Spirituality Beyond Cultural Conditioning

I am not sure about poor people doing meditation unless its makes them part of some community they want to be.

Yes earning livelihood through painting hoardings or ancestral sculpting, is very much part of basic safety needs. Its work for them!

My mother’s cousin who ran away from home and grew up in some Ashram at Allahabad, that’s also safety need for survival.

And its rare when person does what actualizes him as his work! Those are the lucky ones, and they present all over the globe.

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs has loop holes, and further behavioral models have been proposed. But it sure suffices most of time.

Sorry Vinod, I disagree. And the way some people who live in the west not only don’t practice spirituality (which is their own choice and not my problem) but try to convince everybody else you must be spoilt or mad or stupid to practice art/spirituality, annoys me no end. I’m not saying this for you, I have many friends who say this.

Just watch simple women doing kolams in the streets every morning, it’s a pure selfless act of creativity/spirituality/gift back to nature.

Some other psychological theories suggest if you are not being creative somewhere in your life then you must be somewhat ill (like the vast majority of humans). If psychology is tying you up then the theory must be wrong and should be changed IMO

If you ask me there is not much difference across societies, be it west or east, depending on the stage of their evolution.

Growing up, one could see that polarization in the class room. There would be one group who would wear vibuthee on their forehead. Some considered that being fashionable, especially to get favorable impression from teacher and would wear talcum powder as vibuthee as it would easily get wiped.

Then there would be a group, who would be aping the film stars, do punk and do things that according to them is being fashionable.

In west, I have seen the same polarization. A church going group as against a non church going group.

A man makes statement by affiliating to a group about himself, and most of things that you have mentioned is more of a ritual or perception management about self.

I agree, its heavenly to walk early morning, when your see women sprinkling their courtyard, making kollams. The sounds of Subh Prabtham or kandar Shasthi in the background and the air permeated with aroma of coffee.

But kollams are made out of an habitual ritual! I have seen women cribbing about doing this every morning, and they have to do it for the perception management. The woman in the household makes a statement by doing it. It would be a wonderful spiritual experience if done properly. Earlier days, kollams were made of rice powder and ants were supposed to eat it. But now they use chemicals which would kill ants!

The way Indian society has evolved is totally different from how west has evolved. The underlying rule for happiness has been defined differently in both societies affected by the dominant religions practiced by them.

Indian doctrine is that contentment is happiness. Its a state of primarily mind. Thus it preaches control of senses.

Western doctrine is that wealth gives happiness. Its more of a body driven state. Thus it favors pleasure of senses.

Indian society was primarily agrarian economy based society, and surplus was created by consuming less. That has been the guiding force behind Indian philosophy.

Western society has undergone paradigm shift, and its philosophy is primarily guided by Industrial economy. You need to consume more to get greater scale of manufacturing, which also reduces your cost of manufacturing and procurement.

I would not mind an Indian practicing rituals, meditating and spiritually focused, if he is not corrupted by jealousy and the competition with others for resources. The woman who makes kollam and does the morning spiritual routine should not fight with her husband for a bigger color TV because the neighbor has it!

Similarly, if a westerner is happy by all the high materialistic consumption life, there is no issue at all. Why should he feel decadent and sinful after all the consumption?

The point is that there is no fixed route for pursuit of happiness. I would go by Budha’s middle path, a blend of materialism and spirituality.

@ Tamasha

Kolams are thought to bestow prosperity to homes. Every morning in Tamil Nadu, millions of women draw kolams on the ground with white rice powder. Through the day, the drawings get walked on, rained out, or blown around in the wind; new ones are made the next day. Every morning before sunrise, the floor of the owners house, or where ever it may be, is cleaned with water and the muddy floor is swept well for an even surface. The kolams are generally drawn while the surface is still damp so that it is held better. Occasionally, cow-dung is also used to wax the floors. In some cultures, cow dung is believed to have antiseptic properties and hence provides a literal threshold of protection for the home. It also provides contrast with the white powder.

Decoration was not the sole purpose of a Kolam. In olden days, kolams used to be drawn in coarse rice flour, so that the ants don’t have to walk that much for too long for a meal. The rice powder is said to invite birds and other small critters to eat it, thus inviting other beings into one’s home and everyday life: a daily tribute to harmonious co-existence. It is a sign of invitation to welcome all into the home, not the least of whom is Goddess Lakshmi, the Goddess of prosperity. The patterns range between geometric and mathematical line drawings around a matrix of dots to free form art work and closed shapes. Folklore has evolved to mandate that the lines must be completed so as to symbolically prevent evil spirits from entering the inside of the shapes, and thus are they prevented from entering the inside of the home.

