FRIDAY SERIAL - Duncan's Selected Teachings of (Runga Bunga La Di Da ) (Epi 10)

It had started raining heavily whilst walking from the nearest bus stop to his flat on the estate. These familiar streets were being refreshed as shiny and blue black as patent leather. Duncan arrived home excited, but drenched, with the book and the extracts written down on random scraps of paper, crammed in both jacket pockets. These appeared to be on the edge of returning back to pulp.

The notes he'd made were either of statements he liked or those he felt vaguely uneasy with and wanted to ask Gavin to further unpack. Once home he salvaged by re-writing what he could. In the middle of this, it dawned on him that the things he was feeling uncomfortable about were what he really was most challenged by.  For, after all, what did he really think? What did he actually know was true? All his thoughts and roughly formed ideals, suddenly felt like the second, third or fourth hand borrowings they often were. So he found himself humbled, prodded and reinvigorated by what he had been reading. Was any of this true, or did he just wish it to be true? Did he need this to be true? Was a feeling for it being true, enough? And even if it was true, what then? 

The book itself was short and pithy. Packed with neat aphoristic paragraphs and sentences, grouped under three chapter headings - The Function of Religion - The Function of the Imagination - The Function of Lifestyle. He couldn't remember whereabouts his notes came from, so these headings enabled him to place them into rough categories,.

The Function of Religion

'Religions have some sort of self transformation at their heart. Broken down into four stages. 

1) The Self Awakens To The Reality Of What The Human State Is. 

2) The Imagination Envisaging Another State Of Being  

3) A Feeling Of Allure Towards That State Arising

4) The State Of The Greater Awakening Arrives'

'Religions contain elements of what is true. But we need to be discerning, we cannot take one truth to mean it all is.'

'The mundane world wants you to stay mundane. Discovering how to release yourself from being stifled by your own mediocrity, is the primary task.'

'Take from any religion whatever is imaginatively or practically helpful. Don't waste time trying to make your magpie borrowings theologically consistent or conform to one specific doctrinal orthodoxy. There is no point in faking coherence where there is none. Follow whatever makes intuitive sense to you.'  

'Be in pursuit of your own personal myth, not anyone else's.'

'Its a mistake to follow unquestioningly anyone, including myself. Don't unthinkingly take my word for it, I am just as flawed as you are '

The Function of Imagination and the Arts

'The world we inhabit and our sense of self are beautifully constructed fictions. Our aim through practice is to carefully unpick and deconstruct these. And then, through our imaginations re-build ourselves into 100% who we truly are.'

'All our efforts and strivings move us incrementally towards being capable of living within truth'

'Fortunately the imagination can be turned to our advantage. We can re-imagine ourselves beyond our perceived limitations. We stand a better chance of becoming complete human beings and living that out, once our acquired conditioning has been erased'

'Question every assumption or common sense way of seeing. Let nothing be hidden under habits, false logic, flawed ideals or pure fantasy.'

The Greater Awakening is when we fully awaken to our true selves, and to our interconnectedness with the entire universe.'

'Contacting the realm of the spirit transforms our imagined separation between all realms of existence - of life, death and after life - past, present or future. Discovering that the spirit of consciousness is a continuity that exists beyond one specific individual life, beyond one specific mind, beyond any specific time frame- its a counter cultural experience.'

''Never underestimate the role of beauty, creativity and the arts as visionary engines for transformation. Imagination responds to The Feeling Of Allure, which is itself The Greater Awakening drawing nearer.'

The Function of Lifestyle

'The way men relate to women and women relate to men in modern life. is bedeviled by a mutually crippling dependence. In order to awaken ourselves, there are times when it might be better for each gender to have nothing to do with the other.'

'Men and women can learn from each other. But do not overlook the need for time out, for time alone, for time spent with people whose gender experience and outlook is similar to ones own.'

'It is perfectly healthy for people to live and work in places composed of just men or just women. Its where the rough can be smoothed, the naive be matured, where example, support and encouragement by your gender peers builds self confidence, trust and openness.'

'Situations can simply stop being useful, we can become stale in them, to cease growing. Any context if lived or worked in for too long can become your greatest enemy. This includes marriages to a specific religion, a person or a career '

'Abandon things you feel have become obstacles or limitations or you have formed an unhealthy dependency on. Its the only sensible thing to do.'

'Spiritually speaking its better to be voluntarily celibate, anything else will be an involuntary compromise '

Reading them provoked a mixture of feelings. Experiencing the tug of war between interest and resistance. Also, there was anger and remorse over how much of his life he had already wasted, and on what? Yet there was a huge sense of uplift and excitement too, as if someone had just offered him a helping hand after falling over. This was followed by waves of uncertainty, a reactive hesitancy and trembling over what the next step, if there was to be a next step, might be. Each time it came back to Gavin. Gavin would help. Gavin would have the answers. Gavin would placate his nervous uncertainty. 

What had been missing from his life so far had been any sense of its overall purpose and direction. Who he was or what he wanted to become, were largely unvoiced, and thus far, unanswered questions. He'd seen no way out, let alone forward, from a life of constantly lowering expectations. Now his potential was all here, served up on a plate and ready to be gorged on. He was left wanting to know more about whatever the movement had to offer. On the cusp, most probably, of taking a significant step in his life.

He texted Gavin to 'come over,,need to talk'. Hoping he'd be prepared to unpack more than an overnight bag.

NEXT EPISODE
Duncan's Moment of Zeal ( Episode 11/12 )
will be posted Friday 11th November