Yoga - nwnm:freeing spirituality from the trappings of religion

Author

nwnm:freeing spirituality from the trappings of religion

azo64000@yahoo.co.uk

2005-09-24, 2:24 pm

from chap 6: NEW WORLD NEW MIND =A9 2001, R. ORNSTEIN & P. EHRLICH
<<<<<Organized religions, in the main, are products of an ancient time,
when the spiritual component of human life was of necessity mixed in
with social and political components. Religious and spiritual leaders
controlled many aspects of people's lives, in part because sensible
guidance on matters of food, marriage, and family life were otherwise
unavailable. Dietary rules and modes of dress, as well as in-groups
and out-groups, developed along with the spirituality and the
experience of transcendence that today are considered the
appropriate realm of religion. But in the modern world, obsolete rules
and prejudices hang on, while what is left of the spirituality is
usually
so degraded as to be unrecognizable.
Anti-evolutionism is a good example of degraded spirituality-a
result of the old mind's search for stability. That human beings
evolved from other animals does not provide a foundation for
making moral judgments, although it eventually did provide us with a
need to make such judgments. The oxymoronic "scientific
creationism" is about as "scientific" as the notion that the sun
circles
the earth. In the Soviet Union the acceptance of a creationist
viewpoint is partly responsible for the disastrous state of their
agriculture-an excellent example of how the old mind plagues the
U=2ES.S.R. as well as the United States.
Many of the classic "mystical" techniques work by opposing
bodily desires and needs. Why? The answer lies in the nature of the
old mind, designed to serve its owner by "minding" all the
functions
of the body. This is probably what was meant, in more archaic
terminology, by saying that the human mind is encased in a "coil of
flesh." Thus many attempts to "break the bonds" of human
consciousness do so by trying to break the controlling links to the
body.
For centuries people have tried to "mortify the flesh": to free the

mind from bodily restraints on its operation. It has been done by
dozens of methods-by flagellation, torture, marathon races,
starvation, uncomfortable lotus positions, sitting on nails, clapping
one hand, or by depriving oneself of everything agreeable, taking
away sexuality, power, sensuality, food, and all other sources of fun!
Countless regimes have been designed, in a simplified, idealistic,
and well-meaning way, to accomplish this. Over the millennia one of
the most popular methods has been the establishment of monasteries
that feature a release from all "worldly" desires, often including
regimes of restricted diets and reduced stimulation, all for the
purpose of "freeing the conscious mind" to go elsewhere. The
problem is that most people's minds do not know where to go.
Moreover, what is the use of a select group transcending the
normal bounds of knowledge if their insights are not disseminated
into society? It is indeed unfortunate that so many have had to suffer
for so long, and often for so little. It is also unfortunate that many
of
the important "ways of knowledge" that might have vital importance
for our society have been separated into the side stream of religions.
To us most religions and spiritual groups have, at their core, a vital
message: that all human beings are connected to one another,
affecting one another's fate and that of the world, and that people
must find within themselves a moral compass for orienting both
people and their environments. It is a message that is often obscured
in the trappings of religion; the short-term thinking that leads to
fund-raising on television (as Jackie Gleason said, if all these
preachers want you to ask God for healing or for a new car, why can't

they ask God for money?); to costumes, hierarchies, and rituals; to
archaic dietary and sexual proscriptions.
There is something important to be reclaimed from religion for
our culture, since science has so far proven a rather poor source of
moral guidance. The problem in finding out about spiritual thought is
that the practitioners are usually as confused as the rest of us. Both
organized mainline religions and the smaller centers of mysticism
share the same old-mind blinders: they focus on the immediately
available, or what worked millennia ago for their founder, and then
stick to it, just as the psychoanalysts stick to Freud's brilliant
but now
outdated notions.
The same process holds in religious groups as in medical and
psychotherapeutic ones. One cult may find that a certain technique,
such as chanting or meditation, works well in a given situation, be it
a
technique to achieve relaxation or concentration. Its members may
sometimes apply the technique in situations that are inappropriate or
with people for whom it is ineffective. Because the technique works
for them personally, they come to believe that it ought to work for
everyone at all times. Thus the technique becomes the end, even an
obsession, both in small cults, such as meditation societies, and in
big
cults, such as the established churches. One man's sacred is
another's
cult.
Instead of concentrating on really understanding the human soul,
mind, and body, religionizers often become mere adherents of an
organization. Thus the virtue of generosity is often taken as the end
point in the esoteric traditions and may even become a moral
imperative. This personal attitude should not be an end in itself, but
it
is a technique for attaining a state of enhanced understanding or
wellbeing.
Indeed, recent research indicates that even a person watching
another person perform a selfless act may derive profound
improvements in immune system functioning. Such altruism has been
shown to be beneficial not only for society but for the individuals
themselves.
Similarly, specific diets developed for a certain community at one
time may be promulgated across cultures and epochs; the style may
remain but the original context is lost, and the diet persists as an
empty tradition. The same thing happens with specific exercises
designed for one community. Many people travel miles today to see
"dervish dances" by the troupe of Konia, and the troupe now makes
its own world tours. It is impressive entertainment, but these
exercises were originally prescribed because their originator,
Jalaluddin Rumi, considered the people of Persia of the fourteenth
century to be so dull that they needed to dance around a bit. But
there are enough moderns wishing to give mysticism a whirl, and the
dance still turns them on!
Members of the rational-scientific traditions often disdain
religious-spiritual psychologies and vice versa. Many who subscribe
to rational thought see religious or spiritual people as following a
path
of self-indulgence, performing useless and ridiculous rituals and
withdrawing from life while others around them suffer. From
adherents of the spiritual often come hysterical attacks on rational
"materialism" and on the "world" as an "illusion." So
spiritual
concerns have moved further and further from the center of
contemporary life.
The spiritually inclined hang on at the fringe of society as church
attendance becomes social and perfunctory, and the humane and
transcendent knowledge of the spiritual traditions-about loving
one's brother as oneself, about turning the other cheek, about
generosity to others-is almost ignored. Instead we find crooked TV
preachers who time their fund-raising appeals to the arrival of Social
Security checks and then use the money extracted from generous
souls on the pretext of serving the needs of crippled children to
support a regal life-style for themselves. Instead we find old men
dictating the details of the sexual behavior of young women. .....>>>>

yaa "aliy ,yaa waliy!
azo
'' there is no real divinity but the Essence of Man
and there is no real diety but Man of the Essence.''

jackdog@pacificcoast.net

2005-09-24, 2:26 pm

Couldn't have expressed it better myself?

You state 'Indeed, recent research indicates that even a person
watching
another person perform a selfless act may derive profound improvements
in immune system functioning'.

My feeling is that this is the main and only point we have to work
on/with.

Everything I have learned so far tells me that it is always the
'action' that counts.If there is only thought and emotions nothing
happens.

It is only when all 3 parts,physical, mental and emotional are put into
'action' that something happens.
..