Guy Farley-Modigliani Suite (Piano Version)
What is spirituality?
Nothing is more sickening than the "spiritual" whine--
They
have soured the mother's milk. They have insisted that
joy is crime—that beauty is a bait with which the Devil
captures the souls of men—that laughter leads to sin — that
pleasure,in its every form,degrades.They have
tried to compel men to love shadows rather than woman—
phantoms rather than people.
It may be well enough to ask: What is it to be really
spiritual?
Spirituality is all of this world.It is a child of this
earth.it makes
a heaven where it is.
Spirituality is the perfect health of the soul. It is noble,
generous,brave,free-spoken,natural,superb.
Robert Ingersoll
the
pretence that crawls at first and talks about humility and then
suddenly becomes arrogant and says:"I am 'spiritual.' I hold in
contempt the vulgar joys of this life.You work and toil and build
homes and sing songs...You subdue the earth and dig for
gold,You have your theaters,your operas and all the luxuries of
life;but I,beggar that I am,Pharisee that I am,am your superior
because I am 'spiritual.'"
"Spirituality" for the most part is a mask worn by idleness,
arrogance and greed.
Some people imagine that they are "spiritual" when they are
sickly.
It has been repeated over and over for several hundred years
by pious pretenders and snivelers as though it belonged exclusively
to them.
The spiritual man lives to his ideal.He endeavors to make
others happy.He does not despise the passions that have filled the
world with art and glory.He loves his wife and children -- home
and fireside.He cultivates the amenities and refinements of life.
He is the friend and champion of the oppressed.His sympathies are
with the poor and the suffering.He attacks what he believes to be
wrong,though defended by the many,and he is willing to stand for
the right against the world.He enjoys the beautiful.
In the
presence of the highest creations of Art his eyes are suffused with
tears.When he listens to the great melodies,the divine harmonies,
he feels the sorrows and the raptures of death and love.
He is intensely human.He carries in his heart the burdens of the world.
He searches for the deeper meanings.He appreciates the harmonies
of conduct,the melody of a perfect life.
He tries to discharge the duties of this life,to help those that
he can reach.He believes in being useful -- in making money to
feed and clothe and educate the ones he loves -- to assist
the deserving and to support himself.He does not wish to be a burden
on others.He is just, generous and sincere.
The spiritually-minded man is a poet.If he does not write
poetry,he lives it.He is an artist.If he does not paint pictures
or chisel statues,he feels them, and their beauty softens his
heart.He fills the temple of his soul with all that is beautiful,
and he worships at the shrine of the Ideal.
In all the relations of life he is faithful and true.He asks
for nothing that he does not earn.He does not wish to be happy in
heaven if he must receive happiness as alms.He does not rely on
the goodness of another.He is not ambitious to become a winged
pauper.
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