PAPER 77. KULTUS (PEMUJAAN) ROH (HANTU, GHOST) Manusia primitif dulu takut pada roh. Mereka menganggap roh-roh jahat ada di sekitar mereka, dan mempengaruhi nasib mereka. Oleh sebab itu mereka berusaha mengendalikan roh, dengan berbagai cara. Pertama, mereka berusaha menyenangkan, lalu menakut-nakuti roh jahat, lalu menyiksa (torture) roh. Orang berusaha menyangkal diri antara lain dengan cara PUASA, karena dianggap itu menyenangkan roh-roh.
[87:2.4] Silence or mourning was observed after a death so that the ghost would not be attracted back home. Self-torture -- wounds -- was a common form of mourning. Many advanced teachers tried to stop this, but they failed. Fasting and other forms of self-denial were thought to be pleasing to the ghosts, who took pleasure in the discomfort of the living during the transition period of lurking about before their actual departure for deadland.
Kemudian muncul praktek sumpah suci, disertai dengan melukai diri. Penyangkalan diri (puasa dll) dianggap cara efektif untuk menekan dorongan seks. Maka orang primitif cenderung keras dalam ajaran, menyiksa-diri dan penyangkalan-diri sebagai ritual agama, sebagai cara untuk memaksa roh-roh untuk senang melihat semua penderitaan tersebut.
[87:6:9] Next came the practice of ritual vows, soon to be followed by religious pledges and sacred oaths. Most of these oaths were accompanied by self-torture and self-mutilation; later on, by fasting and prayer. Self-denial was subsequently looked upon as being a sure coercive; this was especially true in the matter of sex suppression. And so primitive man early developed a decided austerity in his religious practices, a belief in the efficacy of self-torture and self-denial as rituals capable of coercing the unwilling spirits to react favorably toward all such suffering and deprivation.
[87:6.10] Modern man no longer attempts openly to coerce the spirits, though he still evinces a disposition to bargain with Deity. And he still swears, knocks on wood, crosses his fingers, and follows expectoration with some trite phrase; once it was a magical formula.
Manusia modern tidak lagi tawar-menawar dengan Tuhan, memaksa Tuhan untuk senang, walaupun sampai hari ini masih ada juga banyak agama yang mengajarkan hal demikian.
Evolusi konsep puasa kemudian muncul dalam Paper 89 tentang DOSA, KORBAN, DAN PENEBUSAN. Dari konsep menyenangkan dan memaksa roh, puasa berkembang ke dalam konsep penolakan dan penghinaan-diri. Jadilah kebiasaan untuk membuang banyak bentuk kesenangan fisik, khususnya yang berbau seksual. Ritual puasa berakar kuat dalam bnayak agama kuno dan bahkan sampai hari ini.
3. RENUNCIATION AND HUMILIATION (PENOLAKAN DAN PENGHINAAN-DIRI) [89:3.1] Renunciation came as the next step in religious evolution; fasting was a common practice. Soon it became the custom to forego many forms of physical pleasure, especially of a sexual nature. The ritual of the fast was deeply rooted in many ancient religions and has been handed down to practically all modern theologic systems of thought.
Kemudian puasa berevolusi lagi, muncul dalam konsep korban. Dulu korban itu misalnya mencabuti rambut, melukai badan, memotong jari, dll. Lalu berkembang dalam ritual penyangkalan-diri, asketisme (bertapa), puasa, mengasingkan diri dan doktrin penyucian melalui penderitaan, dukacita, dan merendahkan daging (hal-hal jasmani).
Paper 89. Bab 4. ORIGINS OF SACRIFICE [89:4.1] Sacrifice as a part of religious devotions, like many other worshipful rituals, did not have a simple and single origin. The tendency to bow down before power and to prostrate oneself in worshipful adoration in the presence of mystery is foreshadowed in the fawning of the dog before its master. It is but one step from the impulse of worship to the act of sacrifice. Primitive man gauged the value of his sacrifice by the pain which he suffered. When the idea of sacrifice first attached itself to religious ceremonial, no offering was contemplated which was not productive of pain. The first sacrifices were such acts as plucking hair, cutting the flesh, mutilations, knocking out teeth, and cutting off fingers. As civilization advanced, these crude concepts of sacrifice were elevated to the level of the rituals of self-abnegation, asceticism, fasting, deprivation, and the later Christian doctrine of sanctification through sorrow, suffering, and the mortification of the flesh.
[89:4.2] Early in the evolution of religion there existed two conceptions of the sacrifice: the idea of the gift sacrifice, which connoted the attitude of thanksgiving, and the debt sacrifice, which embraced the idea of redemption. Later there developed the notion of substitution.
Dari sejak dahulu, puasa dan diet dianggap memiliki manfaat kesehatan atau obat.
