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yogishankar
USA
83 Posts |
 Posted - Jul 09 2012 : 5:41:47 PM
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Quote from Osho Rajneesh:
An intelligent man, a man who has a little meditative consciousness,can make his life a beautiful piece of art, can make it so full of love and full of music and full of poetry and full of dance that there are no limitations for it. Life is not hard. It is man’s stupidity that makes it hard. |
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tonightsthenight
846 Posts |
Posted - Jul 09 2012 : 7:42:11 PM
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As uplifting as that is, yogishankar, I've got to say that life *is* pretty darn hard sometimes!
Spiritual suffering and physical pain are two very different things. Suffering is avoidable, pain most certainly is not.
That does not take away from the notion that man can make his life a beautiful piece of art, full of love and multitudes of good things. But this notion needs to be tempered by the reality that life is full of pain and hard work, and without these things, we would not get where we are going. |
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Etherfish
USA
3615 Posts |
Posted - Jul 09 2012 : 9:02:12 PM
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Yes I think saying it is stupidity is arrogant and ignorant. A person with all the mental faculties and sense in the world can still have a tough time, because happiness and an easy life doesn't come from being smart.
No amount of intelligence will tell you that meditation and faith in a greater power outside yourself could make your life easier. In fact, logic is more likely to steer you in the wrong direction. A stupid person is more likely to find beauty and enjoy life.
It is fashionable today among intellectuals to deny God, and all other spiritual beliefs that are not sensible. It is possible to achieve enlightenment as an atheist, but devotion to a higher ideal outside yourself is unlikely to be arrived at by reason. And without bhakti, one would probably only become enlightened through the birth/death cycle and not yoga. |
Edited by - Etherfish on Jul 10 2012 05:25:27 AM |
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tonightsthenight
846 Posts |
Posted - Jul 10 2012 : 1:02:26 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Etherfish
Yes I think saying it is stupidity is arrogant and ignorant. A person with all the mental faculties and sense in the world can still have a tough time, because happiness and an easy life doesn't come from being smart.
No amount of intelligence will tell you that meditation and faith in a greater power outside yourself could make your life easier. In fact, logic is more likely to steer you in the wrong direction. A stupid person is more likely to find beauty and enjoy life.
It is fashionable today among intellectuals to deny God, and all other spiritual beliefs that are not sensible. It is possible to achieve enlightenment as an atheist, but devotion to a higher ideal outside yourself is unlikely to be arrived at by reason. And without bhakti, one would probably only become enlightened through the birth/death cycle and not yoga.
One thing I would point out Ether is that I do not believe that it is fashionable for intellectuals to deny God in this era. Certainly in the previous generation this was so, but today, many young thinkers are gravitating away from logic and the mind and toward yogic-style precepts of acceptance and letting go.
As a generation, the one coming of age now is redefining what success and contentment mean. Materialism has been shown to be ineffectual. Politics are a lost cause. There is no logical way out of Babylon through our societal institutions, be it education, humanitarianism, warfare or religion.
Pain is a reality of life. But we can let go and try to find a better way, not through logic, but rather by being free! |
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Etherfish
USA
3615 Posts |
Posted - Jul 10 2012 : 6:20:31 PM
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Well yes, i am one of those, but...
If you google "rising atheism" or "Atheism growing", there are lots of articles talking about it especially in the young, both in the US and Europe. I know that doesn't necessarily mean intellectuals, but they often quote science as a reason, or Marxism, so I assume intellectuals, although I don't understand how one could be intellectual and Marxist given history, but that may be more my generation's protest against the status quo...hope you're right.
But then, 'rapidly growing' can be deceiving statistics because a gallup poll says from one growing up to seven percent, and other religious polls say up to a quarter, so that could be considered a small total by some, even though the growth was rapid. |
Edited by - Etherfish on Jul 10 2012 6:46:28 PM |
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escapado
Germany
88 Posts |
Posted - Jul 10 2012 : 8:16:58 PM
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Hey Yogishankar!
I would change it a bit: Living doesn't have to be hard, should be easy and flowing free
But Life is bittersweet and we just have to live with that, life is what it is like we cannot just mute the other side of it.
@etherfish/tonightsthenight, I can see that atheism is still very popular with the newer generation and there is propaganda especially through making the concept of god look absurd in a humouristic way (which I find most of the times simply disrespectful and not funny at all). It becomes a little bit like a highschool thing, if you believe in god you are somehow "out".
I can still see a rising tendency towards god/spirituality at the same time! But most likely there will be spirituality without a concept of god that's what it looks like to me.
I can only try and show what is meant or what is not meant by the name of god but people are somehow very strict in how they let themselves think about god/no god, etc. you see my point? They want to hang on to what they believe about that very strongly.
I wish most of the atheist would atleast turn into agnosticists (I mean as an intellectual person you should dare to think it over enough to come to the conclusion that for a non-believer agnosticism is still the rightest choice for an intellectual since you don't actually KNOW)
Oh and Ether, intelligence is not only intellectuality so I believe a truly intelligent person whose intelligence has reached a specific point comes to see that spirituality and meditation are a real gateway to the divine! |
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tonightsthenight
846 Posts |
Posted - Jul 10 2012 : 10:56:02 PM
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Good points Ether and Escapado.
I agree that atheism, or at least the public admittance of such, is likely on the rise.
However, I continually find that people are interested to hear how one can believe so strongly in god, and yet not care whether others believe the same thing.
For those of us with mature k and inner silence, it's probably inevitable that others will be attracted to the presence that such generates, and it may be that the circles I run in tend to be circles full of believers ;)
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Etherfish
USA
3615 Posts |
Posted - Jul 11 2012 : 07:53:10 AM
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"However, I continually find that people are interested to hear how one can believe so strongly in god, and yet not care whether others believe the same thing."
That's me; I don't know if that is what you are saying or not. But i have a strong connection, but don't talk about it at all (except here). My Christian friends say they have never seen such a strong "Christian" who claims not to be christian. It's just that talking about it doesn't help anybody- setting an example does. |
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tonightsthenight
846 Posts |
Posted - Jul 11 2012 : 08:52:32 AM
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Yeah Ether, that's exactly what I mean. And yes, I was speaking about you, and others here as well. A life of yoga yields a powerful beacon to others.
As far as actions and not talking, that's about right. But talking is a good way of helping people. That doesn't mean we have all the answers, far from it. Sometimes it means simply helping people to accept that we don't know any of the answers! |
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