I have been tempted to delete the last two posts in this blog because when I read them, they just seem so inarticulate and don't really get across what I've been trying to say. I realise now, though, that this is the whole point. It's a paradox to be writing about how experience is beyond words, when the very thing I'm trying to do is to put into words my experience. Perhaps It's better for me to leave the last two posts and call them poetic licence or something, because they are, in effect, communicating the point I was trying to make.
It's interesting how the Universe speaks to us...
I was thinking about this topic and how to communicate it and I happened to pick up a book I am reading. It's by Joseph Campbell, called "Myths to live by". The chapter I was busy with was on Zen. It just seem to jump out of the page as if the author had been reading my mind. This is what it had to say:
"..it is actually impossible to communicate through speech any experience whatsoever, unless to someone who has himself enjoyed an equivalent experience of his own..
..Life defined is bound to the past, no longer pouring forward into the future......anyone continually knitting his life into contexts of intention, import, and clarifications of meaning will in the end find that he has lost the sense of experiencing life..
..(Zen) holds to the realization that life and the sense of life are antecedent to meaning; the idea being to let life come and not name it. It will then push you right back to where you live - where you are, and not where you are named. "
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Spirituality from the ground up
In my last post I spoke about words and ideas and how they point to the experience of life, rather than being the thing itself. I hope to expand on that, but I would like to first try and explain the way I approach these things.
The thing to learn is that we don't need to commit ourselves to viewing things one way. For instance, in my last post I argued against a sort of platonic way of approaching various subjects. That doesn't mean that I need to identify myself with that argument, it is simply another way of looking at things that allows me to see the bigger picture better. It also gives me more freedom in writing my thoughts. I don't need to hold myself only to that which I've written and I have the freedom to contradict myself.
We then assimilate that idea into our belief system, and then, when challenged, we argue for its existence. We possibly then see that what we understood the idea to mean doesn't fit into our experience of living and so we reject the idea.
I came to a point in my life where I wasn't sure if I really believed all the stuff I claimed to believe. So, I made the decision to start from scratch and get rid of all my ideas and look at what I experience in life without being influenced by what I'm supposed to believe. (Now I know this is practically impossible - we always carry some beliefs with us, but I find that the exercise is very useful).
What I discovered doing this, was that there are experiences that do fit into some of the ideas and beliefs that I once held, but that the words used to describe the experience was never quite enough. It's the same as if we had to try and explain experiences like bungee jumping or making love to someone who hadn't had the experience. Words never fully capture the experience. To fully understand it, you need to experience it.
In the next few weeks I would like to look at a few of the things that didn't initially make sense to me from an idea point of view, but when I looked at them from an experience point of view I was able to make space for them in my mind.
Please feel free to comment ;)
Wearing different hats
Edward de Bono has a book entitled "Six Thinking Hats". The idea is that you put a different thinking hat on, and approach things in different ways. I find it really helpful not to commit myself to looking at things only one way, but try a number of approaches - looking at the same thing or subject matter from different angles. We can be so dogmatic about some things, and often all it takes is to look at it from a different angle and then we see it differently.The thing to learn is that we don't need to commit ourselves to viewing things one way. For instance, in my last post I argued against a sort of platonic way of approaching various subjects. That doesn't mean that I need to identify myself with that argument, it is simply another way of looking at things that allows me to see the bigger picture better. It also gives me more freedom in writing my thoughts. I don't need to hold myself only to that which I've written and I have the freedom to contradict myself.
Starting with experience
Much of what we call 'beliefs' has a top down approach. What I mean by this is that we're taught something, or read something about God, or about life and we start with that idea. Ideas like fate, destiny, reincarnation, heaven, hell, spirit, angels, ghosts, demons, etc.We then assimilate that idea into our belief system, and then, when challenged, we argue for its existence. We possibly then see that what we understood the idea to mean doesn't fit into our experience of living and so we reject the idea.
