The Spiritual Life, Topic Eleven, Celebrate Life every day.

The Spiritual Life - Topic Eleven

Celebrate Life every day.

 From Maturity: The Responsibility For Being Oneself by Osho

Have you ever thought about why, all over the world, in every culture, in every society, there are a few days in the year for celebration? These few days for celebration are just a compensation—because these societies have taken away all the celebration of your life, and if nothing is given to you in compensation your life can become a danger to the culture. Every culture has to give some compensation to you so that you don’t feel completely lost in misery, in sadness. But these compensations are false. Firecrackers and colored lights cannot make you rejoice. They are only for children—for you they are just a nuisance. But in your inner world there can be a continuity of lights, songs, joys. Always remember that society compensates you when it feels that the repressed may explode into a dangerous situation if it is not compensated. The society finds some way of allowing you to let out the repressed—but this is not true celebration, and it cannot be true. True celebration should come from your life, in your life. P .xvii

Transform small things into celebration. P. xviii

Osho’s teaching is that every day should be a celebration. It reminds me of the Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland who celebrated every day as a very happy unbirthday.

If we celebrated every day the small things in our lives, and if we stopped continually to “smell the roses” what would be the point of  holidays when expectations of pleasure rise to unfulfillable heights?

Why do people get depressed at the Christmas Holidays? Do they ever measure up to the idealized expectations that we have for them? Same is true for birthday celebrations, Mothers’ and Fathers’ Day, anniversaries, and other “special” occasions.

Osho’s teaching is pointing out that the things on the path of the ego usually disappoint and if they satisfy somewhat providing momentary pleasure, it quickly dissipates and then we have to do the same thing all over again.

These artificial celebrations, done according to a calendar, are often less than satisfying and don’t compensate us for what we have lost to our socialization and conditioning to compliance with the norms and expectations on the path of the ego.

Jesus teaches a similar idea when He says in Matthew 6: 26 - 30

26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?

Jesus calls the worriers, the repressed, the socially conditioned, “you of little faith.”

Osho and Jesus are teaching a similar thing: that life is to be enjoyed and celebrated each and every day. There is no need to worry and wait for special times that the world of the ego holds out to us to relieve our tension, our boredom, our depression, our fears.

Take the time to savor the roses and a good cup of coffee or tea and the mystery of the people continually crossing your path. This is what Love would have us do - be happy and bask in the Love of the Creator and extend it to anyone and everything that crosses our path.

Spiritual slogans - "It's not a bad life if you know how to live it."

Spiritual Slogans

Chapter one

“It’s not a bad life if you know how to live it” 

As a psychotherapist, I have a client who, at the end of every session, asks me “What’s the good word for the week?”

The first time she asked me this, I didn’t understand what she was asking me. Then, I realized she wanted some kind of slogan to focus on between sessions. So, I would just make stuff up or spout some cliche like “Keep calm and carry on.” She’d laugh and seem satisfied and I would wonder what her question was about and how might better provide what she was seeking and asking for..

Recently, I have come across the Zen Buddhist practice of Lojong. Lojong is a mind training practice from the Tibetan Buddhist tradition which is based on aphorisms which are used to train and control one’s mind.  I realized that I have been using this mind focusing practice for most of my life without knowing it.

We all probably have our favorite aphorisms which we learned from our grandparents or parents or teacher or someone we looked up to. These aphorisms may stick with us for a day, a week, a month, a year, or sometimes a lifetime.

Lojong is not about spouting a catchy quote or quip but about having a phase which guides our thinking, feeling, and behavior in a deep and ongoing way. The Lojong phrase becomes an important part of our life which provides guidance, inspiration and support in a deeply meaningful way.

Historically, Lojong is based on major tenets and principles of mind training in Tibetan Buddhism.  There are seven points or principles which are groupings for 59 sayings.

Based on the idea of Lojong from Tibetan Buddhism, I thought about making up my own set of aphorisms which I have used throughout my life of 74 years. I will be sharing one slogan, aphorism, cliche per week.  Mull them over. Apply them in your daily life. See what happens.

