I thought this page from Deng Ming-Dao’s 365 Tao: Daily Meditations was worth quoting in full:
Let us not follow vulgar leaders
Who exploit the fear of death,
And promise the bliss of salvation.
If we are truly happy,
They will have nothing to offer.Some leaders use threats to win adherents. They invoke death to force good behaviour and to herd people toward paradise.
Others woo with grand promises. If you have no satisfaction, they offer bliss. If you feel inadequate, they offer success. If you are lonely, they offer acceptance.
But if you do not fear death and are happy, what will such leaders have to offer? Spirituality is an organic part of daily life, not something dispensed by a professional. True spirituality is liberation, not just from the delusions of reality but from the delusions of religion as well. If we attain freedom from the fear of death, a sound way of health, and a path of understanding through life, there is happiness and no need for fake leaders.
I’m reading a page of this every morning.
Hi Nigel,
You still need people to organize human effort, but your assertion from a spiritual perspective I believe is fundamentally correct.
My world view was hugely re-shaped many years ago after my eyes were drawn to a worn, yellow-jacketed book hidden away on a lower shelf in the Ottawa library. It turned out to be “Autobiography of a Yogi” by Paramahansa Yogananda. It connected all my life experiences to that point – suddenly it all made sense, and everything fit with everything else. (Many years later I learned that George Harrison used to keep copies of it lying around on his coffee tables for guests to keep if they wanted to. He didn’t push it on them; it was just there to be picked up. Harrison was way ahead of his time with All Things Must Pass back in 1969 or 1970 when it came out.)
Meditation has produced all sorts of interesting experiences in my life. It has a very practical side to it as well as the mystical.
But getting back to your point, I’ve basically come to the conclusion that there is no downside to life. There’s nothing that we really need fear – no matter how bad it appears from our material/dualistic perspective. It’s quite liberating actually. I can’t speak for others’ experiences, but that’s how it has served me.
Cheers,
George
BTW, George Harrison and I have the same birthday, though it would be presumptuous of me to read more into it than that. But I do know how to play the guitar riffs in “Here Comes the Sun”.
By: allocator on April 8, 2009
at 12:10 am
Nigel – thank you for this.
George – I really appreciate your comment that “there is no downside to life”!
By: ld on April 8, 2009
at 2:59 am
George,
Thanks for the interesting post; I’ve just bought a copy of the book.
I recently started meditating again after dabbling with it last year. There might be a degree of overlap with the effects brought about by Zhan Zhuang but the emphasis on stilling the mind is rather different.
If anything dramatic happens I’ll report back here.
Nigel
By: ndavies64 on April 8, 2009
at 6:36 am
For those that are interested the aforementioned ‘Autobiograpgy of a Yogi’ is available to read here.
http://www.crystalclarity.com/yogananda/
According to Wikipedia there is some contrvoersy over ammendements to a later version.
By: kevg on April 8, 2009
at 8:56 am