I came to a point in my life where I wasn't sure if I really believed all the stuff I claimed to believe. So, I made the decision to start from scratch and get rid of all my ideas and look at what I experience in life without being influenced by what I'm supposed to believe. (Now I know this is practically impossible - we always carry some beliefs with us, but I find that the exercise is very useful).
What I discovered doing this, was that there are experiences that do fit into some of the ideas and beliefs that I once held, but that the words used to describe the experience was never quite enough. It's the same as if we had to try and explain experiences like bungee jumping or making love to someone who hadn't had the experience. Words never fully capture the experience. To fully understand it, you need to experience it.
So - to summarize:
Spirituality, for me, is about living - experiencing life, and then finding ways to share that with others, as well as trying to understand what it is that others experience.In the next few weeks I would like to look at a few of the things that didn't initially make sense to me from an idea point of view, but when I looked at them from an experience point of view I was able to make space for them in my mind.
Please feel free to comment ;)
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Fate, destiny and the journey of life
Some words seem so final. Words like fate, words like destiny. And so we are often left with a decision as to whether we believe in these words, to believe in fate or destiny.
Most people I speak to like the idea of having free choice and so choose to reject the concept of fate or destiny. Perhaps it would be a good idea to define what we mean by the terms, but I don't think that solves the problem. The problem I'm talking about is the fact that we have words like fate, destiny, spirit, God or any of those words which it has become almost fashionable not to believe in. Where do they come from? Do we need to treat them as if the word itself contained an idea, and that idea was some kind of law, or reality that one can accept or reject?
Perhaps another way to look it is that words are signposts, pointing to what we experience in life. Sometimes it seems as if my life is being directed by an outside force. The word I could use to describe that experience could be the word 'fate'. Or sometimes it seems like everything fits together, so many meaningful coincidences it's like there's some providential hand guiding me and helping me along. Have you ever had the experience of doing something and your whole being resonates with what you're doing and you know intuitively that this is what you were made for - this is your destiny? And so once again a word fulfils the need for expression, the need to communicate the journey to others.
Some say that the realm of words and ideas is the true reality in that it is more perfect than the day-to-day, messy business of living. They say that the material world is the shadow of this archetypal realm. But I think that it's the words we use that are imperfect. The fact that we can communicate at all is miraculous in itself, but it is still only an imperfect representation of the journey of life, the experience of living.
The problem with religion is that it relies on words and ideas first, instead of recognising the context that formed the words and ideas, and so the words and ideas become law, seperated from the life that they were supposed to reflect.
I am, however, grateful for words, no matter how limiting they can sometimes be, because it is through words and ideas that I can communicate my journey, and connect with and learn from others, even if they lived two thousand years ago.
Most people I speak to like the idea of having free choice and so choose to reject the concept of fate or destiny. Perhaps it would be a good idea to define what we mean by the terms, but I don't think that solves the problem. The problem I'm talking about is the fact that we have words like fate, destiny, spirit, God or any of those words which it has become almost fashionable not to believe in. Where do they come from? Do we need to treat them as if the word itself contained an idea, and that idea was some kind of law, or reality that one can accept or reject?
Perhaps another way to look it is that words are signposts, pointing to what we experience in life. Sometimes it seems as if my life is being directed by an outside force. The word I could use to describe that experience could be the word 'fate'. Or sometimes it seems like everything fits together, so many meaningful coincidences it's like there's some providential hand guiding me and helping me along. Have you ever had the experience of doing something and your whole being resonates with what you're doing and you know intuitively that this is what you were made for - this is your destiny? And so once again a word fulfils the need for expression, the need to communicate the journey to others.
Some say that the realm of words and ideas is the true reality in that it is more perfect than the day-to-day, messy business of living. They say that the material world is the shadow of this archetypal realm. But I think that it's the words we use that are imperfect. The fact that we can communicate at all is miraculous in itself, but it is still only an imperfect representation of the journey of life, the experience of living.
