A Spiritual Life?
Sunday, February 24, 2008
♥ Sunday, February 24, 2008
My friend and i had a conversation once about miracles. He was trying to make sense out of this phenomenon of "levitation". He said something along the lines of ,"i read somewhere that there is a certain way to explain levitation. It is that when those spiritual gurus get into that state of mind, they operate at a different frequency from that of the world's..." it was alot more profound than that, of course. But basically he was trying to make a physics argument.Today's discussion wont be so much a physics argument more than a well..spiritual and hopefully intellectual one. But it kicks off from the sentence my friend left us with- "a different frequency from that of the world's." While we use the word "world", let us assume that it means the secular (since that is the language we tend to understand).The life of the strangely spiritual. A different wavelength from that which the world operates- an image of Spring and rainbow, of endless meadows and golden sun. Of great literary images that no langugage can completely encapsulate. A state of being that transcends the ordinary; because the ordinary is one that is chaotic. The transcedence lies in the order that the state of being creates- one that cannot be found without, one that can only be found within. Peace in the abyss, silent and holy night. The life of the sordidly secular .A peace in a foreseeablely certain future. A hope entrenched in reason, behind the calculation of probabilties and possibilities. The firm stability of logic and comprehension; and the serenity of the rationale. Literature is an instrument of pragmatism and life is bound by the laws of cause and effect, demand and supply. A state of being that is governed by the responsibilties and consequences of choice. The above 2 paragraphs give a very concise and debatably inadequate account of 2 different philosophies..and to make the discussion easy, i've thrown it into two extreme ends, for us to maybe work out where we actually stand ( i am guessing we slant towards the secular and will move even further into it, if not for the gravity of the spiritual). Yet, you can see how life works on a different plane for different philosophies. Why even a physical observation or an inquiry into the science behind 'levitation' can have such profound answers for us. What i believe is that there is a gradual movement of each individual in his or her life from one extreme to another. And the resorting of balance, meaning the amalgamation of both philosophies, is quite debatably the perfect example of how Man have de-evolved.Movement:The life of an individual begins with strange spiritualities: one of complete creativity, hardly any rationality, one bound by necessities and one of complete humility. That is the snow white innocence of an infant. Rationality at some point in time kicks in, with that the Adam's apple of practicality and logic is eaten. These set the parameters to creativity, the leash on mental flexibility and the glass ceiling to spirituality. The ominous onslaught of education kicks in. The rat race begins.One will not know when spirituality ends and cold hard pragmatism begins. But life takes on a different dimension. No more the genuine smiles and the warm hearts. No more the hugs and selflessness. No more the candour and honesty. In its place, is a chess player's mind- calculating, anticipating and manipulating. Amalgamation:This is the incorporation of the spiritual and the secular. Whether or not being spiritual is in itself a form of secularism, or secularism is an attribute of spirituality is not the purpose of this discussion. This discussion is to make the observation that Man as we know them, walk out of the realms of spirituality, and then into the land of the secular, and then live life in this organised chaos- the no man's land between spirituality and secularism. Coming to church? only on sundays. Helping the community? Only when its convenient. Donating money? Only as far as it assuages my guilt. And the anthopormorphic expectation of Man these days, would have dropped dramatically. Without surprise really. For no words like "pretense" and "facade" have been used on Man as often. The spiritual life demands so much more actually.The living on a different existential plane, not void of reason or logic, but where reason and logic brings one to the notions of faith and hope. A faith and hope not immersed in the pragmatic confines of comprehension, but a faith and hope that liberates. If life itself were to serve a particular purpose, it would be for a purpose that is so huge and perhaps incomprehensible the only instruments that one could use to accept or view would be faith and hope. And spirituality, is the platform for which one attains that. A different frequency from the world...
You CANT HANDLE THE TRUTH!