Bagian 4, paragraf 7. [90:4.7] Among some people disease was thought to be caused by a wicked conspiracy between spirits and animals. This gave rise to the belief that there existed a beneficent plant remedy for every animal-caused disease. The red men were especially devoted to the plant theory of universal remedies; they always put a drop of blood in the root hole left when the plant was pulled up.PAPER 90. SHAMANISME- DUKUN DAN IMAM.
[90:4.8] Fasting, dieting, and counterirritants were often used as remedial measures. Human secretions, being definitely magical, were highly regarded; blood and urine were thus among the earliest medicines and were soon augmented by roots and various salts. The shamans believed that disease spirits could be driven out of the body by foul-smelling and bad-tasting medicines. Purging very early became a routine treatment, and the values of raw cocoa and quinine were among the earliest pharmaceutical discoveries.
Puasa ternyata bisa meningkatkan pengalaman mistik. Padahal sikap meditatif spiritual yang sehat misalnya adalah penyembahan dan doa pengucapan syukur. Hubungan langsung dengan Roh Bapa (Thought Adjuster yang tinggal dalam setiap manusia), adalah bukan pengalaman mistik. Pengalaman mistik misalnya dalam keadaan kesurupan, setengah sadar, melihat visi, adalah pengalaman manusia yang banyak bahayanya, karena umumnya berasal dari alam bawah sadar.
[100:5.10] The more healthful attitude of spiritual meditation is to be found in reflective worship and in the prayer of thanksgiving. The direct communion with one's Thought Adjuster, such as occurred in the later years of Jesus' life in the flesh, should not be confused with these so-called mystical experiences. The factors which contribute to the initiation of mystic communion are indicative of the danger of such psychic states. The mystic status is favored by such things as: physical fatigue, fasting, psychic dissociation, profound aesthetic experiences, vivid sex impulses, fear, anxiety, rage, and wild dancing. Much of the material arising as a result of such preliminary preparation has its origin in the subconscious mind.
Yesus sebenarnya tidak berpuasa 40 hari 40 malam. Dia bukan petapa. Dia melawan semua cara pendekatan pada Allah dengan bertapa.
[136:3.2] After his baptism he entered upon the forty days of adjusting himself to the changed relationships of the world and the universe occasioned by the personalization of his Adjuster. During this isolation in the Perean hills he determined upon the policy to be pursued and the methods to be employed in the new and changed phase of earth life which he was about to inaugurate.
[136:3.3] Jesus did not go into retirement for the purpose of fasting and for the affliction of his soul. He was not an ascetic, and he came forever to destroy all such notions regarding the approach to God. His reasons for seeking this retirement were entirely different from those which had actuated Moses and Elijah, and even John the Baptist. Jesus was then wholly self-conscious concerning his relation to the universe of his making and also to the universe of universes, supervised by the Paradise Father, his Father in heaven. He now fully recalled the bestowal charge and its instructions administered by his elder brother, Immanuel, ere he entered upon his Urantia incarnation. He now clearly and fully comprehended all these far-flung relationships, and he desired to be away for a season of quiet meditation so that he could think out the plans and decide upon the procedures for the prosecution of his public labors in behalf of this world and for all other worlds in his local universe.
Yesus melakukan 40 hari mengasingkan diri, bukan berpuasa atau mengalami pencobaan, tetapi Dia sedang dalam periode membuat keputusan besar. Para murid Yesus salah tafsir, karena biasanya para nabi besar selalu berdoa puasa dulu sebelum muncul di depan umum. Yesus punya kebiasaan, jika akan membuat keputusan besar, Dia selalu menarik diri, agar bisa bersekutu dengan Roh yang ada di dalam Dia, agar Dia tahu kehendak Bapa.
[136:4.8] The forty days in the mountain wilderness were not a period of great temptation but rather the period of the Master's great decisions. During these days of lone communion with himself and his Father's immediate presence -- the Personalized Adjuster (he no longer had a personal seraphic guardian) -- he arrived, one by one, at the great decisions which were to control his policies and conduct for the remainder of his earth career. Subsequently the tradition of a great temptation became attached to this period of isolation through confusion with the fragmentary narratives of the Mount Hermon struggles, and further because it was the custom to have all great prophets and human leaders begin their public careers by undergoing these supposed seasons of fasting and prayer. It had always been Jesus' practice, when facing any new or serious decisions, to withdraw for communion with his own spirit that he might seek to know the will of God.
Paper 140 menceritakan Khotbah di Bukit. Di situ dikatakan bahwa hanya orang yang rendah yang mencari kekuatan ilahi dan kuasa rohani. Tetapi berbahaya mencari kuasa rohani melalui puasa. Puasa bukan jalan yang tepat untuk meningkatkan "kemampuan" rohaniah. Puasa fisik berbahaya setelah 4 atau 5 hari, karena puasa berkepanjangan cenderung untuk menghilangkan nafsu makan.
