Truth (Everything is Sacred)

 

This is based to the Buddhist text, “The Great Heart of Wisdom Sutra.” Also it is based on the book “Hardcore Zen”. I list these only as points of reference. I don't expect you to take them as truth, nor do I expect you to take this as truth. It isn't. Truth is something you find within yourself, and this is the truth I found within me, but it is not by any means is it to be taken blindly as your truth, although you can use it as a place to begin.

 

I don't pretend to understand the translation of the “heart sutra” fully, its one of those things that's written in a mystical way that makes it hard to understand, like Shakespeare. But I did understand this, very clearly in fact. Actually one line spoke to me more than the rest, luckily it was the line that is the basis of the sutra.

 

“That which is form is emptiness; that which is emptiness is form.”

 

Since this is the part I fully understood its the only part I'll explain.

 

In Hardcore Zen it is explained as “everything is sacred... nothing is sacred.” Everything is important and to be held as important. EVERYTHING. From the most sickening of vomit to the most beautiful sunrise, everything is sacred. Therefore nothing is sacred in the traditional sense of something to be held above all else because everything is held equally high. When something, anything, is held above anything else it gives you reason to destroy the lesser of the two. It gives you a reason to kill. If everything is sacred, everything is equal, than there is no reason to get rid of anything to save anything else. In a world that truly believes and lives by this principal nothing is destroyed and no one is killed because there is no reason to. Every time you destroy its because you are trying, in one way or another, to save (or at least raise up) something else, or conversely to degrade something else. The same principal applies to god, any god. If you praise him, hold him sacred, then you have a reason to kill in his name (9/11, the crusades, etc.). Also you can kill to degrade the opponents of god (the devil for example). The Salem witch trials are a perfect example. But nonbelievers can be just as cruel, think of Hitler, who killed because he believed himself and the Aryan race to be superior and the Jews to be inferior. Think of George Bush, who killed many an Iraqi because he held American lives more important than the lives of citizens of Iraq (other good examples would be the bombing of Pearl Harbor, or the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, or any act of war no matter how small).

 

So what about morals and taboos? I don't believe that anything is wrong that harms only you. Solely you are able to decide what is good for you, and what is bad for you. If it doesn't hurt anyone else, go ahead, do it. But in doing this remember that you yourself are sacred, and to hurt yourself is to hurt any other sacred being. But what does that mean? What is hurt? Hurt is something you do to punish yourself, not because you enjoy it, but because you think you deserve it. That's the difference between giving yourself a tattoo (a series of puncture wounds filled with ink) and cutting yourself. Cutting yourself serves no purpose other than punishment, while tattooing gives you a tattoo, a form of art. Of course there is gray area (actually its all gray area, which is why my truth is not your truth, only you can determine which part of the gray area you fall into) there are people who carve hearts into their bodies to symbolize love and people who just enjoy the taste of blood. And then there are people who cut themselves to fit into emo stereotypes but don't mean to punish themselves, and there are people who get tattoos because they like the pain, not enjoy it (like sadism) just think they deserve to hurt, and tattooing is a socially acceptable way to hurt themselves. Its all about their intent, whether or not they do it for punishment or pleasure. Therefore you can never really judge a person correctly because you know not their own unique truth.

 

So, go, live by your own rules, as long as you hurt nothing sacred.

Reviews

[Emily B]

Enlightened thinking. A fascinating write.