Is the Good Shepherd a social myth, a disguise for the good husband and father?
Is providing sheep with good pasture the wise man's highest purpose?
Is bringing that one precious lost sheep back to the "fold" the greatest purpose of the enlightened?
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One Lost Sheep
- Kelly Jones
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Hi Kelly,
I'm not sure how relevant the following is to your queries, but I thought it amusing when first I learned of it:
Apparently, when a shepherd finds the sheep who wandered away... usually the first and last time is as a lamb, the shepherd would take his staff (in the catholic religion this is represented as the hooked staff bishops and the like carry) and break the lamb's leg. The long and painful healing process required the shepherd to carry the lamb over his shoulders and to hand-feed it, as it could not stand for mom's teat.
This formed a powerful bond of dependence between the lamb and his shepherd.
Says so much about xians...
I'm not sure how relevant the following is to your queries, but I thought it amusing when first I learned of it:
Apparently, when a shepherd finds the sheep who wandered away... usually the first and last time is as a lamb, the shepherd would take his staff (in the catholic religion this is represented as the hooked staff bishops and the like carry) and break the lamb's leg. The long and painful healing process required the shepherd to carry the lamb over his shoulders and to hand-feed it, as it could not stand for mom's teat.
This formed a powerful bond of dependence between the lamb and his shepherd.
Says so much about xians...
- Kelly Jones
- Posts: 2665
- Joined: Wed Mar 22, 2006 3:51 pm
- Location: Australia
- Contact:
That is funny....and sad. Reminds me a bit of Adam Sandler's movie "50 First Dates". The sheepy mind so forgetful it has to be shocked to develop memory and have an ego - yet even then the ego created is so weak it cannot leave the herd or shepherd.
I'd like to interpret the lost sheep as ignorance. It's probably more often interpreted as a "prodigal son" who's treading on toes.
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I'd like to interpret the lost sheep as ignorance. It's probably more often interpreted as a "prodigal son" who's treading on toes.
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- Diebert van Rhijn
- Posts: 6469
- Joined: Fri Jun 03, 2005 4:43 pm
Re: One Lost Sheep
I don't think the 'fold' here is meant to be taken in the social sense. There's the old zen story of the ox herding that in my view attempts to describe the same process with a more developed plot.Kelly Jones wrote:Is bringing that one precious lost sheep back to the "fold" the greatest purpose of the enlightened?
The lost sheep is not different from what has been called 'the heroes quest' and 'the fools journey'. The ending is always the same in the sense that from a certain perspective one can say nothing has been accomplished at all. A lot of trouble for nothing?
The gospel according to Thomas describes it like:
To me this can only point to the journey of developing consciousness: the seeker, the thinker, indeed the ego (sense of individual) that finds itself to be separated. The object of the quest is delusional and then again it's also delusional to say that without knowing in what way it's delusional. The shepherd breaking the leg that McGilly describes is interesting but only fitting since one has to let go of ego before the journey is complete.Thomas wrote:Jesus said: The kingdom is like a shepherd who had a hundred sheep; one of them, the biggest, went astray; he left the ninety-nine and sought after the one until he found it. After he had laboured, he said to the sheep: I love you more than the ninety-nine.
I wouldn't worry too much about the identity of the shepherd. I think that shouldn't be thought of in terms of enlightened people even while it could take that form for some. In all traditions the shepherd is function or principle.