The problem with religion is that it relies on words and ideas first, instead of recognising the context that formed the words and ideas, and so the words and ideas become law, seperated from the life that they were supposed to reflect.
I am, however, grateful for words, no matter how limiting they can sometimes be, because it is through words and ideas that I can communicate my journey, and connect with and learn from others, even if they lived two thousand years ago.
Monday, November 12, 2007
The lesson of the coin
A magician plays with a coin in his hand. It rolls over his fingers, and then flies into the air. He catches it again and holds it up to your eyes. As your eyes focus, you realise that there is no coin. And yet you are so sure that the coin was there only a second ago, and he smiles and says that there was no coin, it was only in your mind. And you wonder if he meant that there never was any coin at all, or if he's only talking about the coin that you thought he held before your eyes. But it doesn't matter, since you suddenly realise that reality isn't all it's made out to be, and that the reason things are as they are is because you see them that way....
Friday, November 9, 2007
My favourite times of day
Dawn and dusk are my favourite parts of the day. Just before the sun goes to sleep, or as the world is about to wake up. Whenever I've gone for a walk early in the morning, there is something about the freshness of the new day that makes me feel alone, but not a lonely kind of alone, but a peaceful aloneness. The air is fresh and loaded with potential and I feel alert and awake and aware that I'm part of something much bigger than myself, that I'm connected to this world that is waking up. I know that in an hour or two the world will be full of chaos again, the noise of traffic with everyone hypnotically following the beat of business. But for a while I'm at the place where the world was created and everything is new.
Dusk is my other favourite. That time between night and day, darkness and light and I feel like I can stretch out and touch another realm, the place where magic is alive. Between waking and dreaming, concious and unconcious, between matter and spirit, that which is thought to be real and that which is imagined. This is when I like to sit in my garden and half close my eyes, but not all the way. And as my eyes adjust I see the energy that is given off by the plants and trees, and I look down at my hands and I too am surrounded in moving waves of energy. Of course there's the skeptic in me saying that this is only because I'm squinting my eyes slightly, and it's probably true, but I choose to ignore it and enjoy the experience, and my imagination and the real world dance together.
Dusk is my other favourite. That time between night and day, darkness and light and I feel like I can stretch out and touch another realm, the place where magic is alive. Between waking and dreaming, concious and unconcious, between matter and spirit, that which is thought to be real and that which is imagined. This is when I like to sit in my garden and half close my eyes, but not all the way. And as my eyes adjust I see the energy that is given off by the plants and trees, and I look down at my hands and I too am surrounded in moving waves of energy. Of course there's the skeptic in me saying that this is only because I'm squinting my eyes slightly, and it's probably true, but I choose to ignore it and enjoy the experience, and my imagination and the real world dance together.
Thursday, November 8, 2007
The meaning of - well anything really..
I often hear people saying "it's just psychological" or "but that can be explained", almost as if something can be explained then it no longer has any deeper meaning.
Things have different meanings depending on your attachment to them. To a logger, a forest is there to be cut down, the wood is there to make money. To an inhabitant of that forest, it is home. To a builder, a house is brick and cement; to an architect it's a design and to the people living there, a shelter and a home - full of memories and meaning.
An email between two people is, on one hand, 'just' data. To the people communicating, however, it is something rich with meaning - these electronic impulses that move at the speed of light have meaning. What I'm writing will be stored as "just data" somewhere. I have no idea where, but as you read it, it comes to life. Perhaps it will mean something different to you than it does to me, and even if no-one reads it, it is meaningful for me to write - to try and put in words some of the things inside my head.
So - the next time you hear someone say "it's just... whatever" - perhaps think about the idea that meaning goes beyond just one way of looking at something.
Things have different meanings depending on your attachment to them. To a logger, a forest is there to be cut down, the wood is there to make money. To an inhabitant of that forest, it is home. To a builder, a house is brick and cement; to an architect it's a design and to the people living there, a shelter and a home - full of memories and meaning.
