The Lion's Roar

by Euphemism 8 Replies latest jw friends

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  Euphemism

  Several posters have started threads recently about the difficulty of moving on from the Witnesses; the way the old emotions, and the old struggles, keep coming back. I've been feeling that way myself recently, and I just wanted to share something I read this afternoon. It's from A Path With Heart, by Jack Kornfield:

  There are stories about how the Buddha practiced when he was assailed by doubts and temptations. The teaching about his commitment in the face of his challenges is called "The Lion's Roar." On the night of his enlightenment, the Buddha had vowed to sit on his one seat and not get up until he had awakened, until he found a freedom and a joy in the midst of all things in the world. He was then attacked by Mara, the god who personifies all of the forces of aggression, delusion, and temptation in the mind. After flinging every force of temptation and difficulty at the Buddha to no avail, Mara then challenged the Buddha's right to sit on that spot. The Buddha responded with a lion's roar and called upon the Goddess of the Earth to bear witness to his right to sit there, based on the thousands of lifetimes of patience, earnestness, compassion, virtue, and discipline he had cultivated. At this, the armies of Mara were washed away.
  ...
  We each need to make our lion's roar--to persevere with unshakable courage when faced with all manner of doubts and sorrows and fears--to declare our right to awaken.

  What struck me is that all of us are here because we have roared. We stood up to internal demons--fear, shame, doubt--and external forces--criticism, shunning, even the loss of our most precious relationships--to declare our right to awaken. Our journey of spiritual and emotional healing may still have a long way to go. But we have proven that we are committed to the path, and that we have what it takes. We have already roared.
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  SixofNine

  hmmm, I find that euphemistic . My take would be that leaving the WT cult is more of a lambs roar. The lions roar needs to be reserved for the bigger picture, imo. Leaving the WT can be a springboard to that, or not. Or have I fubar'd your analogy?
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  Narkissos

  Hi Euph,

  Very interesting story and thought.

  Reminds me of several things. First of them Sören Kierkegaard's concept of "religious doubt". In Kierkegaard's typology, the person shifting from the "ethical" to the "religious stage" is especially assailed by this kind of doubt which is his/her deepest temptation: have I the right to surpass the "moral" condition of an individual subject to the common law? Is it not the worst act of pride and rebellion? Is it not exactly the way of the Devil?

  I can still remember this kind of vertigo when I was leaving the JWs (and after). No answer but an obscure kind of "faith" pushing you forward, in spite of doubt and fear.

  Interestingly, this mystical meditation (which in Christian thinking implies a sort of "God against God", the God of faith vs. the God of the Law) is echoed in Albert Camus' atheistic reflection on revolt as the philosophical ground of modern Western man. The person standing up in revolt (claiming his and the others' right which is actually denied) needs exactly the same kind of faith and faces the same kind of doubt.

  It's quite fascinating to see such an analogy (anachronistic as it may be) in this old buddhist story.
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  Euphemism

  Six... I guess my point is that for many of us, leaving the JWs was a big part of "the bigger picture". Personally, leaving the JWs is the most important decision I've ever made and ever will make. It wasn't just a choice of ethical systems or social milieus: it was a decision as to my way of life. But that does depend on where one already is in their journey when they leave.

  And yeah, I considered making the 'lambs' connection, but I didn't want people to think that the thread was only about survivors of sexual abuse (although of course, the transition often requires a special effort for them).

  Narkissos... fascinating stuff! (Although I would guess that you meant to refer to the shift from religious to ethical, rather than vice-versa?) Buddhism does seem to have developed the concept of individual moral entitlement earlier than the West.
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  logansrun

  Very true, Euphemism and a great story. There is a lot that is not all right with me at the moment, and I feel that I am behind other members of my own age group in some ways, but I still feel a very satisfying sense of accomplishment at having left the JWs. I asked one of my proffessors one time (sociology) how easy it is for someone to leave the religion of their upbringing. He said, "almost impossible."

  Well, we have done the "almost impossible." Here me roar.

  Bradley
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  RevMalk

  We made the 'Lambs Roar' connection at LambsRoar, but we're not just about survivors of sexual abuse (although that is our main subject line). But I know what you mean, by use of the term people automatically assume....

  I guess my point is that for many of us, leaving the JWs was a big part of "the bigger picture". Personally, leaving the JWs is the most important decision I've ever made and ever will make.

  me too!

  Rev
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  Narkissos

  Although I would guess that you meant to refer to the shift from religious to ethical, rather than vice-versa?

  No, I meant it this way: in Kierkegaard's typology the "religious" is the third and highest stage (following "aesthetical" and "ethical") of his "subjective dialectics" (which is built over against Hegel's objective dialectics). "Religious doubt" is what happens in the shift from ethical to religious, which implies a "teleological suspension of morals" (as is exemplified in Kierkegaard's commentary on Abraham attempting to sacrify his son)...

  Actually, I feel you can become truly "religious" in Kierkegaard's sense in the process of stepping out of "religion" in the general sense of the term. Of course it's just a possibility among many.
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  Euphemism

  I haven't read any Kierkegaard (obviously), so please pardon my ignorance. So is this "religious" state, for Kierkegaard, something that's based on a mystical "knowing" of God?
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  Narkissos

  I'm not sure Kierkegaard would have accepted the adjective "mystical" -- he was a post-hegelian Lutheran, committed to a religious and intellectual tradition which thought of itself as distinct from middle-ages and Catholic mysticism... yet his philosophy objectively carries a measure of mysticism.

  I came across Kierkegaard after I left the JWs; his thought certainly helped me through theology (he was actually a central influence to great theologians as different as Karl Barth and Rudolf Bultmann). I would now consider his work as the "swan song" of Christianity at the dawn of modern criticism (which he rejected, as well as mainstream orthodoxy). No wonder he is claimed by every kind of so-called "heirs", from traditionalist Catholics to atheistic existentialists (as a Google search on his name quickly shows). A great thinker anyway, which I'm sure you'll appreciate even from a critical standpoint. Don't neglect his Journal (Diary?) which is a fascinating counterpoint to his philosophical and religious works...