Chapter 5 Shock Migration

After watching the "Cloud Gate Dance Theater" this year's summer performance, there is a piece of "The Shocker" composed by the famous American dancer Doris Humphrey, which is especially unforgettable for me.This powerful group dance expresses religious ecstasy and pious sentiments, exuding the power of a magic flute on the stage, leading people to the distance of imagination. "Shaker Church" originated from England in the mid-eighteenth century and is one of the Puritan sects. They firmly believe that "God the Father once said that he will give eternal life to the few voters who shake off their sins." To carry out religious worship, hence the name.The Shocking Sect advocates a pure and ascetic life, separates men and women, and strictly observes celibacy. Today, two hundred years later, there are only more than twenty elderly believers.

The situation during their worship is roughly like this: In the chapel, under the supervision of the female elders, the male and female believers of the Shock Church pray with a white line as the boundary.A male believer shouted wildly: "My life! Ah! My life! I will give up this physical life, because it has fallen!" The female elder declared: "The Most High once said, You will be saved, as long as you shake Purify your sins!" The believers then danced frantically and tremblingly to obtain inner peace. The above-mentioned record of Shaker Cult almost let us see a scene full of passion and piety.In the boundless night, in the empty church, because the soul and the body dance together, there is an unspeakable beauty.

In this turbulent world, I don't believe that people have original sin. The birth and decline of life are all a natural deduction. How can someone be born with sin?If it is the sin of the previous life, where is the previous life?If a person is guilty, he rolls around in the world and is gradually polluted. After he grows up, he will cause some sins, both tangible and intangible. These sins are not evil sins, but sins of missing life opportunities and emotions. , the crime of missing friendship and family affection, these crimes are unintentionally caused by people after they sink into society.

The beauty of the "Shock Sect" is that they understand that the sinful karma of sinking can be shaken off with fanatical dances. After the passionate dance, they get the comfort of life and have the courage to face a new life. Their level is that people’s sins do not come from the heart, but are like dust and dirt, which adhere to the body and can be eliminated and shaken off with human power. The teachings of Shakerism remind me of a fable in India: a man offended an elephant, was chased by the elephant, and ran, but unfortunately fell into a dry well, and a tiger was waiting for the prey that fell into it. There was a withered vine on the well, and the man held on tightly to the withered vine.The frightening thing is that there are two more mice gnawing on the withered vine, and the man fell into the well and grabbed the withered vine. There was an elephant outside the well, a tiger at the bottom of the well, and two more mice on the vine that would bite off the withered vine at any time. Rattan, really can't advance or retreat, extremely dangerous.

Indians use this fable as a metaphor for life.The elephant is the sinful karma of life, chasing us all the time; the tiger is the abyss of death, peeping at the end at any time; the withered vine symbolizes the original life of a person, and the black and white mouse is the time that gnaws at life; The black mouse is night; the white mouse is day. I read this fable many years ago, but I have never forgotten it, and I have always been vigilant: life is really very hasty and dangerous, so don’t be careless at all.Every time when encountering ups and downs in life and emotions, I always imagine myself as a person holding on to the withered vine of life. If I let go, I may fall into the abyss beyond redemption.Because of this kind of vigilance, I always maintain a sliver of clear effort, and therefore it is not easy to be knocked down by external things.

But if holding orange vines in the well, or using rapid shocks to shake off the sinking of life, I would rather choose the latter. Sin karma is unavoidable on the road of life. If we can deal with it with the shock of heat and force, I think any suffering will be easily overcome. Has there really been a "shock religion"?If so, let me be a spiritual shock believer, with constant dancing and trembling, to look forward to a better tomorrow. —September 9, 1981