I read a lovely poem the other day.
I didn’t realize it at first, of course. But it was after I finished analyzing that last line, sat back and smiled, that I came upon this ‘enlightenment.’ Well, not enlightenment, more of a playback. Reading Blake's poem "The Divine Image" was like reading a third person's account of my own beliefs of God that, no, aren't necessarily religious, but are more spiritual.
In truth, my mother told me about her own theories of religion; I didn’t come up with a philosophy on my own. I’ve always been confused throughout my high school years when I hear people talking about/preaching about their religion, be it through Christianity, Buddhism, Judaism, etc. etc. They seem to know so much about their spiritual roots, and for a while I wondered why my mom didn’t do the same for me. She’s a devout Muslim–she prays 5 times a day, washes her face and arms 5 times a day, fasts 30 days every year for Ramadan…everything short of blowing something up (ha ha). Does she not think I’m able to handle a religion, or that there isn’t hope for me? (My dad doesn’t care about that sort of stuff. I’m a lot like my dad.) A couple of years ago, when I finally had the nerve to ask her why I don’t really practice a religion, she simply told me, “You don’t have to.”
This didn’t help.
“But I know nothing about Muhammad! I learned about my religion through AP World! I don’t even know who Adam and Eve are!” (That’s a truth–I didn’t know about that whole creation story until it was mentioned in Frankenstein for the senior summer reading assignment. I am currently a senior.) And then she looked into my eyes and told me, “Religion isn’t about whether you are a Christian, Jew, or Buddhist. Or atheist. It’s only about God. Don’t all those religions have a God? Do they not mean the same thing?”
I frowned. “Atheists don’t believe in God.” She asked me what God was, and I went silent. I didn’t know. A man that sits on a chair in the sky. No, that’s not right, lots of men (and women-gasp!) do that already, that’s what airplanes are for. I didn’t know.
And that’s when my mom told me the most crucial and insightful advice that I still keep close to my heart (besides marrying a rich Arab oil monopolizer for the monies)– “God is made in man’s image. If we strive to be with God, we only strive to be kind, caring, loving, and patient. Any good Christian, Buddhist, or Atheist would want to be these things to be happy in life. You already had all these things from a young age; from that point, I had nothing else to teach you.”
I was still confused. Keep in mind, I was a sophomore at this time, things never made sense to me as a sophomore. My mom continued, “For as long as you keep being these things, you will believe in God because you believe in yourself and those around you. God is within you. For as long as you can believe that, nothing will stop you.” Then she left to yell at my dad for not washing the dishes.
It took a good long while for me to figure this out, but it profoundly changed me as a person. For one thing, my lack-of-religion doesn’t bother me as much (hooray). I’m a lot more grounded as a person–or maybe I was all along, but never realized it. And when we read the William Blake poem, it just brought back this particular memory of how I became a devout spiritual believer (but not in the obvious sense, of course).
So, really, the whole point of this post is that Blake put into poetic words what I never could when someone asks me "What do I believe in?" I'm seriously starting to keep a pocket-version of "The Divine Image" around so I can recite it whenever someone asks. The four critical characteristics of religious association--"Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love"--are not only the goals that a religious person follows; they should be the ideals that everyone follows. It's ridiculous to say that I'm not a peaceful person because I'm not a [insert faith here]. Rather, it's much better to be these things for the sake of being human, for isn't that what separates us from other organisms? This idea of being superior in intellect? Thus, to be human is to embody these four spiritual (not religious) elements. If Blake believes that this is his idea of God, and you embody these things, then congratulations. You believe in God.
If You Believe in God, You Believe in Yourself
ReplyDeleteTia, you make a very interesting, logical and valid point. As humans, we "all pray in our distress" to "Mercy, Pity, Peace and Love," and if God lies in these elements, then it follows that all humans believe in God (Blake 1,2). But my question is - is THAT the point?
William Blake’s poem, “The Divine Image,” argues that in a time of difficulty, men begin turning to a greater force, namedly God, to seek some relief. However, what men don’t realize is that “Mercy has a human heart, /Pity a human face,…/Love, the human form divine,/ And Peace, the human dress,” which implies that without realizing it, we humans pray to ourselves for a release (Blake 9-14). We think we believe in God – in reality, we believe in ourselves. In essence, the “problem” does not lie in finding believers in God – that there are plenty of. What our world lacks is a prevalence in the belief of the self.
I agree with you, Tia. I, too, am more of a spiritual person than a religious one. My domestic atmosphere is a little different to yours – I am exposed to both the ideals of a religious person (my dad) and those of a spiritual one (my mom). With regard to my dad, I find that he is unable to deal with the challenges and adversities that life throws at you because he cannot see why God would do something like that him. Why would the father of all wish a sorrow upon one of his children? This view is further advanced because my father prays for an hour everyday – so, why oh why would God place any hardship in my father’s path, neither he nor I can understand. In my mother’s case, I know her to be a strong and reasonable woman. She believes in altruism and a strong sense of morality – she holds nobody but herself accountable for her happiness and/or sorrow. I find that this mindset rids one of a potentially large amount of negativity in his or her life, for one bears no grudges, one points no fingers, one deals with it. With life. With oneself.
I think Blake suggests a merging of my parents’ beliefs. He mentions that man prays to the “human form divine,” which incorporates elements of both God and man (Blake 15). This is what I most adhere to in my life. It is always reassuring to know that at some, exhaustive point, after you have done your very best, you can throw your hands up in the air and leave the rest to a given higher force. For every other time, you have yourself to believe in – your vices, your strengths, your luck, your fate. That sense of autonomy instills a drive in oneself, and at least for me, such motivation is invaluable – I would be depressed and limp without it. In this sense, Grendel is kind of my role model; I mean, he believes he created the whole dang universe “blink by blink.” He finds immense pleasure in this egocentrism, and he has no real regrets. But you see, he is alone too. So, what if he did believe in God too? I think he’d be my idol.