| 1. Man is the son of an infinite source: a son of that Father not by the flesh but by
the spirit. 2. Therefore man should serve that source in spirit. 3. The life of all men has a divine origin. It alone is holy. 4. Therefore man should serve that source in the life of all men. Such is the will of
the Father. 5. The service of the will of that Father of life gives life. 6. Therefore the gratification of one's own will is not necessary for life. 7. Temporal life is food for the true life. 8. Therefore the true life is independent of time: it is in the present. 9. Time is an illusion of life; life in the past and in the future conceals from men
the true life of the present. 10.Therefore man should strive to destroy the illusion of the temporal life of the
past and future. 11.True life is life in the present, common to all men and manifesting itself in love. 12. Therefore, he who lives by love in the present, through the common life of all
men, unites with the Father, the source and foundation of life. That's Tolstoy's distillation of Jesus' teachings from "The Gospel in Brief". I have felt the same as you in the past, but when you look closely at some of these premises, they are more philosophical in nature rather than dogmatic. As a scientifically minded person, I have seen the unity of things, like in physics, where it does seem like there are some natural principles laid down. Or like in mathematics, where it seems like eternal truths are discovered, not manufactured. You can have a spiritual interpretation of this, or you can interpret it in whatever way you'd like. What I like about Tolstoy's rendering of Christ is that he basically rejects the stupid personification of God, and claims that Jesus didn't mean it that way to begin with, that the Church actually warped the teachings into a system of control. I don't even believe Jesus was a real person, but these principles do make sense to me (at least some of it does), maybe they will make sense to you. Or maybe it's just dogma to you. |