Lexie Carroll > Recent Status Updates

The point of yoga, as originally conceived, was not peace of mind or enhanced concentration, but kenosis. Chinese philosophers taught disciples to submit desires to the natural rhythms of life… The sages who devised yoga realized that egotism was the greatest hindrance to an experience of the sacred. Thus yoga can be described as the systematic dismantling of the egotism that distorts our view of the world.

Muslim group prayers (salat) throughout the day interrupted their daily business and reminded them that Allah was their first priority. The deep bodily prostrations of the prayers were difficult for the arrogant Meccan grandees. The word Islam means ‘surrender’ (the ego first and foremost)- a Muslim is one who has relinquished self. The bodily movements of the prayers reminded Muslims to abandon ego daily.

The Daoist ideal is that we abandon our ego and imitate the Kenosis that manifests itself in the natural world. We then find that K is empowering because it aligns with the way things truly are instead of putting us at loggerheads with them. Having no ego does not mean the sage has no emotions; he experiences anger&sorrow like everybody else, but there is an imperturbability at his core that gives mysterious power.

“Kenosis is abundantly evident in the Dao, which infuses the whole natural world with a dynamic that allows each “thing” to become itself. This creative power applies no force. Instead of governing by force, it is its apparent weakness that makes the Dao so effective. Similarly, the Sage is the perfect man, who personifies the Dao because he has eradicated all traces of ego.”

“Five Great Sacrifices” of Hinduism, accessible to all castes: 1. Put out a small bowl of food daily for hungry or sick animals. 2. All guests are welcomed, honored and fed as Gods, invited and uninvited alike. 3 & 4 remember and honor the deceased & Devas with simple offerings (rice, grain, fruit) thrown into the family fire. 5. Daily scripture study (meditation or hymn) in a quiet place to concentrate the mind.

(He makes Judge Thatcher row the skiff): Realized that, now, he was working for me.” (calls him his slave, and this offends him). “Do you want to be rowing? (No). Are you getting paid for rowing? (No). Are you rowing because you’re afraid of me and what I might do to you? (Yes).” T: “I’m No slave.” (pointed the barrel of the pistol at his face.)“Row faster.” He did. “Oh yes, you’re a slave.”

To Judge Thatcher: “Why on earth would you think that I can’t imagine the trouble I’m in? After you’ve tortured me and eviscerated me and emasculated me and left me to burn slowly to death, is there something else you’ll do to me? Tell me Judge thatcher, what is there I can’t imagine? Could you have imagined a black man, a slave, a nigger, talking to you like this? Who’s lacking in imagination?”

After killing the overseer: I looked for voices in my dreams trying to find some comprehension of what I had done. Of course on one level it was all too simple. I had exacted revenge, but for whom? For one act, or many? Against one man, many men, or the world? I wondered if I should feel guilty. Should I have felt some pride in my action? Had I done a brave thing? Had I done an evil thing? Was it evil to kill evil?

“It pained me to think that without a white person with me, without a white looking face, I could not travel safely through the light of the world, but was relegated to the dense woods. Without someone white to claim me as property, there was no justification for my presence; perhaps, for my existence.”

“How strange an existence that one’s equal must argue for one’s equality. That one’s equal must hold a station that allows airing of that argument. That one cannot make that argument for one’s self. That premises of said argument must be vetted by those equals who do not agree.”

4:Our Broken World. Exploring other creation myths where suffering and difficulty were experienced by the Creator, and so hardship and pain are baked in (unlike the perfect pleasant Garden of Eden). This paradigm helped ppl “partake in the divine discomfort that infused the whole world” & “reminded them of their responsibility to heal and nurture their compromised world”, to “revere and rescue” it daily.

3: In Hebrew the word “holy” also means “apart” or “other”. (In the OT) God is described as being above/apart from nature and dominant over it. Maybe this leads to us seeing ourselves and the divine as outside of nature. God is also ineffable and beyond our linguistic abilities. “We must make ourselves aware, therefore, that even the most exalted things we say about God are bound to be misleading.”

2: TWF: To recover this vision of a sacred nature: First by altering our perception of God. Instead of seeing him confined to distant heavens, we can look to this older understanding of the divine as an inexpressible yet dynamic inner presence that flows through all things. If we develop a mind that watches&receives fluidity in our natural environment, we may be able to recover that ancient vision of a sacred nature.

2: Qi, The Dao, and Rta (India) are similar in that they all describe a “sacred, impersonal, animating force” present in and through all things.”