FUNDAMENTALISM - LEFT, RIGHT & RELIGIOUS

FUNDAMENTALISM IS NOT LIMITED TO RELIGIOUS ZEALOTS Fundamentalism usually connotes rigid adherence to the principles of some religion, with intolerance to other views. However, this kind of narrow-mindedness is found in all fields, not just in religion.

You can find the purist in both the left and right extremes of the political spectrum, and in both the conventional and holistic schools of thought. Left wing ideologues can be fundamentalist, and so can strict vegetarians or natural healers.

In the secular it comes across as, “My way or the highway”.

In the religious we are pressured to accept, “Thy way or the highway” On the other hand, mystics and sages of old preached the “Middle Path” – born not of some homogenized, diluted compromise of principle, but from the wisdom of enlightenment. Through going beyond mind to divine revelation we access theory and practice that transcends the limitations of mind and matter.

Our primary responsibility is to receive and shed light on our principles and beliefs, to the extent possible – not to change people or convert them to our way of thinking, no matter what ism or field of endeavor with which we identify.

The goal is to be truthful, not to claim we have a corner on the market of absolute truth. In being truthful about what we sense, feel, think or even intuit, we understand that this does not automatically make it the absolute truth.

The good news is that being truthful is more likely than dogma to lead to awareness of absolute truth, which in the end reveals itself.

It is more important, then, “to thine own self be true”. As it has been said, “Know the truth and the truth shall set you free.”

By Leonard Burg