Driving….

I’ve had an epiphany… and this one centres around the way I drive my car. I know I shouldn’t be driving, but unfortunately my job and my life require the odd trip in what my mother refers to as the “gear shifting junker”, or something to that effect. Those of you who know me and have driven with me can attest that I love to drive, and the old ’88 lude still handles and performs as well as almost any other (poor man’s) sports car on the road. But I think this driving attitude has come to an end. No longer am I going to 1) waste gas 2) harm the environment 3) get stressed out – by driving fast… i’ve decided to slow right down, and in doing so i kinda hope to slow down other people too… maybe it’ll make them appreciate the scenery, or perhaps focus on the song that’s playing on the radio, or get them to relax a little more… or at least save money on gas.

I think it’s more rebellious to drive slow now than it is to drive fast…. if we’re gonna slow the machine down a little, why not start on the road?!

Aldous Huxley

Aldous Huxley is an intellect of the highest order… I thought I’d re-read some “Doors of Perception” after watching the huxley interview posted. Here’s an excerpt from that book:

“The sum of evil, Pascal remarked, would be much diminished if men could only learn to sit quietly in their rooms. The contemplative whose perception has been cleansed does not have to stay in his room. He can go about his business, so completely satisfied to see and be a part of the divine Order of Things that he will never even be tempted to indulge in what Traherne called “the dirty Devices of the world.” When we feel ourselves to be sole heirs of the universe, when “the sea flows in our veins… and the stars are our jewels,” when all things are perceived as infinite and holy, what motive can we have for covetousness or self-assertation, for the pursuit of power or the drearier forms of pleasure? Contemplatives are not likely to become gamblers, or procurers, or drunkards; they do not as a rule preach intolerance, or make war; do not find it necessary to rob, swindle or grind the faces of the poor… The arhat and the quietist may not practice contemplation in its fullness; but if they practice it at all, they may bring back enlightening reports of another, a transcendent country of the mind; and if they practice it in height, they will become conduits through which some beneficent influence can flow out of that other country into a world of darkened selves, chronically dying for lack of it”. (The Doors of Perception, p.44)

The 9 phases of interspirituality as explained by wayne teasdale

A universal spirituality is eminently practical in nine ways and, through these ways, becomes immensely transformative of the individual, the community, and the world. Interspirituality finds these nine elements in the mature expressions of spirituality in every tradition – that is, in their saints or mystics. These include 1. an actualized moral capacity; 2. a sense of solidarity and interdependence with all beings; 3. deep nonviolence; 4. humility of heart; 5. a spiritual practice; 6. mature self-knowledge; 7. simplicity of life; 8. love in action, or compassionate service; and 9. prophetic voice, or witness, and action.