No need to repeat yourself, we understand your viewpoint.
Spirituality and the Arts
- Thread starter Leveller
- Start date
No wil, be fair. I don't see this as repetition, spirituality and poetry are different (I think?).
I am interested in @Aupmanyav 's ideas of a godless spirituality. The Buddhist part of me relates to it. My agnostic part is always seeking new ideas.
I agree with the man, I would like to see comments which increase interfaith discussion and not shut it down. This atheist leaning agnostic (don't believe but don't know) has similar well known viewpoints. But appreciate hearing others
I also agree with that, as I posted I am trying to dissuade from one sentence answers indicating disbelief in G!d and would like to see more of what he does believe
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Aupmanyav
Search, be your own guru.
Aupmanyav also is half-Buddhist, half Hindu, and considers Buddha as one of his gurus.. Buddha was not agnostic. He just did not want to discuss things which do not benefit men in any way. Hindus too generally are not agnostic. Most say yes, a few say no.
Senior members know my views. I subscribe to non-duality, and do not make 'what exists' into a God.
Which means what? Atheist or Believer?
Please do not use divisive phrases like this. I did not join the forum to serve an apprenticeship. I would expect the same responses regardless of my membership time.
Bozwell
Just a pilgrim
Hello Leveller, having just finished some very demanding but extremely uplifting material from one of my most favourite internet
contributors, I began searching for someone or somewhere to share it.
For want of a better title, It is about Natural Religion.
As I have absolutely nobody I know to do this with, I searched this Forum, to find a relevant? area to try.
Your post was the closest I could find, so here goes:
The Newsletter is "The Marginalia" by Maria Popova, whom I have subscribed to and respected for some years.
Please don't think I am trying to be "Intellectual", as this is hard work for me, and I need it, as I cannot get 'satisfaction' any other way.
Link:
A Responsibility to Wonder: Pioneering Neuroscientist Charles Scott Sherrington on the Spirituality of Nature
“We have, because human, an inalienable prerogative of responsibility which we cannot devolve…not… even upon the stars. We can share it only with each other.”
www.themarginalian.org
I have also attached PDF copy of the full article.
Please respond regarding appropriateness.
Cheers, from another in "old Age"
A Responsibility to Wonder: Pioneering Neuroscientist Charles Scott Sherrington on the Spirituality of Nature
“We have, because human, an inalienable prerogative of responsibility which we cannot devolve…not… even upon the stars. We can share it only with each other.”
By Maria Popova
To be fully awake to life is a matter of ceaselessly digging for that “submerged sunrise of wonder” — a matter of living, in the astronomer-poet Rebecca Elson’s immortal words, with “a responsibility to awe.” Out of that responsibility arises a kind of quietly rapturous spirituality — a way of moving through the world wonder-smitten by reality.
The great English neurophysiologist Charles Scott Sherrington(November 27, 1857–March 4, 1952), laureate of the 1932 Nobel Prize for his groundbreaking discoveries of the function of neurons, termed this orientation “Natural Religion” and explored its rewards in his 1937 Gifford Lectures, later published as Man on His Nature (public library | public domain) — a book composed in the epoch when every woman was a “man,” yet replete with dazzling universal wisdom on our human experience of being material creatures moving through a cold cosmos as living hearths of consciousness.
Bozwell
Just a pilgrim
Regarding Poetry:
I have not studied, but another of my valued Writers and almost a Spiritual Teacher is Ravi Ravindra,
who uses quotes from insightful Poets such as T.S. Eliot to illustrate certain points.
Also, in the very last paragraph of the PDF I attaches by Maria Popover, she uses a very beautiful description.
"then revisit Rachel Carson, writing the year Sherrington returned his borrowed stardust to the universe"
How's that for writing?
I have not studied, but another of my valued Writers and almost a Spiritual Teacher is Ravi Ravindra,
who uses quotes from insightful Poets such as T.S. Eliot to illustrate certain points.
Also, in the very last paragraph of the PDF I attaches by Maria Popover, she uses a very beautiful description.
"then revisit Rachel Carson, writing the year Sherrington returned his borrowed stardust to the universe"
How's that for writing?
Aupmanyav
Search, be your own guru.
He never expanded on it. Just asked his audience to keep away from contemplation which did not help in making people's life better.
I am sorry. At times my language is a bit blunt. But I have no ill-will against believers. My family and my community are totally theistic. I am just an aberration.
Hello @Bozwell Sorry for my late response. I have not been around much and your post got missed. Quite a bit of stuff here so I will take some time over it.
Thanks for introducing Rebecca Elson. A poet and an astronomer, what a wonderful combination. I can't think of anyone better qualified to write of "awe". How tragic that she died young.
