When tradition is thought to state the way things really are, it becomes the director and judge of our lives; we are, in effect, imprisoned by it. On the other hand, tradition can be understood as a pointer to that which is beyond tradition: the sacred. Then it functions not as a prison but as a lens.
Interpretation
Tradition can restrict us or guide us, depending on how we interpret it.
This quote by Marcus Borg emphasizes the dual nature of tradition. When we regard tradition as an absolute truth, it can confine and limit our understanding and choices in life. However, if we view tradition as a guide or 'lens' that points towards deeper truths or the 'sacred', it can liberate us and enhance our perspective, allowing us to explore beyond established norms.
In practice
In a speech addressing generational change, one might say, 'Tradition can be viewed as a lens to understand our past, rather than a cage that binds us.'
So, is there an afterlife, and if so, what will it be like? I don't have a clue. But I am confident that the one who has buoyed us up in life will also buoy us up through death. We die into God. What more that means, I do not know. But that is all I need to know.
One of God's central qualities is compassion, a word that in Hebrew is related to the word for "womb." Not only is compassion a female image suggesting source of life and nourishment but it also has a feeling dimension: God as compassionate Spirit feels for us as a mother feels for the children of her womb. Spirit feels the suffering of the world and participates in it. . . .
The point is not that Jesus was a good guy who accepted everybody, and thus we should do the same (though that would be good). Rather, his teachings and behaviour reflect an alternative social vision. Jesus was not talking about how to be good and how to behave within the framework of a domination system. He was a critic of the domination system itself.
Action hangs, as it were, dissolved in speech, in thoughts whereof speech is the shadow; and precipitates itself therefrom. The kind of speech in a man betokens the kind of action you will get from him.
We kill each other over which name to call the Nameless.
Total peace after death, becoming someone else, is the best hope I've got.
We take a handful of sand from the endless landscape of awareness around us and call that handful of sand the world.
Every parting gives a foretaste of death, every reunion a hint of the resurrection.
God himself does not give answers. He gives himself.
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