Most of us have probably met at some point appeals for adopting what is presented as the proper beliefs to take us away from some form of undesirable result.
I have come to feel that there is a fundamental significance to that motivation when it is present in religious practice. Perhaps it taps into deep cravings for certainty and support, when we find ourselves faced with a largely indifferent world that all too often tosses us towards situations which we can neither understand nor confortably process.
Unfortunately, that is not a healthy motivation. The anxieties are real enough, but they must be addressed at the proper level - very often, a concrete, "street" level.
Many people end up nurturing hope that things will ultimately turn out to be fine due to some form of miracle or higher plan. It happens very often among those plagued by poverty, conflict or simple loneliness.
Such a passive religious posture has very negative consequences IMO, and should always be avoided. Human nature is hurt by continuous postponing and divorcing between everyday realities and expectations of joy. It leads to subtle yet powerful and very harmful forms of slavery and alienation.
Instead, a constructive posture would be that of nurturing a set of achievable, practical, mutually related virtues - awareness of reality as it presentes itself; serenity to deal with it without panicking or breaking; willingness to learn and accept the prices and risks involved.
It can be hard in practice, and social support is very much needed, at least when one is not all that settled in the first place. But it is a very worthwhile perspective, and one that pays itself many times over even from the first few steps.
It also dissolves the perceived importance of abstract questions that tend to be hugely over-valued, such as whether there is any deity or afterlife. Those questions can't really be answered, but they are only perceived as being worth of any consideration because so many of us are so deeply troubled by their everyday reality.
Comments?
I have come to feel that there is a fundamental significance to that motivation when it is present in religious practice. Perhaps it taps into deep cravings for certainty and support, when we find ourselves faced with a largely indifferent world that all too often tosses us towards situations which we can neither understand nor confortably process.
Unfortunately, that is not a healthy motivation. The anxieties are real enough, but they must be addressed at the proper level - very often, a concrete, "street" level.
Many people end up nurturing hope that things will ultimately turn out to be fine due to some form of miracle or higher plan. It happens very often among those plagued by poverty, conflict or simple loneliness.
Such a passive religious posture has very negative consequences IMO, and should always be avoided. Human nature is hurt by continuous postponing and divorcing between everyday realities and expectations of joy. It leads to subtle yet powerful and very harmful forms of slavery and alienation.
Instead, a constructive posture would be that of nurturing a set of achievable, practical, mutually related virtues - awareness of reality as it presentes itself; serenity to deal with it without panicking or breaking; willingness to learn and accept the prices and risks involved.
It can be hard in practice, and social support is very much needed, at least when one is not all that settled in the first place. But it is a very worthwhile perspective, and one that pays itself many times over even from the first few steps.
It also dissolves the perceived importance of abstract questions that tend to be hugely over-valued, such as whether there is any deity or afterlife. Those questions can't really be answered, but they are only perceived as being worth of any consideration because so many of us are so deeply troubled by their everyday reality.
Comments?
), which enabled me to have a sense-transcending experience. Either way, with practice (I have heard) or by the receipt of grace (I know) one may succeed in getting his craving, clamoring senses and tumultuous mind silent enough to slip into or become aware of a state of consciousness which literally bypasses them both, a leap made standing still which transports awareness of here to awareness of the real Here. It exists. Until one has experienced "both," though, one will simply not have the data to compare and silly people like me will be trying to say, "Look! There's more to it! Really! It's not what it seems!" In truth, Here alone exists but does a grand job of parceling out appearance(s) to the contrary. And coping with the appearances, iterations of appearances and all the attendant falderal of appearances is where anyone might find the medicine of detachment useful, no matter the motive for taking it.
