The problem with the departure of traditional religion from the West is that along with all of the craziness and credulity there remains deep wisdom within those traditions, wisdom that is rapidly departing from the developed world.
Our replacement religions - capitalism, consumerism, and the cult of self interest - ensures endless economic growth by fuelling the very need it purports to slake: our deep hunger for connection that clothes and cars are never going to appease.
In our current dispensation this quote from the Besht seems profoundly blasphemous. Yet it remains as wise as it ever was, because the only way for a soul to progress is to focus primarily on the welfare of other pople, rather than to obsess endlessly about self and selfish desires.
Years ago I wrote to a friend about this deep kind of wisdom, especially as it applies to marriage. I asked her whether she could explain to me how spouses ought to treat each other, giving her the best answer that I had so far been able to come up with:
"... my answer is: you need to love the other person, and I mean love as a verb, in every ordinary way you can imagine, mostly in small ways by simple kindness and generosity… cooking meals, listening, support, counsel, kind words, good words of every colour, loyalty, generous intimate love, tenderness and physical affection, praise, encouragement, and banal but important things like cleaning up after yourself, not boozing or taking drugs, working hard, being sensible with money -
And I would also say that the real secret is putting your husband or your wife before yourself, in that your first though is for their welfare, their comfort and happiness, and what you can do to secure that… this part of it though is deep wisdom, it is completely at odds with almost every modern theory about love…"
The only thing to add is that loving like this, in a world like our current world, will bring you very quickly to that other necessary ingredient for spiritual growth: suffering.
The purpose of my fiction is to communicate this deep wisdom as earnestly and truthfully as I can, through the use of what are effectively parables: stories demonstrating the object of the lesson, showing people rather than telling them how they might live better lives.
The ultimate aim of the New Scripture movement is to replace the old stories that people no longer read with something better. Humane stories about the power of human love, removing the insane God from the narrative and replacing it with the splendour of our common humanity. Out of which all Gods were created in the first place...
P. Julian
11 October 2018
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