Categoria: Religião

Losing oneself to find oneself: the monk, the cat and the moon

Leonardo Boff1 comentário

Modern man has lost the sense of contemplation, of marveling at his reflection in the crystalline waters of a brook, of being filled with surprise at the starry sky, and being entranced by the brilliant eyes of a child who looks questioningly at him. Modern man does not know the freshness of an autumn afternoon and is incapable of being alone, without a car, the Internet, or television; without his sound equipment. He is afraid of listening to the inner voice, the voice that never lies, that gives us counsel, that applauds us, judges us and is always with us. What is profoundly true can only be well expressed, as the ancient wise men witness, through short stories and rarely through concepts. Sometimes when we imagine that we are lost, that is when we find ourselves. This story tries to communicate that to us: it is a challenge for us all.

This short story, written by my brother Waldemar Boff, who tries to live as the monks of the desert used to live, brings us back to our lost dimension. Waldemar, one of my 10 brothers, who studied in the United States, is now a peasant and an educator of the people. Waldemar writes:
«There was a hermit who lived well beyond the Iguazaim mountains, South of the Acaman desert. Some 30 fine years had passed since he had retired to that place. A few nanny goats gave him his daily milk and a plot of the fertile valley gave him bread. Near his cabin there was a grapevine. During the year, under the ceiling of palm fronds, the bees would build their hives.

“For 30 years I have lived here…”, Porfirio, the monk, sighed. “Some good 30 years…”. And, sitting on a rock, his gaze lost in the waters of the small stream that bounded among the pebbles, he stayed with this thought for long hours. “30 good years and I still have not found myself. I became lost for everything and for everyone, in the hope of finding myself. But I have lost myself irremediably!”.

The following morning, before sunrise, after the prayer of the pilgrims, with a frugal sack on his back and half torn sandals on his feet, he began walking towards the Iguazaim mountains. He always climbed the mountains when strange forces threatened to collapse his interior world. He would go to visit Abba Tebaino, the most elderly and wise hermit, father of a whole generation of men of the desert. Abba Tebaino lived under a large boulder, from which the wheat fields of the village of Icanaum could be seen far below.

“Abba, I got lost to find myself. However, I became irremediably lost. I know not who I am, nor what for or for whom I am. I have lost the best of myself, of my very own self. I have sought peace and contemplation, but I struggle with a phalange of phantoms. I have done everything to deserve peace. Look at my body, as twisted as a root, marked by so many fasts, rough shirts and vigils… And here I am, broken and weak, defeated by the weariness of the search”.

And deep into the night, under an enormous moon illuminating the profile of the mountains, Abba Tebaino, sitting at the door of the grotto, listened with infinite tenderness to the confidences of brother Porfirio.

Later, in one of those intervals where the words fall silent and only the presence remains, a tiny cat who had lived with Abba for many years, slowly came crawling up to his bare feet. The tiny cat mewed, licked the coarse ending of the sayal, made himself comfortable and began to contemplate, with his great childlike eyes, the moon that, like the soul of the just, silently climbed to heaven.

And, after a long time had passed, Abba Tebaino began to speak, with great sweetness:

“Porfirio, my dear son, you have to be like the cat; he searches for nothing for himself, but expects everything from me. Every morning he waits by my side for a crust of bread and some milk from this old wooden bowl. Later on, he comes and spends the day very close to me, licking my swollen feet. He wants nothing, searches for nothing, expects everything. He is availability. He is surrender. He lives for living, pure and simply. He lives for the other. He is gift, grace, gratitude. Here, lying close to me, innocent and ingenuous, he contemplates, as archaic as being, the miracle of the moon that climbs, enormous and blessed. The cat does not search for himself, not even for the intimate vanity of self-purification or the satisfaction of self-realization. That was irremediably lost for me and for the moon… That is the condition for being what one is, and for finding oneself”.

And a profound silence descended on the mouth of the great boulder.

The following morning, before the sun rose, the two hermits sang the matins psalms. Their praises echoed through the mountains and made the borders of the universe tremble. Then, they gave each other a farewell kiss. Brother Porfiro, with a small bag on his shoulders and half broken sandals on his feet, returned to his valley, the South of the Acaman desert. He understood that to find himself he had to lose himself in the purest and most simple gratitude.

