First...let me just state...I suck at titles! They are a bit of a problem for me, but maybe I'll improve with time....that could be a whole other post...improving with time. Don't we all?
Anyway...
The allegory of a physical mountain for the spiritual one that stands between each soul and its goal is an easy and natural one to make. Like those in the valley behind us, most people stand in sight of the spiritual mountains all their lives and never enter them, being content to listen to others who have been there and thus avoid the hardships. Some travel into the mountains accompanied by experienced guides who know the best and least dangerous routes by which they arrive at their destination. Still others, inexperienced and untrusting, attempt to make thier own routes. Few of these are successful, but occasionally some, by sheer will and luck and grace, do make it. Once there they become more aware than any of the others that there's no single or fixed number of routes. There are as many routes as there are individual souls. ....
......For more than three centuries now the old routes common in this hemisphere have been undercut and almost washed out by the natural erosion and change of the shape of the mountain wrought by scientific truth. The early climbers established paths that were on firm ground with an accessibility that appealed to all, but today the Western routes are all but closed because of dogmatic inflexibility in the face of change. To doubt the literal meaning of the words of Jesus or Moses incurs hostility from most people, but it's just a fact that if Jesus or Moses were to appear today, unidentified, with the same message he spoke many years ago, his mental stability would by challenged. This isn't because what Jesus or Moses said was untrue of because modern society is in error but simply because the route they chose to reveal to others has lost relevance and comprehensibility. "Heaven above" fades from meaning when space-age consciousness asks, Where is "above"? But the fact that the old routes have tended, because of language rigidity, to lose their everyday meaning and become almost closed doesn't mean that the mountain is no longer there. It's there and will be there as long as consciousness exists.
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig
AMAZING!
I think I'm one of those (inexperienced and untrusting) that have decided to travel and explore the mountian making my own path...but once in while I do like to run into one of those that have traveled and know the paths already there...our paths intersect many times. The mountain is still here. I know, because I'm on it. I do, however, hear the relevance of the words of Jesus and Moses, and the many others before and after them....it sometimes seems distant and faded, but if you can be still for a moment and listen...you'll hear it too. It sounds quite different from listening in the valley...come to the mountain...awaken your consciousness...
The religion of the future will be a cosmic religion. It should transcend personal God and avoid dogma and theology. Covering both the natural and the spiritual, it should be based on a religious sense arising from the experience of all things natural and spiritual as a meaningful unity...Albert Einstein
Anyway...
The allegory of a physical mountain for the spiritual one that stands between each soul and its goal is an easy and natural one to make. Like those in the valley behind us, most people stand in sight of the spiritual mountains all their lives and never enter them, being content to listen to others who have been there and thus avoid the hardships. Some travel into the mountains accompanied by experienced guides who know the best and least dangerous routes by which they arrive at their destination. Still others, inexperienced and untrusting, attempt to make thier own routes. Few of these are successful, but occasionally some, by sheer will and luck and grace, do make it. Once there they become more aware than any of the others that there's no single or fixed number of routes. There are as many routes as there are individual souls. ....
......For more than three centuries now the old routes common in this hemisphere have been undercut and almost washed out by the natural erosion and change of the shape of the mountain wrought by scientific truth. The early climbers established paths that were on firm ground with an accessibility that appealed to all, but today the Western routes are all but closed because of dogmatic inflexibility in the face of change. To doubt the literal meaning of the words of Jesus or Moses incurs hostility from most people, but it's just a fact that if Jesus or Moses were to appear today, unidentified, with the same message he spoke many years ago, his mental stability would by challenged. This isn't because what Jesus or Moses said was untrue of because modern society is in error but simply because the route they chose to reveal to others has lost relevance and comprehensibility. "Heaven above" fades from meaning when space-age consciousness asks, Where is "above"? But the fact that the old routes have tended, because of language rigidity, to lose their everyday meaning and become almost closed doesn't mean that the mountain is no longer there. It's there and will be there as long as consciousness exists.
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig
AMAZING!
I think I'm one of those (inexperienced and untrusting) that have decided to travel and explore the mountian making my own path...but once in while I do like to run into one of those that have traveled and know the paths already there...our paths intersect many times. The mountain is still here. I know, because I'm on it. I do, however, hear the relevance of the words of Jesus and Moses, and the many others before and after them....it sometimes seems distant and faded, but if you can be still for a moment and listen...you'll hear it too. It sounds quite different from listening in the valley...come to the mountain...awaken your consciousness...
The religion of the future will be a cosmic religion. It should transcend personal God and avoid dogma and theology. Covering both the natural and the spiritual, it should be based on a religious sense arising from the experience of all things natural and spiritual as a meaningful unity...Albert Einstein
1 comment:
Cool! You like the book, too??? (happy, happy me). I bought a "Zen and the Christian" book, but haven't started it yet. I will .... thanks for the comments on "lostgirl". Thanks for letting me be a part of the "family"!
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