The Seven Basic Plots - Christopher Booker [451]
This is a significant moment in the history of the human imagination. The figure of `Satan, as `God's opposite', has appeared before in Jewish legend, most notably in the story of Job.ls But never before has this Tempter-figure emerged so openly and in such uncompromisingly personal guise. He is a complete personification of all the treacherous, self-deceiving, self-destructive power of the human ego. And the reason he can be now be portrayed in such an extreme way, as a 'dark opposite' to the hero, is that in no story before has the hero ever been portrayed so uncompromisingly as a personification of the Self (perhaps the only exception is the Indian legend of the Buddha). In rejecting the three temptations out of hand, Jesus shows he is so completely identified with the Self that he has no ego to be tempted. Of course he will not turn stones into bread, because what he stands for has nothing to do with gaining advantage in the outward, material world. He is concerned solely with the internal realm of the human spirit. Equally he will not be party to a spectacular demonstration of his power simply in the name of saving himself. Again he has no interest in exercising power over the `kingdoms of the world' because his message is concerned with a wholly different `kingdom': that spiritual domain within each human individual which has nothing to do with the exercise of power over other people.
What was revolutionary about this message was that it was directed so precisely to that central problem of human psychology at which, because it is also the central problem addressed by storytelling, we have been looking at all through this book. He was not concerned with his hearers' outward status, or to which race or social grouping they belonged. He was addressing each as an individual, on that inner level where all human beings start off on completely equal terms (exactly as we see them portrayed in stories). On this level, the only question which matters, whether someone is ruler of the Roman empire or a humble fisherman, is what sort of a person they are. How do they measure up inwardly to the challenge of what it is to be human? Are they centred on the ego or on the Self? Are they weak, self-centred, heartless, greedy, vain, proud, cruel, treacherous, mean-spirited, lustful, bad-tempered, vengeful, intolerant, narrow-minded, humourless, lazy, irresponsible and ultimately immature? Or are they centred on that deeper egotranscending level of the personality which can make them strong, selfless, loving, generous, modest, self-effacing, compassionate, loyal, understanding, goodhumoured, self-disciplined, even-tempered, merciful, tolerant, hard-working, responsible and ultimately mature?
The essence of Jesus's message, much of it put across in the form of parables or stories, was that, for any of us, this is the only test which matters. Is our personality centred on the ego or the Self? And it was because he viewed this distinction as of such crucial importance that he was able to come up with that other revolutionary idea at the heart of his message: that the first responsibility of those who heard it was to `repent' of their `sins' (for which, as we have seen, his word in Greek was hamartia, `missing the mark'). What this meant was that they must develop the self-awareness to recognise just how all-pervasive a part egocentricity plays in all our human thinking and behaviour. Only through this self-understanding can we properly appreciate the other `centre' in our nature: and how far egotism holds us back from `hitting the mark, in realising that which we have the potential to become. Only then can we appreciate what Jesus constantly proclaimed as the two supreme human values, love and truth: the capacity for selfless love and the ability to see the world objectively, free from subjective distortion. In other words, precisely those two key principles we see represented