“Teacher,” he replied, “I have observed all these from my childhood.”
everything I’ve done
particularly
all those good bits
count
in my favorI’ll claim it all
especially
those naughty bits
transformed
now by confessionI’m looking beyond
specifics
already completed
toward
tomorrow’s assurancethis day by day
evaluation
wearies my judgment
searching
unto an extended warranty
“I’ve met all the prerequisites for your course. Now I want your syllabus and be able to glean from it what I need for a final exam. Thanks, in advance, for your synopsis of your teaching as I have more enriching things to do than come to class on a regular basis.”
And we come to an important point of presence.
Where are we going to show-up as there is no substitute for experience? That blanket statement is particularly important for woo-woo disciplines such as religious studies. To even go through the motions of processes (take what you have seen and heard and go, be hospitable) and rituals (prayer) is to be affected by whatever power they have.
As creatures with a built-in bias of partnership, simply being in the presence of another builds in strands of relationship. The more there are the stronger the bond. This is most revealed in troublesome relationships that become so difficult to break.
We are also at a point of revelation.
The invoking of the very best of our tradition is never sufficient for keeping up on a journey to new life. Every tradition brings value, but never enough value to simply be repeated and expect the same return in a different time and setting.
It is important to not murder (within the group). It is also important to grow this understanding to the murder of hope as well as that of breath. It is, likewise, important to expand a restriction on murder beyond the group. This expansion even goes beyond a category of human to include other living beings, including the earth.