Paper 140 menceritakan tentang Khotbah Yesus di Bukit.
[140:5.8] 2. "Happy are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled." Only those who feel poor in spirit will ever hunger for righteousness. Only the humble seek for divine strength and crave spiritual power. But it is most dangerous to knowingly engage in spiritual fasting in order to improve one's appetite for spiritual endowments. Physical fasting becomes dangerous after four or five days; one is apt to lose all desire for food. Prolonged fasting, either physical or spiritual, tends to destroy hunger.
Tetapi Yesus mengajar bahwa murid-murid-Nya harus lebih tinggi rohaninya daripada orang yang mencari perkenan Bapa melalui pemberian sedekah, doa, dan puasa. Jadi memang ada orang yang melakukan puasa dengan tujuan agar diperkenan Allah. Orang Farisi dan pengikut Musa melakukan itu. Yesus menjanjikan murid-murid-Nya akan mendapatkan kebenaran lebih dari mereka.
[140:6.3] "I demand of you a righteousness that shall exceed the righteousness of those who seek to obtain the Father's favor by almsgiving, prayer, and fasting. If you would enter the kingdom, you must have a righteousness that consists in love, mercy, and truth - - the sincere desire to do the will of my Father in heaven."
Namun jika murid-murid ingin berpuasa, jangan sampai nampak sedih atau ketahuan siapapun, sebab itu urusan seseorang dengan Allah.
[140:6.11] When Jesus heard this, he said: "Be willing, then, to take up your responsibilities and follow me. Do your good deeds in secret; when you give alms, let not the left hand know what the right hand does. And when you pray, go apart by yourselves and use not vain repetitions and meaningless phrases. Always remember that the Father knows what you need even before you ask him. And be not given to fasting with a sad countenance to be seen by men. As my chosen apostles, now set apart for the service of the kingdom, lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth, but by your unselfish service lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, for where your treasures are, there will your hearts be also.
Orang petapa dan orang yang mengajarkan doa puasa begini pernah menolak Yesus, karena Yesus tidak mengajarkan puasa atau bentuk penyangkalan diri dengan cara sejenis.
[142:8.1] By the end of April the opposition to Jesus among the Pharisees and Sadducees had become so pronounced that the Master and his apostles decided to leave Jerusalem for a while, going south to work in Bethlehem and Hebron. The entire month of May was spent in doing personal work in these cities and among the people of the surrounding villages. No public preaching was done on this trip, only house-to-house visitation. A part of this time, while the apostles taught the gospel and ministered to the sick, Jesus and Abner spent at Engedi, visiting the Nazarite colony. John the Baptist had gone forth from this place, and Abner had been head of this group. Many of the Nazarite brotherhood became believers in Jesus, but the majority of these ascetic and eccentric men refused to accept him as a teacher sent from heaven because he did not teach fasting and other forms of self-denial.
Yesus memberikan awasan pada para murid-muridNya agar tidak membuat doa kelihatan lebih hebat dengan diulang-ulang, kalimat yang indah, puasa, korban,dll. Doa itu haruslah keluar dari hati yang jujur dan terbuka di hadapan Allah, bukan rutinitas atau sesuatu yang diatur-atur. Doa yang baik bisa membawa pada penyembahan sejati.
[146:2.15] 14. Jesus warned his followers against thinking that their prayers would be rendered more efficacious by ornate repetitions, eloquent phraseology, fasting, penance, or sacrifices. But he did exhort his believers to employ prayer as a means of leading up through thanksgiving to true worship. Jesus deplored that so little of the spirit of thanksgiving was to be found in the prayers and worship of his followers. He quoted from the Scriptures on this occasion, saying: "It is a good thing to give thanks to the Lord and to sing praises to the name of the Most High, to acknowledge his loving-kindness every morning and his faithfulness every night, for God has made me glad through his work. In everything I will give thanks according to the will of God."
Yang jelas, memang berpuasa bukan bagian dari Injil yang diajarkan Yesus. Puasa bukan ritual dalam agama Yesus. Puasa itu terjadi dengan spontan, bila ada situasi yang demikian memerlukan keputusan, sehingga orang melupakan makan. Yesus dalam UB sering diceritakan berada dalam kondisi ini. Itu adalah urusan yang sangat pribadi dengan Allah.
Apakah orang Farisi/Yahudi yang mempraktekkan doa puasa dan sedekah lebih sempurna dari Yesus? Apakah orang Farisi diterima ibadahnya ? Jawabnya tidak.
Oleh sebab itu jangan menjadikan puasa menjadi ritual agama yang memberatkan manusia. Urantia Book telah memberikan DASAR TEOLOGIS yang sangat kuat. Marilah berkembang menjadi agama modern, Agama Yesus yang menjamin keselamatan!!