"Why Does It Matter?" Part Five

Every culture gets some things wrong and some things right.  Both can teach us valuable lessons if we but take the time to learn.

There are those who look to the past, to ancient cultures, as if some idyllic, perfect culture once existed.  As if, by learning about and re-creating that culture, we could create a perfect present.  I understand where that sentiment comes from; it's an incredibly pervasive motif in religion.  I, however, don't believe that a perfect culture has ever existed.  I hope that the world will become better than it is, that people will strive to be good, decent, honorable, kind, just, true, virtuous, the list goes on.... Nevertheless, I feel that approaching a perfect culture is rather like a limit approaching zero in calculus.  Of course, that's why people believe in some perfect moment in the past, be it a perfect culture or the perfection of Creation/creation; if perfection has existed, there is perfection to which to return; it is possible.  But I digress.

As I was saying, every culture gets some things right and some things wrong.  I find it valuable to learn from the cultures of the past and present, to glean the lessons they teach, to gain new perspectives on the world.  In this post, we'll look to the religious philosophy of Ancient Egypt to provide an example for us.  There are definitely things that culture got wrong--slavery and corruption immediately spring to mind--but, in stark contrast to that, there were aspects of their worldview that--in my opinion, of course--they got very, very right and that perfectly express the ideals, sentiments, and concepts I wish to convey in this post.

Let us literally begin at the beginning.  In the Ancient Egyptian worldview, at the moment of creation, the world was perfect. When the world was brought into existence, there was also brought into existence an essence or perhaps a force, which was also personified as a goddess, called ma'at (or Ma'at, if speaking of the goddess).  Ma'at is...complex, and is--along with the Ancient Egyptian view of "The First Time"--the precise reason I chose to speak about Ancient Egypt in this post; there just really aren't many cultures out there that have a similar concept.

Ma'at was viewed by the Ancient Egyptians--at least until near the end of their culture--as something that could not be taught to someone by simply defining the term for them (yeah, a lot like I'm doing right now >.>) but could be taught by example, by living a life of ma'at.  So, knowing that the definition isn't really enough to capture the concept, what's this "ma'at" term I keep babbling on about?

Ma'at was--is, since we're still using the term--pretty much all that's good and right in the world and in people.  It's truth, honor, justice, integrity; it's correctness and appropriateness; it's order--natural, social, cosmic, all kinds--in opposition to chaos.  (Not that chaos is necessarily bad, but uncontrolled chaos makes it difficult for life to do its thing.)  Ma'at is harmony.  Ma'at is the North Star by which we orient as we sail through the seas of life.

Ma'at was said to be as essential to life as air, food, water, and shelter.  Ma'at was said to be essential to all things, not just the living, but to the existence of the world as a whole.  Ma'at was said to bring pleasure to the Creator and to be his most beloved child.  In one of the most important religious rituals, an image or symbol of Ma'at was presented to the god.  The Creator created Ma'at, and she infuses our world, and the pharaoh--or the priest as his representative--offered Ma'at back to the god in a reciprocal gesture and as a way of sustaining both the god and the culture.

The idea that the world was perfect in the beginning is fairly ubiquitous among creation myths.  For the Ancient Egyptians, however, creation wasn't a one-time deal; it was ongoing.  The term for this is "zep tepi" or "sep tepi", meaning "The First Time."  And ma'at was essential to the continued well-being of the culture.  In order for the culture to thrive, for the world to go on, that ongoing First Time had to continue to be infused with ma'at.  It was most important for the pharaoh to live ma'at because of his responsibility for the entire culture, and those who held higher stations also had a greater duty to live ma'at, but it was important for all people to live ma'at.  It was later said of the times of transition between Periods that Ma'at was driven out, but that once order was restored, she and her essence returned. 

In Chapter 7 of Idea Into Image: Essays on Ancient Egyptian Thought, Erik Hornung says (in words translated into English by Elizabeth Bredec), "Egyptian texts state that while evil, injustice, and irrationality may enjoy temporary success, experience shows that ultimately they will find no secure harbor. These forces have no permanence, and because they bring no lasting profit, they are useless and dangerous....Maat is that which remains in the end."

In the beginning, the created world was perfect.  In the beginning, ma'at was created.  The beginning is ongoing, and people can choose to return to that state of perfection at any time by living ma'at.  In Egyptian Religion, Siegfried Morenz writes (in words translated into English by Ann E. Keep), "Maat is therefore not only right order but also the object of human activity. Maat is both the task which man sets himself and also, as righteousness, the promise and reward which await him on fulfilling it." (p. 113)

That's the Ancient Egyptian view.  I take issue only with the notion that a "perfect world" ever existed.  In my view, the world is what the world is, and it always has been, and while I believe that we can get as close as we can get to perfection by living ma'at, I don't believe achieving perfection is possible.  I do, however, believe the natural tendency of the world and of people is toward what the Ancient Egyptians described as ma'at.  Life and the act of surviving in the world we've created can push us away from that tendency and toward more of a survival-oriented, dog-eat-dog mode--sometimes frighteningly quickly--but I truly believe that, except in cases where a person has some sort of condition which precludes such, people originally tend toward good.

I also believe, much like the Ancient Egyptians did, that creation is ongoing.  One of my favorite quotes is "We are who we choose to be." (I sometimes say it as, "We are who we practice being," but that's another post.)  If we don't like who we are or the direction in which we're heading, we can seize the opportunity afforded us by ongoing creation and become who we choose to be.  Or, as stated by the character Sofia Serrano (portrayed by Penélope Cruz) in the movie Vanilla Sky, "Every passing minute is another chance to turn it all around."

So why does it matter?  As we briefly discussed at the end of the last installment, who we are and how we live creates the world, every moment of every day.   How can it not matter?