Alo and De Custom #73
(PD) Alo and De Lake on Land.
Copyright ©2018 November 27, 2018
Yan: Customs... the outsiders much too frequently speak of ancient customs, as if all ancient customs had to have been religious superstitions and religious sacrifices, as well as other acts of worshipping superstitious things... the outsiders appear to claim, and to believe, that they know everything about everything, including the thoughts and hearts of ancient people...
Alo: Custom, today... sit on chair, not sit on floor... sleep on bed, not sleep on floor pad... wear pants and shirts, not wear robes... live in homes of similar style as nearby homes... eat similar foods as other people eat... one day a week for not working... most every act and choice of people today, follows custom...
Yan: Precisely... similar for marriage customs, funeral customs, Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes, wedding clothes, travel, memorial day, independence day, thanksgiving day, labor day, birthday, anniversary day, and most all things else. I once had a man, from a land and culture that worships thousands of gods, to ask me about my having taken off work because of a 'holy day'... I did not understand what he meant, but then I realized that he pronounced and interpreted 'holiday' incorrectly... the man sincerely thought that the independence holiday was a holy day. The experience taught me, that the way of interpreting another person's culture, is often based upon one's own culture... our people see no religious customs in the ancient texts, because, we ourselves have no religious customs, but, the interesting thing here, is that the outsiders interpret most all customs of all cultures to be religious, and yet the outsiders claim to not be religious themselves... yet almost all of the outsiders worship the global religion... contradiction. The ancients' custom of ancestral sacrifice, was a custom... not religious...
Alo: Correct, but, outsiders do not recognize why they choose the things that they themselves choose... not recognize why they sit on chairs, nor recognize why they sleep on beds... to outsiders, they appear to believe that the choices are the only possible choices... outsiders cannot imagine different...
Yan: Agreed... and the ancient custom, of wearing bright flourishing clothes, was likely little different than people today wearing their best clothes for weddings, funerals, and social events... not a commandment to follow, but, rather, merely a cultural custom, shared socially by most people...
Alo: 'Child him lose parents... cry not-have sob custom... not-have formal clothes beautiful...not-have happy music... this, grieve relative towards emotion'. A person's expression should be sincere, a sincere expression of one's own inner self, and not be a fake appearance that follows cultural custom... but most people today still follow customs that do not express the person's own heart...
Yan: Similar for festivals... similar for leaving flowers on graves... leaving flowers is as a sacrifice of giving a deceased person the flowers... ancient custom, included giving food when visiting ancestors' graves... souls do not eat, nor smell flowers, but still people give... perhaps, more as a way, of what had been learned in life, to give gifts to living person, to make the living person happy... now done, by giving the deceased person gifts, unconsciously hoping to make the deceased person happy.
Alo: Agreed...
De: New custom... sit in bookshelf... sleep in cabinet... not follow Nature's way...
Alo: Ha! Precisely! And there, is a large answer for why we accept many customs... because it makes sense. Narrow bookshelf is not large enough to sit on without losing balance... small cabinet is too small, cannot permit stretching legs and torso... hard to sleep... we choose many customs, because they are comfortable... easy... serve useful purpose... make people feel good...
Yan: Custom of clothes... like how Jun and De wear their new dresses... weddings, social meetings during equinoxes and solstices... not wear dresses often, only wear the beautiful clothes during happy times, and special times... not wear everyday, else the wearing would cause the clothes to become common... common would cause the clothes to no longer be beautiful compared to common clothes...
Alo: Good custom... chosen because the choice is correct... choice has purpose, choice has value... too, bright clothes are no longer bright if everyone's clothes are bright.
Yan: Customs of respecting other people... again, cannot respect a person who is unworthy of respect, and too, a custom of respect would be damaging... destructful, because dishonest... because goes against Nature's way...
Alo: It is real, in its own way... a man whose inner qualities earn him respect from other people, some of the people will choose for themselves to become similar to the respected man, because, the people found value in the man's inner self... it is feasible, that one good man, can become as the role model for countless other people to follow... reason enough for any intelligent man to choose inner qualities...
Yan: Yes, but, as we all know, there have been numerous good men throughout history... not yet have many people chosen good inner qualities... people appear to prefer to follow customs, not give effort to better themselves...
Alo: Some customs make no sense also... still people participate in festivals... 'Master say: Three-legged-turtle according-to custom, allow be nation carry-on-back. Exist not three-legged-turtle according-to custom, allow be nation as-if custom carry-on-back'... our people also have a custom of a turtle carrying the world on its back, but, just because a custom exists, it does not infer that the custom is believed to be true...
Yan: And not a religious custom also... not a religious sacrifice also... many different cultures throughout the world have a similar custom of turtle... an individual would surely have a thinking problem to believe that the custom might have been based upon what is real...
Alo: Ah, but... consider... here, I have drawn a sketch... observe the curve... observe the pattern... now, what does that look like?
Yan: Ha! Turtle!
Alo: Now, we easily know why the curve, but, here, why the pattern?
Yan: Aha... surely cannot be the answer, but... but it is so close!
Alo: What if, someone, a long time ago, countless years before the ancients, knew of curves and patterns... and the person drew a sketch to illustrate the origins of the world... what would the common people likely see?
Yan: Ha! Turtle!
Alo: Easy to see now... when a thing is known, it is then easy to see similar...
De: Pattern still seen... obvious... huge... outsiders do not understand...
Alo: Precisely... the turtle custom is still here, in front of everyone's eyes, but so few people see it...
Yan: It has been said that many superstitions and beliefs, were based upon true things... things that were long forgotten... perhaps, this one also?
Alo: Perhaps... perhaps not... but, the unknowing of the answer, is also the knowing that no one can know the origin of a custom... unless, of course, an individual is the person who created the custom...