Zorba the Buddha. The ultimate “Yes, and…”
Quick context: Zorba the Greek was a fictional character fully engaged in living an all-out sensual life while, of course, the Buddha reached a state of enlightened consciousness. “Zorba is blind—he cannot see, but he can dance, he can sing, he can rejoice. The Buddha can see, but he can only see. He is pure eyes, just clarity and perception—but he cannot dance. He is crippled, he cannot sing, he cannot rejoice.”
As Osho says: “It is the synthesis of matter and soul. It is a declaration that there is no conflict between matter and consciousness, that we can be rich on both sides. We have everything that the world can provide, everything that science and technology can produce, and we can still have everything that a Buddha, a Kabir, a Nanak finds in his inner being—the flowers of ecstasy, the fragrance of godliness, the wings of ultimate freedom.”
How about you? You have a big ol’ split between your spiritual side and your materialist side? Me, too, at times. (But I’m a Gemini so I at least have an excuse! Hehe. :)
Seriously, though. “This ‘Either/or” stuff is the greatest threat to our well-being and Osho *goes off* on how religions have deliberately created the split and thereby destroyed our essence. We’ll save that for another conversation. :)
Check out my Notes on Ken Wilber for some more mojo on the whole “Yes, and” and “transcend and include” business. And check in to your own life: How are you split? Do you have the story that you can either be spiritual OR wealthy? Into serving the world OR making money? Sensual OR spiritual? We’ve gotta pay attention to the either/or’s…
Maslow (see Notes) talks about the fact that in the healthiest among us, this apparent dichotomy dissolves. He says this about his “self-actualizers”: “Our subjects are simultaneously both very spiritual and very pagan and sensual even to the point where sexuality becomes a path to the spiritual and ‘religious.’” … “Duty cannot be contrasted with pleasure nor work with play when duty is pleasure, when work is play, and people doing their duty are simultaneously seeking pleasure and being happy.” And he concludes with: “If the most socially identified people are themselves the most individualistic people, of what use is it to retain the polarity? If the most mature are also the most childlike? And if the most ethical and moral people are also the lustiest and most animal?”
So, get your Zorba the Buddha on, will ya? :)
(And, if you ever make it out to Osho’s “Meditation Resort” in Pune, India, you’ll get a chance to dine at the “Zorba the Buddha” pool-side restaurant while you watch all the maroon bathing suit-clad peeps cruising around. :)