DINSDAG 1 JUNIE 2004
Selfkennis, identiteit en die Dalai Lama
Die “huidige” Dalai Lama was gebore as Tenzin Gyatso. Ses dekades gelede was hy driftig besig om net ’n gewone laitie te wees toe ’n paar monnike eendag opdaag en hom te vertelle het hy’s nie wie hy dink hy is nie, maar eerder die soveelste inkarnasie van iemand anders. Imagine dit.
[My gesprekke, werklik of andersins, met die Mormoonse sendelinge gaan terug tot in my eerste jaar in Taiwan toe twee welgeklede, skoongeskeerde jong Amerikaners elke Donderdag vir ’n paar weke ’n besoek afgelê het aan my woonstel. Hulle het gekom op uitnodiging – ek het hulle gesien een aand terwyl ek op my stoep gestaan en ’n sigaret gerook het, en siende dat daar nie toe veel ander Westerlinge in die omgewing was om mee te gesels nie, het ek die geleentheid aangegryp vir ’n teologiese geselsie. Ons gesprekke het die vorm aangeneem van vraag-en-antwoord: Ek het vrae gevra, hulle het probeer antwoord, ek het gereageer op hulle antwoorde, en toe hulle nie meer wou of kon antwoord nie, het ek namens hulle antwoorde uitgedink. Na ’n paar weke het die twee besluit om my eerder nie weer te besoek nie.
Op die betrokke Woensdag van hierdie stuk was ek per trein op pad terug na Fengshan toe twee blanke mans my gesigsveld betree: jonk, swart broeke, wit kortmouhemde met naamplaatjies op die een bors, skoongeskeer, kort hare. Ek het begin wonder wat ek sou sê, sou hulle naderskuif. Die reis het net so tien minute geduur; die gesprek sou derhalwe kort, en op die man af wees.]
Gesprek met Mormoonse sendelinge op die trein
(Wat nie plaasgevind het nie op Woensdag 2 Junie 2004)
“Hi.”
Ek knik my kop.
“Are you a teacher?”
“Yes.”
“How long have you been here?”
“Couple of years.”
“Have you heard of the Church of the Latter Day Saints of Jesus Christ?”
“There’s no point in me having this conversation with you.”
“Why?”
“Because you don’t know who you are.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean you know your names, and you know to which religious organisation you belong. But these are mostly things that you’ve been told about yourself during the first two decades of your lives. You haven’t really made any personal choices that would indicate to me that you truly know who you are.”
“We’ve chosen to follow Jesus Christ.”
“How could you have chosen something if you’ve never had any choices? Where did you grow up? Utah? Salt Lake City? If you were an Arab who grew up in a Muslim environment, with all the environmental data that would have given you an identity in that context, and you then chose the Church of Latter Day Saints above Islam … then you would have made a choice. So far you’re nothing but a human body carrying around a lot of data about yourself. These things – your physical appearance, your name, your language, where you come from, your nationality, and the fact that you are missionaries of a particular church – are all identifying marks that tell you and anyone else how you fit into your environment.
“You, sitting there, cannot tell me anything that you haven’t been told. Have you ever had an experience that could possibly undermine your beliefs? How can you know the truth about yourself or anything you believe in if you’ve never questioned the validity of the facts that you’ve been fed? What are your criteria for telling truth from a lie?
“I cannot have an intelligent conversation – about religion no less! – with someone who is nothing more than an emulator of other people in order to know how he should function as a human being.”
“How do you know what we think, or what we’ve experienced? I experience God every day …”
“Yes, you have experiences, and I’m sure you’ve been told how to interpret them. And the words you use to give expression to these experiences … are words that you did not invent, am I right?
“My station’s coming up. Listen, I cannot, in the final instance, judge the validity of your experiences. I do not claim to possess the powers of mind or spirit which would certainly be required to either confirm or refute the source of your experiences.
“If I made certain assumptions about you that are incorrect, please accept that I did so to make a point that might be applicable to your life, or it might not be. If my assumptions cannot in entirety be dismissed, then please consider it for a minute or so. Either way, have yourselves a good day.”
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