For the current of our spiritual life, creeds and rituals are channels that may thwart or help, according to their fixity or openness. When a symbol or spiritual idea becomes rigidly elaborate in its construction, it supplants the idea which it should support.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Creeds and rituals can help or hinder spiritual life depending on how rigid they are. Overly elaborate symbols replace the ideas they should support.
- In plain terms
- Rigid rules can block the spirit they are meant to serve.
- What can you take from it?
- Keep practices open, not rigid.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- When do rules help you?
- When do they hold you back?
Another view
Some structure is necessary for community and focus.
More from Rabindranath Tagore
Faith is the bird that feels the light and sings when the dawn is still dark.
Permalink to quote #59 God finds himself by creating.
Permalink to quote #61 Facts are many, but the truth is one.
Permalink to quote #58
Related quotes
That God of the clergymen, He is for me as dead as a doornail. But am I an atheist for all that? The clergymen consider me as such - be it so; but I love, and …
Vincent Willem Van GoghVincent Willem Van Gogh quote #1 A disciple said to him, 'I am ready, in the quest for God, to give up anything: wealth, friends, family, country, life itself. What else can a person give up?'…
Anthony de MelloAnthony de Mello quote #1 My true religion is Kindness.
Tenzin GyatsoTenzin Gyatso quote #1