radams@cerritos.edu (06/09/91)
I just saw a good program on PBS called Spirit and Nature hosted by Bill Moyers which explores the relationship between nature and spirituality or religion. Two of the speakers in the conference on this subject helped me to understand why many people in the west have drifted away from Judaism/Christianity. The Judeo-Christian tradition emphasises a God that is Father or King thus implying a certain distance from His creation. One of the christian theologians on the program (a woman) said that we have lost something in the west by not allowing the concept of God as Mother, Lover, and Friend. We find these concepts in Hinduism and Shintoism and also in in some american indian spiritual philosophy. If we did have the concept of God as Mother or Friend or Lover, especially Mother, we may feel closer to God and also to nature which we may feel to be an expresion or manifestation of Mother God and perhaps stop destroying our world and its resources. Now, I am philosophically non-dualist as far as my view of ultimate Truth or Reality is concerned but I see the necessity (as I mentioned in a previous post concerning Ramana Maharshi) of a dualistic approach to the non-dualistic Truth or Reality by developing a closer relationship to God which is non other than our own Self - the one reality without any second and eventually merging into this Reality or God and loose any sense of separation from Her or It - like a wave merging into the Sea. Roger Adams radams@cerritos.edu To those in whom love dwells, Cerritos College the whole world is one family. 11110 Alondra Blvd A Hindu Proverb Norwalk, California 90650 USA -------------------------------------------------------------------------------