How to Have a Good Next Life

HOW TO HAVE A GOOD NEXT LIFE
Seven Resolutions for a New Year

James Ishmael Ford

30 December 2007
First Unitarian Society
West Newton, Massachusetts

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Christ has no body now but yours, No hands, no feet, on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes through which He looks Compassion on this world Yours are the feet With which He walks to do good. Your are the hands With which He blesses all the world Yours are the hands, yours are the feet. Yours are the eyes, you are His body. Christ has no body now but yours, No hands, no feet on earth but yours Yours are the eyes, through which He Looks compassion on the world. Christ has no body now on earth but yours.

Teresa of Avila

With all the grace worthy of George Orwell’s dystopian fantasies, this year the State Administration for Religious Affairs of the People’s Republic of China issued Order No. 5 which outlines the procedures Tibetan Buddhists must follow if they want to have a tulku, that is a reincarnated lama, officially recognized. Not to put too fine a point on it this means if you want to reincarnate in China you need a government permit. Among the more cynical there is a suspicion the Chinese government is mostly concerned with how and where the Dalai Lama may choose to reincarnate upon his death, and who will control the new incarnation’s, how shall we call it, education.

For me this comes to mind in the context of the turning year. In two days 2007 is gone and 2008 is born. On the one hand this time is an accident of history, an arbitrary moment distinguished from any other moment by capricious fate through the calculations of clerics many, many years ago, based upon what frankly was bad data. That said, there is another hand: this is a time marked in our hearts, whatever its origins, which speaks to something true.

Here we are, faced with the great archetype of change. The only event more dramatic for the imagination is death itself. At this time of year I, for one, find it difficult not to think of birth and death and what next, whether there are bureaucratic forms to fill out (which must be evidence of a hell), or something else, all sorts of something else’s. My imagination is on fire. Here, now, all those stories of ancient times, of death and renewal bubble just beneath the surface. Here our ancestors whispered the stories of what might come next to their children. In time those children did the same with theirs. Down to us. In some cultures the stories are of heaven and hell. In others the stories are of continuous rebirths. Most all the stories speak to our connections, of how our past and our future are joined, meeting right here in this moment.

I’m particularly taken with that image of Janus; the god of passages, with his two faces looking back and forward at the same time, and the richness that conveys. Herman Hesse, a hero of my youth wrote of this experience, I feel, in his novel Siddhartha when he described how at a special moment the protagonist of the story “saw all these forms and faces in a thousand relationships become newly born. Each one was mortal, a passionate, painful example of all that is transitory. Yet none of them died, they only changed, were always reborn, continually had a new face: only time stood between one face and another.” I suggest we are each of us invited at this time to see this for ourselves.

Now I’m not terribly taken with literal visions of rebirth into some new place. The brain science, as I’m aware of it, doesn’t give me much hope for our personalities separating from our bodies. However, there is an invitation here, I feel. Along with the question of a creator God, the question of what happens after death ultimately belongs to the realm of “I don’t know.” Everyone’s opinion on this subject is an opinion. Perhaps the Chinese government will be diligent about this as temples apply for approval of their new tulkus. But, here’s a more important point. I want to suggest this not knowing itself is something most intimate. I suggest confronting the reality of death in its literal sense with relentless honesty takes us to a magical realm, a most amazing place, pregnant with dream and possibility. I’ll return to this for a bit, later.

And there’s another sense of this encounter that is equally important for us. What I find more important for our purposes today, what I find most important to think about, is whatever else might be true, how we also really are reborn with every breath. The multiplicities of who we are are constantly being revealed in new and mysterious ways. We are the children of change. Therefore, perhaps, most important, is to notice how our choices in this moment will indeed result in who we will be in the next. And with each New Year, our ancestors call us to reflect on this and what it can mean. This is something wonderful. I find this opportunity to change simply miraculous.

Which brings me to the idea of New Year’s resolutions, and how important they can be in helping us shape our next lives within this life. This, right here, is a moment in time where we are invited to stop and reflect and to commit to the shaping of new life, of new possibility.
In this context I find it helpful to reflect on various moral codes like the biblical Ten Commandments and the Buddhist Five Precepts. I believe they are best attempts of our ancestors to describe how to facilitate the best next life. I find how as I consider the calls to a moral life given by our ancestors I, and maybe we can inform a healthy and holy life for the future. Now the process demands attention and some critical assessments. We need to factor for time and place. We need to recall how things get mixed up, and some assumptions such as “purity codes” need to be weighed carefully and not swallowed whole. But by applying a “liberal” perspective, critical and engaged while at the same time open and welcoming, I think we can find much of value.

