Showing posts with label Spiritual reading dicussion group. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Spiritual reading dicussion group. Show all posts

Saturday, September 24, 2022

Join the Spiritual Reading Book Club

 There is a new book club forming on Amazon Book Clubs called the "Spiritual Reading Book Club". The first book we are reading is The Twenty One Skills of Spiritual Intelligence by Cindy Wigglesworth. We will be discussing this book through October 31, 2022.

The club is also looking for suggestions to read in future months.

You can explore the club and join if you wish by going here.

Thank you for your interest,

David Markham



Sunday, June 2, 2019

Spiritual reading discussion - Maturity by Osho - Form or content: What's important?



We have not bothered about the outside; we have insisted that only the inner should be paid attention to. The outer is unimportant. Somebody is young, somebody is old, somebody is black, somebody is white, somebody is man, somebody is woman—it does not matter; what matters is that inside there is an ocean of silence. In that oceanic state, the body takes a certain posture.

Osho. Maturity: The Responsibility of Being Oneself (Osho Insights for a New Way of Living) . St. Martin's Press. p.xvi

Comment:

What appears on the outside is form. What is important is what's on the inside, the content.

Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person. What this UU principle points to is the content not the form.

Look for the divine spark in every person, today, and focus on that. It's what's inside that counts not the outside. Same is true for oneself. I'm a fat old man, but inside I'm a beloved child of God.

Friday, May 31, 2019

Spiritual reading - Maturity - What is the role of the arts in spiritual development?



All music is an effort to bring this silence somehow into manifestation. The seers of the ancient East have been very emphatic about the point that all the great arts—music, poetry, dance, painting, sculpture—all are born out of meditation. These arts are an effort to in some way bring the unknowable into the world of the known for those who are not ready for the pilgrimage—they are gifts for those who are not ready to go on the pilgrimage. Perhaps a song may trigger a desire to go in search of the source, perhaps a statue.

Osho. Maturity: The Responsibility of Being Oneself (Osho Insights for a New Way of Living) . St. Martin's Press. Kindle Edition.

Comments:

The Protestant revolution did away with the arts in Catholicism. The iconography, music, architecture, paintings, statues were declared idolotrous. Protestantism brought an austerity to religious practices and worship.

To this day, when I compare my experience of my former Catholicism with my now Unitarian Universalism I miss the expression of the religous experience in the arts. The passion, the inspiration, the joy is not present in UU worship the same way it is in the liturgical rituals of the sacramental churches.

Osho ays that the arts are an effort to bring the unknowable to people's awareness. The arts are the hook that attracts and engages people in the religious experience and practice. Without the inspiration of the beauty of the arts the religious experience is intellectualized and falls flat. Intellectuallization does not open the heart the same way the arts do.

What's your favorite piece of religious art?

Editor's note:
You are encouraged to get a copy of Osho's book, Maturity, and read along with us and comment. Feel free to comment even if you have'nt read the book.

Tuesday, May 28, 2019

Spriritual reading discussion - Maturity by Osho - The interdependent web



Chapter six
Appreciating the interdependent web of all existence

As you become more sensitive, life becomes bigger. It is not a small pond; it becomes oceanic. It is not confined to you and your wife and your children—it is not confined at all. This whole existence becomes your family, and unless the whole existence is your family you have not known what life is—because no man is an island, we are all connected. 

We are a vast continent, joined in millions of ways. 

And if our hearts are not full of love for the whole, in the same proportion our life is cut short.

Osho. Maturity: The Responsibility of Being Oneself (Osho Insights for a New Way of Living) . St. Martin's Press. p.xvi

Comment:
Osho was not a Unitarian Universalist but he was an enlightened mystic with a consciousness that encompassed the UU seven principles and here he describes the seventh.

UUs covenant together to affirm and promote a respect for the interdependent web of all existence, and Osho points out that as a person grows and matures, the person’s circle of awareness widens and moves beyond the experience of immediate relationships to all of existence.

