I’ve been doing some reading and I think I can relate the eastern religions’ concept of bodily transcendence to one who is fighting a larger cause. You lose who you are at a superficial level, you disregard stress and bodily afflictions. You disregard seemingly selfish personal needs – be they sleep, food or personal relationships. Isn’t that the equation for success? You need to think about the bigger picture as opposed to an ego-centric one, right? Do we sell ourselves for a cause? I’ve met people who plan their daily, as well as extended lives based on an overarching humanitarian goal – do we need more of that to collectively bring us down and off of this independence/dog-eat-dog horse many of us are on? Or is this a temporary process; forsake it all to reap the benefits later on in life? The benefits in the case of the pursuit I’m referring to would be different than those of a Hindu ascetic, for example.
Let’s assume it is temporary and all a part of the process – when does it stop, and can you reintegrate at that point? What does reintegrate even mean? Watching mind-numbing episodes of Gossip Girl and indulging in mass consumerism? Or is there a “point of no return”? Can one achieve a true balance or are these people society’s martyrs?
You are asking some very complex questions, good questions. Many have tackled these questions, from all disciplines, spawning gazillions of theories. However many plausible theories exist, public policy seems to be deaf to the relationship between human consciousness and human rights. There is a profound, systemic organization at work here...
ReplyDeleteBut let me just share one exchange I can never forget: a very religious Christian woman and I (a very secular Jew), were discussing how much of the world's population suffers. I expressed my feelings of responsibility and that I felt the inequities/injustices, often very powerlessly & confused about what to do.
The very religious Christian woman had it all figured out, though. "They suffer so that we don't have to," she said.
Immediately I wondered if this was a product of the Christian idea that Jesus died for the sins of those who believe he is their saviour. I don't know.
Thanks for the comment. The questions come from seeing some people very close to me "suffering" for a greater cause. I, too struggle with the idea as I do more and more community work and ponder my next big step.
ReplyDeleteInteresting you bring religious ideology into this, I wrote a post about something similar a few months ago: http://nailas-infinite-abyss.blogspot.com/2011/05/sometimes-bad-things-happen-to-good.html