Origin of the Blockhead

I have purposely used the word 'pride' where others might have used 'ego' because I wanted to highlight the falsity of the blown out of proportion ego. We do have an identity as creations of God, and that is good. It is the false construction that is the collection of everything that you've been adding on since early childhood, that has grown into a monster. And that's what must be stripped away either now, or when you die. You can't take it with you!

The Jewish people have a legend about something called a 'golem.' When I say that, what comes to your mind? A monster? That's because the story has changed, and the meaning has changed over the years.

According to Wikipedia:

"The word golem is used in the Bible to refer to an embryonic or incomplete substance: Psalm 139:16 uses [a] word...meaning my unshaped form, which then passes into Yiddish as goylem.[2] The Mishnah uses the term for an uncultivated person..."

On the Pirkei Avos website Rabbi Dovid Rosenfeld says,

"The Hebrew word golem literally means an unfinished object, such as a utensil which has been shaped but not polished."

Notice the similarity with the concept of 'the uncarved block' of philosophical Taoism! I like the Benjamin Hoff books, one of which is 'The Tao of Pooh' which has this description of 'the uncarved block':

"One of the basic principles of Taoism is P'U, the Uncarved Block. The essence of the Uncarved Block is that things in their original simplicity contain their own natural power, power that is easily spoiled and lost when that simplicity is changed. This principle applies not only to things, but to people as well. Or Bears. Which brings us to Pooh, the very Epitome of the Uncarved Block. When you discard arrogance, complexity, and a few, other things that get in the way, sooner or later you will discover that simple, childlike, and mysterious secret known to those of the Uncarved Block: Life is Fun."

Back to 'golem' for a moment. To recap, 'golem' used to mean something similar to 'the uncarved block' of Taoism. 'Golem' always was a creature, but as people do, over the years the 'golem' became something of a monster.

Wikipedia also has this:

"In many depictions golems are inherently perfectly obedient. However, in its earliest known modern form the story has Rabbi Eliyahu of Chełm creating a golem that became enormous and uncooperative. In one version of this the rabbi had to resort to trickery to deactivate it, whereupon it crumbled upon its creator and crushed him."

The Genesis creation story has God creating Adam as a golem in Genesis 2:7

"And the LORD God formed man [of] the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul."

Again, Wikipedia:

"Adam is described in the Talmud (Tractate Sanhedrin 38b) as initially created as a golem when his dust was "kneaded into a shapeless husk"."

I don't think I'm going out on a limb here by asserting that we started out as a child (creation) of God/golem/uncarved block, and then -WE- were the ones that, from our original identity/golem/uncarved block created the false ego (pride) which is also the story of the uncontrollable monster golem! Our pride makes us the uncontrollable monster creation! Who created it? We did!

At the end of one of my recent posts I said that the killing off of the parasite of pride is the same as being born again. As some will think this is a woefully inadequate summation, let me further clarify.

I imagine the response:
"Being 'born again' is from having a new life in Jesus Christ! You're dead to the old life and born again to the new life!"

Yes, we are talking about the same things, just using different words. The 'old life' is the life of being driven by that false creation of ours, pride. Do you remember the OT story of Jacob and Esau, and how Esau traded his birthright for a hot meal? (Genesis 25:30) That's like what happened when we traded God's true creation of our nature for our own creation of our nature, pride.

In God's creation of our nature is joyous life, but in our creation (pride) is something that comes to an early end. God's creation is lasting quality, for he is the master builder. Our creation (pride) is of inferior quality, even if we tried our best. God's creation AUTOMATICALLY recognizes and honors God, whereas our creation of pride always becomes a monster out of control. Becoming born again is changing that decision of Esau's and keeping the birthright instead of trading it away. This is what Jesus taught before we humans killed him to silence him.

Our Pride will go to any lengths to protect itself. It has a mind of it's own!

Do we then need Jesus? Yes! Jesus' death was a living display of a general principle of how we are to live. In inviting Jesus in and looking for his nature inside of us, we are forced to give up our pride. We are to stop thinking of our own survival, our own skin and it's pleasures and wants, and think of how we can help others.

What does it mean to invite Jesus into our heart? It means to look for him there! Stop looking for Jesus in rust spots and baked bread, and instead look for him in you!