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
♥ Tuesday, February 12, 2008
ersatz \AIR-sahts; UR-sats\, adjective:
Being a substitute or imitation, usually an inferior one.What does it mean to lie? Hiding the truth? That would be an omission to tell the truth, a non action. Telling a lie is a verb- a positive action. A lie is simply this- a replacing of a false reality in replacement of the actual one. A lie is an ersatz truth. For purposes of this discussion, i will not dwell so much on the varying half-truths or whole lies, i will discuss instead on the reason behind such lies. And the aftermaths. You will soon come to discover that points 1 to 3 are all related. REASONS:
1) Why a person lies is perhaps the same in some sense as to why a person steals- he cant afford. He cant afford seeing that truth straight in the eye, he cant stand the scrutiny of such weight truths tend to have and he cant bear to see his castles-in-the-air crumble.A parent tells a child that he is not the reason behind their divorce; a general tells a soldier that the road is shorter than it looks; a husband tells his wife his heart longs only for her; a brother tells a sister that their deceased parents moved to another country...there are simply tonnes of examples to show why and how people have been lying. And the common thread that runs through all these examples is quite simply this: lies are the beautification of a hideous reality. A leper's masquerade.2) Life works on the premises of such lies. That unfortunately, is the truth. A religious minister goes up to the pulpit to speak about his convictions- can he also express his own doubts in the search of his truth? The myanmmar oppression of education and press shows one thing- we dont want the truths in our face. Truth had such a bloody history- the truth of communism as a possible means to end suffering gave rise to huge revolutions, the truth of sunnis oppressing shiites resulted in enormous civil unrest, the truth of tutsis and hutus in Rwanda gave rise to the genocide, the truths about hurricane katrina lead to a furore against the Bush administration, as did the truth of the Iraq war. Truths just doesnt bring peace. Truths simply antagonise. The newspapers, the tabloids, any form of magazines portray "90 percent bulls***" according to Denzel Washington in Training Day (obviously not the best authority to cite), and the sensationalizing of a story takes precedence over the reality of the matter. Tact is considered over candour, form is preferred over substance, lies matter more than truth. 3) Lies are a necessity - We need them like we need our home and our stability, our comfort and security. We live by lies! We tell ourselves things we want to hear, we read the books which put our realities in an infinitesimally insignificant manner and we hang out with people who play up every falsehood possible. We indulge in things that take us away- the books, the movies, the friends, the fun. When you were small you must have had superheroes- they were the lies you took up to make yourself invulnerable. When you are older, you take on the persona of another character- a person you admire? a person you love? And that mask that you put on at parties when you entertain all and actually feel like you want to be left alone? All that arent truths. Those are positive actions done as ersatz truths.And relationships. We start with lies, we end maybe because of them. We start with the lie that this person, that place, this particular community is perfect. The illusion that goes over our eyes is a result of a certain transaction- the audience wants to be fooled, and the performer wants to fool. What the hell do i mean? I mean that the boyfriend wants to look perfect, the girlfriend wants to believe he is. The lone desperate teenager wants to look up to an ideal community, the community wants to portray its infallibility. Its a butter trade really. The fools wants to be fooled. CONSEQUENCES:Sadly, when lies give way to reveal not truths, but half-truths, the consequences are devastating. We build our lives on such shaky premises all the while keeping our fingers crossed that these foundations dont give way. When they do, they take away...well, everything. A child whose image of his dad is unattainably ideal is destroyed on learning he was adopted. A child who has her mother as her role model crumbles on learning she was a drug addict. A spouse discovers to her horror that her husband is half as ambitious as she thought he was. We live by lies to lie. Is it too simplistic to suggest that life is but a lie? That life's purpose is to lie? I do not think so. I think in fact that when Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men replied in all vehemence, "you cant handle the truth!" he was voicing out a timeless eternal reality. The reality behind a lie.
Translation of a chinese song
Sunday, February 03, 2008
♥ Sunday, February 03, 2008
Wanted to do this for a really long time now. One of my favourite chan 8 serials."When i am misunderstood, i keep my silence.Silence is my form of rebellion.When the world forgets me, i move past alone.Peace seems to actually be a myth.The enemies' arrive, the friends' leave.When love becomes a burden i am not able to relieve.I am not the silent lamb, i have words to say.Give me some wine, i'll find the courage to cry.I am not the silent lamb, i have my dreams too.When the sun rises tomorrow, i'll be shining just the same.Even the lamb can cry, silence is a form of strength.Are you the same like me? Learning through reality?"Guess guess guess...what chinese serial was this song from?? haha winner gets a prize.