Osho says that unless a person develops an awareness of the interdependent nature of all of existence, the person has not lived fully and their life has been cut short. What do you think of this idea?



Saturday, May 25, 2019

Spiritual Reading Discussion - Maturity by Osho - What Does It Take To Save the World?

Welcome back to the spiritual reading discussion group. Today's installment is the fifth chapter in our review. Feel free to join in leaving comments.

Introduction - Spiritual reading discussion group - Maturity: The Responsibility of Being Oneself by Osho
Chapter one - Growing old and growing up - two different things.
Chapter two - Ignorance or innocence
Chapter three - The rejuvenation of innocence
Chapter four -  Being born again
Chapter five - What does it take to save the world





Chapter five
What does it take to save the world?
The second principle is the pilgrimage. Life must be a seeking—not a desire but a search; not an ambition to become this, to become that, a president of a country or prime minister of a country, but a search to find out “Who am I?”
It is very strange that people who don’t know who they are, are trying to become somebody. They don’t even know who they are right now! They are unacquainted with their being—but they have a goal of becoming.
Becoming is the disease of the soul.
Being is you.
Osho. Maturity: The Responsibility of Being Oneself (Osho Insights for a New Way of Living) . St. Martin's Press. P.xiii
Comment:

The fourth principle in Unitarian Universalism is the free and responsible search for truth and meaning but most UUs don’t know much about what this search is about. For most people it means searching for a religious faith which is external to them. It is about finding a set of beliefs and a church that they feel comfortable with. This search is always doomed to failure for, as Jesus tells us, the kingdom of God is within you.”
Osho in this passage from his book, Maturity: The Resonsiblity of Being Oneself, is telling us the same thing: that the search for truth and meaning is a search within not a search without.
Dr. Paul Pearsall, the psychologist, taught that the three major existential questions which all human beings struggle with are: Why was I born? What is the purpose of my life? What happens when I die?
Osho tells us that in our ego thought system we are concerned with our becoming when we don’t even understand who we are. Becoming will not make us happy until we realize that we are okay right now as an extension of God’s Unconditional Love. This is the basic understanding of our Universalist faith, and is embodied in our first principle, the inherent worth and dignity of every person, which we affirm and promote. Few, however, actually believe and inexperience this inherent worth and dignity in their lives in the here and now. If a person actually experienced this, the world would be saved.

Wednesday, May 22, 2019

Spiritual reading - Maturity, Being Born Again

Chapter four

 Being born again 

Osho has said,

 “Whenever you understand that you have missed life, the first principle to be brought back is innocence. Drop your knowledge, forget your scriptures, forget your religions, your theologies, your philosophies. Be born again, become innocent—and it is in your hands. Clean your mind of all that is not known by you, of all that is borrowed, all that has come from tradition, convention. All that has been given to you by others—parents,teachers, universities—just get rid of it. Once again be simple, once again be a child. And this miracle is possible by meditation.” 

Osho. Maturity: The Responsibility of Being Oneself (Osho Insights for a New Way of Living) . St. Martin's Press.p.xii

Comments:

Among “born again” Christians, the conversion experience is highly encouraged and supported. This experience seems to mean different things to different people, and other than some sort of altered consciousness brought about by some sort of emotional hypnotic effect, it is unclear what is meant by this term.

 Osho is clear in his description that being born again is an emptying and an opening of oneself to one’s Higher Power. Osho’s description seems to be similar to Jesus’ statement that unless a person become like a little child again, the person cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven.

It seems paradoxical in our Western world with its cognitive thought system based on Aristotelian logic, to think that maturity, growing up, comes from a shedding of one’s socialization and conditioning.

In Alcoholics Anonymous this shedding of socialization, conditioning, is known as the third step which is a decision to turn our will over to the care of our Higher Power as we understand It.

It seems counterintuitive for Osho to suggest that the path to maturity is to drop our knowledge and empty ourselves so we can experience the Divine Spark within by meditation. However, this same insight has been taught by the mystics of all major religions and is a key practice encouraged by the perennial psychology.

