Thursday 8th November 2001 21-00 CET
Traditional winter
It used to be that winter came long before Christmas. That was
in the 'good old days' (good, I suppose, because we over-romanticise
them). Then we went into that 'global warming thing' and winter's
started occurring after Christmas.

Well, this year it has returned to the old,traditional pattern.
Or so it seems.In the last 36 hours winter seems to have
come in full force. Low temperatures, blizzard-like snows
and all the 'traditional' aspects that accompany the 'good,old'
routines of nature.

And how we love our traditions, huh?

Yet ask anyone what tradition is and not many will
actually give a rational answer beyond saying "it's something
our fathers did, and their fathers before them, and so on".
That's nice, that linkage with lineage, that statement of 'roots'

That is, of course, why we all still ride horses and carts.HUH?
Its why preachers use microphones or 'bullhorns', temples
use electric light and most, given the opportunity, use the media.
Now, what's that got to do with anything?

Simply this, a tradition is something that grew out of a need
within the society of it's day. At least it is when applied to
such things as law, hygeine,cultural practice and...hmmmm...
religion.

Many of the traditions contained within Holy Books were
excellent traditions/cultural norms at the time the books were
written. Concepts expressed in allegories, stories and understandable
rhetoric.But, 'life goes not backward nor tarries in yesterday'
and nor should tradition dictate the precise, exact, miniscule
details of a belief/faith. For when tradition overrules the
'lovingness in the now' it has ceased to be the constructive
tool that served it's related society or culture. It has now
become a stumbling block to the experiencing and awareness
of the 'ever present, PRESENT, lovingness'.

To 'hide' in the over-romanticised perceptions of the past
and/or of tradition is not only non-productive....it is actually
destructive. It seeks to hinder, inhibit, restrict the fullest
possible experiencing of the 'now'.

So what are we offered as an alternative to this 'now', well,
of course, we are offered by the varying 'traditions' which are
the power control structures of established 'religions' the.....
then! This is ok except that there never is a 'then'. That which
is past is, at best, an over-romanticised perception of a non-participated
reality...that which is to come is a fantasised expectation that will never
be real-ised for as long as it remains a fantasised hope.
Only in 'the now' is there reality...for all else is simply conjecture.

Tradition serves it's culture, it's society. When it ceases to serve
and seeks to become master it has abandoned all claim for respect
or recognition.

At the time of Abraham, for example, human sacrifice was moderately
common amongst many tribes of the area. That's the 'tradition' Abraham
was following when he went up the mountainside with Isaac. Abraham's
own inner voice, the voice of his lovingness, spoke to him and told him
to sacrifice the goat caught in the brambles, not his own son. EEEEEEK!

Of course, that is not correct...he heard God's voice telling him, didn't he?

In the Oneness, precious ones, the difference between the two is only
in perception. The Christian doctrines speak of the 'indwelling God'. Many
faiths speak of the 'God within and the God without'. Well, I could get
into a long discussion about this........ but I will simply say......was it just
coincidence that Abraham 'heard' that voice there on the mountain top?
It was certainly a surprise....for the dearest wish of Abraham's lovingness
toward his own son was 'granted' and he broke with tradition, transgressed
the accepted norms!

I guess, in the final analysis, it doesn't matter that much whether it was
Abraham's imagination or ' God's intervention' ...or both(which it more likely
was).....the end result was a clear statement of love as opposed to a
cold statement of tradition.

Tradition is a statement of a past perception...a statement of a 'modified
codus'..it is not immovable. Tradition grew out of a perceived need. It's
branches did not, however, stop growing nor did the tree of progress
cease to bear it's fruits.

Whenever tradition fights against such statements of 'the lovingness', in
whatever religious or social structure it is found, it has nothing to do
with a perception of Unconditional love....a comprehension of the
limitless lovingness of the Oneness.

It speaks a dead language from a dead tree. Those who would
seek to defend tradition by not allowing it to blossom, mutate,
transmute.......... kill the tree.Had Abraham not 'broken with traditional
custom and practice' would there be a Jewish religion, a Christian
religion...and a few other religions...today?

There is a condition called the 'lovingness'...you could call it a
'tradition' if you wanted too...except that always, always
and in all ways, the lovingness is now and the lovingness
seeks every which way to speak to us of it's unconditionality.

It's minus 1 C out there and the chill factor of the strong wind
must add quite a good few extra minus degrees to that. But, it's
ok in here...I got the stove going....I have all that dead wood
to keep me warm and comfortable :):)

Hmmm..that is it's purpose, isn't it?

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