Darth Dane

A chickpea leaps almost over the rim of the pot
where it�s being boiled.

"Why are you doing this to me?"

The cook knocks him down with the ladle.

"Don�t you try to jump out.
You think I�m torturing you.
I�m giving you flavor,
so you can mix with spices and rice
and be the lovely vitality of a human being.
Remember when you drank rain in the garden.
That was for this."

Grace first. Sexual pleasure,
then a boiling new life beings,
and the Friend has something good to eat.

Eventually the chickpea
will say to the cook,
"Boil me some more.
Hit me with the skimming spoon.
I can�t do this by myself.

I�m like an elephant that dreams of gardens
back in Hindustan and doesn�t pay attention
to his driver. You�re my cook, my driver,
my way into existence. I love your cooking."

The cook says,
"I was once like you,
fresh from the ground. Then I boiled in time,
and boiled in the body, two fierce boilings.

My animal soul grew powerful.
I controlled it with practices,
and boiled some more, and boiled
once beyond that,
and became your teacher."





A story by Rumi

The Naked Mage

So, DD, you're saying that God boils the life out of us in a metaphorical wok, then serves us up to be eaten and excreted?

I'm sold!

By the way, tell Rumi to decide whether he wants to write a culinary story or a farm animal story before he sits down at the ol' Smith-Corona.

Darth Dane

So, DD, you're saying that God boils the life out of us in a metaphorical wok, then serves us up to be eaten and excreted?


"....

My animal soul grew powerful.
I controlled it with practices,
and boiled some more, and boiled
once beyond that,
and became your teacher."

McNamara

Hmm...interesting story, Darth, but I think I'll focus on Seebs' excellent post.

From Job's point of view, God's motives are hidden. He doesn't have any reason to hang on but his faith, and for all he knows, there may be some greater good that is accomplished by his suffering.

Unfortunately for the writer of Job, he lets his readers in on the secret that God is merely doing this to prove a point to Satan. He allows Satan to harm the innocent people around Job, just so he can say "I told you so" when Job remains steadfast.

Perhaps God is planting the seeds of doubt in Satan's mind. If the end result of this is to make Satan repent (which would presumably end evil in the world) then it is a worthy goal. Besides, God brings the innocent people back to life. But Job had no way of knowing it would turn out alright for his loved ones; for all he knows, they're dying for nothing. It seems that Job hangs on to his belief out of stubbornness, not out of any moral principle. Even Biblical morals would call God's actions in the book wrong, and Job would know this. Of course, God is allowed to break his own rules. He is above morality, even though he supposedly created it.

To me there seems to be no moral message in the story; the message is to follow God no matter what. That's all well and good from the perspective of the book's writer, but in a secular society the book is devoid of any useful ethical lesson. It makes for good songwriting material, though.

DrJim

I've often wondered about Job, and I suppose it was intended to be a book to be wondered about. There is the "pat" institutional answer at the end, but as I've mentioned in another threat, I don't think it is really intended as the "final word". Indeed, it actually leads one back to the beginning of the book.

The apparent arbitrariness of life is heaped up on a morally ambivalent or ambiguous God at the end: Job's "friends" cannot prove Job to be a sinner, there is no rationality for Job's suffering. Yet, the poor sap clings to his faith. Yet, there is something else going on in the book: Job's objections to God at times border on blasphemy. He challenges God, and, although God is pretty mad at him at the end, he does not zap him. I think the book is intended to help the faithful express all the confusion and rage at horrible circumstances. Job becomes a "canonical" model of how to be mad at God, even if it is telling folks, in the end to be at peace with what comes your way. At issue is not a philosophical treatese on God's righteousness, but the expression of human emotion. As an artistic expression from within a religious world view, I still say the book is one of the masterpieces of world literature.