Sunday 6 September 2020

I'll Stay Home

 


I do not like the shape of your temple.

The doors and arches are too narrow

the steps are too high, the halls aren’t ample

it thrusts me aside, it does not invite

something about it doesn’t feel quite right

the pillar’s all wrong, the walls don’t seem strong

the chants don’t carry the public along

and the whole foundation’s shallow.

I think I’ll stay home. I’ll look for my deity

in some other place outside your city

less discriminatory, with a kinder story,

where exclusivity isn’t mandatory

and anyone can come and go.


13 comments:

  1. Hari Om
    ...I'll join you, if I may... YAM xx

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  2. Echoing Yam.
    I so often find my cathedrals outside, with no walls to confine them.

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    Replies
    1. Totally with you there. Nature makes the best places of worship.

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  3. I'm with you absolutely. A sunrise or a sunset will do the trick

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    Replies
    1. Oh yes the best possible spiritual environment, that. The heart automatically drops to its knees.

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  4. It's not the building, it's the people, and where they gather in God's name is church even if not in a building.

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    1. Exactly! the surroundings don't matter. 'He prayeth best who loveth best all things great and small.'
      If someone has hate in his heart for his fellow men, I don't see how any building can help him reach God.

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  5. Hi Nila - you have some wise commenters ... couldn't disagree with you or them ... we are our own cathedral - safe within ourselves ... being wise with our thoughts ... take care - Hilary

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    1. Hi Hilary, so in agreement with you - our hearts/consciences are our own architectures of devotion, nothing can be more solid, more hallowed than that.

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  6. Wow. Stunning prose.
    www.rsrue.blogspot.com

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  7. Reminds me of my decision at 16, not to join the church I'd grown up in. A racist environment. Amazing how religion can be even more exclusionary than society. Beautifully said!

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    Replies
    1. Organised religion has always been discriminatory, but in recent years the environment in India has become even more toxic.

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