Thanks for introducing Rebecca Elson. A poet and an astronomer, what a wonderful combination. I can't think of anyone better qualified to write of "awe". How tragic that she died young.
Bozwell
Just a pilgrim
Thanks, @Leveller, glad to know your response.
I am also only looking in on the Forum from time to time, due to "other
stuff".
Some of the thoughts and ideas expressed are within my area of interest,
which I will keep rather vague, as I have a tendency to go on and on and
'overshare', which is a trait I am trying to limit.
I am also only looking in on the Forum from time to time, due to "other
stuff".
Some of the thoughts and ideas expressed are within my area of interest,
which I will keep rather vague, as I have a tendency to go on and on and
'overshare', which is a trait I am trying to limit.
Hi @Bozwell – missed this before, but thanks for the link!
How about giving it a go, and we'll give you a nudge when we think you're over-sharing?
Motion seconded.How about giving it a go, and we'll give you a nudge when we think you're over-sharing?
To me it matters our focus...if we are mathematical that is our language...if we are poets...if we are artists...whatever the medium we swim in is what we feel most comfortable communicating.
If spirituality is in you...it will find its way out by your being.
I agree with that, although I was thinking more of the recipient. For me, nature is often a strong transmitter of spiritual feelings. I have struggled for years to both express this and gain a greater understanding of this. Sadly I am not a painter and am a very poor poet but what I have seen and read by some artists and poets is the nearest I have got.
There are, as you point out, various ways. I do not accept that they are all equal. That is why I believe that the arts do have an edge in this matter. That I believe is why many 'spiritual' people, who have expertise and talent in various fields, including the sciences, resort to poetry when referring to spiritual matters.
I have found that many prayers are in fact poetry.
And many poems, prayers...
Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing
and rightdoing there is a field.
I'll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass
the world is too full to talk about.
Rumi
I contend (or pretend?) that the space Rumi refers is that bliss I speak of...where there is just knowing...no words, no art, no music...AND all thought, all words, all art, all music...allness, oneness.
Bozwell
Just a pilgrim
Thanks Leveller and Thomas.
I feel as if I do not have much if anything of original thought to contribute.
However, I do like to share some of the best of contributions of others.
Maria Popova is one of these.
I have subscribed to her "The Marginalian" for some years.
The material I share describes much better where I find Inspiration and
solace.
The following is somehow comforting for me in my advanced years.
Link:
The Transcendent Brain: The Poetic Physicist Alan Lightman on Spirituality for the Science-Spirited
A largehearted invitation to “stand on the precipice between the known and the unknown, without fear, without anxiety, but instead with awe and wonder at this strange and beautiful cosmos we …
www.themarginalian.org
Attached article: (Quite long)
Thank you Bozwell. There is some excellent stuff here. I am already quite impressed with Maria Popova.
Bozwell
Just a pilgrim
Maria Popova is certainly impressive, Leveller.
I discovered her and one other, ( Michael Sacasas) some years ago when I was despairing of the rubbish I was encountering on most
so-called social forums I visited.
I consider these two, “Islands of Sanity, and Honesty”, as refuge from the dross.
Michael Sacasas has a Substack presence called “The Convivial Society” a newsletter on technology and culture.
he is a refreshing read, miles above me, in many cases, but ‘stretches’ me and makes me think.
I will no doubt reference him in future posts.
I also noted your starting post on this thread relating to poetry, Walt Whitman was the first Poet I came across in relation to Spirituality,
Referenced by R.M Bucke in “Cosmic Consciousness”, Published at the turn of 1899/1900 app.
I read it 50 years ago.
That book was one of the most concrete steps on my spiritual journey.
I would like, also to mention T.S. Eliot, especially in reference to Eternity, will do so another time.
I discovered her and one other, ( Michael Sacasas) some years ago when I was despairing of the rubbish I was encountering on most
so-called social forums I visited.
I consider these two, “Islands of Sanity, and Honesty”, as refuge from the dross.
Michael Sacasas has a Substack presence called “The Convivial Society” a newsletter on technology and culture.
he is a refreshing read, miles above me, in many cases, but ‘stretches’ me and makes me think.
I will no doubt reference him in future posts.
I also noted your starting post on this thread relating to poetry, Walt Whitman was the first Poet I came across in relation to Spirituality,
Referenced by R.M Bucke in “Cosmic Consciousness”, Published at the turn of 1899/1900 app.
I read it 50 years ago.
That book was one of the most concrete steps on my spiritual journey.
I would like, also to mention T.S. Eliot, especially in reference to Eternity, will do so another time.