Be still, and know that I am God" is you as a person thinking of something beyond you that transmits it's immense and intense light onto you - cleans you, purifies you and speaks through you to remind you we are all one. I am god as much as you are or anyone else - any other living being. We can all make these statements - we can all "other" ourselves to give us the self-acceptance we need and have been missing from time to time.
Is it sad we need to project our love in order for it to come back? To love in order to be loved. It doesn't really matter - if you need that form of a feeling you will find it, and you should use it if it's useful.
I mean with our thoughts we make the world ... right?
[Note: On further reflection, I am not sure this post is pleasant, useful or interesting - I was considering removing it but that in itself would help me feed my ego. How will anyone be able to see the real me, or how will I even be able to present that side of me to the world (or more importantly myself) if people are only used to seeing a cleaned up, stage managed and heavily curated version of me. After seeing that for so long seeing the real me may be a shock - and that is why I am here - to try to share that part of me.]
