NoufalIbrahim stopped blogging about spirituality. ¹
I recently thought about my ideas of ZenBuddhism:
To teach wisdom is foolish. To write it down is foolish. To learn it from books is foolish. What most people don’t understand is that this makes things simple.
So basically I agree with Noufal – to write about spirituality is weird. He says:
A desire to see people approve of what one writes and an attempt to make ones self look intellectual or accomplished in a certain fashion. This is detrimental to the very purpose of spirituality and so I’m going to stop doing it.
It also matches some rather vague feeling I had in recent weeks about my favorite new word: Perversion. I talked a few times about this to Claudia. Something about the human condition that leads to the perversion of the very ideas we hold high. Think about world religions, for example. What religion can boast of growth and no evil side effects? No crimes against humanity in the name of religion? People strive hard for something, hold their ideals up high, and start missing other things in life. Mercy. Joy. Courage. Humility. Whatever – once you start striving too hard, you’re straying of the path. And therefore it is foolish to tell others about the path you are following, because if anybody follows your direction, or if you yourself never change direction, you will stray eventually. The path has many bends, and to in order to stay on it, you have to learn how to walk. You can’t teach anybody how to walk by pointing in directions.
Now if you can’t teach, why would you write about wisdom and spirituality? Maybe it’s what Noufal says: The desire to please, the desire to achieve, the desire for support. Well, not all of that is bad. And certainly I learnt a lot of wisdom from books. In the end, books are like other experiences. As you look and read, as you listen to your inner voice reading the text, other people start speaking to you. And they start pointing in this direction or that direction. They write about the paths they took. Their characters move this way and that, and by watching them as you read, you might learn a bit. Get started. But soon it is time to let go. You have to start seeking wisdom in the life around you, you have to start acting wisely in your own life, and you have to start teaching those around you, and every person requires a different word, a different example, a different friend.
Should you write it down, somebody else might get started on the quest for wisdom. And that is good. To think much of it, however, is foolish. 😄
And so, eventhough I agree with Noufal, another spirituality blog entry has seen the light of day. :D
#Spirituality
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A couple of thoughts.
1. I had this feeling that I was using the blog as a shell for an otherwise empty spiritual life. Preach rather than practice.
2. I guess if enlightened people didn’t write, we’d have nothing to read but I think that trying to write about such matters on a *blog* at such an early stage of the whole journey is a different thing altogether. One starts to write for an audience and seeks external approval. I think that’s bad.
Oh well, all said and done, I prefer it this way. 😄
– NoufalIbrahim 2004-09-19 08:26 UTC
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each one has his own way of looking/searching for spirituality, You won’t change the very mind of your readers, but you may open new windows and doors... In fact I see two ways to look at spirituality: one is looking into your very heart and be still, that’s living your own spirituality; the other is talking, blogging, reading, writing about it, that’s showing multiple ways for those who still don’t know what to do with the word “spirituality”... As long the wrinting, talking, blogging is done with humility, with the knowing that YOU won’t change anything unless the other is ready for it, I think it’s ok... I found my own way through talks,lots of books and writings, and it was good to have them. The important think to realize is, is that at the end, you don’t need them. But this again you realize it only when you’ve gone through it... 😃 In fact , now that I think about, I’d say spirituality is when you start laughing about it. So have a happy day 😃)
– astrid 2004-09-20 19:54 UTC
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I pondered this for quite a while now, and I think I agree. Laughing about it is an important aspect of enlightenment.
D
– Alex Schroeder 2004-11-24 18:36 UTC