Daily Devotions

I'm guessing that many of you are familiar with the Christian phenomenon of the “devotional.” The word devotional, is kind of puzzling, since, although it's clearly a noun, it seems to originate from some fuzzy space between adverb and adjective. Oh, well. A devotional usually has some title targeting its intended audience, like God's Daily Promises for Teens! (I'm sure that there is a devotional called this. I'm not singling anyone out, I just pulled it out of my head.) An entry might go like this:

June 15^th

or

Thursday June 15^th, 2006

or

Day 57 (that is, 57 days after you bought the devotional):

God would never give anyone the desire to do something without giving them the capabilities to achieve it.

“Some Bible verse that only marginally touches upon something close to this topic” Book 5.39

And then some story or anecdote or a flat out explanation of what today's promise entitles you to. I came across the one above years ago, when I was 14 and a brainwashed Jesus freak, either in my own teen devotional or in one of my Jesus freak aunt's Bible study workbooks. I held on to this little gem without even thinking to check the Bible to see if that's what God really meant, because when I was 14 I wanted to learn to play the guitar and become a rock star, and this fit just fine with my world view. Well, either I just didn't “want it” enough, or this is total crap, as is evidenced by the surrounding world, in which I am not a rock star. (If you disagree, you can take a look at your friendly local ghetto, chock-full of shit-poor people who REALLY wanted to be things like “Rap Stars” or “Above The Poverty Line”.) This “promise,” as far as I can tell, started out as capitalist ideology before becoming assimilated into wishy-washy Christian culture. The promise is nice, but if the promisee fails, the blame can easily (and willingly) be foisted off on him or her, not God or Capitalism.

Here is an amusing comparison. (Which I just made up.)

The Buddha's Daily Promise for Teens!

June 15^th

You can't believe something just because I, or any other being seeming to be farther along the path, told you it was true.

The truth indeed has never been preached by the Buddha, seeing that one has to realize it within oneself. — Lamkara Sutra

June 16^th

Ain't nobody going to save your ass. You have to do it yourself. Sorry.

You should do the work yourself, for buddhas only teach the way. — Dhammapada

What is that quote? “In an era of bullshit, telling someone something they don't want to hear is an act of courage.” OK, I modified it a little bit.

By the way, I've made the decision to not be a lame human being. And thanks to The Pocket Buddha Reader (Shambhala) for the Buddha quotes.