And the people who lived in the neighboring village say that many years later, in the profound night of a full moon, they saw in the sky a great radiance. It was Porfiro the monk who was climbing, together with the moon, to the infinite immensity of the heavens, deliriously sprinkled with stars. He did not need to lose himself now, because he had definitively found himself forever».

Free translation from the Spanish by
Servicios Koinonia, http://www.servicioskoinonia.org.
Done at REFUGIO DEL RIO GRANDE, Texas, EE.UU.

Vivemos tempos de Noé

Leonardo Boff69 Comentários

Vivemos tempos de Noé. Pressintindo que viria um dilúvio, o velho Noé convocava as pessoas para mudarem de vida. Mas ninguém o ouvia. A contrário, “comiam e bebiam, casavam-se e davam-se em casamento até que veio o dilúvio e os fez perecer a todos”(Lc 17,27; Gn 6-9).

Os 2000 cientistas do IPCC que estudam o clima da Terra são nossos Noés atuais. O terceiro e último relatório de 13/4/2014 contem grave alerta: temos apenas 15 anos para impedir a ultrapassagem de 2 graus C do clima da Terra. Se ultrapassar, conheceremos algo do dilúvio. Ninguém dos 196 chefes de Estado disse qualquer palavra. A grande maioria continua a explorar os bens naturais, negociando, especulando e consumindo sem parar como nos dias de Noé.

Entrevejo três graves irresponsabilidades: a geral e a específica e supina ignorância do Congresso norte-americano que vetou todas as medidas contra o aquecimento global; a manifesta má vontade da maioria dos chefes de Estado; e a falta de criatividade para montar as traves de uma possivel Arca salvadora. Como um louco numa sociedade de “sábios” ouso propor algumas premissas. Se algum mérito possuirem, é o de apontarem para um novo paradigma civilizacional que nos poderá dar outro rumo à história. Ei-las:

1. Completar a razão instrumental-analítica-científica dominante com a inteligência emocional ou cordial. Sem esta não nos comovemos face à devastação da natureza e não nos engajamos para resgatá-la e salvá-la.

2. Passar da simples compreensão de Terra como armazém de recursos para a visão da Terra viva, superorganismo vivo que se autoregula, chamado Gaia.

3. Entender que, como humanos, somos aquela porção da Terra que sente, pensa e ama, cuja missão é cuidar da natureza.

4. Passar do paradigma da conquista/dominação ainda vigente, para o paradigna do cuidado/responsabiidade.

5.Entender que a sustentabilidade só será garantida se respeitarmos os direitos da natureza e da Mãe Terra.

6. Articular o contrato natural feito com a natureza que supõe a reciprocidade inexistente com o contrato social que supõe a colaboração e          inclusão de todos, insuficiente.

7. Não existe meio-ambiente mas o ambiente inteiro. O que existe é a comunidade de vida com o mesmo código genético de base,estabelecendo um parentesco entre todos.

8.Abandonar a obsessão pelo crescimento/ desenvolvimento pela redistribuição da riqueza já acumulada.

9.Devemos produzir para atender demandas humanas mas sempre dentro dos limites da Terra e de cada ecossistema.

10.Pôr sob controle a voracidade produtivista e a concorrência sem limites em favor da cooperação e da solidariedade pois todos dependemos uns dos outros.

11.Superar o individualismo pela colaboração entre todos, pois esta é a lógica suprema do processo de evolução.

12. O bem comum humano e natural tem primazia sobre o bem comum particular e corporativo.

13.Passar da ética utilitarista e eficientista para a ética do cuidado e da responsabilidade.

14.Passar do consumismo individualista para a sobriedade compartida. O que nos sobra, falta aos demais.

15. Passar da maximização do crescimento para a otimização da prosperidade a partir dos mais necessitados.

16. Ao invés de permanentemente modernizar, ecologizar todos os saberes e processos produtivos visando tutelar os bens e serviços naturais e dar descanço à natureza e à Terra.

17. Opor   à era do antropoceno que faz do ser humano uma força geofísica destrutiva, pela era ecozóica que ecologiza e inclui todos os seres no grande sistema terrenal e cósmico.

