THOU SHALT

On my way to work, I like to listen to podcasts on various subjects and topics of interest.

My predecessor in the church, Iohannes III, long before he took the mitre and crozier, was a buddhist monk in the Drikung Kagyu lineage.

When His Eminence retired from the Church, he ended up returning to his buddhist roots- not because he found the need to abandon Gnosticism but rather he felt that his spirituality and path was once again pulled towards the practice and life of Vajrayana. For him, Tibetan Buddhism is the Gnosticism of the East.

Having had such a unique teacher- whereby I could learn not only Gnosticism but Vajrayana (and the correlations between the two) has been a great help in my own path and understanding- for when a concept was not easily accessible to my understanding under one tradition, sometimes it came more readily in another.

Rev. Godo as he is now known (in addition to teaching Tibetan Buddhism in the Kagyu lineage, he is a Shingon Priest, Shingon being the esoteric buddhism of Japan) has made available some of his weekly classes and lectures via podcast. This is quite helpful as I can't travel to Ohio every week.

Recently in a podcast on the nature of Precepts and Lineage in Buddhism he reiterated a concept that I first heard about from him- the idea of examining the precepts of one's tradition from the 'negative' view and applying them to ones action. This has always struck me as an amazing concept and one that could stand to be applied to the precepts and moral codes of western religion, namely Christianity.

Anyone who has spent anytime in a church or other edifice of christianity is aware of the Decalogue or it's common rendering of The Ten Commandments:

1. I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

2. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.

3. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them.

4. Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.

5. Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long.

6. Thou shalt not kill.

7. Thou shalt not commit adultery.

8. Thou shalt not steal.

9. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.

10. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor's.

These are very strong statements indeed and I have encountered numerous opinions on both sides as to whether or not they are relevant today- certainly the societal norm in most cases holds to an unwritten code of similar type (minus judgement on the existance of God etc) and secular law enforces many of them as a part of the criminal code...

..Now, getting back to the idea of examining precepts in a 'negative' fashion. When we apply this idea (which will become clear in a second) to the Decalogue, what we have is nothing short of an amazing transformation of understanding on our relation to the Divine, ourselves and our fellow man.

It goes something like this..

#6- Thou Shalt Not Kill transforms into 'What have I done to respect, promote and uphold the value of life'.

It is quite easy to check oneself over at the end of the day in terms of whether or not you have killed anyone or anything, however it becomes something greater indeed when we look at it from the perspective of analyzing whether or not we have supported the value and importance of life.

This not only requires a deeper examination of one's life but gives us a greater opportunity for Reflection and self-examination, in a way that a cursory reading of the Decalogue cannot do (or at least cannot do profoundly or without a deeper examination).

Now taking this principle and applying to the Decalogue as a whole-

1. I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

Simply put: What have I done today to understand my place in the universe, recognizing that there is always something greater than myself and affirming the presence of the Divine in my own constituion. ie: What have I done to remember myself as a Child of God.

2. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.

What have I done today to conduct myself as a Child of God, recognizing that as one parishoner of ours put it "Morality is what you do when no one is watching". Have I made actions consistant with my understanding of the blessing that is being made in His image or have I squandered my heritage by acting in a manner that is inconsistant with my nature as a Child of God.

3. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them.

What have I done today to recognize the importance of my own spiritual pursuit- What have I done today to accord to the Divine an expression befitting of its dignity.

4. Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.

What have I done today to set aside space, time and presence of mind for my spiritual pursuit. What have I done today to recognize the holiness of all days that are numbered to us.

5. Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long.

What have I done today to recognize the efforts of those who have gone before me- What have I done today to honour the work done for me by doing the same for others.

6. Thou shalt not kill.

What have I done today to affirm the value of all life and existance, what have I done to respect the essential value of all humanity.

7. Thou shalt not commit adultery.

What have I done to uphold and affirm the integrity of my commitments and the integrity of the commitments of others.

8. Thou shalt not steal.

What have I done today to give to others the things that they need, what have I done today to recognize the difference between my own needs and wants.

9. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.

What have I done today to ensure the words of my lips and the tokens I give to others, be it handshake, a nod or an embrace, are consistant with the thoughts of my heart.

10. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor's.

What have I done today to recognize the abundance in my own life and recognize the value of the same by making use of the things that I have been blessed with.

Now as you can see, the Ten Commandments are revealed to have a great depth and greater practical relevance to our own spiritual paths in way that simply reading off the Commandments from a pulpit cannot do.

It becomes vital and resourceful for us to examine not the end tally of our day, in 'yes' or 'no' fashion, as to whether or not we commited certain actions or not but more the larger picture of our lives

Instead of tallying what we didn't do, we should take a honest and clear look at what we did do, to improve our relationship with the Divine, our fellow human beings, and harmony with our environments.

The Decalogue once again becomes an excercise in Understanding. Through its usage examined above, it helps to affirm the very qualities and circumstances it addresses to ourselves by giving us a means to recognize the value of our own lives and paths through introspection, and where they intersect with others.