[FairfieldLife] Spiritual bookstores as a metaphor for spiritual forums
We live in a world in which many of the conflicts around us are based (IMO) on ideas, and on *how* those ideas are communicated to others. Some on this planet clearly feel that their ideas are so right that they have the duty to convince others of their rightness. Think religious fanatics who actively attempt to convert others to their beliefs. Think those who believe that their particular beliefs or form of meditation or prayer or worship should be mandated, made into a law, and imposed on everyone for their own good. Think even those who seem compelled to react to any idea that is in conflict with their own ideas as an attack, or an excuse for an argument in which they can prove the super- iority of their ideas. Does that seem *respectful* to you? Does that seem like the most effective manner in which one can present one's spiritual ideas to others? It doesn't to me. There is a metaphor that, for me, presents a somewhat cooler way of presenting one's ideas to others -- just *present* them and then see whether anyone has an interest in them. If so, and the other person asks to hear more, explain more. If not, cool. The ideas have been presented, made available. A teacher I used to work with never used the hard sell in his public talks. He never sug- gested in those talks that he or his ideas were better than any other teacher or any other teachers' ideas. He just presented his take on things, explained it as best he could, and then said, Good night. Thank you for coming. There was never even anything said about studying with him further. There was not even anything said about whether that possibility existed, or how someone who'd attended the public talk would go about it if they *wanted* to study with him further. And yet a great number of people did just that. Now in this case the teacher changed his approach later in his life, and started making claims about being better than others. But I think he was onto something during this earlier period of his teaching. When asked about his approach at that time, he used the metaphor of spiritual bookstores. You walk into one and you're surrounded by ideas. They're in each of the books around you, presented as best they could be by the holders of those ideas. You pick up a book, browse through it, and you're exposed to the writer's ideas. And you either resonate with those ideas or you don't. If you don't, plop! there goes the book back on the shelf. If you do, you might buy it and take it home and read it. The fact that you read it doesn't mean that you'll believe all the ideas in the book and sign up as an ardent supporter of those ideas because you read the book. All it means is that you were open enough to expose yourself to the ideas. And, from the other side, the writer is not really *pushing* those ideas on you, is he? He's just making them available, putting them up on a shelf where they might catch the eye of some seeker who might appreciate them. I always liked this metaphor. When it came time for me to teach classes again in meditation, long after I'd walked away from the TM movement and its style of presentation, I tried to use it as the metaphor for how I presented things. I just laid out what I had to say as best I could, taught the techniques of meditation that I was teaching for free, and then said, Good night. Thank you for coming. I'm rambling, on a rainy day here in France, but I guess that all I really have to say is that this spiritual bookstore metaphor might be a good one to keep in mind on spiritual talk forums such as this one. Everyone here has ideas. Everyone here is a writer. Their posts are their books, the things that contain their ideas. Fairfield Life is just a bookstore, in which these idea-books are displayed on shelves. Isn't writing the idea-books enough? People are either going to resonate with the ideas or they're not. *Whether* they resonate with your ideas or not isn't really going to affect you much one way or another unless you believe it will. If you believe that someone disagreeing with your idea-books dimin- ishes you somehow, and you start arguing for the supremacy of your ideas, in most cases all you do is diminish the ideas themselves, and make it all about *you*, your ego, your small s self. The small s self already had its say, in the first post, in the first idea-book it placed on the shelf. If that didn't strike a resonance with readers, well by all means try, try again, if you feel that the idea has merit. Write another post about the *ideas*. Maybe you'll express the ideas better this time, and more people will find a resonance in them. But when you start arguing for the essential right- ness or the essential correctness or better-ness of your idea-books, you're kinda introducing the concept of the high-pressure used car salesman into an environment in which it doesn't belong. Can you *imagine* how you'd react if you wandered into a spiritual bookstore and some
Re: [FairfieldLife] Spiritual bookstores as a metaphor for spiritual forums
In a message dated 5/31/2007 8:27:06 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: The information is enlightening. It speaks volumes in regards to saying yes to every experience in life. However, it is tough to live up to this in a capitalistic society where you are expected to pay your rent or mortgage on time. If your ideas don't sell then how can you pay your bills. When I worked for Deepak Chorpra I saw his own struggle with this. He is one of the best at selling ideas to the public that make book sales improve in order to keep his contract with his publishers and a working relationship with his agent. We have built a financial world around us which doesn't allow for spiritual development because we depend so much on others buying our ideas. We become educated in order to be better idea people so we can have financial freedom at the cost of not surrendering our need for approval or just being in the moment of expression rather than thinking how can I get something out of this for myself (little mind) in order to survive comfortably in a physical world. And we could have the most valuable message for people on how to live a happier life but it could be completely ignored if it doesn't resonate with what is in style because most people don't know how to think from inside of themselves. They follow the crowd. The bottom line is that it is very difficult to live a spiritual life in the mist of structure. Many of us have chosen to be a part of this struggle by incarnating on this planet and leaving behind a much more open minded culture. My memories of being with my culture (Pleiadian) is so ideal most people think that I'm hallucinating when I talk about it. The free exchange of energy that our economy is based is sharing subtle energy in order to expand. No one is left behind and no one is judged by how much more they have since we see everyone as having the same opportunities to have as much as they need without lack of energy and intelligence. I pray that this planet can allow this type of a system to manifest over the next seven years by 2014. It would help everyone to relax more and flow with divine intelligence rather than having to worry all of the time if others will except my ideas because I need to pay the rent or eat today. In other words, even if people don't enjoy your ideas you can still pay the rent and eat. This is every artists dream also along with many souls that have chosen to do spiritual work. Just a few thoughts. Thanks for the information you provided because it resonates with so many people on the spiritual path and you are giving people some profound information that helps them to say-It's OK that I'm not always excepted for my ideas. Ask the people who are famous for there ideas and you find out that they can have anything they want materially but their is a price to pay spiritually for selling out on your ideas to please your audience. And most of the pleasing is to keep a few wealthy families rich who don't care if your come down with aids or cancer and have nothing left to pay your mortgage with. They will foreclose your home and take the rest of you with them. But, in galactic cultures we will love you even more if your in trouble and provide love and joy to the experience so no one is seperated from the collective idea of inspiring on the basis of giving. There are no ideas to sell in the higer dimensions. Just love to give without needing to own anything or anyone. Lsoma. We live in a world in which many of the conflicts around us are based (IMO) on ideas, and on *how* those ideas are communicated to others. Some on this planet clearly feel that their ideas are so right that they have the duty to convince others of their rightness. Think religious fanatics who actively attempt to convert others to their beliefs. Think those who believe that their particular beliefs or form of meditation or prayer or worship should be mandated, made into a law, and imposed on everyone for their own good. Think even those who seem compelled to react to any idea that is in conflict with their own ideas as an attack, or an excuse for an argument in which they can prove the super- iority of their ideas. Does that seem *respectful* to you? Does that seem like the most effective manner in which one can present one's spiritual ideas to others? It doesn't to me. There is a metaphor that, for me, presents a somewhat cooler way of presenting one's ideas to others -- just *present* them and then see whether anyone has an interest in them. If so, and the other person asks to hear more, explain more. If not, cool. The ideas have been presented, made available. A teacher I used to work with never used the hard sell in his public talks. He never sug- gested in those talks that he or his ideas were better than any other teacher or any other