 

Tuesday, May 21, 2019

Spiritual Reading Online Spiritual Reading Book Club - Maturity by Osho, Chapter One, Growing old or growing up?

Chapter one
Growing Old or Growing Up?

Growing old
This is the first article in a series on Osho's book, Maturity: The Responsibility of Being Oneself and comes from the forward.

So first we have to understand what I mean by “life.”

It must not be simply growing old, it must be growing up. And these are two different things. Growing old, any animal is capable of. Growing up is the prerogative of human beings.

Only a few claim the right.

Growing up means moving every moment deeper into the principle of life; it means going farther away from death—not toward death. The deeper you go into life, the more you understand the immortality within you. You are going away from death; a moment comes when you can see that death is nothing but changing clothes, or changing houses, changing forms—nothing dies, nothing can die. Death is the greatest illusion there is.
Osho. Maturity: The Responsibility of Being O
neself (Osho Insights for a New Way of Living) . St. Martin's Press. Kindle Edition.

Comment: Growing old and growing up are two different things. The choice is ours. Many people are in denial and unconscious of fact that they have a choice. Unitarian Universalism requires that people become consciously aware of their choice when it asks them to covenant together with others to affirm and promote the fourth principle to affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning.

Unitarian Universalism asks people right up front to take responsibility for becoming oneself by formulating and understanding their own faith, their idea of what Paul Tillich called their "ultimate concern" rather than just going along with what other people expect and require.

Socrates taught that an unexamined life is not worth living. If most people are asked, "What makes you tick?" they become uncomfortable as if they have been put on the spot.

The covenant of Unitarian Universalism asks people to come to awareness of their own state of being. This can be a frightening think initially, but as one searches one finds more peace.
People come to a point in their lives gradually or suddenly that what they have been taught by society is illusional and that there has to be a better way to live their lives.

If we put maturity on a scale of 0 - 10 with 0 being newborn and very immature and 10 being fully self realized, actualized, self-aware, enlightened human beings are mature are you? How mature are the various people that you know well in your life?

My experience of Unitarian Univeralists is that many of them who actually understand and apply the principles in their lives are very mature. How ever I have also met many UUs who are just along for the ride and don't take the faith seriously in terms of working the principles in any kind of meaningful way.

Monday, May 20, 2019

Spiritual reading discussion - Maturity by Osho, Chapter three: The rejuvenation of innocence.



Chapter three
The rejuvenation of innocence.



What happens with the original face of the child, with the child’s original innocence?

The child was conditioned by society, and stuffed with knowledge. The process is called by many names and my favorite is “socialization.” Children become socialized into the values, beliefs, opinions and practices of the herd, first, their family of origin, and then by neighbors, school, peers, media, etc.

Osho puts it like this:
In the second birth he is going to gain what was available in the first birth, but the society, the parents, the people surrounding him crushed it, destroyed it. Every child is being stuffed with knowledge. His simplicity has to be somehow removed, because simplicity is not going to help him in this competitive world. His simplicity will look to the world as if he is a simpleton; his innocence will be exploited in every possible way. Afraid of the society, afraid of the world we ourselves have created, we try to make every child be clever, cunning, knowledgeable—to be in the category of the powerful, not in the category of the oppressed and the powerless.
 Osho. Maturity: The Responsibility of Being Oneself (Osho Insights for a New Way of Living) . St. Martin's Press. Kindle Edition.

 Comment: The corruption on the path of the ego can be almost complete. And yet, deep down within, there is a Divine Spark that is with us always.

 Things often have to get worse before they get better in terms of the consequences of our socialization. When we hit bottom, it dawns on us that there must be a better way. With this dawning begins the search which is captured in our Unitarian Univeralist fourth principle which is the affirmation and promotion of the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. It is this search which takes us to the regaining of our lost innocence. Jesus has told us that unless we become like little children we cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. It is this recapturing of our innocence through the shedding of our socialization and conditioning that creates our salvation.

