Sedum with Water Droplets Listening to: Love this enough to put up a single photo video.
Bliss: I resisted but Twitter is actually super fun! And it's not eating my time, as I feared it would. It is a lot like Facebook on speed and I like that about it.
I recently watched a Joseph Campbell DVD that was new to me, and it contained some interesting lectures on Kundalini yoga, besides some things on Buddhism.
Campbell believed that Kundalini yoga was the most advanced and sophisticated yoga tradition, being a late one that had the time to develop. He thought that, in particular, the theory behind the chakra system was a complete metaphor for self actualization.
I agree.
During his talk, he said something that caught my attention enough that I made notes, and I've been thinking about and looking at that piece of paper ever since.
He said (and I am paraphrasing): Do not get rid of your vice but make it work for your illumination rather than your degradation. Turn it around on yourself and transform it into your best virtue.
Wow. Otherwise, the solution is already present in the problem.
More about vices in a moment, but first, the question that immediately comes to mind: How, through what device, do we transform our vice into a virtue?
This is where religions and spiritual traditions are supposed to come in.
Religion is not meant to be a fortress at which we arrive and feel safe and protected.
Religion is meant to be a map, but too many people mistake this map for the actual territory.
The actual territory is your specific experience within the context of the Infinite.
Religions should be maps guiding you from the small to the large, from the specific to the more general, from the You to the All, from what appears to be concrete and fixed to your essence which is anything but.
Keeping that in mind, religion and spiritual traditions are the tools by which Campbell would assert you can turn your vice into virtue.
But what of this vice?
Are you a very stubborn person? The virtue of that, if turned around, is that you are tenacious. You stick with things. You can use that to become illuminated, to use Campbell's term.
Are you overly attached to specific people? Turning it around, you can become a Buddha of compassion.
You're getting the idea.
Before he even got to this, I knew what my vice was. I've been coming to terms with it just since turning 40. I never really knew this about myself and it has been shocking to discover its depths.
I am vain. There, I said it. I am vain about my physical self. I never wore make-up, for example, thinking this proved me not vain, but that is really it's own special kind of vanity. (Don't worry; I am learning to laugh at myself about this.)
Campbell gave me hope. He said that someone who has pride in their physical beauty "simply" needs to turn that inward and have pride in their spiritual beauty. Which I already thought I had, but upon examination, I did not.
So now, thanks to Campbell, I am taking my spiritual seeking and learning that much more seriously. Delving deeper. Paying more attention to what calls to me. Giving it more of my time.
Turing my vice into my virtue.
What about you?
This week Mister Linky or just leave a comment about your biggest vice and what you think it's virtuous self would be and how you could get there from here.
16 comments:
my biggest vice is whatever it is that Im pointing out to another (even, or especially that I may be doing it silently to myself)
"boy, THAT person is really closed minded"
that is ME, being closed minded...
"man, THAT person is quick to judge, arent they?!"
that is ME being quick to judge...
"why is everyone so SLOW today?"
that is ME, being REALLY slow to grasp...
"no, YOU are missing the point!"
that is ME, missing the point!
this is that "relationship is a mirror" thing- and after a while, it gets really easy to see that there is no "out there" worth pointing out!
everything gets done- food is prepared and consumed, shelter is sought and found, people are met and loved or at least accepted... everything is just as it is...
my "vice" then, is whatever delay occurs in the seeing of this- it used to be years, then months, then days- now, it can be minutes, seconds, or micro seconds that it takes to see that its REALLY not about the other- its ME that is still "grasping after"... understanding this, the vice becomes believing myself to be separate from the other at all! A simple thing, not easy (in fact, impossible) to overcome... that which would want to overcome it, is again thinking that it is separate! - and so this, I think, is what Campbell was getting at... the "turn around" that you are highlighting here... the vice becoming the strength is the me seeing what is not me, what is not true-- the real truth of that!
this seems to be the most sacred of work... staying with what is false, and not trying to vanquish it, but to starve it with understanding, compassion...
You're calling to me, Christine and Tom. I am vain, I am stubborn, and I judge.
I have to admit, when I first saw the title, I was thinking, Coffee is SO my vice. haha
I have been working with the judging, but I love this new way to look at these 'vices'!
Happy Thursday,
Jessica
I read your blog first thing - I found myself thinking about it all morning. And you know what - I have to disagree a little.
