I have always kind of gone against the grain when it comes to person beliefs. When I was in high school everyone around me was Christian, so I became an atheist, but leaned toward Buddhism. When I was in college most people I knew were agnostic or atheist, so I claimed myself a LaVeyan Satanist. Now the big thing is Oriental religions (Taoism, Buddhism, Zen Buddhism), so I have gone back to Christian philosophy. I'm not a Christian anymore than I was a Buddhist, atheist, or Satanist, but I like the philosophy, and there is a lot to learn from it.
In general most people who aren't Christian have a scorn against the Bible. They may read it (many atheist claim the best way to become an atheist is to read the Bible), but they never reflect on it. Then again, many Christians do not read the Bible, which is a shame, as there is a lot to think about in it. One does not just read the Bible. You read, reflect, ponder, reread, analyze, and think about it some more. On the surface the Bible is very perplexing, dry, violent, scientifically inaccurate, and many times absolutely abhorrent. Eastern philosophy (i.e. Rig Veda, the Bhagavad Gita, I Ching, Dhammapada, et cetera) is more mystical, spiritually uplifting, and peaceful. The Bible holds many of the same things, but in an incredibly different way that is beyond the literal word. Let me try to express some of the similarly comparable ideas in Abrahamic Traditions and Oriental philosophy, and yet their different methods of approaching divinity.
Let's take the Book of Leviticus, which this girl expressed some distaste toward. Leviticus is very strict, and usually gives us a bunch of stuff we shouldn't do, most of which is considered "taboo," "unclean," and half the time punishable by death. I highly doubt it was punishable by death for picking up sticks on the Sabbath, even though this is exactly what Moses had done to an old man. Why do I think this? Adam and Eve didn't die for violating the one thing God told them not to do. The "death" was spiritual death, one that illustrates the end (or death, if you will) of innocence. If God wouldn't kill Adam and Eve, then why kill someone for picking up sticks, or for eating shellfish, or touching a dead pig?
In any religion it is important for something to be taken literally, even though those things should never actually be taken literally. Why? So we will take these things serious and not pass them off as metaphor. Those things being taken literally brings us closer to the divine as authentic. A person who sees transubstantiation as a metaphor doesn't feel the ritual is as authentic as someone who does believe the wine has turned into the blood of Christ and the bread into His body. Someone who takes the "miracle" or transubstantiation literally feels they are taking part in an actual miracle, and thus bringing themselves closer to that authentic moment when Christ broke bread with his apostles. For someone who takes this ritual literally has more spiritual experience than someone who takes it metaphorically.
That said let's go back to Leviticus. Leviticus is about maintaining a perfect body and mind. This is where the Eastern and Western cultures differ. Oriental philosophy, particularly in Buddhism, believes the body and mind are born imperfect, and that one must mature and grow spiritually. One must build perfection between mind and body. In Judeo-Christian thought the body and mind are already born perfect (save with the eternal mark of the Original Sin), and that perfection must be maintained. In Oriental thought one must meditate, contemplate, yoke the mind and body, and strive for a universal understanding of the self in conjunction with the universe. The Old Testament orders us to avoid unclean foods, spiritually unclean practices, and violating basic spiritual rites that might bring us closer to God. These are all things which were arbitrarily chosen as mechanisms by which God and His/Her people maintain a spiritual connection.
I used the word "arbitrary," because it is arbitrary. These practices and beliefs are just as arbitrary as yoking the body and mind (yoga), or that one must meditate to obtain Buddha Consciousness, or that divinity is a mystic pulsation of the spirit of the Universe in all things (Taoism). No practice is more valid or authentic than another, which makes them all equally valid.
Myth an metaphor are complex things. There are the very words we read in the context of the sentence, and then there is often another meaning that built into those words that have a higher meaning. This meta-language is never said outright, but is something that is culturally read into the words through some sort of mental/experiential/cultural framework. Take, for instance, the title of this post: Or-i(t)-(ai)nt an(d) (O)ccident. It is a double entendre of "Orient and Occident" and "Or it ain't an accident." Not the most clever thing in the world. But when placed in the context of this post we can start to think about a number of conceptual relationships between the East and West culturally, religiously, politically, et cetera. This is how myth works: we create new layers of meaning on top of literal interpretations.
Back to Leviticus. In the Orient one attempts to dissolve a dependence on words and categories. This practice is how one breaks down the boundaries between the self and the universe (God, Buddha Consciousness, the All, perfection, beauty, the authentic... call it whatever you want. It's all the same). This is how one becomes "one with everything." This is how they become closer to divinity. In the Occident we do things differently. We have a heavy dependence on reason, logic, and verbal understanding. Kant's Categorical Imperative has a large influence on our thoughts. If in the East we become closer to God through dissolving boundaries, then in the West we become closer to God through understanding these things as separate, yet universally related. This is the study of natural philosophy, science, Kabbalah, alchemy, and strict dogmatic adherence. It is the search for the sophia, or wisdom. Knowledge is dangerous (hence the Tree of Death), but with that knowledge we might gain wisdom, the same wisdom King Solomon hailed above all things. Yoga is the "yoking" of mind and body. Abrahamic Traditions treat mind, body, and spirit as separate, but they must equally be purified in order to maintain a spiritual connection to divinity, which are the laws of Leviticus.
Do we still need to follow Leviticus? If one chooses to do so, but not really. As long as one tries to maintain a spiritual connection to divinity in whatever way they see fit, then who cares. This may be done through no doctrine whatsoever, but done strictly through reason, logic, and studying empirical evidence. It is all a search of truth and authenticity. All I'm trying to say is that these incredibly different and divergent things share something in common (i.e. the search for understanding). And scorn toward the Bible is invalid. The Bible is valid because it is a different route toward the same thing.
I'm not doing this for any Christian agenda (I support no one's agenda, because no one supports mine). I'm doing it for the knowledge stored in the meta-levels of the Testaments. It takes a particularly dedicated person to practice yoga. It also takes a particularly dedicated person to study and follow the esoteric ideas in the Bible.
In the spirit of Thomas Mann I would like to give one last thought: the descent into Hell is meant to be the long and difficult journey that out of Hell leads up to light. Take that metaphor however you want.
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