Against Ignorance and Apathy

A Stand Against Ignorance and Apathy

By John Taylor; 25 January, 2006

I awoke this morning with a heavy question on my mind: "What is the
difference between ignorance and apathy?" After much heartache and
hairsplitting I finally came up with an adequate answer: I do not know
and I do not care. Later, I said the daily obligatory prayer and I had
a change of heart. I had borne witness that God created me to know and
to worship Him, so my purpose has got to be the reverse of ignorance
and apathy. It has to be to know and to care, to recognize and to have
concerns. Knowledge and love work separately, but together, like,
well, the wings of a bird or the legs of a wombat. Or the legs of a
person, for that matter. Muhatma Gandhi on his famous salt march had
his followers sing a Bhajan by Narasimha Mehta, a 15th century
Gujarati Bhakta, the words to which went like this:

"He only can be called a Vaishnava who feels the sufferings of others
as his own."

I am not entirely sure what a Vaishnava is, but I think you could
substitute "Baha'i" or "follower of `Abdu'l-Baha" for Vaishnava and it
would probably fit without much squeaking. Similarly this, from the
oldest Hindu scripture,

"Truth is one, sages name it variously." (Reg Veda 1.164.46)

This persuaded some Hindus in the 19th Century that their faith is in
fact monotheistic at heart. Certainly this could be read at any Feast
without the slightest incongruity. The only kind who would object are
those who hold their faith cards too close to their chests, like the
evangelistic preacher I heard at a church on Inman Road in Dunnville a
few years ago, who had the children (including my Silvie) sing a
rendition of the verse, "I am the way, the truth and the life, no man
cometh unto the Father save by me." He then shouted at his flock,

"Do not accept anyone who says that truth is like a mountain with many
paths up to the summit. Jesus is the way, the path. There is only one
Path that will get you there, and He is It."

This exclusionist, anti-mountain attitude to truth contrasts starkly
with the eclectic spirit of China in the time of Christ. At that time
everyone was borrowing from one another in a veritable orgy of
syncretism. It was then that the Great Appendix of the Yi declared,

"In the world there is one purpose, but there are a hundred ideas
about it; there is a single goal, but the paths toward it differ."

I especially like the illustration in "Introducing Eastern Philosophy"
that goes along with this quote from the Great Appendix. It shows a
soccer field with many lines where the ball can possibly be kicked by
any of several players into the goal. Many paths, one goal. Of course,
as far as I know soccer had not been invented in the year 0 CE, but
the image is still striking. Maybe truth is like that, even easier
than a mountain summit, maybe it is a pair of soccer posts between
which we all have to work together to kick the ball. If so, Jesus can
still be the goal posts, the way, truth and life, albeit the pastor
may abhor it. Or, for that matter, maybe truth is even harder to
avoid, maybe we are spiders caught in a sink or bathtub drain. We try
to grip that slippery porcelain in a furious bid to escape, when the
goal is down there in the drains somewhere.

So the real question is, is truth a mountain summit, a soccer goal, or
a sink hole? Or is it all three at the same time? We all have a
physical nature, a body trying to fill its appetites in full freedom,
like our friend the Marquis de Sade. de Sade is the spider in the tub
sliding toward the drain but doing its best to escape to the freedom
that is slavery. At the same time that the higher self mounts the
summit and plants its flag at exactly the moment when the spider of
self is sucked into the drain to its doom. Meanwhile, in the social
soccer stadium, someone on your team scores; maybe it is you, maybe
another team member, it does not matter. The goal is one, the ways in
are infinite. Consider what the Master said,

"Consider the virtues of the human world and realize that the oneness
of humanity is the primary foundation of them all." (Abdu'l-Baha,
Baha'i World Faith, 245)

In the spirit of work as worship, and worship as work, let us continue
with our excerpts from Zenophon's Memorabilia of Socrates, this time
from Book II, Part VIII.

At another time chancing upon an old friend whom he (Socrates) had not
seen for a long while, he greeted him thus.

Soc. What quarter of the world do you hail from, Eutherus?

The other answered: From abroad, just before the close of the war; but
at present from the city itself. You see, since we have been denuded
of our possessions across the frontier, and my father left me nothing
in Attica, I must needs bide at home, and provide myself with the
necessaries of life by means of bodily toil, which seems preferable to
begging from another, especially as I have no security on which to
raise a loan.

Soc. And how long do you expect your body to be equal to providing the
necessaries of life for hire?

Euth. Goodness knows, Socrates--not for long.

Soc. And when you find yourself an old man, expenses will not
diminish, and yet no one will care to pay you for the labour of your
hands.

Euth. That is true.

Soc. Would it not be better then to apply yourself at once to such
work as will stand you in good stead when you are old--that is,
address yourself to some large proprietor who needs an assistant in
managing his estate? By superintending his works, helping to get in
his crops, and guarding his property in general, you will be a benefit
to the estate and be benefited in return.

I could not endure the yoke of slavery, Socrates! (he exclaimed).

Soc. And yet the heads of departments in a state are not regarded as
adopting the badge of slavery because they manage the public property,
but as having attained a higher degree of freedom rather.

Euth. In a word, Socrates, the idea of being held to account to
another is not at all to my taste.

Soc. And yet, Eutherus, it would be hard to find a work which did not
involve some liability to account; in fact it is difficult to do
anything without some mistake or other, and no less difficult, if you
should succeed in doing it immaculately, to escape all unfriendly
criticism. I wonder now whether you find it easy to get through your
present occupations entirely without reproach. No? Let me tell you
what you should do. You should avoid censorious persons and attach
yourself to the considerate and kind-hearted, and in all your affairs
accept with a good grace what you can and decline what you feel you
cannot do. Whatever it be, do it heart and soul. Study to make it your
finest work, the expression of a real enthusiasm. There lies the
method at once to silence fault-finders and to minister help to your
own difficulties. Life will flow smoothly, risks will be diminished,
provision against old age secured.

--
John Taylor

badijet@gmail.com