When people of the Hindu religion first came to America they brought along their belief that cows have a special relationship with the Divine, and are therefore to be treated with the utmost reverence and respect. To the Western mind, which sees cows as little more than a source of food, milk, and (lately) greenhouse gases, that idea seemed ludicrous, and so the term “sacred cow” was coined to refer to anything that is so highly regarded as to be immune from criticism or question.
Life, which is all about change and evolution, does not deal well with sacred cows. If we are to evolve everything in life must be questioned, and requestioned, and requestioned again. Not because it was wrong, but because life is fluid and ever expanding, and what was true yesterday may not be so true today. The moment we put anything beyond question we distort it and limit it; we make ourselves its slave, and we doom ourselves to stagnation, frustration, and eventual disappointment and embarrassment.
Society today is full of sacred cows. Every religion is built upon whole herds of them, and the New Age and Popular Psychology movements are no different. In this ongoing series I’ll be taking a look at some of them, and though my focus will be on so-called New Age topics, no sacred cows anywhere will be safe.
It is important to note that in almost all cases a sacred cow begins with a core truth. Usually it’s a profound new truth that opens people’s hearts and shows them a new level of freedom. But with any truth comes responsibility, and people don’t like responsibility, so almost immediately they start trying to water it down and make it less personal. They pile it on with endless theories about how it works and ever more dogmatic belief systems and teachings about how to use it, until that beautiful little calf becomes a giant and distorted statue of stone that people do homage to, but seldom experience.
My purpose here is not to destroy the sacred cows of the world, but to separate out the truth from the myth. My intention is to set that precious little calf free, so it can run and play and grow and evolve as it was meant.