As an example today I’d like to reflect a little on a code you might not be familiar with, which I find reveals the whole thing, including deep wisdom and the need for careful parsing. While rummaging around the Web I came across a number of references to something called the Seven Laws of Noah or the Noahide code or covenant or commandments. They’re a set of rules for life put together, near as I can tell by Talmudic scholars inspired by Genesis, chapter nine, verses four through seventeen. I won’t quote the text here other than to note it took some serious creativity to find these seven laws in that bit of scripture. However tenuous their origins what the rabbis came up with as the rules written on our human hearts I find pretty compelling. In Jewish tradition they’re the rules God gives following the flood, and are considered the basic rules for all of humanity of whatever or no religious perspective, who wish to find the true rhythms of the human heart and a harmonious life in this world.

It turns out they are very popular with the Chabad movement and you can find several websites addressing the subject. It also turns out they’re of concern to the conspiracy minded, some of whom think they’re going to be the basis for the New World Order’s legal structures with a subtext of how the Noahide commandment against idolatry is intended to get rid of Christianity. I find it fascinating what knots the human heart can tie itself into when in the thrall of greed, hatred or various certainties.

The code is actually very interesting, and I believe, helpful for us to contemplate as we consider how to meet the New Year. I’ve found the ordering a bit different in different lists, but that doesn’t appear to be very important. They are in their more literalist form six don’ts, “don’t worship idols,” “don’t murder,” “don’t steal,” “don’t commit adultery,” “don’t blaspheme,” “don’t eat the flesh of living animals,” and one positive injunction “create a judicial system.”

If they’re worked a bit with that liberal heart, imaginatively, critically and creatively engaged, I think they can be amazingly useful. And they’ve become the basis for my New Year’s Resolutions. Perhaps you’ll find them helpful pointers, as well. Let me try to unpack them a bit and see if you wouldn’t agree.

First “don’t worship idols.” Personally, I don’t feel the need to destroy holy pictures or tear down statues. Frankly, I like our stained glass windows, and the angels here in the sanctuary that I understand my predecessor Gerry Krick liked to call the “flight crew.” I think of them and other sacred images in the sense that Orthodox Christians understand icons, as windows to heaven. I think this commandment is about something else. I find this a profound spiritual challenge to question all authority, a call to that profound “don’t know” I spoke of earlier. I suspect a good rule of thumb is to always question whether I’m making something into the supreme God of all. At the core of this the authority I’m most wary of is the one called “me.” This, I feel, is a call to the depths of the “don’t know.” So my first New Year’s resolution is to question all authority, particularly mine.

Second is “don’t murder.” Now that’s a bit easier, but only if we use the more narrow definition of don’t do any unlawful killing of fellow human beings. But what if the meaning of this commandment is more radical, more spiritual; is don’t kill? That makes it impossible and calls me to account for every step I take, for every bite of food I eat. My commitment this year, my second New Year’s Resolution, is to see how my very life depends upon the destruction of other forms of life. I suspect this is a call to caution, to hesitation, to gratitude.

Third is “do not steal.” What are the boundaries of my life? Really? What is mine and what is yours? Is this, as some political philosophies would have it, to mean “don’t tax me, what is mine is mine?” Or, does it have another sense of respect for boundaries however tenuous and passing they may be, and holding things with love and respect? Is it a call to respect for everything within its passingness? Well, that’s what I commit to try and do this year as my third New Year’s Resolution.

Fourth is “do not commit adultery.” Good enough. It is, of course, important to honor our covenants with each other. But here I feel a deeper possibility of creative engagement as well, where this is really about understanding who we are as sexual beings, seeing that our very sexuality is heaven-sent, and that honoring who we are as we are is essential to our living holy lives. And that project is my fourth New Year’s resolution.

Fifth, “don’t blaspheme.” As a modern what does this mean? Does it mean eliminating “god” and “damn” from conventional conversation? Perhaps. That would be an interesting spiritual discipline for those of us brought up after the Second World War where potty mouth has become the coin of the realm. But, again, I think a liberal perspective is particularly useful. What would it be like if I only spoke with respect for the world and all within it? Could I even do that? As I think of our current Federal government, I see how hard this would be for me. But, again, for the sake of my next life this next year, I’m going to explore this as my fifth New Year’s resolution.

Sixth, that “not eating the flesh of living animals.” I don’t really think this means I shouldn’t eat raw oysters, although it might. Still, I think the liberal and deeper meaning is a call to respect the life of the world, to hold up the natural world as heaven itself, and to act as if that statement were the truest true. Now that’s an interesting discipline I’m going to try and hold myself to as my sixth New Year’s resolution.

And last, number seven, the literal form is “establish a judicial system.” The other rules are framed negatively, even though it’s pretty obvious what their positive attributes are. This one says flat out: do something. It seems so obvious to me that this is a call to work for justice. What a lovely thing. Here the rubber hits the road, here the ideal and the actual join like that proverbial box and its lid. Here we find completion, the meeting of heaven and earth, and without a doubt rebirth into the Western paradise. And that work is my seventh resolution.

Well, those are my New Year’s resolutions. What about you? Where do you hope to be reborn this coming year? Where will your choices, thoughts and actions take you? By the bye, you don’t need a government permit to do any of this. The choice really is in your own hands. And that, my friends, is something I find to be good news, really good news.

Amen.