Tom Robbins on Religion, God, & The Spiritual Life

Tom Robbins is the kind of author who people often say you either love or hate. All things considered, that is probably the best kind of author to be, as it reflects that level of truth telling which always inspires radically opposing emotions in others. Robbins is also the kind of author that we at The Living Hour would identify as an excellent example of the SBNR Progressive Christian, even though he would undoubtedly not describe himself in such terms. Regardless, Robbins displays the kind of attitude, wisdom, and joie de vivre that we admire.

The following are selected quotes from Tom Robbins covering the subject of God, religion, and the art of living:

**”A sense of humor…is superior to any religion so far devised.”

**”We waste time looking for the perfect lover, instead of creating the perfect love.”

**”If by the quarter of the twentieth century godliness wasn’t next to something more interesting than cleanliness, it might be time to reevaluate our notions of godliness.”

**”What difference does it make if the Gospel is mostly a lie? It’s an engrossing story and the words of its hero are excellent words to live by, even today.”

**”If you believe in peace, act peacefully; if you believe in love, acting lovingly; if you believe every which way, then act every which way, that’s perfectly valid – but don’t go out trying to sell your beliefs to the system. You end up contradicting what you profess to believe in, and you set a bum example. If you want to change the world, change yourself.”

**”Curiosity, especially intellectual inquisitiveness, is what separates the truly alive from those who are merely going through the motions.”

**”All depression has its roots in self-pity, and all self-pity is rooted in people taking themselves too seriously.”

**”Anyone who maintains absolute standards of good and evil is dangerous. As dangerous as a maniac with a loaded revolver.”

**”Solace? That’s why God made fermented beverages and the blues.”

**”I believe in nothing, everything is sacred. I believe in everything, nothing is sacred.”

What might Tom Robbins say if he were a Zen teacher? Click on Zen to find out!

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Lord’s Prayer: But Deliver Us from Evil

Chapter 11

But deliver us from evil…

(Overcoming Our Egos)

When pride is overcome, we cure a symptom of our separation from God not its root cause. We are like the frog born at the bottom of the well, who is unaware of the larger world that exists beyond the walls of his home. These walls are what psychologists have come to call the ego, and the well itself what Jesus (lacking our modern lingo) called the pit, where the fire (i.e. our desire) is never quenched.¹ It is what some have called our “original sin”. Yet “sin” is the wrong word. For sins are connected to choices. And we did not choose to be placed in the well—although it is our choice whether or not we remain there.

The well is better described as our original condition. And Jesus’s entire ministry was about teaching others to overcome it. Asking us to abandon our egos though is a tough sell. Because while we know that egoism leads to pride, hate, violence, theft, adultery and every evil under the sun,² we also believe that our egos define who we are. We think that if we lose our ego, we will lose our identity; and we are offended by those who suggest otherwise.

This offense that we take is registered in the Gospel of John during the story of the Last Supper—the last fellowship for Jesus before he crucifies his ego, abandons the well, and experiences full consciousness in Christ. At the dinner table, the disciples cry out against the “harsh doctrine” they are being taught.³ Their shock is not over the eating of the flesh and blood of the Son of Man (as those are just metaphors), but that in becoming “united” with Christ that they will lose their sense of self.

We, like the disciples, consider our egos as being solid and permanent. That is the devilish illusion. For if we look back upon our lives, we find that the person we identify as “me” changes as we grow. The middle–aged man or woman often looks with strange fascination toward the person they were at eighteen, just as the senior does toward their middle–aged self. Sometimes we cannot even believe the person we were yesterday!

These changes are all evidence of the Holy Spirit at work, as it pushes us to recognize the vast kingdom that exists outside the well in which we live. When we overcome the well, we don’t lose ourselves, but expand our realities of place and self to include joys and experiences that were beyond our imagination. We leave our ego identity behind to discover our soul’s identity,⁴ which is ever growing and limitless.

Our journey out of the well is symbolized by Jesus’s teaching of the cross, and the Gospel writers’ depiction of Jesus’s crucifixion and resurrection. Whether Jesus was actually crucified or not is a matter that can be left to personal belief. What is to be recognized is that even if Jesus were not crucified by the Romans, we would have had to do it ourselves for the sake of the gospel story. Because in order to understand the profound depth of Jesus’s renunciation of the ego, we need a crucifixion parable to guide us.

Parables are able to provoke that “aha” experience we get when…

The Lord’s Prayer. To continue reading, click on page 2 at the bottom.

