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CP6.458. "There is a certain agreeable occupation of mind which, from its having no distinctive name, I infer is not as commonly practiced as it deserves to be; for indulged in moderately -- say through some five to six per cent of one's waking time, perhaps during a stroll -- it is refreshing enough more than to repay the expenditure. Because it involves no purpose save that of casting aside all serious purpose, I have sometimes been half-inclined to call it reverie with some qualification; but for a frame of mind so antipodal to vacancy and dreaminess such a designation would be too excruciating a misfit. In fact, it is Pure Play. Now, Play, we all know, is a lively exercise of one's powers. Pure Play has no rules, except this very law of liberty. It bloweth where it listeth. It has no purpose, unless recreation. The particular occupation I mean -- a petite bouchée with the Universes -- may take either the form of aesthetic contemplation, or that of distant castle-building (whether in Spain or within one's own moral training), or that of considering some wonder in one of the Universes, or some connection between two of the three, with speculation concerning its cause. It is this last kind -- I will call it "Musement" on the whole -- that I particularly recommend, because it will in time flower into the N.A. One who sits down with the purpose of becoming convinced of the truth of religion is plainly not inquiring in scientific singleness of heart, and must aways suspect himself of reasoning unfairly. So he can never attain the entirety even of a physicist's belief in electrons, although this is avowedly but provisional. But let religious meditation be allowed to grow up spontaneously out of Pure Play without any breach of continuity, and the Muser will retain the perfect candour proper to Musement."
This is an off-handed seismic jolt to the 21st Century from one who just managed to live into the 20th. Today the religionist is spiritual and I shall show in time, if time permits, that religion is morphing into spirituality and the Web is facilitating a broadening of knowledge so that singleness of heart includes both awareness of the aspects of spiritual maintenance and at least some reverence for the presently imperfect modes of scientific certainty.
Long ago I suggested the main barrier to any form of "religion" that relied on messianism, the notion that individuals are meant to lead other individuals. This was and remains the dominant form of idolatry. Jesus is Christ not because he lashes us to a creedal religion but because he is among the most perfect manifestations of human unconditional love which is by definition universal and nonjudgmental. My book Jesus and Jim Jones is available only in used book bins. But it remains foundational in the movement from flawed theology to the more flexible precincts of a philosophy whose ethics are built on tolerance, helpfulness and democracy.
This is an off-handed seismic jolt to the 21st Century from one who just managed to live into the 20th. Today the religionist is spiritual and I shall show in time, if time permits, that religion is morphing into spirituality and the Web is facilitating a broadening of knowledge so that singleness of heart includes both awareness of the aspects of spiritual maintenance and at least some reverence for the presently imperfect modes of scientific certainty.
Long ago I suggested the main barrier to any form of "religion" that relied on messianism, the notion that individuals are meant to lead other individuals. This was and remains the dominant form of idolatry. Jesus is Christ not because he lashes us to a creedal religion but because he is among the most perfect manifestations of human unconditional love which is by definition universal and nonjudgmental. My book Jesus and Jim Jones is available only in used book bins. But it remains foundational in the movement from flawed theology to the more flexible precincts of a philosophy whose ethics are built on tolerance, helpfulness and democracy.
