Here are a couple of sentences jotted down on a notebook several years ago.
The fact that today I am hesitating to relay them is much more eloquent than the semantic content of the initial note.
Here it is :
“The Republic wishes to be a religion without transcendence,
What is it good for, then ?
And who can it serve, eventually ? ”
©FJ May 2022 —
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Notes & Silence 
I assume you meant the French republic.
This could stand as a metaphor for nationalist sentiment; also of its cloying and insidious secret-agent twin, « patriotism ».
These things, certainly, appear as religions to their adherents, and there is nothing transcendent about any country. I have just seen a post on Diaspora this morining whereby the concept of America being blessed as god’s chosen nation elicits the query as to what deity would want with a country.
A very good question. However, I take this further.
I am not aware of any religion with an automatic claim on transcendence (which I take to mean some form of spiritual outlook, whatever that may be to each individual). And I rather think such transcendence does rather better without the constraints of religion.
What is religion if not a form nationalism of ideas?
As I have said elsewhere, in various contexts, a plague on all their houses.
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religion weighing down on the transcendence it is supposed to serve.
This is pervert. Sounds like the understanding I have on the (French) republic, enslaving people, weighing down on their natural aspirations under pretenses of enlarging their horizons and liberating them all.
Such a scam.
I would not have anything against it, had it not the noisy habit to become so totalitarian in its application, so thirsty in worshiping manifestations, so suspicious in refusals to to so.
I will never come to terms iwth the fact that people, even though they cause absolutely no harm whatsoever are considered a danger to this system when they don’t ostentatiously praise the system.
Also, it is not because everyone has hijacked a certain religious material that there is no broader sense to be perceived out of it.
Practitioner have a responsibility in ‘practicing ». : which means, coming back to the core meaning, letting teachings resonate within their own, well-maintained inner space.
Creating the conditions for resonance is our responsibility.
On another level, the worldly expression of spirituality through exoteric practices (religions) is also necessary platform to bounce back on, or bump against,
Off-road, off-track, off-the grid practices requires a strength that tends to wear off over time, leading us back to the neatly fenced fields of religions, reminding us every time why we had eventually left them.
There is a healthy respiration, a from of natural undulation of spiritual practice between these two polarities.
Now, concerning patriotism.
I see it as the cheap, counterfeited expression of spiritual aspirations, especially when voiced through sports events.
I must admit though, that there is another side to this coin.
It can also be a form of proto-framework to feed a certain community spirit, which will slowly turn out to find its expression within less limited conditions.
I really don’t know,
I do not believe in, nor do I practice or serve, anything political.
I really relate to what one of the Marx brothers said : « I’d never join a team or a group or any association, which would like to have me as one of its members ».
I’m also definitely (desperately?) unmanageable, as well as absolutely worthless in the corporate environment, as I am reluctant to any surge in responsibility likely to make my life somehow even more insignificant.
Freedom naturally whispers and whistles in the background of my being.
Try to muzzle, muffle or get to grips with it,
you’ll see whispers turn into yelling rage.
And whistles become blades,
or…more in harmony with my somehow frail constitution, I would leave this soil in a snap and never come back.
Sorry, I’m just fooling around.
Am I ?
Don’t take this too seriously.
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All government, by nature, is corrupt. There are degrees, but also a tendency toward the extreme. As I see it, nationalism is patriotism writ large, patriotism a euphemism for the obscenity of nationalism – whether expressed in sport or more dangerous fora. The poison is the same, and is addictive to the community that is exposed to it.
I am not so sure about the necessity of religion. But then, I bounced off and have never seen the need to bounce back.
Insignificance is, most certainly, in the realms of corporate and political responsibility. Find meaning in the woods and on the mountain tops, in the sea or a darkened room – but never in the hierarchies this society values.
You are not being the fool, I think. But I will take you no more seriously than you appear to take yourself. Promise…!
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Seriousness is the forerunner of suffering.
THe only possible manner to take life seriously is not to take life seriously.
Bouncing off so as not to bounce back is way of life.
Zen.
I use it in its broadest possible sense, here.
(not necessarily implying dark clothes or Japanese words.
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It tickles me that Japanese « arigatou » (thanks) is remarkably similar to Italian « affogato » (vanilla ice cream with espresso poured over it).
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