18. Valorizar o capital humano/espiritual inexaurível sobre o capital material exaurível porque o primeiro fornece os critérios para as intervenções responsáveis na natureza e alimenta permanentemente os valores humano-espirituais da solidariedade, do cuidado, do amor e da compaixão, bases para uma sociedade com justiça, equidade e respeito à natureza.

19.Contra a decepção e a depressão provocadas pelas promessas não cumpridas de bem-estar geral feitas pela cultura do capital, alimentar o princípio-esperança, fonte de fantasia criadora, de novas idéias e de utopias viáveis.

20. Crer e testemunhar que, no fim de tudo, o bem triunfará sobre a mal, a verdade sobre a mentira e o amor sobre a indiferença. Um pouco de luz poderá espancar uma imensidão de trevas.

Leonardo Boff escreveu Opção Terra: a solução da Terra não cai do céu, Record, Rio 2010.

Everlasting peace with nature and with Mother Earth

Leonardo Boff1 comentário

One of the more fertile legacies of Francis of Assisi, actualized by Francis of Rome, is the Prayer for Peace, which is so urgent at the present. Saint Francis initially greeted those he saw by wishing them, “Peace and Good,” which corresponds to the Biblical Shalom. The peace he longed for was not limited to interpersonal and social relations. He sought an everlasting peace with all aspects of nature, calling them by the sweet name of brothers and sisters.

Especially “sister and Mother Earth,” as he called her, was supposed to be embraced with the embrace of peace. His first biographer, Tomas de Celano, summarizes beautifully the feeling of fraternity with the world that filled him when he gave this testimony: «He was filled with ineffable delight every time he saw the sun, when he contemplated the moon, and turned his sight towards the firmament and the stars. When he encountered the flowers he preached to them as if they were endowed with intelligence, and invited them to praise God. He did that with innocence and moving tenderness: he exhorted the vineyards, the wheat fields, the stones and the jungles, the fields of the countryside and the current of the rivers, the beautiful orchards, the Earth, the fire and the wind, to be grateful».

This attitude of reverence and tenderness motivated him pick up slugs from the path, so that no one would step on them. He gave honey to the bees in winter, so that they would not die of hunger and cold. He asked the brothers not to cut the trees from the root, in the hope that they might grow again. Even the weeds had to have a place reserved in the gardens, so that they might thrive, because they also announce “the most beautiful Father of all beings.”

Only those who have listened to the symbiotic resonance within the soul, uniting the environmental ecology with the profound ecology, can experience this intimacy with all beings. Saint Francis never placed himself above things, but besides them, as one who truly coexists as brother and sister, discovering the parental links that unite all.

The Franciscan and ecological universe is never inert; things are neither placed there to be within the reach of the grasping hand of the human being, nor juxtaposed one alongside another, without coexisting with each other. Everything composes a grandiose symphony whose master is the same Creator; all things are animated and personalized. Francis discovered by intuition what we know now through scientific means (Crick and Dawson, deciphered the DNA): that all living beings are related, cousins, brothers and sisters, because we all possess the same basic genetic code. Francis experienced this blood kinship spiritually.

From this attitude was born an imperturbable peace, without fear and threats, a peace of one who always feels at home, with parents, brothers and sisters. Saint Francis totally realized the splendid definition The Earthcharter found for peace: «it is the plenitude created by correct relationships with oneself, with other persons, other cultures, other lives, with the Earth and with the main Whole of which we all are part» (n.16 f).

The supreme expression of peace, a fraternal coexistence and warm welcome to all persons and things, is symbolized in the well known story of the perfect joy. Through an artifice of imagination, Francis posits all types of injuries and violence suffered by two friars (one of them Francis himself). Rain-soaked and coated with mud, they arrive at the convent exhausted. There they are rejected with multiple blows (“beaten with a gnarled stick”), by the porter friar. Even though they had been recognized as friars, they are morally vilified and rejected as people of ill repute.

In the story of the perfect joy, that find parallels in the Buddhist tradition, Francis proceeds, step by step, to dismantle the mechanisms that generate the culture of violence. True joy lies not in self-esteem, or the need for recognition, in performing miracles, or in speaking in tongues. In its place Francis puts the fundamentals of the culture of peace: love, the capacity to endure contradictions, forgiveness and reconciliation beyond any presupposition or previous demand. When this attitude is lived, peace follows, a peace that is interior, inalterable, capable of joyfully coexisting with the harshest opposition, peace that is the fruit of a complete divestment. Are these not the first fruits of the Kingdom of justice, of the peace and love for which we so greatly long?