Not about the transmuting of vices. But your perception that vanity is your vice. I sincerly doubt your vanity is to the extent necessary to be a vice. When women, hey anyone, hits forty there is this process that begins, for the first time the changes of aging become obvious and we realize our body is changing and we don't necessarily like it. And we call this vanity.
And I hate to tell you this but this is just the beginning. Hormone changes don't help us deal with the process either.
My point though is that a normal amount of vanity is A GOOD THING. It means you will take care of your body - if you exercise because you don't like your thighs doesn't mean the rest of your body isn't benefiting. You may buy a few more skin creams in the years to come and decide to have facials and these aren't something to consider a vice. A vice might be taking it the exteme and searching the world and spending tons of money or resorting to plastic surgery to maintain this vain image of yourself. I bet you don't even consider that. You like yourself and care how you look - and maybe don't care for these changes you begin to see and forty - and THAT IS OK.
Accepting this particular "vice" is not just realizing that your body is changing but accepting the changes. It is maybe realizing you are vain, but this means that perhaps you'll take better care of yourself then you might otherwise. Don't get rid of your vanity - just accept how your body is going to change in the coming years - and go ahead take care of how you look.
Because, hate to tell you, but you've only touched to tip of the iceberg at forty. Sorry.
You remember how I responded to the body image post thinking I was being kind to my body image only to realize that I'd really just insulted my body again? This body image thing is really really sneaky. Bet you didn't realize.
Tom, it seems to be especially sacred work in a culture that continually seeks unrealistic perfections in EVERYTHING, don't you think?
Jessica, Oh, hold onto the coffee, too! :)
Rebecca, My vanity, without going into too much detail, is a vice in that, without even being aware until recently, I have gone through life getting a great deal of my self-esteem from how I looked. Further, and sadder, I got a great deal of my self-identification from it. Oye.
So, yes, I agree with lots of your disagreements :) I think it IS good to be healthy, but like I said, for me, it goes way beyond that. I mean, you're talking to someone who has had disordered eating her whole life and is still struggling with that one.
Does this make more sense, Rebecca?
The larger point is the beauty of Campbell's assertion that you can accept and then utilize your vice. I mean, how awesome is that!? :)
I think this is such a true and liberating idea! But I have no idea how to implement it. I cannot see the good flipside of my vices, only the devastating downside.
If you have any guidance or advice on how to flip them, embrace them and utilize them, I would be grateful. Just follow my link.
Ha, I feel like I am copping out on this assignment, yet I love it, I just need a little assistance with this one.
oh this is a great (& challenging) post! i am not surprised it was inspired by joseph campbell and so appreciate how you have offered it to us.
(btw--he was woven into my post of a couple of days ago that resonated with you :-)
namaste.
the comments here are wonderful.
tom--couldn't agree more...that mirroring is powerful stuff! i love the turn it around too and know if i am seeing generosity in another, then it probably resides in me too, etc.
nomad--might i suggest trying a little free form writing...stream of consciousness...that's what seems to work for me. good luck!
Firts I love the photo of Sedum w/ water droplets!
"Religion is not meant to be a fortress at which we arrive and feel safe and protected.
Religion is meant to be a map, but too many people mistake this map for the actual territory."
This is so stunningly beautiful I want to run outside and shout about it!
I love the 'taking our vice and making them a virtue.' Its such a positive way to react to ourselves and our world around us... The vice is only a matter of our preception... We have the power to walk around to the otherside of it and see the virtue!
I'm feeling very inspired. Thank you for sharing your Bliss;-))
I found this a challenge to do ... and felt a tiny bit of unease in myself as I proceeded to write. That's a good sign ... thanks for getting us to dig down deep.
:^)
First, I love the photo!
Second, this is a really interest topic! Did Joseph Campbell define "vice" in this talk? I know definitions for it, but I'm having a hard time figuring out what mine would be. That led me to realize we can mean different things by "vice." What do you think?
Emma, hmmmm...vice...I think he just means a trait or tendency that can be destructive.
Like gluttony simply starts with hunger, which is not bad in and of itself, obviously. Eating, imbibing of all sorts, is necessary to our physical and spiritual survival, but it is when the hunger and the imbibing overtake us, when we become them, when we identify through them.
Does that make any sense at all? :)
Emma, oh, seeing Tom's name made me think -- it's the buddhist concept of attachment that is key to something being a "vice."
Christine,
I'm thinking and talking a lot about this.
In your example of gluttony, what would be a way to turn that around?
I guess when I hear "vice," I largely think "sin." When I think about gluttony, I think - Why are you attached to food in this way? What is food replacing in your life? Etc. I know it's a classic "vice," but I would never personally think of it that way.
I'm interested to hear more of your thoughts! :)
Christine,
yes, attachment is key to "vice"- and when I look inwardly to myself, there really is no confusing this...
for me, consuming alcoholic beverages is not a vice- I simply do not do it... there is no longer an attachment to it- there USED to be, but somewhere along the line, that just went away (from a complete seeing of the falseness of that action in MY life)... so when there was attachment there was "vice"- now there is no attachment... there is no struggle, there is no "should" or "should not" attached to it... I use wine in cooking, and there is a pleasant smell, and the enjoyment ends there, it doesnt go further as it once did... (therapy, and 12 step programs did not "do" this for me- it happened in just this way that Im describing, a DEEP looking at what is ones True nature)
now, procrastination DOES still have an attachment for me... there IS something that rises in me, when I feel Im being "lazy"- this is a problem now, it is a vice...
I see it is a vice, and Im clear about it- because there is an inevitable "should" that rises along with it... "I SHOULD have finished/ started/ not promised/ that task"... "I SHOULD not be so lazy"... "Ive overcome huge obstacles in the past, so I SHOULD not be having a problem with this!"...
the "turn around" is simple: "How do you know that is true?"... "what would it be if that SHOULD was simply not there in that sentence? would the world end? would people come to REAL harm, because you didnt meet their expectations?"
THEN, I really get to see the vice... its expectation itself! "Should" is past and future- and not ever true in this very moment! so I am "projecting" an image onto this moment (no matter how strongly felt, held, believed, or even reasoned logically!) that HAS NO VALIDITY to the truth of this moment... RIGHT NOW, there is not a SINGLE VALID should that can prove itself as true... whatever is TRUE for this moment, is RIGHT NOW, getting done without a SHOULD attached to it...
LOOK, and you will see!
really! there are NO shoulds in this moment- all shoulds are there in the future, and have no validity, no life, no air, no oxegen fuel, to this moment... ONLY in that feeling in the pit of my stomach, that is the ONLY place a should shows up as "real"- but to everything else as it is, there is no validity!
Ive seen this about alcohol, at the heart level- Ive not yet seen this about meeting others expectations at the heart level (the falseness of it I mean)... the "should" can still arise, and that most certainly feeds on itself, to where I "procrastinate" (whatever the hell that is) and end up letting others down... so, I look at it- I see the falseness of it (just like I did the alcohol) and I LET IT fall away on its own- LOVE and COMPASSION must come to this, not another "should" ("you "should" know this by now, after all, YOUR the one who is still doing it") - NO! love and compassion are not a possession that one can use to overcome a should with- love and compassion are the very seeing of the falseness of all of this, and then THEY come to act on this seeing... compassion acts of its own accord- as soon as I think "I must have more compassion so that..." - then Im back in the illusion again... seeing this IS love acting... and THAT is the real turn around!
there is someone on the web that does this sort of thing, I would certainly recommend seeing her speak on video or visiting her site...
Byron Katie, speaks a lot about the "turn around"- and the Inquiry being Love itself...
YouTube vids here
(sorry Christine, I get "carried away" on these responses sometimes- but this is the stuff I "live for"- and the conversation here is alive, I just arrive and this is what comes... bless you for your blog and your insights)
Well, I wrote and wrote and wrote about this and still didn't get at what I was trying to say. Thank you once again for this powerful, thought-provoking post!
Tom, I am just excited that you find the conversation invigorating and thought provoking. Write on!
Emma, Writing to someone else made me think more about this.
First, I think the working on "turning it around" is a virtuous act in and of itself.
Further, I think Campbell would agree with you. Taking gluttony (of all sorts of things, not just food) as the example. He would say that the "turning around" involves figuring out the "why."
I can't just decide that I am no longer vain. I have to figure out and know in my heart WHY and what purpose it has served. Only then will I be able to truly transform that into Pride of Spiritual growth.
I am thinking, too, that perhaps in the turning around, the vice of gluttony is completely transformed into a constant effort (Dalai Lama phrase) involving moderation.
Just some thoughts.
Oh, you know what? I think I totally misinterpreted this post. Now I see what it's all about. :)
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