At the root of violence in the world is the loss of identity. But how can identity be attained when identity is confused with an assumed identity? Identity is confused with an assumed identity when desire 'to be' overtakes the reality of being 'what is'. Where is the reality of 'what is' when there lies deep within humanity the desire to become God. Where is true identity when the desire to become God is behind all choices and determinations and is the very basis of human thought, dreams, and aspirations? Where is reality when the desire to become God establishes life cycles, patterns, customs, alliances, and the very structure of created life? Where is true identity when the desire to become God determines human behavior? This desire to become is rooted in consciousness and unconsciousness and in the collective consciousness and collective unconsciousness. Where is truth when every phase, every level, every step, is a piece of the unfolding of the movement to become God, as is every stage of evolution? Where is true identity when the desire to become God is the force of, the actuality for, and the perpetual search for Perfection? But what is Perfection anyway but being God? Where is truth anyway in desiring to become God? After all............Perfection and God are One.
What of the identity of God when the desire of humanity is to become God? Is God's identity affected by humanity's desire to change places? Does God retain God's identity or does humanity's desire determine God's identity? Does God not become lost in this goal of humanity's? Does God's identity not become confused in the eye of those desiring with that of the actual desire? After all, does anyone really believe that they could become God????????????And if they cannot become God does this not change God's identity to humanity's idea of God's identity with humanity's choices and determinations until God and humanity do, indeed, become One?
Let's move for a while from here to the somewhat historical, biblical accounting of the roots of the ancient Israel/Palestine conflict. The conflict is really all about the loss of identity, division, and violence. The patriarch, Abraham, in the book of Genesis sets out to possess the land that his God has given him. This land of 'Milk and Honey' is the site of today's Israel/Palestine. The story of Abraham lies at the root of the religious cultures of Judaism, Islam, and Christianity and the conflict still raging to this very moment in history. Throughout history many religions have developed and are based on these ancient beliefs. The gist of the Abraham story is that as patriarch of a huge, migratory, nomadic people, Abraham needed an heir. His wife had not born him a son and was now into her old age. An Egyptian slave was given to Abraham, he slept with her and upon the birth of a first-born heir/son was wedded to Abraham. The story neglects the fact that this particular nomadic culture permitted a man to have multiple wives. Now here we already have a story of division and the loss of identity and, if not the physical expression for violence, at least the desire. Let's begin with the women. The story shows that a wife's value was no more than that of a brooding mare. Wives had no value outside of childbearing. Secondly, the only child of value was a son. Women, throughout history, have been deprived of a human identity. If this isn't division according to power and vulnerability!......This is certainly a story of loss of identity in many facets such as marriage and slavery. These females had no identity other than that of the male that owned them. And what of the Egyptian slave? What Egyptian would ever have been humiliated into slavery to Canaanites? Did these women feel humiliated? Did they know who they were? Were they divided from having a true human identity? Were they angry and under other circumstances, freedom from like gender slavery, capable of violence? You bet they were! They had total loss of identity from loss of human identity to a personal identity, they had no real value as a human being, as a person of feeling, integrity, and intelligence. Their loss of identity, their separateness from intelligent humanity, their suppressed violence, is at the root of the story of loss of identity, division, and violence that mark Israel/Palestine today.
(This post will be continued at Post #129.)
BB
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