Two things come to mind this morning as I have been of late reviewing Stephen Mitchell’s translation of the Tao Te Ching.
One is a conversation I had with my mother many years ago. My mother was hardly a saint but was a tenacious searcher for the truth. She was raised in the Apologetic Catholic tradition. This is the theology that was spread through the Baltimore Catechism in the early 20th century and is still broadcasted by many Catholic Bishops in the US today. This is the theology that I have been referring to lately as the “no way out” theology in that it demands strict adherence to Catholic Doctrines but provides no clear understanding to the paradoxical statement issued by the apostle Paul in Roman’s 15: 19 – “I do not do the good that I want, but I do the evil that I do not want”. In my mother’s search for truth, once she became confined by the stringencies of the teachings of her own tradition, she began to step out of the box that was created for her by religious conservatives and experienced an intimacy with her Creator.
I called her on the phone one day and I don’t remember how we came to talk about the dynamics of prayer but we did. She said something that resonated with me for decades to come. “Sometimes you pray and pray for something for so long and it never comes. Eventually, out of mental exhaustion, you stop praying for it and decide that you don’t want it anymore. This is usually about the time that it falls right into your lap.”
It was not until I began to embrace the Eastern scriptures such as the Tao Te Ching that I found that this phenomenon is clearly marked. My mother did not give up her longing for this good thing to happen. She gave up her wanting, her desire for it to happen in her terms. She gave up determining when, where, and how, it would happen. Once she let go of the wanting, which was the cause of continual anxiety for her, once she gave up the desire and accepted the way things were, not only did her anxiety dissolve but she experienced peace. With no obstacle remaining to prevent God from working in her life, the good fell right in her lap. As is stated in the Tao:
If you want to be given everything
Give everything up. (Tao V.22)
Be content with what you have;
rejoice in the way things are.
When you realize that nothing is lacking,
the whole world belongs to you. (Tao V.44)
Jesus continues in that same vein in Mathews Gospel 600 years after the Tao was written.
But seek first the kingdom [of God] and his righteousness,
and all these things will be given you besides.
Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself.
(Mt 6:33-34)
The second thing that comes to mind relates in that as Catholic Christians we were taught that perspectives of God that came from other religious traditions were not valid and even dangerous to our well-being. I had a Catholic women recently claim to me that the Buddha was a false prophet.
One of my sisters said to me once that she believed that after we die we are somehow able to finish those things left undone. When I heard this I smiled. I began thinking that this was at heart the Hindu doctrine of reincarnation. This is such a beautiful thought.
Unable to reconcile the idea that a loving God could send us to a place where we would suffer for eternity (Hell), my sister, like my mother, stepped outside the box of her Catholic upbringing. She imagined a God that always loves us and created a space where we could “try again” to be compassionately involved in creation.
