THE FIRST DAY OF
THE REST OF OUR LIVES;
OR,
ONE PLUS ONE
EQUALS ONE
By David Saltman
Today is Ramadan, today is Yom Kippur, today is the Festival of
St. Francis. Today is the day for enlightened hearts to hear and
remember:
Out beyond right and wrong, there's a
field:
I'll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass
The world is too full to discuss.
Ideas, language, even the phrase "each
other"
-- make no sense.
--
Rumi (Barks/Moyne tr.)
First came
the Jews, ancient citizens and continuous occupants of
Jerusalem and the Promised Land, that field of
grass, that land of milk and honey. They received The Law of God.
That Law says, in its entirety, "Love thy neighbor as thyself."
("All the rest is commentary," said Rabbi Hillel, while standing on
one foot.)
Then came the
Christians, originally Jewish followers of a Jewish rabbi born in Bethlehem,
crucified in the Jerusalem occupied by the Romans, in those days a field of
thorns. His message: "Love thy neighbor."
Soon it was written, "There is infinite space in your garden; all men, all
women, are welcome here; all they need do is enter."
Next came the
Muslims, whose name means "servants of God." They conquered the
same land in the name of the same God. They regard Abraham, Noah, King
David, King Solomon, Moses and Jesus as saints and prophets, equal to
Mohammed. One of Mohammed's teachings was "Respect the people
of the Book" -- in other words, Jews and Christians. Muslims
consider Jerusalem to be one of their sacred cities, because it was there that
the Prophet Mohammed experienced his famous "night journey," where he
spoke with God ninety-thousand times and returned to earth before a glass of
water he upset had had a chance to spill. The "Dome of the
Rock," the landmark golden-domed mosque in Jerusalem, is built over the
rock where Abraham prepared to sacrifice his son to show his devotion to
God. That most mysterious story appears in all versions of Bible and
Koran.
As we enter
modern times, new players appear in the land of right and wrong: "Great
Powers" engaged in "Great Games." "Great Powers"
have guns and ships. But their enemies cannot be conquered with guns: the
real enemies are inside themselves. On the borders of their game-board, out
beyond right and wrong, are still those same awe-inspired Jews, Christians and
Muslims, the "three brothers" who had survived and lived in
reasonable harmony for two thousand years, sharing a land of milk and honey, a
Jerusalem located inside the human heart.
But what of
those guns? What of those Powers, whose power for creation is equal to or
greater than their power for destruction?
The
one thing we know about this world is that it can be a true heaven here and
now, and more than enough of a true hell. Right now is the time to choose
where we want to live for the rest of our days. We have the power within
us to change.
There are
certain fighting arts that overpower the opponent by making him one with
oneself. The art of fighting-without-fighting uses a unique math:
One Plus One Equals One. To reach that state one must first overpower
oneself. Find the true principles of the universe within one's own body
and being. Then, when one touches another, one plus one equals one.
Today
everyone is discussing politics. It happens to be the same day the Dalai
Lama, Jimmy Carter and scores of politicians and Nobel Peace Prize winners of
all stripes, including Arabs and Israelis, signed a comprehensive settlement proposal
that appeared in major world newspapers. But our thoughts today, this
first day of the rest of our lives, lie in that field beyond yes and no, past
right and wrong. In that field of green grass and blue flowers, the only
principle is that of Nature, that same ancient Law of God,
One-Plus-One-Equals-One: "Love thy neighbor as thyself."