We ended yesterday’s meditation with the fifth and sixth of Gandhi’s “social sins,” that of educating without character building and science without humanity.
The latter includes inventions like the social media that can spread hatred and lies just as easily as love and truth.
Martin Buber believes that humans are unique for our capacity to invent lies. Other species do not invent lies.
The lie is the specific evil which man has introduced into nature. All our deeds of violence and our misdeeds [derive from our lies]. The lie is our very one invention, different in kind from every deceit that the animals can produce.
When our speech compromises truth, society collapses because “the basis of men’s common life has been removed. The lie has taken the place, as a form of life, of human truth.” Speech then breeds delusion in peoples’ hearts and illusions and falsifies the relation of soul to being. Duplicity or a “double heart” takes over.
To walk one’s talk and not just talk our talk seems to be central to the survival of community.
When truth goes out the door, so too does justice, as Thomas Aquinas instructs us when he says, “the proper objects of the human heart are truth and justice.” An investment in lies is an investment in injustice.
Lying is a distortion of our fifth chakras which are meant to be birth canals for putting our wisdom and truth-finding into the world.
For Gandhi, God is truth. Telling lies then is a form of atheism. In many religions, Truth and God are synonyms. In Christianity, one “I am” saying is this: “I am the way, the truth and the life.” The Bhagavad Gita declares that a world without truth is a world without God and in such a world, desire alone will rule.
Another danger Gandhi alerts us to is science without humanity. Thomas Berry who used to say that “the nuclear bomb has already gone off” in the world. Why? Because we have been creating so many chemicals over the last 50 years without asking the question of how they affect the quality of water or soil and the food supply that all life and living things depend on.
Adapted from Matthew Fox, Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society, pp. 321, 313-332..
And Matthew Fox, The Tao of Thomas Aquinas: Fierce Wisdom for Hard Times, pp. 101-108.
And Matthew Fox, Naming the Unnameable: 89 wonderful and Useful Names for God…Including the Unnameable God, pp. 58f.
And Matthew Fox and Bishop Marc Andrus, Stations of the Cosmic Christ, pp. 117-122.
To read the transcript of Matthew’s video teaching, click HERE.
Banner Image: The Unisphere, a 12-story stainless steel representation of the Earth designed by landscape architect Gilmore D. Clarke, and donated by the United States Steel Corporation, was the symbol for the 1964 World’s Fair, representing the theme of global interdependence. The world’s largest global structure, it rises 140 feet and weighs 900,000 pounds, including its 200,000-pound base. Photo by Wally Gobetz on Flickr.
Queries for Contemplation
What follows from Martin Buber’s observation that lying is unique to the human species? Do you think it says anything about Thomas Aquinas’s observation that one human being can do more evil than all the other species put together?
Recommended Reading
The Tao of Thomas Aquinas: Fierce Wisdom for Hard Times
A stunning spiritual handbook drawn from the substantive teachings of Aquinas’ mystical/prophetic genius, offering a sublime roadmap for spirituality and action.
Foreword by Ilia Delio.
“What a wonderful book! Only Matt Fox could bring to life the wisdom and brilliance of Aquinas with so much creativity. The Tao of Thomas Aquinas is a masterpiece.”
–Caroline Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit
Naming the Unnameable: 89 Wonderful and Useful Names for God …Including the Unnameable God
Too often, notions of God have been used as a means to control and to promote a narrow worldview. In Naming the Unnameable, renowned theologian and author Matthew Fox ignites our imaginations by offering a colorful range of Divine Names gathered from scientists and poets and mystics past and present, inviting us to always begin where true spirituality begins: from experience.
“This book is timely, important and admirably brief; it is also open ended—there are always more names to come, and none can exhaust God’s nature.” -Rupert Sheldrake, PhD, author of Science Set Free and The Presence of the Past
Stations of the Cosmic Christ
By Matthew Fox and Bishop Marc Andrus.
This is a book of meditations on the Cosmic Christ, accompanying the images of 16 wonderful clay tablets by Javier Ullrrich Lemus and M.C. Richards. Together, these images and meditations go far beyond the traditional Stations of the Cross to inspire a spirit awakening and understanding of the cosmic Christ Consciousness, Buddha consciousness, and consciousness of the image of God in all beings, so needed in our times.
“A divinely inspired book that must be read by every human being devoted to spiritual and global survival. It is cosmically brilliant.” — Caroline Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit
11 thoughts on “Gandhi’s Wisdom on Sins that Rupture Social Cohesion, continued”
Word from my wife who passed.
If the person ever wants to reconnect to their spirit, it can be a slow painful process of self-reflection. The person eventually has to look in the mirror and own that they have been lying to themselves. And they probably have to look at all the pain that they have caused others.
I personally prefer to live my life openly. It’s simpler and takes less energy. There is something that I might consider doing that would require covering up later; I don’t do it because it’s not worth it, whatever it might be. If there is a person or situation that requires me to be something other than myself, then I don’t need that person or situation. It isn’t worth it because the dishonesty would mean disconnection from my spirit and the sacrifice of any happiness in life.
