Is Spirituality Like Us?

Matt pointed me to a section from a Tibetan buddhist text the other day. See Matt’s blog – which also contains a selection of his music . Matt and I have discussed a mutual interest in buddhism, and its interaction with its Tibetan ‘buddhist’ offshoot.

The text in question, while being far from the extreme of this genre, talks of a monk’s mystical experiences of a sacred mountain, and of the so-called Dalai Llama’s assertion that 60 "superbliss deities" live there. It reads, to my jaundiced eye, like so much mumbo jumbo. And is, in my opinion, fairly removed from what little we know of the original teaching of Gautama. But that is by the by. The point is this text, like so much religion, is just weird.

And this got me to thinking: Is spirituality like us?

Is meeting the true Spirit, getting in touch with g0d, receiving enlightenment a weird, alien and uncomfortable experience? (This is a particular trap for those who think psychedelic drugs lead to real and true spiritual experiences.) Or, is the source of life LIKE us, so that meeting it/him/her is like bringing us home to a familiar but long-forgotten place?

Well, you’ve already guessed I plump for the latter. Yes, I acknowledge the great spiritual explorers have experienced some pretty weird things. One only has to read Juliana of Norwich or the prophet Ezekiel to see that. And yet, I think the core spirituality – that which leads us to the true centre rather than distracts us with little games - the true spirituality is MORE human rather than less. More comforting than disconcerting. More sane, than unsane. More mundane than fantastic.

Perhaps the next time some enthusiast assails us with cultic religiosity that would make a shaman’s toenails curl, we could recite the following holy mantra, which is guaranteed to forever banish the demons of obfuscation:

“Bullshit.”


listening to Black Sun Empire | Stasis