When waking from sleep, raise your medicine ball head, draw open your eyelids like blinds and let the heavenly glory shine in. Today is your chance to discover 'The Origin and Goal of History'. It was German philosopher Karl Jaspers who first coined the term 'Axial Age' to denote the spiritual transformations taking place between 800 and 200 BCE. It was the era of Confucius, Socrates, Buddha, Laozi, Phythagorus, Jeremiah and more, known as the Axial Sages. These revolutionary spiritual insights arrived against a background of violence and horror.

 

The word 'belief' only arose in the 17th Century to mean the acceptance of certain doctrines. Etymologically 'belief' comes from the Old English word 'geleafa' - meaning to love. It was through love and compassion that one came closer to God. Confucius, 500 years before Christ, came up with the idea of the 'Golden Rule' - "What you do not wish for yourself, do not do to others."

 

When we come into contact with this type of selfless, egoless existence, only then do we come to know God. A beautiful example of this can be found in The Iliad. In Homer's epic poem the Trojan Prince Hector kills Achilles' beloved friend Patroclus, encouraging the Greek warrior to return to a battle he was leaving. When Achilles gets hold of Hector he kills him and subsequently mutilates his body. Spitefully Achilles holds onto the body not allowing the proper burial rites, in Greek culture this would have meant Hector's soul was damned to wandering eternally lost. So Priam, the Trojan king, sneaks into the Greek camp disguised. He supplicates Achilles and asks for his son's body back to bury - "I have endured what no one on earth has ever done before--I put to my lips the hands of the man who killed my son". 

 

Priam reminds Achilles of his own father and they come to the agreement that he can have Hector's body back. At that moment they fill the room with tears. The sharing of tears held a religious power in Classical Greece. As they are weeping together they see each other as divine. It was the mutual compassion that raised the experience of God.