Wednesday, October 20, 2010

playground

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Does spiritual endeavor require complexity? This is not a trick question.

By complexity, I mean the intellectual and emotional meanings that are hung around its neck in a hundred books and in a thousand sermons and in a million temples?

On the one hand, my mind digs its heels in like a balky mule when I hear the dulcet meanings that can be brought to bear. "In the moment," "compassion," "ultimate," "authentic," "enlightenment" ... that sort of stuff. On the other hand it would be blindness not to recognize that seeds need to be planted before the corn can grow: People need handholds. If they begin with "ego," then the ego needs a little help, a nudge, a kick in the ass.

And if this is roughly the case, then it seems to me that spiritual endeavor may be called the child of ego, of self, of greed, anger and delusion. Now the only question is, who gave birth to this child ... and will the child become an adult? Given the clouds of religion in the world, I wonder if we shouldn't build a bigger playground.
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3 comments:

  1. Children need fences to feel safe so they can be free to play. Adults tear down their fences so they can feel free and play. :)

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  2. I just wondered for a sec, whether the spiritual in the spiritual endeavour is necessary. Could it be that all endeavours are spiritual in nature in some way, b it cutting the grass, cooking pizza, taking out the laundry, peeping at the girl opposite your dorm room, creating the cosmos... etc.

    While peeping at the girl opposite the dorm room, I learnt that if you come home late and do not hang out your wet laundry at night, tomorrow morning you might just go to school with a wet bra.

    very insightful. or so, i thought :)

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