Spirituality and lightheartednessAn article about spirituality. I read my first book by Alan Watts a few months back and he has become one my favorite authors. His insights and enthusiasm for eastern philosophy are entertaining as well as instructive and inspiring. The book that I am reading now is Become What You Are. It is just a series of articles that discusses many spiritual concepts and is not about any particular religion or philosophy as such. One of the chapters on starts with this quotation from Chesterton, which says that “Because they take themselves lightly Angels can fly.” And in fact according to Indian Philosophy, all is maya. All is illusion. All is just a game. It is not to be taken seriously. This is one of the keys to Spirituality. In fact I think life should come with this statutory warning – NOT TO BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY. In India we have a statutory warning printed badly on all cigarette packets saying, “Cigarette smoking is injurious to Health.” In fact regarding Life the statutory warning is even more important than in the case of cigarettes. For a person may choose to smoke or he may choose not to smoke. But you cannot avoid living. So it is even more important that all of us learn – at least intellectually – this simple key to spirituality and living wisely. LIFE IS NOT TO BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY. However so few people understand this simple concept that is one of the keys to spirituality. And so we have people making mountains out of molehills. We have the clash of civilizations. We have the Muslims baying for the blood of Danish cartoonists. And we have the Danes standing on principle and refusing to apologize for having hurt Muslim sentiments. All for idealistic, high-minded reasons, of course. The Danes say they are standing up for Freedom of Speech. In fact almost everybody takes themselves too seriously. It is as if the actor in a drama or play forgot that they were playing a role or a part. And instead of the actor playing the part, the part is playing the actor. There is about most people, a seriousness, a heavy handedness and a lack of abandon that makes it clear that they have totally identified themselves with the part. They seem to depend on their roles for everything that is important to them. In fact I would say that their sense of self-worth depends upon the roles that they are playing. This is the very anti-thesis of Spirituality and living wisely. You can notice this anywhere and everywhere. In India I have noticed that people who are single and unmarried are not taken seriously or treated with respect. I am single myself and in my 40s and I can testify that I am sometimes treated with rudeness and contempt for just this reason. Perhaps they think that any person of a sexually active age who is unmarried has no option but to engage in a series of affairs and to womanize or visit prostitutes. Whatever the cause the result is that people seem to derive their very sense of self worth from the fact that they are married and have a family. All because this role that they are play gets them treated by respect from people they meet. It is needless to multiply instances. All of us have been treated rudely by a government official in a position of power, or a boss or anybody who is in an important position. And I am sure you can also think of many instances of people taking themselves all too seriously. This is not spirituality. And yet we have the following simple concepts of Eastern Philosophy which if we take seriously (no pun intended) we can get a playful, non serious, light hearted approach to life. (1) All is Not–Self. We are not the Body, Mind, Intellect or Feeling or our Roles and Relationships. We are something else. For details refer the following books on Hinduism.
(2) All life, the whole Universe in fact is both transient and unsatisfactory. For understanding Impermanence Vipassana meditation works well. Also Mindfulness on Death as recommended by Buddhism – especially Tibetan Buddhism. Please refer The Tibetan Book on Living and Dying by Sogyal Rinpoche. We need to make these concepts real for us. We need to feel these truths in our bones. It has to become a part of our being, our outlook to life. Understanding can help us gain in spirituality. If life is a game then the following the just a few of the implications:- (i) It does not matter if we win or lose. It is just a game. (ii) It does not matter if we play well or play badly. (iii) It does not even matter if we are happy or miserable. (iv) It does not matter if we play by the rules or break the rules. (v) It does not matter if other players treat us with respect or with contempt. (vi) It does not matter whether or not we gain in knowledge as to how to play the game of Life wisely and skillfully. In other words it does not matter whether we gain in wisdom or not. It is just a game. (vii) It does not matter if we are perceived to be ethical or good. In fact it does not matter if we are ethical or good. We could be as evil as Adolph Hitler and Joseph Stalin combined and it still would not matter. In fact NOTHING MATTERS, NOTHING AT ALL. To quote Alan Watts from his book, Become What You Are “For the world of form and illusion which the majority take to be the real world is none other than the play of the spirit or as the Hindus have called it, The Dance of Shiva. He is enlightened who joins in this play knowing it as play. For man suffers only when he takes seriously what the Gods made for fun.” I hope you enjoyed this article and that it will be useful to you. Stay tuned for more in this continuing series.
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