Bird droppings

I finally ran into the crazy Feri schism stuff going on. Don't bother looking into it if you don't know what I'm talking about. It's boring and silly and involves a bunch of people arguing about who owns what words. At least, that's what I got out of reading a handful of websites of people arguing about it. I'm not really fully aware of it, and I'm sure I'm mischaracterizing any real issues going on there. But at a cursory glance, it just seems like silliness to me.

Inspired by this silliness, I thought I would post a meditation of my own on my spiritual practice, my life, and everything else that I do.

I don't get this world sometimes. Frankly, I don't think anyone really does. The longer I live, the more I recognize that nobody really knows how to do this "life" thing, and that people are learning what they can, building on past knowledge, and making up the rest as they go.

What it comes down to for me is understanding my Self, and understanding my Universe. Or perhaps more importantly... improving my relationship with Self, as well as my relationship with my Universe.

All I want to do is figure out my way through this universe in a way that works for me. I want to be happy and satisfied with my life. This seems to frequently include helping others find happiness and satisfaction, so that's cool.

I know that I sometimes get embroiled in drama-filled arguments about what certain labels mean or how people should behave or whatever. I know that sometimes, I get stuck on an emotional button that I need to deal with.

But most of the time... I think it would be best to constantly remind myself that my Goal is to improve my relationship with Self and Universe.

I figure that we're all more or less struggling with these same sorts of questions, trying to find our own answers to things. We're building systems of information and knowledge. Behavior and practice. etc. It's really a cool moment when I get to listen to another person share their knowledge, information, and practices with me. When they can tell me about what they've come up with to answering the great questions of the universe. I also absolutely love to share what I've come up with as much as I am able.

In my mind... what better way to improve my ability to relate to and understand Self and Universe than to engage in a community of people that are all openly sharing what they've come up with, and where I can share as well... where we are a community of creators, creating the universe itself around us as we seek to comprehend and define it... A community that constantly welcomes fresh insight and thought... That embraces innovation and creativity.

Let's face it... I'm an open source junkie when it comes to knowledge. Whether it be computers, spirituality, science, art, poetry, whatever. If you see anything in my life that I've created, and want to improve on it, go right ahead. And I'd absolutely love to take anything you share and improve upon it in turn. Maybe by working together we can come up with something even more awesome.

Hell, this entire LJ is under a Creative Commons license:


All public works within this journal not otherwise copyrighted or licensed are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

So when it comes to spirituality, religions and religious/spiritual practice of any sort... I am firmly and completely on the side of doing what is going to benefit me the most, and in my mind... that's practicing open sharing of information as much is possible and appropriate. I'm not saying that guarding information is always wrong... just that it is usually less useful than full and open sharing.

If I were to throw a label on myself, I guess I'd say that I'm an open source witch.

Anyone that wants to take issue with that can go right ahead. Haters always gonna hate... Who cares? I'm not in this for them. I'm in this for my Self and my Universe. I'll make my own decisions about what's true or not and folks that disagree can just deal.

Everyone else that wants to talk and build on our mutual experiences, come on over. :)

In relation to the post I just made about relative statements of personal truth, I just came across the Buddhist parable of the raft in the book on Buddhism that I'm reading.

In this parable, the Buddha describes a man going on a journey who comes upon a great body of water. On the near shore are perils, dangers, and fears, yet the other shore has none of these. The man realizes that he might construct a raft to ferry him across the body of water. Once he arrives there, he looks upon the raft and, contemplating how useful it was to him, considers bringing it along for his journey.

The Buddha then asked his monks whether the man should leave the raft behind or take it with him. They agreed that it would be prudent to leave it at the shore. The Buddha agreed and then likened his teachings to the raft. They are useful for getting across to the metaphorical opposite shore, but should not be retained for the journey.

It really clicks in my mind with the notion of relative speech. Sometimes, if you have something to teach someone, it is best to speak to them relative to what they already know or feel. Like telling an angry or violent person to find peace and calm and learn patience. It may be that the best course of action is *not* to always be passive, calm, and patient, but it may be useful to suggest as much to the angry person. To the one that is so passive that they never speak out against anything, it may be valuable to encourage them to be angry and violent at times. In so doing, a person is pushed out of their comfort zone to a place of balance.

Similarly, the parable of the raft may indicate that this is very much on the Buddha's mind. When he speaks of the various good practices of a Buddhist, he is pushing people from their relative place of comfort to a more balanced place. But once people get there, perhaps people are supposed to realize that the Buddha really didn't get it all right, and that there's quite a bit wrong with what he says. You're supposed to find your own path at that point. The Buddha is one individual that might be able to show you the door, but you still have to walk through it yourself.

Perhaps that's really all the Buddha is trying to teach? He's trying to tell people to go find their own path, and he's got some ideas on how to do that.

More study must take place.