Cultural Matrix
"We have a basic personality formed within a certain cultural matrix, and that cultural matrix supports us in certain ways. Now if that cultural matrix has a place for being spiritual, and isolates you from a lot of ordinary things in the course of doing that you may get some pretty fine development."
The quote is taken from a book called Halfway Up the Mountain and deals with issues around claims to enlightenment and spritiual leadership. It's a quote from Charles Tart. What I'm trying to do @ CPL is foster the growth of that cultural matrix. I think it is a mistake to think that as a society we have NO cultural matrix for spirituality. Comparing us to Tibet or native american cultures is nothing more than that ... comparison and ultimately what good is that? I'm curious why we are never compared to Italy or Portugal. Is there a bias in favour of cultures that are eastern as the ONLY ones what support spirituality. I think that in the west we tend to think of our cultural matrix as religious as opposed to spiritual. We tend to look at all of our religious practices as arcane and outmoded and based in superstition. I once invited a group of Tibetan Buddhists to do a prayer circle at my centre in California. I wasn't thoroughtly briefed in the protocols beforehand and made the mistake of having the service facilitated by my assistant minister ( a woman). The bulk of the service was spent in trying to get enough pillows under the rimpoche so his head would be higher than the presider's. This was a source of great embarrassment to the rimpoche's followers and once I realized what was happening .. . of great delight to me. It seems to me that if we are willing to overlook our cultural bias against our own traditions we will find plenty that is arcane and non-sensical in the foreign traditions we seem to hold in such high esteem. Religious Science, in its attention to the philosophy of a life well lived, may appear at first glance to be in support of ego as opposed to "true" enlightenment, and in fact there are many in our teaching who continiue to use the philosophy to got ego needs met ... and so ... so very well ... so what! Joan Halifax in speaking of her prison ashram and hospice projects says "Better these people should think of themselves as enlightened, which is a wonderful aspiration, that robbing stores or taking heroine or beating their wives. It's better to think you're awake than a lot of other things. Even pretending to be spiritual is better than intentionally harming others." the power of Ernest Holmes's thought like Joan Halifax's is that in the final analysis it is intensely practical and meets people where they are.
Lama Thubten Leshe on the western cultural (spiritual) matrix "When difficult circumstances arise, the negative energy overpowers the positive because they (westerners) have never built up within themselves the force of good habits and because they lack deep internal understanding of the nature of karma, (see Science of Mind pp 114, 204, 392 ) or cause and effect."
I'm happy to say classes are in full swing @ CPL and FULL and cause and effect of rather "causeffect" is high on the curricula. as challenged as I feel with respect to the outocme of the recent election in the US and the resultant maps that have been circulating, ( I rec'd the same map of the "United States of Canada and Jesusland" from 6 different sources on Wednesday) I am not as critical of the Christian right as I might be. A cultural matrix that includes the spiritual is better than one without it. I'm ready to follow the advice of Arnaud Dejardins spiritual teacher and french filmmaker "accept what is" , "say yes to life"
"Enlightenment is the knowledge that all things are transitory, including enlightenment." Lee Lozowick
The quote is taken from a book called Halfway Up the Mountain and deals with issues around claims to enlightenment and spritiual leadership. It's a quote from Charles Tart. What I'm trying to do @ CPL is foster the growth of that cultural matrix. I think it is a mistake to think that as a society we have NO cultural matrix for spirituality. Comparing us to Tibet or native american cultures is nothing more than that ... comparison and ultimately what good is that? I'm curious why we are never compared to Italy or Portugal. Is there a bias in favour of cultures that are eastern as the ONLY ones what support spirituality. I think that in the west we tend to think of our cultural matrix as religious as opposed to spiritual. We tend to look at all of our religious practices as arcane and outmoded and based in superstition. I once invited a group of Tibetan Buddhists to do a prayer circle at my centre in California. I wasn't thoroughtly briefed in the protocols beforehand and made the mistake of having the service facilitated by my assistant minister ( a woman). The bulk of the service was spent in trying to get enough pillows under the rimpoche so his head would be higher than the presider's. This was a source of great embarrassment to the rimpoche's followers and once I realized what was happening .. . of great delight to me. It seems to me that if we are willing to overlook our cultural bias against our own traditions we will find plenty that is arcane and non-sensical in the foreign traditions we seem to hold in such high esteem. Religious Science, in its attention to the philosophy of a life well lived, may appear at first glance to be in support of ego as opposed to "true" enlightenment, and in fact there are many in our teaching who continiue to use the philosophy to got ego needs met ... and so ... so very well ... so what! Joan Halifax in speaking of her prison ashram and hospice projects says "Better these people should think of themselves as enlightened, which is a wonderful aspiration, that robbing stores or taking heroine or beating their wives. It's better to think you're awake than a lot of other things. Even pretending to be spiritual is better than intentionally harming others." the power of Ernest Holmes's thought like Joan Halifax's is that in the final analysis it is intensely practical and meets people where they are.
Lama Thubten Leshe on the western cultural (spiritual) matrix "When difficult circumstances arise, the negative energy overpowers the positive because they (westerners) have never built up within themselves the force of good habits and because they lack deep internal understanding of the nature of karma, (see Science of Mind pp 114, 204, 392 ) or cause and effect."
I'm happy to say classes are in full swing @ CPL and FULL and cause and effect of rather "causeffect" is high on the curricula. as challenged as I feel with respect to the outocme of the recent election in the US and the resultant maps that have been circulating, ( I rec'd the same map of the "United States of Canada and Jesusland" from 6 different sources on Wednesday) I am not as critical of the Christian right as I might be. A cultural matrix that includes the spiritual is better than one without it. I'm ready to follow the advice of Arnaud Dejardins spiritual teacher and french filmmaker "accept what is" , "say yes to life"
"Enlightenment is the knowledge that all things are transitory, including enlightenment." Lee Lozowick
posted by Rev-T at 9:59 AM
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