Theology of Separation

A Theology of Separation is the root cause of most of our problems in society, the world and our own lives. It is a theology that says, in short, that we are separate from god, and must behave in certain ways to bring about a better outcome for ourselves. This theology, this description of the relationship between ourselves and the divine is the dominant theology world wide. It informs our cultures, our societies, our laws, our economies, our politics. It has been the dominant thought throughout the history of humankind.

To say it is a bankrupt theology would be an understatement. We remain, in the most prejorative use of the term, tribalistic. While great advances in science, technology and medicine have been gained under its sway, it has not elevated us beyond greedy and hateful behavior as a species.

We have remained collectively stuck in an immature state. We cannot ask to go back to an earlier, more bucolic time of human history -- even if such actually existed, but we can, and must, ask ourselves to move forward. Collectively we have moved forward, and we have made strides that have improved the lives of ourselves and others, but we have stopped well short of the mark.

The great engine of capitalism was also a great engine of human rights, but it was a tool on a stage of our collective growth. We are like a forty year old who cannot let go of his teenage glories on the grid iron. Yes, they were glorious, but that was a different time and the demands of glory were different then than they are today. Such a person must wake up, as must we, if he is to mature, and to adopt the responsibilities of his life.

It is not so much that we have a "culture of youth" in the West, as a communal agreement that the highest we can achieve, given our current theology, is a mid-teens maturity. The comparison is apt in many ways. Consider that our society is human created, and collectively we make up a great organism, rather like each of us being cells within the greater body. Our society, globally, is a teenager. In many ways it is an exciting time, our brains are literally incomplete, our sense of self assurance is huge, our invulnerability is nearly absolute. A teenager can take on the world, and by his point of view, can win. This is our society, it is a value system, and mostly, it is true of all of us, regardless of physical age.

We have struggled to stay 15 years old. That is not the end, not the goal.

Our goal is to realize fully, completely and natively a single truth:
We are not separate from the divine.

In Buddhism there are three roots of suffering: aversion, attraction and indifference. If we are able to weed these out of our lives we would be able to come to a state of being of unity.