The first aphorism I remember saying to myself as a young boy of maybe 8 or 9 is “It’s a good life if you know how to live it.” I don’t know where this aphorism came from. I don’t remember anyone telling me this. I remember it welling up from inside, perhaps from the Holy Spirit, when I was upset and concerned with how some things were going in my life and what I was witnessing in the lives of others around me. Of all the aphorisms that have guided my life, this one has been the most important. It has been a navigational north star and a source of inspiration and motivation.

“It’s not a bad life if you know how to live it” presumes that you, indeed, know how to live it. It is addressed to the questions of “What is the good life? What will make me happy?” As a young boy, I was already realizing that an unexamined life is not worth living as I was later to learn was a famous idea of Socrates. I also came to learn in my 60s that the fourth principle of Unitarian Universalism is to affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning.

I now, at age 74, laugh when I realize I have been living the fourth principle of UU my whole life.

And so, “it’s not a bad life if you know how to live it” presumes that you know how to live, or, at least, open minded and curious and willing to find out. It also is hopeful that living the good life is a matter of learning how. When one wants to learn, one is always looking for teachers. I have always been a lifelong learner and as Socrates said, the more I learn the more I learn how much I don’t know.

What are the aphorisms and slogans that have been helpful to you in living your life? Leave them in the comments below.

What is the purpose of religious art?

The Spiritual Life, Topic Ten, What is the purpose of art?

The Spiritual Life - Topic Ten

What is the purpose of art?

From Maturity: The Responsibility For Being Oneself by Osho

Those statues and temples were not built for worshiping; they were built for experiencing. They are scientific laboratories—they have nothing to do with religion! A certain secret science has been used for centuries so the coming generations could come in contact with the experiences of the older generations. Not through books, not through words, but through something that goes deeper—through silence, through meditation, through peace. As your silence grows, your friendliness, your love grows; your life becomes a moment-to-moment dance, a joy, a celebration. P.xvi-xvii

What is the purpose of religious art whether it be beautiful architecture, sculpture, paintings, music, liturgy, stories and illuminated texts? As Osho points out, religious art is not for worshiping but for experiencing.

One person said that she didn’t go to church for the worship, or for the people, but for the building. She liked being in such a beautiful building. The building filled her with a sense of reverence, awe, joy, and peace.

Does beauty lead us to an awareness of Godliness? It can,  if we stop to smell the roses. If we savor the experience. The beauty of Godliness is sublime, moving, and lifts us to an awareness of wonder. This experience has been called “rapture” as if we have been taken up into the Oneness of All.
Religious art is not made up of objects to possess, to view, to analyse, to sight-see. Religious art is a gateway to a higher state of consciousness, to an experience of celebration of the wonder of existence and creation and beauty.

Week in review 04/19/2020.

Form vs. content on the spiritual path

The Spiritual Life, Topic Nine, Form vs. Content

The Spiritual Life - Topic Nine

Form vs. content

From : Maturity: The Responsibility For Being Oneself by Osho

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. p.xvi

On the path of the ego we focus more on the form of things, how things look, than we do on the content, the essence.

Forms change constantly and are impermanent. Content, essence, does not change, but is eternal. What a person looks like is not important, it is what is in their heart and yet we try to discern what is in their heart by perceiving their form. The old saying goes, “You can’t tell a book by its cover.”

The immature perceive and judge reality based on form. That’s why as children grow they get such a kick out of playing “peek-a-boo”. Is mommy or daddy here or gone?

Immature people play peek a boo with God. If things are going their way, they believe God is here, but if things stop going their way they get angry and blame their God for abandoning them and in their anger and resentment give up their belief.

Jesus often said to His disciples, “Oh, you of little faith………..”

Form is made up of the tricks of the ego, but content, essence, the ground of being, is eternal and is forever. The physical body dies but the spirit, the ground of being, the energy which our incarnation has made manifest lives on forever.