SAD STORY WITH HAPPY END
SAD STORY WITH HAPPY END
===========================
About 2 years ago, I had the initiative to compile by myself a book
I had always wanted to read, but could never find in any book-shop or library.
What I wanted was a book with about 8-10 answers to a very simple
questionnaire. The questionnaire I formulated contained a few basic questions
covering the main fields of philosophy: ontology, epistemology and
moral-sociological problems. The 8-10 people expected to answer it had to be
priests/ rabbis/ monks/ nuns/ sheiks/... i.e. clergy people, each one
representing one of the main religions of the world. The idea seemed so simple
in the beginning, that I thought in a few months I was going to compile the
book of my dreams, called WORLD RELIGIONS SEEN FROM INSIDE -- focused on the
philosophic kernels of each religion.
Well... it wasn't as simple as that. I had to face difficult
problems like: How many religions would be enough, to cover the main trends of
religious beliefs in the contemporary world? Which sect should I choose inside
one particular religion? Should I make the choice according to the greatest
number of people involved in that particular sect or to other criteria (the
oldest? the newest? the one that for some reasons I find easier to contact?) Is
theosophy a religion or a philosophy? So, should it be included here or not? In
which order should I publish the answers? (The historical order in which each
religion appeared? That might have suggested that the last one had the last
word -- and I wanted to avoid that. The alphabetical order of the people's
names? That might have suggested that the book was focused on personalities
rather than religions -- I wanted to avoid that too).
After a while, I just started to look for volunteers to answer,
hoping that the contact with some wise people will help me overcome those
difficulties. You won't believe it, I encountered so much suspicion and
misunderstanding that I gave up the whole project. It was practically dead for
2 years.
But there were a few things that sad experience taught me: Most
clergy people I met seemed more prepared and more at ease to talk about the
history of their religion, its rituals and traditions rather than its
philosophic basis. Most of them seemed afraid such a book might enhance
complicated and useless contradictory reactions. Some of them were kind enough
to offer me quotations from the Holy Scriptures of their religion -- which was
most interesting and enlightening of course, but not the kind of direct
response I expected from them. Some of those people seemed afraid such a book
might create great confusion in the minds of the readers, just because I didn't
mean to focus the reader's attention to one and only path to one and only
truth. And above all, I encountered a sort of lack of enthusiasm for the very
idea of compiling any book that might bring information about more than one
religion. The objection was that most of the people lacked information even
about the religion of their own environment -- so why should they disperse
their attention to a wider area of knowledge? I think this is the real sad part
of the whole story, the lack of enthusiasm I encountered. If we wait until we
"finish" learning about one religion and only then begin to get some
interest in any other one... that means for most of us to be totally blocked
against any foreign wisdom for a lifetime. And in my opinion this would be sad
-- that is why I felt the urge to compile that book. Perhaps, if I had known
how to contact the right persons in the right moment, I wouldn't have been so
disappointed.
However, I did get ONE straightforward answer 2 years ago, and that
came from a distinguished, venerable rabbi of Tel-Aviv who accepted to deliver
a sort of a lecture on the subjects of my questionnaire, while I recorded that
speech on a tape and then put it on paper. It was an orthodox rabbi, his name
was Rav. Efraim Gutman. I still have that speech and am very grateful for it.
It's in Romanian, I have translated it into English and Bruce is going to publish
it in the Archive. I think the speech is most enlightening and representative
for the orthodox Judaism -- although, if one wants to understand contemporary
Judaism as a whole, one has to see some other points of view too (from a
reformed rabbi, a conservative one, an Ethiopian one, a.s.o.). The speech
(interview) has about 9 pages -- too little to make up a book, but enough to
start a project and give an impulse to other contributions.
This month, a wonderful thing happened: Bruce Schuman turned my
questionnaire into a poll called "The Meaning of Life" in the web of
the United Communities of Spirit. Chances are I might receive lots of answers
and after a while I might even compile a book by selecting the most interesting
ones. Therefore the book of my dreams (if there would be any book at all) is
not going to be about religions of the world seen from inside, but about
individual beliefs as expressed by the people themselves. This approach is
different, but perhaps more accurate since people of the same faith do not
really think and feel in an identical way. Even if I won't achieve a book,
publishing the answers in a UCS web page might prove a wonderful experience in
itself, with lots of comments and interchange of thoughts. It means the project
is now richer and more diversified than my original intention was, and above
all it is alive, even more alive than I have ever dreamt!
If you want, you may also expand your answers into a short essay
and send it to Bruce to publish in one of the UCS pages.
Thanks Bruce, and thanks everybody who are going to join this
project.
[January 25, 1998]
Luiza Carol
You may visit my poll in the "Beliefs" folder of the
UCS from the link below. If you want to answer the poll, you have to subscribe
to the organization first. Than log in for "Personal Beliefs"
Music for this page: "Dwellers of Wonderland" by Luiza Carol
LINK TO THE UNITED
COMMUNITIES OF SPIRIT:
