04.04.08
Wealth and poverty: sufi style
SK comments on spiritual poverty
…is only poverty and hunger spiritual? BAH! that is old paradigm nonsense. let’s pray for enlightened people with lots of MONEY. why not? i don’t see the problem. i would imagine that dl and other enlightened bodhisattvas with a lot of cash, are probably pretty philanthropic with it? no?
After what seemed like a trumpeting of ’spiritual poverty’ in my post, SK raises a significant issue. Actually the experience I described, despite my secondary take about ‘meditation retreats’, which was meant as a descant on the original theme, wasn’t intended as a depiction of a spiritual path. It was merely a description in disguise of the American economy and the way one can observe it. The path of the fakirs is an ancient one, and the indirect plugging of spiritual poverty in antiquity is clear from both Buddhism and Christianity.
But SK raises a valid issue, and sounds like Rajneesh who tried to criticize that tradition and initiated an new approach to an old question. We see it reflected in the New India as it industrializes. All well and good.
And I should warn those self-styled fakirs that poverty has a marxist dimension in an Islamic culture where certain sufis were disguised exploiters and passed away into the realm of ’spiritual riches’ as they became a hidden establishment veiled from ordinary seekers.
You can see the effect in Idries Shah who is really part of a group that has only contempt for ordinary seekers and creates a kind of ‘haut bourgeoisie’ of exploitative sufis elites, a point to consider when the charade of ’sheiks’ and ‘fakirs’ gets underway. I can’t resolve the issue, except to warn that the ’spiritually rich’ will outsmart themselves and end up in the pits of Dubai as high-priced spiritual whores.
Part of my warning about ’sufi hyenas’.
But, in any case, SK, you point is valid.