Surprisingly enough, I have not felt the urgency of a search for an alternative religion for the last 12 or 14 years. Indeed, there are few key points I have so clear in my mind and bones, that I don't need to look further. It might not last forever but, who is to last forever, people ask.
My religious beliefs are deeply rooted in the Christian tradition and, although I reckon they are to some extend customized or tailored to fit my needs and for the sake of my peace of mind, I maintain myself faithful to the core of essential doctrine. On another hand, even though I have the looks of a conservative person -cliche-type definition-, I am considered and considered myself neatly unorthodox. I like being this way and feel pride of this collection of clear ideas -likely, a set of rare crystalline ideas, in the midst of my jungle of doubts.
But, I insist, for the last years I needed not to look into different directions or get serious in the quest of run-aways. Any religion stated as a run-away is a mistake. The world can be shit, but we shall not hide from it- if a religion teaches you that, to wait simply for something else, this religion is a huge stupidity and a mistake. Why? Because, a religion, by definition, takes pride of the human condition and relates it to an upper plane, a transcendental one. The most important side of a religion (for Catholicism for sure) is the human part. And to become renegades of our condition on Earth is not human. Buddhism, for instance... Ludwig von Mises in his great, human work, Human Action, excludes the Buddhist from the core of his lemmas for being a group acting unnaturally, against the tendency of individual humans. Buddhism wants to get rid of suffering... Yea, well, yea, suffering is "the center of the world", all is suffering, dukkha!, bla, bla, but the whole thing consists of finding a way to eliminate suffering. Foolish task! Come on! What is life but suffering? What are our human hearts incline to but to suffering? You will get that by renegading from human conditions, by making monsters. How come, if not? Christian tradition, on the contrary, makes a sacred prayer out of suffering, accepts it and elevates it to the climax of redemption in the symbol of the Cross... God himself suffers and dies. How much human suffering must be!
Yea, I think, in most cases, people need escapes. This weekend, I've read in The Independent magazine (I think) a reportage about the proliferation of spiritual churches, of Christian inspiration, in the City of London, specially designed for employees of banks, insurance or any finance companies, who take a leave at lunch time to search for a piece of peace, away from their routines. That is, they look for escapes.
I never needed this, and always relinquished this sort of relief. The Cross must be sanctified, the human suffering praised, and here you can make shallow interpretations, but I am talking deep shit, you know? I am not talking about flagellation (to which, unfortunately, simplifications and distortions have led to for centuries... Well, it is not that simple, I guess) but I am talking about the human fact that men and women suffer for infinite reasons, sometimes without a reason. That's our condition.
Nevertheless, the feelings of unhappy workers are familiar to me- Just look around in the tube or in the streets how untidy, unnaturally many folks wear their suits; their ties are a horrible mess; the pants were worn one day after another; the shoes need a good, tender, mother hand. And pint after pint, evening after evening, the indisposition to work, the magnitude of the toil grows bigger, hardly disguised by a good shower or a cup of coffee, and the holly golightly rumpus of the tube in the morning and the clip-clap of the shoes on the pavement of its stations.
You can choose to continue and to find mighty justifications. I think that is a mistake. Life's made to be lived. Your work is part of your life. Get the guts and do what you want! If you don't, at the end of the day, you find yourself running away in different directions, energy is wasting and sinking through a constellation of weakenings and insecurities; you may be tempted by evils, you may not, but I guarantee you, you will be unsatisfied and no guru, nor any doctrine would get you in the groove.
Much more must be said... Much more... It is not all so straightforward and pompous, you know?
(PLEASE, LEAVE YOUR COMMENT)
No comments:
Post a Comment