1. It would be better for you to enter the kingdom of God with only one eye, than to have both eyes and be thrown into the pit: 48 Where the worm dies not, and the fire is not quenched. – Mark 9:47-48 [↩]
2. For it is from within, out of the hearts of men, that there come evil thoughts: unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, 22 Greed, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, haughtiness, folly; 23 All these wicked things come from within, and do defile a man.” – Mark 7:21–23 [↩]
3. On hearing it, many of his disciples said: “This is harsh doctrine! Who can bear to listen to it?” 61 But Jesus, aware that his disciples were murmuring about it, said to them: 62 “Does this offend you?” – John 6:60–62 [↩]
4. He must become greater, and I less. 31 He who comes from above is above all others; but a child of earth is earthly, and his teaching is earthly, too. He who comes from heaven is above all others. – John 3:30–31 [↩]

John – Gospel 3 – In Christ We Are Reborn

Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, who was a leading man among the Jews. 2 This man came to Jesus by night, and said to him: “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God; for no one could give such signs as you are giving, unless God were with him.”

3 “In truth I tell you,” exclaimed Jesus, “unless you are reborn, you cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4 “How can someone,” asked Nicodemus, “be born when they are old? Can we be born a second time?” 5 “In truth I tell you,” answered Jesus, “unless you owe your birth to water and spirit, you cannot enter the kingdom of God.

6 All that owes its birth to human nature is human, and all that owes its birth to the spirit is spiritual. 7 Do not wonder at my telling you that you all need to be reborn. 8 The wind blows where it wills, and you can hear the sound of it, but you do not know whence it comes, or where it goes; it is the same with everyone that owes his birth to the spirit.” 9 “How can that be?” asked Nicodemus.

10 “What! You a teacher of Israel,” exclaimed Jesus, “and yet do not understand this! 11 In truth I tell you that we speak of what we know, and state what we have seen; and yet you do not accept our statements. 12 If, when I tell you earthly things, you do not believe me, how will you believe me when I tell you of heavenly things?”

13 “None have ascended to heaven, except those who descended from heaven—the Son of Man himself. 14 And, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up; 15 That everyone who believes in him may have everlasting life.”

16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that everyone who believes in him may not be lost, but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. 18 Those who believe in him escape condemnation, while those who do not believe in him are already condemned, because they have not believed in the only Son of God.”

19 “The ground of their condemnation is this: that though light has come into the world, they preferred the darkness to light, because their actions were wicked. 20 For those who live an evil life hate the light, and will not come to it because they fear that their actions will be exposed; 21 But those who act upon the truth come to the light, that their actions born in God may be made manifest.”

22 After this, Jesus went with his disciples into the country parts of Judea; and there he stayed with them, and baptized. 23 John, also, was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because there were many streams there; and people were constantly coming and being baptized 24 (For John had not yet been imprisoned).

25 Now a discussion arose between some of John’s disciples and a Jew on the subject of ‘purification;’ 26 And the disciples came to John and said: “Rabbi, the man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan, and to whom you have yourself borne testimony, he also is baptizing, and everybody is going to him.” 27 John’s answer was: “We can gain nothing but what is given to us from heaven.

28 You are yourselves witnesses that I said, ‘I am not the Christ,’ but ‘I have been sent before him as a messenger.’ 29 It is the bridegroom who has the bride; but the bridegroom’s friend, who stands by and listens to him, is filled with joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. This joy I have felt to the full. 30 He must become greater, and I less. 31 He who comes from above is above all others; but a child of earth is earthly, and his teaching is earthly, too. He who comes from heaven is above all others.”

32 “He states what he has seen and what he heard, and yet no one accepts his statement. 33 They who did accept his statement attested the fact that God is true. 34 For he whom God sent as his messenger gives us God’s own teaching, for God does not limit the gift of the spirit. 35 The Father loves his Son, and has put everything in his hands. 36 He who believes in the Son has everlasting life, while he who rejects the Son will not even see that life, but remains under God’s displeasure.”

To read the next chapter of the Book of John, please go to The Gospel of John – 4.

This Online New Testament Gospel of John is excerpted from the book The Living Hour: The Lord’s Prayer for Daily Life (with New Century Gospels). Including over 200 bookmarked citations from the canonical Gospels, this Progressive Christian book appeals to the Unitarian spirit at the heart of all faiths.

Challenge your perceptions on the Gospel of Christ, Jesus’s parables, and the Kingdom of God by purchasing The Lord’s Prayer book today. Produced by LivingHour.org, a Thailand-based small press dedicated to publishing unique Learning Easy Thai Language Books, as well as works on progressive spirituality.

