In a previous post I proposed we have science books as a foundational knowledge about the universe we inhabit be included as part of the practical Lessons/Guidance in any spiritual organisation across churches, monasteries and ashrams even commercial ashrams.
Any person who calls herself/himself a spiritual seeker usually follows a commercial spiritual organisation or two, spend time in commercial ashrams, try to learn and emulate other seekers listening to talks of pop gurus in search of truth. Commercial ashrams the majority of them are just businesses and nothing more. A topic for another time.
Monks/nuns and heads of spiritual organisations have become our role models when it comes to inner discipline whether it is meditation or simply prayer, practice of virtue being common to all. Discussions between Monks/nuns and scientists truly elevate us.
I sincerely hope that grounding topics on science, inviting scientists for a discussion, will help eliminate the mad epidemic of believing in modern superstitions like 111, 444, ‘how to open your third eye chakra in 10 minutes’ nonsense amongst seekers that are far from aligned with common sense and scriptures for that matter. In conversations like “You remember one past life and it broke you? Big deal? I remember 20 past lives and I’m thriving!” And yes this conversation actually happened amongst spiritual community people. Believe me, we need to introduce popular science books to as many spiritual seekers as soon as possible. As the remedy to an ‘illness’.
I spent a year analysing the psychology of many modern spiritual seekers. I found it baffling that not a single educated spiritual seeker cared to discuss the beauty of a blackhole and how we came to photographing it’ but were too interested in life after death and how beautiful it is. I found it baffling. Why ignore the greatest human achievements like measuring the age of our universe! I mean look at our audacity to do it at all? Why does a spiritual seeker not marvel at how far cavemen have come to understanding the cosmos, our birth universe. How can a seeker of truth not find it of any interest at all? Is a spiritual seeker not a seeker of truth? if so, I never want to be called spiritual. No thank you.
Instead of focusing on inner discipline, instead of sitting for meditation even for 10 minutes a day, I saw spiritual seekers chattering away spiritual gossip of whether humans can be reincarnated as animals under what circumstances, what Sai Baba had to say on that topic etc etc and whether we must cut our nails during a certain month. It was the peak of pandemic months, when what we should have been saying is “Now we have more time to read the books we wanted to but couldn’t, to finally meditate longer periods uninterrupted without disturbance.” But no, not once did I hear it.
Are these topics really more important than inner discipline and practice? Is Metaphysics more important than the inner practice? Did Buddha come to state of Nirvana by chatting away with fellow seekers about metaphysics?
I can guarantee you no enlightened sage/seer/master will ever say that knowledge on metaphysics is much more important than inner disciple. Or that it is of vital importance at all! Nothing is ore important than inner discipline!
I quoted buddha’s ‘parable of the arrow’ in the previous post , I present the commentary by Thich Nhat Hanh on the same topic:
“The Buddha always told his disciples not to waste their time and energy in metaphysical speculation. Whenever he was asked a metaphysical question, he remained silent. Instead, he directed his disciples toward practical efforts. Questioned one day about the problem of the infinity of the world, the Buddha said, “Whether the world is finite or infinite, limited or unlimited, the problem of your liberation remains the same.” Another time he said, “Suppose a man is struck by a poisoned arrow and the doctor wishes to take out the arrow immediately. Suppose the man does not want the arrow removed until he knows who shot it, his age, his parents, and why he shot it. What would happen? If he were to wait until all these questions have been answered, the man might die first.” Life is so short. It must not be spent in endless metaphysical speculation that does not bring us any closer to the truth.”
And the problem I saw with seekers is that they showed no interest in how far humanity has come in understanding our universe, and this resulted in an unhealthy obsession almost an escapist tendency to fixate on the afterlife and metaphysical speculation to the point it was the only point of discussion amongst friends and they were all educated. And you won’t believe the number of fights and personal attacks that dominated those conversations.
Nothing can replace Science and Inner discipline. is the only remedy to ground ourselves and cure our mental shortnesses or rather, illnesses.