Brian’s Reflection: Wednesday, Feb 11, 2009


To straighten the crooked
You must first do a harder thing-
Straighten yourself.

You are your only master.
Who else?
Subdue yourself,
And discover your master.

-from the Dhammapada
From "Teachings of the Buddha,"
edited by Jack Kornfield, 1993.


“You are your only master. Who else?” I don’t know about you, but I find this a liberating and thrilling statement. I guess what I find so attractive about it is that it “lacks guile”, as Jesus said of Nathaniel. By which I mean, there is no hint of controlling behaviour in the statement. And I absolutely believe, having meditated on the Scriptures, that the essence of “God” lacks any propensity for Control. This pisses people off! A lot of people want “God” to be controlling. For a very selfish reason. If “God” is seen as “in control”, then we don’t have to be responsible. That’s what made Flip Wilson’s schtick so perfect! We could blame “the devil” for our rejection of responsibility.

But. To be fully Human is to be Responsible. It’s a corollary of Being. We soar as Persons – “on eagles’ wings” - when we accept Responsibility for everything we do, think, act on. This is “to be like God”. Can you imagine “God” not accepting Responsibility for Her behaviour? Of course not. It is incompatible with Deity.

Jesus constantly challenged people to take Responsibility. He never forced anything on anyone. Annoyingly, He didn’t force the Pharisees or anyone else. He simply opened up a path for them to look at their behaviour and make some adjustments. What Perfect Love!

Oh. It’s hard to live this way. But, one major reason for being part of a “church” is to learn, through the intimacy and commitment and faithfulness of Christian Community, how to see our avoidances of self-responsibility and move “off the dime” to acceptance of our godlike nature.

“You are your only master. Who else?” Like Jesus, every one of us finds ourself in a Garden of Gethsemane on a regular basis. Jesus had freely to choose the path of Love, and we do too. Refusal to do so is to abdicate the glory of being Human.

To “subdue ourself” means simply to say No to that part of us that wants to relinquish our Humanity. It is then that we know the glory of who we truly are.

Brian+