>I recently purchased my wisdom pack at the Drug store, in isle 5. It guarantees me with insta positive Karma, wisdom to do ‘right’ all the time, and perpetual yogi movement. Where did you get yours?
–seriously, that is the world today isn’t it?
Inspired by finding a new philospher to read about (Douglas Harding – thank you Lou_Lentils) and by The Spirit of Yoga by Kathy Phillips, I felt the urge to vent about the current state of our collective spirituality.
Our ability to acquire, to purchase, to gain, anything, anywhere, anytime in this Western world is unstoppable. Apparently, we can simply have the right friends, the right frame of mind, the right amount of money and all will be good inside our soul, right?
What happens when one day your brain, your heart, or your feet turn left? What happens, when you no longer feel good by going right all the time? What will happen when the superficial, glossy, smooth comfort of yoga practice or exercise as many perceive it, and meditation, or group soul searching as many describe it falls short?
How do you find yourself, your inner being everyday? Or do you just look at yourself occasionally, seasonally, annually at your birthday perhaps? Evaluation is not for the faint of heart. Evaluation is also not the same as judgment.
In judgment we think we see and ‘judge’ to be good or bad, ready or not ready, worthy or not worthy. In evaluation, we simply take stock. We evaluate to assess or appraise where we are with respect to where we wish to be. Do you judge yourself or evaluate yourself? Do you allow yourself time for growth and inner searching or do you run out and immerse yourself in an activity to force the answers to come in an instant?
Often I feel stuck between the emerging me and the society’s ‘me’. The one I think people perceive me to be and the one I really am. The only way to reconcile this disparity is to stop. Stop and think. NO. Stop and not think. That’s it. Stop, breathe and not think. Then I am whole.
Douglas Harding:
If I fail to see what I am (and especially what I am not) it’s because I’m too busily imaginative, too “spiritual”, too adult and knowing, too credulous, too intimidated by society and language, too frightened of the obvious to accept the situation exactly as I find it at this moment. Only I am in a position to report on what’s here. A kind of alert naivety is what I need. It takes an innocent eye and an empty head (not to mention a stout heart) to admit their own perfect emptiness. On Having No Head, Douglas Harding