An email between two people is, on one hand, 'just' data. To the people communicating, however, it is something rich with meaning - these electronic impulses that move at the speed of light have meaning. What I'm writing will be stored as "just data" somewhere. I have no idea where, but as you read it, it comes to life. Perhaps it will mean something different to you than it does to me, and even if no-one reads it, it is meaningful for me to write - to try and put in words some of the things inside my head.
So - the next time you hear someone say "it's just... whatever" - perhaps think about the idea that meaning goes beyond just one way of looking at something.
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Aeroplane food and the meaning of life..
Last night my wife and I were having a great conversation and it somehow went on to the topic of space travel. I mentioned something about the fact that one day we won't need to go to space, we would probably be able to buy the experience. Ok I'm all into sci-fi and everything, but it goes beyond that. Since all of our experience of things like is as a result of sensory input, I don't see why we won't get to a level of virtual reality one day where we actually experience these things - touch, see, smell etc. - without actually going there. Her reply was that it would never be the same because we would make it too perfect and that part of travel is the uncomfortability - if that's a word. The smell of an aeroplane cabin, having to wait for your luggage etc.
I realised that what she was saying is so true of life. While we long for the ideal - that perfect thing that will make us happy, it will always be incomplete without us being able to appreciate the mundane. The meaning of life is all about living - every experience - good and bad.
So - this morning I was up early to go of to JHB. After a good meeting in the land of thunderstorms I was dropped off at the airport again. When I reached into my briefcase I realised my wallet was gone. Now everything that I needed was in my wallet - my ID to be able to catch the flight, my credit card to buy lunch, the ticket for parkade so I could bail my car out.. you get the picture. Fortunately it was left in the car and will be returned to me tomorrow - but I was still stuck with having to get home somehow. So I decided to just go with it. I managed to convince them that it was me so they let me on the plane. Perhaps it's my honest face, or that I'm skilled in the art of Jedi mind tricks (I wish) - but I got the boarding pass. The next thing I found out is that the ticket wasn't on the el-cheapo-buy-your-own-food-airline but with another airline who actually gives you food onboard - so I didn't need to buy lunch. And when I arrived back in CPT the guys at the parkade let me out - with no charge. Now I'd been there the whole day - so that should've cost me around R100 - but they let me out for free. So - losing my wallet saved me around R200 - since I didn't buy lunch either. I find it really cool that when you go with the rhythm of life instead of fighting against it how these things seem to often just work out :)
I realised that what she was saying is so true of life. While we long for the ideal - that perfect thing that will make us happy, it will always be incomplete without us being able to appreciate the mundane. The meaning of life is all about living - every experience - good and bad.
So - this morning I was up early to go of to JHB. After a good meeting in the land of thunderstorms I was dropped off at the airport again. When I reached into my briefcase I realised my wallet was gone. Now everything that I needed was in my wallet - my ID to be able to catch the flight, my credit card to buy lunch, the ticket for parkade so I could bail my car out.. you get the picture. Fortunately it was left in the car and will be returned to me tomorrow - but I was still stuck with having to get home somehow. So I decided to just go with it. I managed to convince them that it was me so they let me on the plane. Perhaps it's my honest face, or that I'm skilled in the art of Jedi mind tricks (I wish) - but I got the boarding pass. The next thing I found out is that the ticket wasn't on the el-cheapo-buy-your-own-food-airline but with another airline who actually gives you food onboard - so I didn't need to buy lunch. And when I arrived back in CPT the guys at the parkade let me out - with no charge. Now I'd been there the whole day - so that should've cost me around R100 - but they let me out for free. So - losing my wallet saved me around R200 - since I didn't buy lunch either. I find it really cool that when you go with the rhythm of life instead of fighting against it how these things seem to often just work out :)
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