I was discussing angels with Hiromi. I had never thought of angels much before because of the shallow Christian portrayals that pervade this culture. But I’m taking this religion class, “Self and Community in Western Tradition” (what does that have to do with religion?), and the class has a film syllabus. Every week we have to see a certain film and we discuss religious/spiritual portrayals and messages in the movie.
All the movies are incredible, especially after the professor starts explaining shit, but the one that really knocked me on my ass is “Wings of Desire” by Wim Wenders. It outlined so much of what I felt I understood or knew, but never articulated before or could articulate.
Angels are people, or souls, who have transcended the physical world but haven’t “gone to heaven”. The transcendence is the result of a true innate understanding of the physical world and the nature of reality. So angels exist on this physical plane, but not in a form that we understand or perceive.
They look over us, they observe, some follow specific people, some just wander. They are morally indifferent, but “morally indifferent” as perceived by us gets translated as “moral” or “good”, since we are pre-disposed to see angels as good and interpret their acts as being good. In fact, they are indifferent.
They try to guide us, but they are powerless to interact physically (although in extreme situations, some people would argue that they can, but that’s another discussion). They speak to us, they touch us, they guide us, but we can only hear or feel or be guided if we are sensitive and open to their guidance or their presence.
One scene that really made an impression on me is when there is this man who is jumping off a building. He sits at the ledge and one of the angels goes up to him and wraps an arm around him, a gesture to stop him. But then the man jumps, and the angel can do nothing but let him go and walk away. That blew my mind.
I still insist on moral indifference, but the angel knew that for this person, suicide was not the way, not the answer. So he made a gesture to try to stop him, guidance. But ultimately angels cannot physically interfere with the human world. When the man jumps, the angel can’t force him not to. If the man was sensitive to the guidance, maybe he would have thought that it wasn’t such a good idea and decided not to go through with it. But he can choose not to be sensitive to the guidance and go through with it.
And the concept of angels actually fits in really well with bodhisattvas in Buddhism. I actually never quite understood bodhisattvas. They are enlightened beings that have transcended the physical world, but refuse to enter nirvana, heaven, until all of humanity can enter at once. I’ve never been able to grasp that concept of what they were until now.
Fit angels and bodhisattvas together and they help explain each other. Angels, like bodhisattvas have transcended the physical world. They understand reality well enough so that they are no longer caught in the cycle of death and re-birth. They are no longer attached and encumbered by things human.
Angels are intermediaries between God and humans, they have the qualifications to help humans get closer to God. That’s what they do, that’s why they won’t enter heaven until all beings can do so at once. Why is that? Because there is no separation between anything in the universe. They understand that all is one. So it’s not that they won’t, but that’s not reality. To suggest they can enter nirvana separately from other sentient beings assumes duality, which they have by their very beings have transcended. Exciting stuff!
I’ve always felt there has been a presence following me around, I’ve always felt guided and damn lucky for it. It felt strange opening up with this to Hiromi, but she feels the same way, but instead of angels or bodhisattvas, she has always felt that it was a spirit of one of her ancestors. Close enough for me. There’s no reason why it’s not one of her ancestors.
Towards the end of this past summer, four cousins and me were sitting around a table at uncle Aki’s house. It was warm and the realization that we were all family made me warm and fuzzy. I wondered what an ancestor would think or feel witnessing that scene. It was the first time the five of us, from different branches of the family tree, were all together like that, passing pictures around. Some ancestor looking on at this group of strangers - their descendants.