John – Gospel 5 – The Father Judges No One

Sometime after this there was a Jewish festival; and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 2 There is in Jerusalem, near the sheep market, a bath with five colonnades round it. It is called in Hebrew ‘Bethesda.’ 3 In these colonnades, a large number of afflicted people were lying—blind, lame, and crippled—waiting for the moving of the water. 4 For it was said that an angel would go down at a certain time into the pool and stir the water, so that whoever went first in afterwards would be made whole from their afflictions. 5 One man who was there had been infirm for thirty-eight years.

6 Jesus saw the man lying there, and, finding that he had been in this state a long time, said to him: “Do you wish to be cured?” 7 “I have no one, sir,” the afflicted man answered, “to put me into the bath when there is a troubling of the water, and, while I am getting to it, someone else steps down before me.” 8 “Stand up,” said Jesus, “take up your mat, and walk about.” 9 The man was cured immediately, and took up his mat and began to walk about.

10 Now it was the Sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who had been cured: “This is the Sabbath; you must not carry your mat.” 11 “The man who cured me,” he answered, “said to me: ‘Take up your mat and walk about.’” 12 “Who was it,” they asked, “that said to you: ‘Take up your mat and walk about’?” 13 But the man who had been restored did not know who it was; for Jesus had moved away because there was a crowd there.

14 Afterwards Jesus found the man in the temple courts, and said to him: “You are cured now; do not sin again, for fear that something worse may befall you.” 15 The man went away, and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had cured him. 16 And that was why the Jews began to persecute Jesus, because he did things of this kind on the Sabbath. 17 But Jesus replied: “My Father works to this very hour, and I work also.”

18 This made the Jews all the more eager to kill him, because not only was he doing away with the Sabbath, but he actually called God his own Father—putting himself on an equality with God. 19 So Jesus made this further reply: “In truth I tell you, the Son can do nothing of himself; he does only what he sees the Father doing; whatever the Father does, the Son does also.”

20 “For the Father loves his Son, and shows him everything that he is doing; and he will show him still greater things—so that you will be filled with wonder. 21 For, just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he pleases. 22 The Father himself does not judge anyone, but has entrusted the work of judging entirely to his Son, 23 So that all men may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son fails to honor the Father who sent him.”

24 “In truth I tell you that those who listen to my message and believes him who sent me, has immortal life, and does not come under condemnation, but has already passed out of death into life. 25 In truth I tell you that a time is coming, indeed it is already here, when the dead will listen to the voice of the Son of God, and when those who listen will live. 26 For, just as the Father has inherent life within him, so also he has granted to the Son to have inherent life within him; 27 And, because he is Son of Man, he has also given him authority to act as judge.”

28 “Do not wonder at this; for the time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice, 29 And will come out—those who have done good rising to life, and those who have lived evil lives rising for condemnation. 30 I can do nothing of myself; I judge as I am taught; and the judgment that I give is just, because my aim is not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.”

31 “If I bear testimony to myself, my testimony is not trustworthy; 32 It is another who bears testimony to me, and I know that the testimony which he bears to me is trustworthy. 33 You have yourselves sent to John, and he as testified to the truth. 34 But the testimony which I receive is not from man; I am saying this for your salvation. 35 He was a burning and shining light, and you were ready to rejoice, for a time, in his light.”

36 “But the testimony which I have is of greater weight than John’s; for the work that the Father has given me to carry out—the work that I am doing—is in itself proof that the Father has sent me as his messenger. 37 The Father who has sent me has himself borne testimony of me. You have neither listened to his voice, nor seen his form; 38 And you have not taken his message home to your hearts, because you do not believe him whom he sent as his messenger.”

39 “You search the scriptures, because you think that you find in them eternal life; 40 And, though it is those very scriptures that bear testimony to me, you refuse to come to me to have life. 41 I do not receive honor from people, 42 But I know this of you, that you have not the love of God in your hearts. 43 I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not receive me; if others come in their own names, you will receive them.”

44 “How can you believe in me, when you receive honor from one another, and do not desire the honor which comes from the only God? 45 Do not think that I shall accuse you to the Father; your accuser is Moses, on whom you have been resting your hopes. 46 For, had you believed Moses, you would have believed me, for it was of me that Moses wrote; 47 But, if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my teaching?”

To read the next chapter of the Book of John, please go to The Gospel of John – 6.

This Online New Testament Gospel of John is excerpted from the book The Living Hour: The Lord’s Prayer for Daily Life (with New Century Gospels). Including over 200 bookmarked citations from the canonical Gospels, this Progressive Christian book appeals to the Unitarian spirit at the heart of all faiths.

Challenge your perceptions on the Gospel of Christ, Jesus’s parables, and the Kingdom of God by purchasing The Lord’s Prayer book today. Produced by LivingHour.org, a Thailand-based small press dedicated to publishing unique Learning Easy Thai Language Books, as well as works on progressive spirituality.