On another plane, nothing can be hidden anyway. We are all connected to each other, to our spirit, and to all that is or the Divine, whether we choose to be aware of it or not. If a thought goes out into the ethers, it is energy and it is there forever. Any intelligence or consciousness can pick it up. The thought that we can lie is an illusion. We cannot hide. We are not separated.
SINCERELY, JAN JENNINGS, ARTIST, GRAPHIC DESIGNER, ANIMATOR
Thank you!
Matthew, Today you shared these words of the Jewish thinker, Martin Buber with us: “The lie is the specific evil which man has introduced into nature. All our deeds of violence and our misdeeds [derive from our lies]. The lie is our very one invention, different in kind from every deceit that the animals can produce.” Well, a lie is the opposite of the truth, and Thomas Aquinas says, “the proper objects of the human heart are truth and justice.” Therefore an investment in lies is an investment in injustice. And for Gandhi, God is truth. Another danger Gandhi alerts us to is science without humanity. So, Thomas Berry warns us that we have been creating so many chemicals over the last 50 years without asking the question of how they affect the quality of water or soil and the food supply that all life and living things depend on. And what follows from Martin Buber’s observation that lying is unique to the human species, is Thomas Aquinas’s observation that one human being can do more evil than all the other species put together?
What I really appreciated in today’s DM, was Mathew’s several statements about the importance of being open to seeking truth, and it’s expansiveness. The possibility of finding truth is relative to many things, yet Mathew also pointed out a key aspect to focus on, in our seeking and our finding… which is the openness of heart, to the essence and presence of the Divine nature within our humanity and the all and the everything of creation… which is rooted in unconditional love, compassion, mercy and the JUST IS of this inherent goodness and the beauty of this original sacred blessing, incarnate within all that exists. We have to choose to descend deeply as well as ascend to greater heights in order to seek and find this truth, often hidden beneath and behind many distressing disguises… lifting the veils of things we once believed to be true.
We’ve been very recently reminded of the truth of what Thomas Aquinas observed that “one human being can do more evil than all the other species put together” by Ken Burns’ documentary on the 20th century holocaust/Hitler (just 80~90yrs. ago). The more subtle ongoing evil historically is the way much of humanity, especially men, have been influenced by
toxic destructive egocentric patriarchal values that separate us from the Sacredness of God’s Loving Wisdom/Truth Spirit within and among us in our relations and Mother Nature/Earth up to the present day. Now among all the other injustices and suffering we have caused as a human species, we are having to face the reality/truth of the imminent end of our world patriarchal industrial ‘civilization’ (see postdoom.com) because of what we have collectively done to the environment of Mother Earth, the source of All our living resources/blessings. This climate/environmental existential crises that we’re all as a human species going through is a deeply spiritual crisis/transformation that will hopefully and gracefully lead to a more spiritual compassionate humanity Living in Loving Diverse Oneness with-in God’s Compassionate Spirit of Divine Love on our eternal spiritual journeys while here on Sacred Earth….
🔥❤️🌎🙏
Thank you for sharing your wisdom and truth. It is helpful to me. May it spread.
Not to let humans off the hook, but one virus can do a lot of damage, as we know, as can one meteorite. The doing of damage is apparently built into nature. That said, we can, and must, try to minimize the damage we do.
Seeing beyond requires different lenses…
Bad as they can certainly be, in their most general form, lies are definitely not a distinctly human invention. Humans speak them because we can talk. But animals use misdirection (a lie) all the time to attract prey, for self-survival. and sometimes just for fun. Harmless sea creatures disguise themselves and act like dangerous threats. Mother birds lead predators in opposite directions. Even some 583 carnivorous plants such as the Venus Flytrap look or smell delicious in order to attract digestible prey. Though we certainly use our own versions of lies, we didn’t invent them. Nature did.
John, You write today: “animals use misdirection (a lie) all the time to attract prey, for self-survival. and sometimes just for fun. Harmless sea creatures disguise themselves and act like dangerous threats. Mother birds lead predators in opposite directions. Even some 583 carnivorous plants such as the Venus Flytrap look or smell delicious in order to attract digestible prey. Though we certainly use our own versions of lies, we didn’t invent them. Nature did.” Nature did invent it, BUT the big difference is that humans CHOOSE to lie, and animals are deceptive only in the sense that evolution has evolved ways for them to defend and protect their own, BUT it is instinctual and not the result of reasoned choice. And that is a big difference.
Thank you for the reminder from Thomas Berry that the nuclear bomb has already gone off—so many chemicals have been invented and we do not know of their immediate or long term effects because of deliberate falsifications or simply silence. Where else would come the veritable explosion of cancers and other illnesses, some in clearly demarcated areas (usually where marginalized people live)–and yet the denial–lying–goes on and on–truly science without humanity. We cannot blame science which is simply the search for truth but rather how we misuse it. And intentional lying by human beings can do more damage than any natural inclination to distract from attacks–and is matched only by nature’s capacity for total destruction from a meteor, super volcano, virus, or such, in my opinion. We saw in the 20th century the massacres carried out by many tyrants.