Changes

The Scribe: “This is your Teacher, The Damascus Scribe, and we have an entirely different lesson for you today. Yes? Yes! For when it comes to [[spirituality]] — true spirituality — most of you are missing the point entirely. Even those among you who dislike [[religions]] and savor spirituality have to ‘go out from’ some basic [[beliefs]] and thereby may see others as less informed and perhaps less spiritual.

The Scribe: “This is your Teacher, The Damascus Scribe, and we have an entirely different lesson for you today. Yes? Yes! For when it comes to [[spirituality]] — true spirituality — most of you are missing the point entirely. Even those among you who dislike [[religions]] and savor spirituality have to ‘go out from’ some basic [[beliefs]] and thereby may see others as less informed and perhaps less spiritual.

“As you found in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980's 1980’s], the Bali-Hindu (now well over 3.4 million) generally believe their island — all 5.700 plus sq km of it — to be a turtle floating in the [[ocean]] and gracefully providing his enormous shell for them to live on, care for their [[mosaics]] of rice paddies and construct their gorgeous wooden [[temples]]. Today you would no longer [[think]] to ask the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balinese Balinese] where on their shore you need to stand, and at what time, to see this turtle lift its head to take a deep urgent [[breath]], but I know it did more than enter [[your mind]] at that time. You have in the meantime come to admire the deeply spiritual folks who live on that turtle’s back.

“As you found in the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980's 1980’s], the Bali-Hindu (now well over 3.4 million) generally believe their island — all 5.700 plus sq km of it — to be a turtle floating in the [[ocean]] and gracefully providing his enormous shell for them to live on, care for their [[mosaics]] of rice paddies and construct their gorgeous wooden [[temples]]. Today you would no longer [[think]] to ask the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balinese Balinese] where on their shore you need to stand, and at what time, to see this turtle lift its head to take a deep urgent [[breath]], but I know it did more than enter [[your mind]] at that time. You have in the meantime come to admire the deeply spiritual folks who live on that turtle’s back.

“Nor do you [[pain]] yourself about where the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vikings Vikings]’ [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valhalla Valhalla] might now be and who’d be running it these days. All these, [[together]] with the many miraculous [[births]] and virgin births of the last 5.000 or 6.000 years I told you about are nothing but the pretty wrapping paper and the boxes within which you might find your [[Christmas]] or birthday presents of genuine spirituality. Understand that [[spirituality]] needed those religious ‘anchors’ made of wrapping paper and sturdy boxes for spirituality to come to exist inside them. Yes, [[evolutionary religion]] had to be invented — to be [[romance]]d I call it — for spirituality to [[grow]] and blossom because without religion the ‘jump’ to spirituality would have been too great for most.

“Nor do you [[pain]] yourself about where the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vikings Vikings]’ [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valhalla Valhalla] might now be and who’d be running it these days. All these, [[together]] with the many miraculous [[births]] and virgin births of the last 5.000 or 6.000 years I told you about are nothing but the pretty wrapping paper and the boxes within which you might find your [[Christmas]] or birthday presents of genuine spirituality. Understand that [[spirituality]] needed those religious ‘anchors’ made of wrapping paper and sturdy boxes for spirituality to come to exist inside them. Yes, [[evolutionary religion]] had to be invented — to be [[romance]]d I call it — for spirituality to [[grow]] and blossom because without religion the ‘jump’ to spirituality would have been too great for most.

===Closing===

===Closing===

“There you have it and now you see that you may no longer miss the point, make [[jokes]] about turtles that don’t come up to breathe and [[phantom]] pregnancies that turn out to be real, because religions are regular [[stepping stones]] that essentially lead to an ever-more-solid [[path]] of growing spirituality and eventual [[god-likeness]].

“There you have it and now you see that you may no longer miss the point, make [[jokes]] about turtles that don’t come up to breathe and [[phantom]] pregnancies that turn out to be real, because religions are regular [[stepping stones]] that essentially lead to an ever-more-solid [[path]] of growing spirituality and eventual [[god-likeness]].