My Ten Commandments

 

 

My Ten Commandments

 

I have long had issues with this pivotal Abrahamic text, mostly starting with George

Carlin's observation that the first four commandments are to be nice to God and the

remaining six are telling us not to be assholes.   And that's my problem.  The Ten

Commandments are mostly telling us what NOT to do, but not what to do to achieve

our goal at the center of the Maze. 

 

My first two commandments come from Jesus himself: 

³⁷ Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all 

thy soul, and with all thy mind.    ³⁸ This is the first and great commandment. 

³⁹ And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.   

⁴⁰ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

                                                                                             (Matthew 22:37-40)

 

And the remaining eight commandments are from Buddha:

 

Right View

Right Resolve

Right Speech

Right Conduct or Action

Right Livelihood

Right Effort

Right Mindfulness

Right samadhi (meditation) 

 

(For details see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noble_Eightfold_Path) 

 

Instead of focusing on a lot of "thou shalt nots" Buddhism focuses on the positive thought

and action leading a seeker to make the right decisions while moving through the maze. 

 

Wicca has only two commandments:

 

(1)   An it harm none, do what thou will

(2)   Everything you do returns threefold 

 

Evilangelicals focus nearly exclusively on sexual issues, including racial mixing, abortion

and contraception, same-sex relationships and gender dysphoria, but other than adultery

nothing sexual made the big Ten -- ok, maybe we can add coveting thy neighbor's ass -- but

apparently the sex stuff just wasn't that important on Mount Sinai.  

 

Jesus also didn't have much to say on who we can exclude and condemn.  “A new command

I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another"  (John 13:34)  

No mention about checking their ID or looking in their pants or following them to the 

toilet.  The problem here is that many people only look at what was said and not at what was 

NOT said.  

 

It should be simple to understand this command, and yet to date we have had nearly 2000 of 

bigotry, hatred and cruelty toward those who do not conform.  We have yet to see an actual Christian society that emulates the spirit and character of Jesus.   What passes for a "true

Christian community" is usually an isolated pocket of believers who may be very Christlike 

within the confines of their domain, but can not abide any contact with those outside their

walls.   In reality, their faith just isn't that strong.  It can not withstand contradictions and

frequently opts for answers that can't be questioned rather than questions that can't be

answered. 

 

Life is for living, not for hiding within the safe confines of one's own beliefs.    Free will 

implies choice and it is meaningless if the righteous outlaw 50% of the options.  You can

not advance to the center of the Maze without facing choices and having the courage to 

make the right ones.