3×3 dot all and only symmetry 9 Goddesses Swastika Kolam with a single cycle by Nagata S, each of which is corresponded to one of the nine Davi of the Hindu or the nine Muses in Greek
It used to be a matter of pride to be able to draw large complicated patterns without lifting the hand off the floor standing up in between. Powdered white stone (வெங்கசங்கள் பொடி / மொக்குமாவு) was used for Kolam. The month of Margazhi was eagerly awaited by young women, who would then showcase their skills by covering the entire width of the road with one big kolam.

@ Tamasha

I agree, that’s why I prefer to call it a ritual with religious inclinations, not a spiritual endeavor.

Folks do confuse Religious rituals with spiritual processes.

But for the ones who love to package Hinduism is nothing more than “Caste and curry”, they would then have to strip “The Surya namaskaram” from Yoga and call it “exercise” and “Kollum” is a bit of art class in the morning.

Er… coming back to Maslow vs kolams… my point was that for Maslow first you eat and make sure you are secure (well-off ?) and only then would you give time to creation/spirituality.

IMO creativity is a celebration of the dance of life, so it’s a form of spirituality. In temple the other night I had a brainwawe watching the priest arrange flowers for the deity and clean the space after ritual. The priest was all to his work and it was a pleasure to watch his delight. “That’s IT, that’s IT !!!”, I kept thinking. “How did the Hindus figured this out thousand of years ago and we still wear grey suits and live grey lives and keep silent in grey churches ?”

Tamasha, of course making a kolam is spiritual, because it is a beautiful gift to people and animals. IMO it is like the prayers the Muslims write in sand or the Tibetan sand mandalas. IMO spirituality is expressed as much in prayer as in everyday little things.

Then sorry Vinod but to me as one teacher says “meditation is a succession of insults from the ego point of view” and the point is to live everything counsciously, not to pretend you are a perfect being with no greed, no anger and no lust

Manny you are really funny

Sorry Sharell for the long tirade, I got carried away

@ Pad

If you read my earlier comments, then you would see that Maslow hierarchy of needs is just a simplified framework. And one can skips the levels of needs and can up in the higher level of needs. Limitations of Maslow hierarchy of needs are documented and improved behavioral models suggested.

Creativity induced karama or activity can be construed as a spiritual process, as its akin to a meditation, a state where human mind is focused on one object. Similarly an Athlete’s focused activity, where the world fades around him and his focus is only on what he is doing is akin to a meditation and would be construed as karma yoga.

Hinduism is pure sense preached doing focused karama, and imagine what it would translate into. A happy hardworking men creating wealth for the society.

So yes kolam making ritual or activity will give inner peace to a woman based on this analogy, if done with purity of though and not cribbing in the process, not corrupted by feelings like pride and jealousy.

Padparascha-
The Tibetan sand mandalas are a meditation on impermanence (a central teaching of Buddhism) which is why they are ultimately swept up & placed into a running body of water. This promotes ‘inner development’.
If Kollams are done as a gift to people & animals and/or in the hopes of gaining divine favor and/or in the hopes of deterring ‘evil spirits’- how does that promote ‘inner development’?

Religious ritual -
1) A man sitting in the sunday mass, not listening to any word spoken by the bishop and lost in his thoughts.
2) Babble of temple goers chattering and gossiping on the temple premises, and few cooking sweet pongal or sacrificed chicken/ goat outside temple premises as the crowd have their picnic!

Spiritual experience -
1) A painter or poet deeply focused and has channeled his thoughts that would eventually result in something creative.
2) A man, like Vivekananda meditating on a rock in middle of an Indian ocean
3) A man sitting on the beach, and enjoying beauty of the nature, the sunset….the waves and contemplating in a singular thought direction.

@ Pad

I know that its not possible for everyone to attain nirvana like Budha. Even he had to take many births and use his collective leanings of many birth to attain Nirvana. That’s the lesson that state of Nirvana or perfect harmony is near impossible.

I am discussing as what constitutes as a process of controlling thoughts vis a vis something that has religious connotation but not necessarily spiritual.

Art is a creative process, and yes it can be spiritual.

kolam making can be spiritual, but not under certain circumstances – examples

when woman is drawing a small kolam, a repetitive one, for which she does not have to extract any focus or creative juices

When woman looks at the neighbor’s kolam and tries to outdo her by drawing something bigger or elaborate.

So the daily ritual of calling for early morning prayers at the local Mosque and the five times a day ritual of Namaz towards Mecca is not Spiritual.

Neither is the ritual part of going to Church on Sunday mornings.

The Catholic priests ritual of baptising a child nor any of those rituals are spiritual.

Me sitting on the beach, and enjoying beauty of the nature, the sunset….the waves and contemplating in a singular thought direction of that girl in a Bikini…

Now that is spiritual!

Regarding the nature of spirituality, I found this article saying that according to recent scientific studies practices of compassion such as tonglen seem to activate the area of the brain associated with reward :
http://www.sfgate.com/health/article/Stanford-studies-monks-meditation-compassion-3689748.php#page-1