Thursday, June 15, 2006

Satin or Satan?

Well I got the first comment on my blog which was an accusation that I am in fact really Satan. Or actually, the person wrote "Satin" and though I was flattered, I knew what they really meant. It is actually perfect because my good friend Annie Mcquade at Integral just gave me a sticker that says, "Even the Devil is God," and I just put it on my car. Don't get to leave anything out, do we? Too bad! (Or too satanic), (Or not satanic enough-which is it?)
So, I wanted to clarify something about "chosen form." This term in no way refers to the kind of new age interpretation of picking and choosing pieces of spirituality and mashing them together into a sort of "everything is truth that has been done in the name of spirituality" pile of goop. Chosen form is spirituality which comes from a definite depth of practice, where the imposed super-ego of religion which says, "if you don't do this you are not getting any dessert" or whatever it is, is gone. In fact, it comes with the realization that there is in fact no dessert, only dinner, which we are already eating. In this sense, chosen form could be absolutely anything in terms of tradition and practice, as there is no longer the pointed finger wagging at the book of right and wrong, which doesn't exist anyway.
For many indigenous people, there is seemingly a different process, as the form was never imposed to begin with, but rather integrated into their cultural living in such a way that they actually identified positively with it. This is not always true, however, but perhaps appraoches explaining why this process of moving from imposed to chosen is more of a modern issue.
[I am only explaining this in order to clarify the point of view of the blog.]
So let's say for instance that your first imposed form was Christianity. After which, you realized it was imposed and moved to a supposedly chosen form of Buddhism. After years of practicing Buddhism as a religion, you realize that you are practicing Buddhism in almost the same way as you practiced Christianity only now the voice is inside your head instead of outside, so it was MUCH harder to hear. The forms assisted you in hearing this however (as they were created by someone practicing authentically chosen forms), and now you must transition to authentic chosen form, letting go of whatever outcome the super-ego has set for you.

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