Inner space as sacred space: the temple as metaphor for the mystical experience

Cross Currents, Fall, 2002 by George Wolfe

The same cross-cultural approach can be taken to teach the myth of the great flood, versions of which can be found in Greek, Indian, and Babylonian epics in addition to the Biblical story in the book of Genesis. The concept of death and resurrection in three days is a prominent theme in the Christian gospels, but it is also present in the story of Nachiketa in the Katha Upanishad from the Hindu tradition. Nachiketa is a young man who spends three days in the house of the King of Death and is subsequently granted three boons, the third of which is the secret of immortality (Wolfe, 1995).

Stories about consuming sacred food are perhaps more pervasive than any other ancient religious theme and speak symbolically to the importance of internalizing sacred teachings. For when food is eaten, it becomes part of one's body, absorbed into one's being. Similarly, a religious teaching fully internalized is lived spontaneously rather than followed intellectually as in a written code or law. There are numerous examples of the eating metaphor in the scriptures of the world's great religions. These include the Soma sacrifice in the Rig Veda, the manna given to the Israelites during their forty years in the wilderness, the Zoroastrian drink of immortality, the well-known Christian communion rite, the story in the Mahabharata of Krishna dispelling the hunger of Durvasa and his 10,000 disciples (Rajagopalachari, 1990), and Jesus feeding the multitude of 5,000 people in the Christian gospels. In addition, the elimination of thirst as a metaphor for life without craving is found in the Chandogya Upanishad where it speaks of "the knowledge of Brahman, having drunk of which one will never thirst," (Prabhavananda 1948:65), the teachings of Buddha (Nirvana is also known by the term tanhakkayha which means "extinction of thirst"--see Ruhula 1959), and in the Gospel of John where Jesus says: "He who drinks the water I shall give him shall never thirst" (John 4:13 RSV). The question inevitably arises, were these great spiritual teachers talking about the same thirst?

A third approach to challenge people to consider alternative interpretations is to design temples and churches with the intent of reconnecting the devotee to the natural world and encouraging the integration of science into theology. Envision, for example, a sacred shrine devoted to the infinite power of the Almighty at work in the universe. Rather than having a mural depicting the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, there could be a wall-size photo of a supernova; rather than God separating the light from the darkness, a gaseous dark nebula wherein lies the birthplace of stars; rather than the rainbow arching across the sky after the great flood, the aurora borealis gracing the northern night sky.

It, of course, would be impractical and certainly undesirable to incorporate all these themes into one piece of sacred architecture. Rather, a single theme should be the focus of a given design. As when temples were dedicated to a particular god or goddess, or a medieval church was dedicated to a particular saint, so too sacred space in the new millennium could focus on multiple interpretations of a specific religious concept or shared inter-religious theme, or draw upon science and the natural world as a means of gaining insight into our spiritual nature.