This vision of peace of Saint Francis represents another mode of being-in-the-world, an alternative to the mode of being of modernity and post-modernity, based on possession and disrespectful use of things for human pleasure with no other consideration.

Even though he lived more than eight hundred years ago, it is Francis of Assisi who is new, not us. We are old and are aged, because with our voracity we are destroying the bases that sustain life in our planet and endangering our future as a species. The discovery of the cosmic fraternity will help us overcome this crisis and will give back to us the lost innocence that is the childlike clarity of adulthood

Free translation from the Spanish by
Servicios Koinonia, http://www.servicioskoinonia.org.
Done at REFUGIO DEL RIO GRANDE, Texas, EE.UU.

Wenn die Große Drangsal einsetzt, wird die Erde endlich zur wohlverdienten Ruhe kommen

Leonardo Boff1 comentário

 

Die Überlegungen von Waldemar Boff*, der mit Kleinbauern in der Nähe des Flusses Surui in Baixade Fluminense (Brasilien) ökologische Landwirtschaft betreibt, erscheinen mir sehr passend.

Er schreibt:

“Niemand kennt mit Gewissheit den Tag noch die Stunde. Das liegt daran, dass wir uns, fast ohne es zu bemerken, schon mitten darin befinden. Doch es nähert sich mit wachsender Intensität und Klarheit. Wenn die große Katastrophe geschieht, wird sie uns wie ein unerwartetes Ereignis erscheinen.

Obwohl es sichere Daten gibt, die hinweisen auf die unvermeidlichen globalen Veränderungen infolge des Klimawandels mit Konsequenzen, die die Wissenschaftler noch zu erfassen versuchen und die sich sicherlich noch verschlimmern werden, lassen sich die Industrienationen und ihre Regierungen durch ihre wirtschaftlichen Interessen und ihre mangelnde Weitsicht davon abhalten, die notwendigen Maßnahmen zu ergreifen, um die Auswirkungen zu lindern und ihren Lebensstil an den fieberhaften Zustand der Erde anzupassen.

Wir können uns ein plausibles Szenario vorstellen, in dem Orkane ganze Regionen auslöschen werden. Gigantische Wellen werden Städte und Zivilisationen überschwemmen und sie an den Füßen von Bergen ihrem Tod überlassen. Ausgedehnte Dürreperioden werden dazu führen, dass alle Reichtümer der Welt gegen ein Glas schmutziges Wasser getauscht werden. Extreme Hitze und Kälte werden uns sehnsüchtig an die Erzählungen unserer Großmütter über nachmittägliche Brisen und abendliche Herdfeuer im Winter denken lassen, die stets vorhersehbar waren, sowie über Früchte, die in der Sommersonne heranreifen konnten. Die Menschen werden dann nur noch essen, um überleben zu können, und ihre Speisen werden von zweifelhaftem Geschmack sein.

Doch das wird noch nicht das Schlimmste sein. Die spindeldürre Mutter wird nicht in der Lage sein, ihre Tochter zu begraben, und der Enkel wird seinen Großvater für eine Brotkrume umbringen. Hunde und Katzen, des Menschen Freunde, werden überall als letzte Möglichkeit, den Hunger zu stillen, begehrt sein. Die Lebenden werden die Toten beneiden, und niemand mehr wird über den Tod von Kindern klagen. Hunger wird sich so weit ausgebreitet haben, dass, wie im besetzten Jerusalem, die Hungernden auf das nächste Hungertodopfer warten, um dessen schlaffes Fleisch zu essen.

„Euer Land wird zur Wüste und eure Städte werden zu Ruinen. … Dann hat das Land Ruhe und erhält Ersatz für seine Sabbate. Während der ganzen Zeit der Verwüstung hat es Sabbatruhe, die es an euren Sabbaten nicht hatte, als ihr noch darin wohntet.“ (Lev. 26,33-35)

Doch wird dies das Ende der ganzen Biosphäre sein? Nein. Für die Gerechten und Besonnenen wird Gott diese Tage abkürzen und nicht alles Leben auf Erden zerstören und damit sein Versprechen halten, das er unserem Vater Noah einst gab. Doch es ist notwendig, dass der Mensch durch diese Drangsal geht, um von seinem Egoismus zu erwachen und um zu erkennen, dass er Teil der Lebensgemeinschaft ist und deren hauptverantwortlicher Hüter.

