Monday, January 16, 2006
Goodness
Have you ever thought about how or why pretty much all the world's religions seem to hold an idea, or ideal, of pure goodness? And how and why that ideal of goodness is above and beyond anything anyone has ever seen? They all have their rules/instructions/guidelines about how to do what is right and good, but then at various points and in various places, they also speak about what it is to be right and good.
For example,
True and perfect goodness doesn't have to even ask itself "Am I acting in a good and right way?" or "Should I do what is right, or what is wrong?". True goodness lives in perfect spontanaity. It does what is right, not only without having to think about it, but without even knowing there was anything but "right".
Good is as good does. A good man will do only good things, because that is all he can do. He cannot be anything but who he is.
And yet we aren't good in this way. Humans have only ever strived for this goodness in either a return to the past (for the Judeo-Christian expression, see Genesis chapters 1 to 3), or as the end, the goal of human life (e.g. too many to list but try this for starters). Those latter examples sound way too difficult, too high, too pure, for us to ever reach by our own efforts. They are. And they were not spoken as "a self-help guide to make yourself all holy-like" but as identifiers of the Life that is truly good and holy. Our rule/"moral standard"-based attempts at goodness simply don't fit this spontaneous, pure, heavenly goodness that everyone, for some reason, seems to recognise, but which no one actually has or does.
When that is realised, then, and only then, are we ready to even begin hearing what Christ has to say, and do, for us.
For example,
Superior virtue is unconscious of its virtue
Hence it is virtuous.
Inferior virtue is conscious of its virtue
Hence it is not virtuous.
-Tao Teh Ching
True and perfect goodness doesn't have to even ask itself "Am I acting in a good and right way?" or "Should I do what is right, or what is wrong?". True goodness lives in perfect spontanaity. It does what is right, not only without having to think about it, but without even knowing there was anything but "right".
Good is as good does. A good man will do only good things, because that is all he can do. He cannot be anything but who he is.
And yet we aren't good in this way. Humans have only ever strived for this goodness in either a return to the past (for the Judeo-Christian expression, see Genesis chapters 1 to 3), or as the end, the goal of human life (e.g. too many to list but try this for starters). Those latter examples sound way too difficult, too high, too pure, for us to ever reach by our own efforts. They are. And they were not spoken as "a self-help guide to make yourself all holy-like" but as identifiers of the Life that is truly good and holy. Our rule/"moral standard"-based attempts at goodness simply don't fit this spontaneous, pure, heavenly goodness that everyone, for some reason, seems to recognise, but which no one actually has or does.
When that is realised, then, and only then, are we ready to even begin hearing what Christ has to say, and do, for us.
