Like the colors of the rainbow as violet cannot be termed to be more correct than blue and as orange cannot be deemed more optimal than red “The urban ascetic” is one of the multitudes of rainbow color point of views of life.
Yes one can have a preference or affinity for one color greater than the other colors but that does not make the other colors wrong or incorrect or inferior etc they just are……..
And so it is with point of view it just is. If you like it use it, if you don’t then just forget about it and move on.
In our current times there is this tendency towards a linear approach to life where almost everything can be fit into an “if-then-else” kind of an algorithm. Without any negativity pertaining to it or an intention of correcting it (because your love for color blue does not imply your desire to eliminate or “correct” all the other colors it’s just a personal preference) what is being done here Is a gentle proposition of a different point of view towards self and life as a whole.
A more organic perspective of life with a much much lesser emphasis on knowing and more so upon feeling and experiencing.
Knowledge is like a seed it requires the right soil and a multitude of correct conditions to take hold to germinate. Feelings and emotions on the other hand are like saplings and plants (may be even trees depending entirely upon their depth and intensity) within us. They already have a foot hold in our being and are more real to us than any word or statement or assertion.
The urban ascetic’s point of view is multidimensional instead of being linear ……….it’s kind of hard to make sense of as it does not comply with the sensibility of the current simplistic and effective linear “if-then-else” algorithmic point of view.
But is worth looking into as it is not a generic “one size fits all” point of view but a very specific “tailor made to your measurement” point of view. ……….
And herein lays its boon as well as its bane. The boon it offers is a more congenial, a more pleasant, friendly and enjoyable psychological milieu to the individual within himself. A sort of portable “emotional-psychological resort cum retreat” goes with you where ever you go……. A personal portable heaven.
But its bane is its specificity itself …….its “tailor made to your measurement” nature implies your active participation and we have become so used to the “ready to use” , “ the instantaneous”, “the immediate” that the concept of slow organic growth out of which we all and all that is has emerged has become alien to us.
This point of view begins at you, proceeds with you until it has become you.
And so it begins where you are (no matter what that place is)……..by asking you “what is it that you want?” and immediately supplements it with a “why?” i.e. “why do you want whatever it is that you want?”
Answer by answer, thing by thing, person by person, place by place, position by position, situation by situation, layer by layer with your honest and untiring participation it relentlessly keeps asking you “but why do you want it?” until it has cornered you to make you understand, feel and clearly see the point in its next question that is
“What is it that you want to feel in the having of that particular person, position, thing, situation etc …?”
And once one can develop the patience, persistence and stamina to reach up to this question to an extent that this question becomes as pertinent to him/her as the person, position, thing, situation etc that incited this process in the first place he/she has become ready to begin the journey.
The journey of life as “The Urban Ascetic”
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