It is 6:05 AM on Sunday, – Easter – April 21st. The Easter baskets are out, eggs have been hidden throughout the house and I’m waiting for the household to wake up. As for me, I woke up at 4:00 AM and this time actually got up.
I put the dishes away, cleaned the few dirty ones, made the coffee, meditated and learned something new in VR. Let me start with the meditation.
For the location I chose a a temple in Egypt and went with a sort of Tibetan monk chant. Usually I prefer nature scenery but this time thought a temple was a good change of pace. What occurred to me during the meditation was that the ancients were very spiritual people. They built huge structures, temples, pyramids and so on that are much more impressive than anything we have today. Yes, the recently burned Notre Dame is a work of art, and St. Mary’s cathedral in San Francisco is impressive in its futuristic cult temple like glory. But, nothing we have today is as impressive as Angkor Wat in Cambodia, Chichen Itza in the Mexico, the temples in Greece and Rome and so on. The only thing that comes close to matching this splendor are the grandest cathedrals and mosques such as Westminster Abbey, any number of cathedrals in Spain or Italy. Those buildings are impressive and beautiful indeed but put any of them up against what Angkor Wat must have looked like in its prime and you’ll see my point.
So what occurred to me is that spirituality and the importance of understanding the divine, the afterlife and what reality all is must have played a much more important role in the ancient times then it does today evidenced by the structures archaeologists have discovered. To build something so grand, so immense and detailed says to me that spirituality must have played a central role in ancient cultures. It was not only pervasive but was ingrained in everything.
That is not the case today. I live in California and the root of our culture and society, the driver of everything is not the divine or religion, it is money and the accumulation of things.
Today being Easter a good part of the population will celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. They go to church, reflect a bit, ask for sins to be forgiven and then the minute they step out of church return to the mold society has made for them which is to acquire more, lookout for what is best for themselves regardless of the impact to others and so on. This all sounds a bit pessimistic and negative but should one need a solid example then one need look no further than President Trump. Trump is the result of such a society, a society that has lost its way.
The real kicker is the one thing that tries to keep them in line, religion, is completely made up! A good portion of people will go to worship today something that is not true. How amazing it is to realize that. The ‘resurrection’ of Jesus is a myth based on a hearsay of a hearsay (as Hitchens would say). Easter, before its conscription by Christians, was and still is a celebration of the spring equinox when the days are equal in length. It is the beginning of the triumph of light over darkness. The warm days are getting longer and the vegetation is coming back to life. The long, dark, cold nights of winter are past. It was in winter that vegetation died and now it is risen again!
Seem similar? Yes, the Christians took all this and just like many of the holidays we celebrate today, and turned it into something Christian in order to help ease the conversion of pagans. Now, mainstream society has lost that meaning and go worship an instrument of death, the cross, and a myth of a guy who supposedly came back to life.
It is really something to realize all this when 75% of Americans are Christian. You feel smart and “woke” as people are saying these days. It is a good word to express what it is to be free of mainstream religion. I’ve woken up from the mass delusion and am in awe that so many people never will awake from it. We think of ourselves as so smart with our universities, medical and scientific advances and discoveries about the universe. All of these things are miraculous but then our society goes back and worships something whose ideas have been proven to be false time and time again. Logic and reason are thrown out the window the minute they step through the church doors.
That reminds me, one book that I just learned about and should have on my shelf is The Skeptic’s Annotated Bible. It is the Bible but with notes pointing out the nonsense and craziness.
Well, the time is 6:42 and Kai has just woken up. He’ll get to do the iPad until Mom and Ren wake up then we can start the Easter egg hunt.
