Sacrifice Your Son, Abraham

The Germans have a word – schadenfreude – which means to take that little bit of joy in another’s misfortune. It’s complicated, but it's genuinely funny. The Old Testament God takes this to a whole new level. Prime candidate number one: the story of Abraham sacrificing his son.

The story goes that Abraham, father of the three monotheistic traditions, who had already done loads for God by this point, was asked – nay, commanded – to take his only son and trek up a mountain and sacrifice the poor child. Old-skool cut your throat and burn the body kind of sacrifice.

It wasn’t a punishment for anything, it was just a casual midweek commandment. Maybe God asked around and only Abraham was listening. Maybe, I don’t know. But command God did, and Abraham jumped straight to it.

Now on top of the mountain, God had a change of heart and substituted in a stray ram at the last second. Not sure why that particular ram had it coming, but I think the point is God will reward those that listen to God. If you are willing to sacrifice your most beloved for God, you will be handsomely rewarded. And God might change his mind so you won’t ultimately have to sacrifice anything probably.

Strip down the supernatural deities, the graphic bloody imagery, and the blind obedience, and actually you’re left with a core message of Karma. Cause and effect. Consequence. The Karma of Dhamma. Dhamma is eastern talk for The Path, or The Way. So the story is the consequence of losing The Path.

In eastern philosophies like Hinduism and Buddhism, attachment is a primary hindrance to liberation and enlightenment. In this biblical story, Abraham desired a son greater than anything else. And he got one. Naturally, he grew attached. At that point, he had lost The Way.

To get back, Abraham had had to let go of any attachments. We all have our baggage. We know how hard it is to let go. And to let go of what you love is the hardest thing of all. It hurts. It is not to give something up, it is to let go of the attachment to it. Making peace.

Abraham had to let go of the most important thing in the world to him if he was going back to the Dhamma, to peace. Isaac, his son, walked down from the mountain top. But Abraham had already made the sacrifice. In letting go, he got to keep that which he loved most.

Buddhism, Daoism, Judaism, it’s all the same path to the same thing. Ritualised almost beyond recognition, each in its own weirdly peculiar way. But at the heart is a core fundamental. Let go, and you will have your peace.

This is a message that does not need a God in the sky or a million rebirths through oblivion. And it is one that cuts to the heart of the human experience.