I don't often write about spiritual stuff. Although the spiritual is more than important to me, it is not my focus on this blog. However, this place has turned slowly from being a purely spinning/craft blog to a journal of snippets, a patchwork quilt of my life perhaps. And a few patches here and there can, I think, be given over to my spirit journey with its ups and downs, beauty and disasters as the inspiration crops up.
I was mulling over the prompt for One Single Impression as I was strolling through my favourite blogs this morning and I found this over at Robin's and A Little Bird Told Me which somehow crystallised it all...
...if you get a chance, do pop over and say hello as it is a beautiful, thought provoking place she has and I hope she won't mind when I lift a portion of text from her latest post.
I was mulling over the prompt for One Single Impression as I was strolling through my favourite blogs this morning and I found this over at Robin's and A Little Bird Told Me which somehow crystallised it all...
...if you get a chance, do pop over and say hello as it is a beautiful, thought provoking place she has and I hope she won't mind when I lift a portion of text from her latest post.
Osho writes
The Jains call the person arihanta who has attained to himself and is so drowned, so drunk in the beatitude of his realization that he has forgotten the whole world. The word arihanta literally means “one who has killed the enemy”—and the enemy is the ego. When you first enter into the world of no-mind it looks like madness—the “dark night of the soul,” the mad night of the soul. All the religions have noted the fact; hence all religions insist on finding a master before you start entering into the world of no-mind-because he will be there to help you, to support you.
And then Robin asks...What if your master, the person you learn things from, the person you admire - what if he or she is an arihanta?
See what I mean about thought provoking?
It has made me think that Osho is expressing here a tenet of the Christian way - the one of "death to self".
It made me think of the terrible hash Christians have made of the way their faith is perceived.
It made me think that the simple crystal beauty of the call of Christ has been drowned out in the horrendous blaring cacophony of hypocrisy that the Church is synonymous with.
It made me realise that Jesus is arihanta.
Why is it that a Osho can write like that and be understood and accepted while a phrase like "death to self" fills me with the shudders when it is the same thing, the same idea? Who does not wish to be free? And how many people think that Christianity is Freedom? Isn't it annoying when one's God is let down so often by the institution that crept up behind Him?
"Dance, sing, be free!" He said.
"You are free after all
And there is so much beauty here
Celebrate it!!
"We cannot," they replied.
"We have to be respectable.
Take our place
as pillars of the community
and pillars cannot dance"
Christ is a fool, a sacred fool. He takes the perceived wisdom of the world and turns it upside down. Everything that is important to us he tells us to hold lightly and who knows? It might come back. He tells us all kinds of stuff that we cannot understand: Lay down your life and you will live; if you mourn you are blessed; don't hit back at those who harm you.
...and yet some things are easy to understand. Love, do good, treat others as you would like to be treated yourself. Which many consider to be naive to the point of folly,but...
A fool loves
In the face of all darkness
and against all odds
See! I got to the prompt in the end!
for more folly check out One Single Impression here
The Jains call the person arihanta who has attained to himself and is so drowned, so drunk in the beatitude of his realization that he has forgotten the whole world. The word arihanta literally means “one who has killed the enemy”—and the enemy is the ego. When you first enter into the world of no-mind it looks like madness—the “dark night of the soul,” the mad night of the soul. All the religions have noted the fact; hence all religions insist on finding a master before you start entering into the world of no-mind-because he will be there to help you, to support you.
And then Robin asks...What if your master, the person you learn things from, the person you admire - what if he or she is an arihanta?
See what I mean about thought provoking?
It has made me think that Osho is expressing here a tenet of the Christian way - the one of "death to self".
It made me think of the terrible hash Christians have made of the way their faith is perceived.
It made me think that the simple crystal beauty of the call of Christ has been drowned out in the horrendous blaring cacophony of hypocrisy that the Church is synonymous with.
It made me realise that Jesus is arihanta.
Why is it that a Osho can write like that and be understood and accepted while a phrase like "death to self" fills me with the shudders when it is the same thing, the same idea? Who does not wish to be free? And how many people think that Christianity is Freedom? Isn't it annoying when one's God is let down so often by the institution that crept up behind Him?
"Dance, sing, be free!" He said.
"You are free after all
And there is so much beauty here
Celebrate it!!
"We cannot," they replied.
"We have to be respectable.
Take our place
as pillars of the community
and pillars cannot dance"
Christ is a fool, a sacred fool. He takes the perceived wisdom of the world and turns it upside down. Everything that is important to us he tells us to hold lightly and who knows? It might come back. He tells us all kinds of stuff that we cannot understand: Lay down your life and you will live; if you mourn you are blessed; don't hit back at those who harm you.
...and yet some things are easy to understand. Love, do good, treat others as you would like to be treated yourself. Which many consider to be naive to the point of folly,but...
A fool loves
In the face of all darkness
and against all odds
See! I got to the prompt in the end!
for more folly check out One Single Impression here
17 comments:
.. enjoyed ur post..the flowering of thoughts..lovely..reasoning ..like a fresh breeze..many thanks..
What a great post! To love is to risk great pain, but not to love assures much worse pain, so is the fool really such a fool?
Great post full of much wisdom. I am always baffled by how totally the Church has misunderstood the whole point. Love your final haiku and barb's comment question both.
Lovely; thought provoking, leaving one probing the darkness searching for the light.
As someone who has spent some time in "Indian Country" (the place and the state of mind)I have learned a little bit about this much needed role in this part of the world. This post is beautifully done! And also, thank you for the tip about the Annie Lennox song, and especially your warm words in your comment, made my day.
Christ is indeed a sacred fool. Perhaps his greatest risk was that he risked being misunderstood by the very people he loved so well--all of us.
Thanks for this beautiful, thought provoking post. God bless.
Yes, indeed! Your haiku GETS it! Nice work!!
Very thought provoking piece. I was reminded of Paul's letter to the church at Corinth, "For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, 'I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.' Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe."
Some great, thought provoking words there, Sian!! I hope you've had a fabulous weekend, and that the coming week is also a good one.
I like the haiku...
yellowed piece of paper
greetings from sunny Caerphilly! lovely haiku :)
I love the way you came to your haiku. Very interesting.
Sian, I love your whole post, particularly how it culminates in such a grand ku.
Interesting path to your haiku and it is a lovely haiku.
i find your post enriching. am glad to pass by here
Did you write the poem or conversation above? Because I love the lines about being "pillars of the community and pillars can't dance!" Very good analogy. I like your folly haiku also. This whole post is thought provoking.
Wonderful post ... fun to watch your thought process develop on the page and emerge in such wisdom. I think with my fingers in much the same way often ... arriving at truth almost by accident. Thanks for sharing. I’ve played twice this week: once on each blog . My OSI Week 23: Folly posts can be found here and here.
Hugs and blessings,
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