Was können wir tun, um uns auf solche Zeiten vorzubereiten? Zuerst einmal müssen wir erkennen, dass wir bereits in diesen Zeiten leben. Wir wissen schon nicht mehr, wann Frühling und Herbst beginnen. Noch weniger können wir uns darauf verlassen, dass es warme und kalte Monate gibt. Wir wissen nicht mehr, wann es Regen oder Sonne gibt. Ebenso ist es wichtig, still zu werden, wachsam und aufmerksam und nach den Zeichen Ausschau zu halten, die die Beschleunigung des Wandlungsprozesses angeben. Und vor allem müssen wir umkehren, unsere Lebensgewohnheiten ändern, uns einer persönlichen Veränderung unterziehen, und zwar zutiefst und endgültig. Nur so werden wir die moralischen Bedingungen erfüllen, dies auch von anderen verlangen zu können. Doch wie schon zu Zeiten der Propheten werden nur wenige darauf hören, einige werden sich darüber lustig machen, und die meisten werden gleichgültig bleiben und sich alle Arten von Freiheiten wie zu Noahs Zeiten herausnehmen.

Wir sollten auch zu unseren Wurzeln zurückkehren, um einen Neubeginn zu machen, wie es die reuevolle Menschheit so oft getan hat, und erkennen, dass wir nur Geschöpfe sind, nicht die Schöpfer, dass wir untereinander Kameraden sind, nicht die Herren der Natur; dass wir uns notwendigerweise den großen Gesetzen des Lebens unterwerfen und aufmerksam auf die Stimme unseres Gewissens hören müssen, um glücklich zu sein. Wenn wir diese wesentlichen Gesetze befolgen, werden wir die Früchte der Erde ernten sowie die Freude unserer Seele. Befolgen wir sie jedoch nicht, so werden wir eine Zivilisation erben wie diese, in der wir gerade leben, voll Gier, Krieg und Trauer.

Für die kommenden, von Knappheit geprägten Zeiten müssen wir die althergebrachten Künste und Techniken wiedererlangen: pflanzen, aufbewahren, essen; für die Tiere sorgen und ihnen mit Respekt begegnen; Geräte und Eisenwaren mithilfe von lokaler Kunst und örtlichem Handwerk herstellen; Heilkräuter und nahrhafte Körner sammeln und pflanzen; Material zum Weben aufbewahren; Wasserquellen schützen, die richtigen Orte finden, um Brunnen zu graben, und lernen, wie man Regenwasser aufbewahrt. Wir müssen zu einer Ökonomie der Knappheit, der gemeinsamen Genügsamkeit und der blanken Schönheit kommen. Aus diesem zurückerlangten und bereicherten Wissen wird eine Zivilisation der Zufriedenheit erwachsen, eine Bio-Zivilisation der Erde guter Hoffnung.

Nach dieser tränenreichen und hoffnungsvollen Zeit werden wir die dummen Religionskriege, diese unerträglichen Streitereien um Götter, überwunden haben. Jenseits von Propheten und Traditionen, über Moralvorstellungen und Liturgien hinaus werden wir vielleicht wieder darauf zurückkommen, unter den vielfältigen Namen und Formen den einen, einzigen Schöpfer aller Dinge und Vater/Mutter allen Lebens in dem großen Geist verehren, der uns alle vereint und inspiriert, uns liebend in einer einzigen universellen Geschwisterlichkeit miteinander verbindet. Und wir werden schließlich in der Lage sein, alle Völker der Welt zu vereinen und ein wahres Parlament aller Religionen zu organisieren.“

*Waldemar Boff, in den USA diplomierter Philosoph und Soziologe, arbeitet mit dem SEOP (Servicio de Educación y Organización Popular = Bildungs- und Organisationsservice für das Volk) in La Baixada Fluminense zusammen.
übersetzt von Bettina Gold-Hartnack