Having rapped once this morning about the concept so often pushed out by
TM and TMers of it/them being "The Best," I thought I'd balance things
somewhat and rap about another concept. As much as I may appreciate
people whose aspiration -- like Olympic athletes -- is to become The
Best at something, I'm personally just not drawn that way.
In both spiritual pursuits and more mundane ones, I'm more attracted to
folks who have learned the quiet joys of being ordinary.
I just did an Amazon "Look inside this book" search of Maharishi's "The
Science of Being and Art of Living," looking for instances of a word. I
got zero results. None. Nada. Bupkus. This doesn't surprise me, because
in the many years I studied with him, I can't recall him having ever
used the word in any talk or lecture.
But if you think about it, that *should* be a bit surprising, because
this word is the *basis* of many other spiritual teachings and
traditions. They give whole talks devoted to this word and concept. They
write whole books about it. Much of their daily practice is devoted to
achieving it.
The word is "humility."
The dictionary defines humility as "The quality or state of being
humble." Looking up humble, it is defined as "Not proud or haughty;
reflecting or expressing a spirit of deference." The Dalai Lama, in one
of his talks on this subject, has said, "Any sense of conceit or
self-importance gets in the way of cultivating the genuine altruistic
intention, and the most effective remedy against this is the cultivation
of humility."
Isn't it interesting that the quality that Buddhism considers one of the
noblest and most altruistic intents one could have, so much so that it's
considered a "remedy" for its opposite, self importance, is something
that Maharishi Mahesh Yogi didn't even feel was worth mentioning?
Different strokes for different folks, eh?
Anyway, I'm a big fan of humility, in the sense of realizing one's
ordinariness and *lack* of self importance. This, to me, is a portal
that leads to the ability to better empathize with one's fellow human
beings. And that, of course, leads to the ability to be more of service
to them.
There are a few folks here on Fairfield Life who I think -- based on the
things they write -- "get" humility. You see it in the way they describe
the "people on the street" they interact with (think Curtis and Marek)
and you see it in the things they aspire to or fail to aspire to (think
Xeno and some others, who have given up the one-pointed pursuit of
enlightenment in favor of the pursuit of just living a fun or meaningful
life).
Then there are others, who *don't* seem content with being ordinary.
We've been told here that the "highest goal in life" is to aspire to
becoming enlightened. Or to create world peace by being so important
that the very thud of your buttocks on slabs of foam creates world
peace. Call me crazy, but I don't see a lot of humility in these
aspirations.
I also don't see a lot of happiness and fulfillment in the people who
pursue them.
It's as if they're never satisfied. There's this carrot dangling
somewhere on the end of a stick in front of them, and they won't allow
themselves to be truly happy until they've grabbed it. Sounds like a
dumb way to live one's life to me.
Some people need big, enormous, ostentatious and above all IMPORTANT
goals in life. Enlightenment. World peace. I like people who have more
humble goals, like just trying to be as happy as they can in their daily
lives, and trying to do as much as they can to help the people they
personally interact with every day to be a little happier themselves.
Those goals sound just fine to me; I don't see why anyone would need
loftier ones.
But then I have listened to a lot of songs by Bruce Cockburn, a guy who
"gets" humility, too. His lyrics and his way of looking at things may
have warped me. When he sings verses like the following, I get the
feeling he's actually onto something:
To be one more voice in the human choir
Rising like smoke from the mystical fire
Of the heart
Not "the" voice. Not even the lead singer. Just one more voice. Now
that's humble.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVfssmB4ok0
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVfssmB4ok0>