In A Course In Miracles this shedding of our socialization, our conditioning, in a conscious way, is what the Course calls “forgiveness.” We are forgiving our mistakes and the mistakes of others in thinking that our socialization is real.

The Course tells us this socialization is all an illusion. Maturity is the recognition that our socialization is small stuff and not to be taken seriously.

At a deeper level, where we recognize our inherent worth and dignity, our true Self is to be found. We are precious diamonds encrusted with the dirt and slag of socialization and conditioning.

Sunday, May 19, 2019

Spiritual reading book discussion articles

Spiritual Reading Online Book Discusion

Unitarian Univeralism: A Way of Life is introducing a new feature on its blog: an online spiritual reading book discussion group. This feature will provide a series of articles on the book being studied. Readers are invited to comment on the topics under discussion whether they have read the book or not.

If readers have nominations for future books for study, please leave them in the comments or email your nominations to davidgmarkham@gmail.com.

The first book being discussed is "Maturity: The Responsibility For Being Oneself" by Osho.

Maturity Osho

Editor's note: For a brief video commentary click here.</

Spirirtual reading discussion group - Maturity: The Responsibility For Being Oneself - Chapter Two - Ignorance or innocence?

Chapter two
Ignorance or innocence?
Osho Ignorance or innocence
For growing up, just watch a tree. As the tree grows up its roots are growing down, deeper. There is a balance—the higher the tree goes the deeper the roots will go. You cannot have a tree one hundred and fifty feet high with small roots; they could not support such a huge tree. Maturity means the same as innocence, only with one difference: it is innocence reclaimed, it is innocence recaptured.

In life, growing up means growing deep within yourself—that’s where your roots are.

To me, the first principle of life is meditation. Everything else comes second. And childhood is the best time. As you grow older it means you are coming closer to death, and it becomes more and more difficult to go into meditation.

Meditation means going into your immortality, going into your eternity, going into your godliness. And the child is the most qualified person because he is still unburdened by knowledge, unburdened by religion, unburdened by education, unburdened by all kinds of rubbish. He is innocent.

But unfortunately his innocence is condemned as ignorance. Ignorance and innocence have a similarity, but they are not the same. Ignorance is also a state of not knowing, just as innocence is—but there is a great difference too, which has been overlooked by the whole of humanity up to now. Innocence is not knowledgeable, but it is not desirous of being knowledgeable either. It is utterly content, fulfilled.

A small child has no ambitions, he has no desires. He is so absorbed in the moment—a bird on the wing catches his eye so totally; a butterfly, its beautiful colors, and he is enchanted; the rainbow in the sky … and he cannot conceive that there can be anything more significant, richer than this rainbow. And the night full of stars, stars beyond stars …

Innocence is rich, it is full, it is pure. Ignorance is poor, it is a beggar—it wants this, it wants that, it wants to be knowledgeable, it wants to be respectable, it wants to be wealthy, it wants to be powerful. Ignorance moves on the path of desire. Innocence is a state of desirelessness. But because both are without knowledge, we have remained confused about their natures. We have taken it for granted that they are the same.
Osho. Maturity: The Responsibility of Being Oneself (Osho Insights for a New Way of Living) . St. Martin's Press. Kindle Edition.
Comment:
Osho makes the distinction between ignorance and innocence. Osho says that ignorance is not knowing but wanting to acquire knowledge. Ignorance is grasping, seeking, wanting to acquire the external. Innocence is being content with what is within and resting in wonderment, peace, curiosity, and awe.

Osho says that “Maturity means the same as innocence, only with one difference: it is innocence reclaimed, it is innocence recaptured.”

Unitarian Universalists recapture their innocence when they covenant together to affirm and promote the fourth principle which is the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. This free and responsible search takes one within not without and requires a surrender of one’s will to the will of the Tao, their Higher Power however they understand It.

This is a second article in a series on Maturity: The Responsibility of Being Oneself by Osho.
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