Wednesday, December 25, 2019

asked and answered

As once, in what I think of as the bomb zone of my beginning of my spiritual quest, I asked the question, so now I have reached my answer and it is satisfactory to me.

The question, posed somewhere between an icy doubt and a deep, beloved yearning was this:

Is spiritual life or spiritual endeavor a crock of shit or not? I really wanted to know and that yearning set me on a 40-50-year quest.

Question: Is spiritual life a crock of shit or not? I didn't want to know for anyone else. The question was a one-off built solely for me. Well, is it, or not?

Question: Is spiritual endeavor a crock of shit or not?

The answer is: Yes.

Asked and, after so many years, answered.

Yes.

Is it a crock of shit or not?

Yes.

I cuddle up to this answer today as I was in no way capable of cuddling then: Yes.

I am satisfied, yet issue a warning.

Anyone who might take this blog post as a jumping-off point for some further metaphor or evidence of their own assessment should be wary: If you come within my crosshairs, I will shoot you dead if I have the chance. Literally. Don't be a scumbag!

Is spiritual endeavor a crock of shit or not?

Yes.

Asked and answered.

Nothing -- no question or answer should be premised on these words. Just yes. Yes. The end.

Amen.

2 comments:

  1. Given your answer, I have some doubts about whether you're being deeply honest, sincere. It reminds me of a sales pitch trying to get others to believe.

    I suspect the matter will be revisited.

    But it could just be me. I often ask different but related questions with a more analytical slant.
    1. What _is_ real spiritual practice?
    2. Given a person who self identifies or is authorized as a teacher of a given spiritual practice / path / system, what are realistic expectations?
    2a. How tolerant should we be with less than perfect teachers?
    3. If there are helpful, reasonable elements in a given spiritual practice system as well as irrational or unhelpful elements should one discard it all?
    4. What are the similarities are difference between religious practice and spiritual practice?
    5. What modern ideas, techniques and technologies can be correctly said to do what spiritual practice did or does..

    One of my rules of thumb is guided by the following:
    We have bad medicine, but eliminating medicine may put us at even greater risk.
    We have bad law, but lawless is dangerous.
    We have corrupt science, but it makes little sense to reject all science.

    From my perspective Spiritual Practice is a historically co-descendant with philosophy and its descendants, the sciences. Negating spiritual practice is pretty much the same as negating philosophy and science, and thereby negating the possibility for certain types of self understanding, self improvement and, perhaps, self-realization.

    If you shoot me dead for my opinions, I'll return and pay you a visit hopefully while your in jail.

    ReplyDelete
  2. A nice, poignant threat.

    ReplyDelete