The rich symbolism of the Wizard of Oz
The Wizard of Oz is a great story that is
rich with symbolism.
Dorothy represents each one of us. Her dilemma is how to find the way back home to Kansas. (the ideal) She is given advice by her conscience (Glenda the good witch) to follow the Yellow Brick Road (the road of restoration) which will lead her to the Wizard of Oz (The Messiah). She is told that ONLY HIM can help her get back to Kansas.
On her journey she enlists the help of
Scarecrow (mind), Tinman (heart), and Lion (courage/will). The Yellow Brick
Road of Restoration is full of many dangers, and the wicked witch (Satan) is
determined to stop Dorothy from reaching her destination.
When Dorothy finally meets the Wizard he
is a larger than life, smoke and fire breathing image projected on a screen.
He's subjective and intimidating. He also surprised them with request to go to
Munchkinland and directly confront the wicked witch (Satan). But, after all
this ordeals, when Toto pulls back the curtain and exposes the real Wizard,
Dorothy is amazed and disappointed to discover that he is not what she had
thought him to be. As it turns out, the real Wizard isn't really so "great
and powerful" after all.
The Wizard then gives her companions some
astonishing advice. He bestows symbolic blessings onto the trio. He convinces
the Scarecrow that he already possesses a great mind and therefore gives him a
diploma. The Tinman receives a huge symbolic heart and sheds tears, revealing
the emotion already alive within him. The Cowardly Lion is awarded a medal of
valor for acts of courage performed on the road to Oz, thereby regaining his
lost self confidence as king of the jungle.
In the end her conscience (Glenda the
good witch) tells Dorothy that she alone has the power within to find her way
back to Kansas. It was there all the time. Dorothy discovers that she is now
and always was her own messiah.
I see this story as a parable for
religious life. What it tells me is that in our own journey to the ideal, what
we ultimately discover is that we are our own messiahs. It's there within us;
we just have to discover it. We look for God through Jesus Christ and other
sacred persons. In one way or another, any religious search represents the
human effort to restore the image of God within ourselves; it is the search for
our true identity. There is no wizard
or messiah that can take us somewhere over the rainbow and back to Kansas. He
can't give us wisdom, heart, or courage. He can share from his experience and
point out the way, but we must discover and cultivate those things ourselves if
we want to get anywhere.
You and I are a lot like Dorothy. When
the curtain is pulled back and we see “The
Wizard” as someone different than what we thought him to be, how will we
react?
When all of us find "God
within" we will have discovered what Dorothy has at the end of her
journey, that she was her own messiah all along. When one feels
"deceived" and starts believing that it was all for nothing, one may
lose or even reject all that was learned along the way. Therefore the attitude
at the end "when the curtain is pulled" makes or breaks the
experience, doesn't it?
This presents us with our own dilemma. We
can see the Wizard as someone who tricked us into taking a detour through
Munchkinland, or appreciate him for what examples of wisdom, heart and courage
he has shown us on the journey back to Kansas.
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Recuperation
of our original value
The messiah is necessary and central in
the process of restoration, as the Judeo-Christian tradition imply, also we
cannot avoid the historic and personal “Yellow
Brick Road” of Restoration, but soon or later we need to awake to the final
reality that we ourselves become-are TRUE SONS AND DAUTHERS OF GOD.
The messiah is like the coach, but not
the final one: Which is our conscience and finally God.
Each person has sacred, cosmic
and unique value and is endowed with irrevocable dignity; therefore, persons
are not means but ends in themselves. Every victory the Messiah accomplishes
for the providence and proclaims for himself and his family, are claims done as
a representative of humanity and therefore done for each and every person as
God's sons and daughters, all who need to restore THEIR ORIGINAL VALUE:
1.
Sacred value. We have intrinsic and inalienable dignity as God's sons and
daughters.
2.
Cosmic value. As visible manifestations of the invisible Creator, we are
microcosms of the macrocosm.
3.
Unique Value - Never will be another person exactly like each one of us. We
are unique, unrepeatable and irreplaceable.
4.
Eternal value. We are eternal beings who will live forever in the spiritual
world with God.
The fact that each person has these transcendent values is the
basis of universal human rights and an ethical society.
Through the process
of restoration, God seeks to fully manifest in every man and woman as part of
the original plan. Each person symbolizes the earthly and spiritual worlds
coming together in harmony. As persons that will restore the original ideal we
are commission to mature, enter into an eternal relationship of true love
through holy matrimony with the blessing of God, after which not only our
children but our descendants for generations to come would live forevermore as
God's self-embodiment, both male and female, inheriting God’s nature and
attributes generation after generation. God is invisible and without form. God
cannot be seen even when we enter into the spiritual world.
Once we are able to
restore our original positions we will became the visible forms of God, God will
dwelt in our hearts and reigned from within them over the corporeal, physical
world and the incorporeal, spiritual world. In other words, God will govern all
worlds from within human love, through each and every person. Together, we will
create God's kingdom of peace and harmony at all levels. All seven billion
people living in the world today would express the visible form and
manifestation of God.
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"We are all looking for the ideal man or the ideal woman. However,
having looked at the people of the whole world, you will come to the conclusion
that there is not person who can truly be the model for you. Ultimately
speaking, however hard you try to find such a person, you will not find one.
You must finally decide that you have better find the perfect model for you in
yourself. Then you have started in search of your original self. When you look
into yourself, you will find something of vast value which is something like
the Source, the Origin, God." (SMM - A Prophet Speaks Today. - Section - Spiritual
Growth)
"It is crystal clear that we possess love, life and
conscience and yet we don't feel them because they are totally one with us. By
the same token, God is within the depth of our conscience and yet we don't feel
Him because of the oneness. This is a great revolutionary vision. People have
been seeking for God all throughout history, but failed to realize that God was
within them." (Find Your True Self - SMM - November 23,
1994 - East Garden, NY)
God is alive.
That God wants to live with each one of you. You must think: "The living
God is with me." Say it aloud: "God is alive. He is dwelling with
me." Say it again. (True Parents' Birthday - SMM – Belvedere, NY -
February 25, 1985)
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"Do not believe the teachers.
Do not believe the books.
Do not even believe me.
Only believe that which you have
thoroughly tested and experienced for yourself, and which you have found
profitable for yourself and others."
[Gautama Buddha]
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Additional note
In the religious path there is a potential
risk to end up worshipping the
“deification” of a person (Jesus, Mother Mary and the saints, as some
Christians do) and not understand that they are examples to emulate, not
"idols", which can lead to some form of idolatry.
Without any aspersions to our own religious history, it has
been a fatal human trait to worship and make divine the experiences and lives
of others, while, at the same time, completely missing our own inner divine
life and profound connection with God.
Each
person express and manifest singular and unique characteristics (Imago Dei) as
God's sons and daughters, but God is not limited to a sole and unique
particular human face or image or couple, even a perfected Adam and Eve, Jesus
Christ or True Parents are still a limited and partial manifestation of the
infinite totality of the mysterious nature of God's personality. No single
human or couple could be ALL of God, the
totality of God. Our "Eternal CREATOR" is the origin and source
of all the different and multiple (present and future) "Individual
Images" (using the Unification Thought expression) and the ONE who can
guide us internally and constantly through our heart (original mind) and
consciences. This is one among other reasons why is wrong to worship or deify
any human being as God himself. No
person or couple can claim a “monopoly on
God” or a “monopoly of the truth”.
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