Tuesday, 18 December 2012

What to worship continued......

There is no such thing as not worshipping.
Everybody worships.
The only choice we get is WHAT to worship.
"And an outstanding reason for choosing some sort of god or spiritual-type thing to worship---be it J.C. or Allah, be it Yahweh or the Wiccan mother-goddess or the Four noble Truths or some infrangible set of ethical principles---is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive."
"If you worship money and things---if they are where you tap real meaning in life---then you will never have enough."
"Never feel you have enough."
"It's the truth."
"Worship your own body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly, and when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally plant you."
"Worship power---you will feel weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to keep the fear at bay."
"Worship your intellect, being seen as smart---you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out."
And so on.

These forms of worship are unconscious. David Foster Wallace calls these default settings. We slip into them and they feel real.
To be free of it all, we need to be attentive and aware. We need to put some effort into looking at what we worship. And be free.

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