“When I think about religion at all, I feel as if I would like to found an order for those who CANNOT believe: the Confraternity of the Faithless, one might call it, where on an altar, on which no taper burned, a priest in whose heart peace had no dwelling, might celebrate with unblessed bread and a chalice empty of wine. Everything to be true must become a religion. And agnosticism should have its ritual no less than faith. It has sown its martyrs and it must reap its saints, and praise God daily for having hidden himself from man. But whether it be faith or agnosticism, it must be nothing external to me. Its symbols must be of my own creating. Only that is spiritual which make its own form. If I may not find its secret within myself, I shall never find it; if I have not got it already, it will never come to me...
— De Profundis, Oscar Wilde
This sounds very familiar to me from my study of the Tao Te Ching, which can be found in a very readable translation by Stephen Mitchell here:
http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/core9/phalsall/texts/taote-v3.html
I highly recommend getting into the study of it. Rather than confusing the material with Buddhist, Zen, Taoist, and other Eastern religio-philosophies, I study the bare morality of the text, especially the libertarian concepts of the usefulness of the state (the state is useless) and the function of faith (a way of avoiding reality). Poem #20 is similar to the confraternity you’re describing:
“Stop thinking, and end your problems.
What difference between yes and no?
What difference between success and failure?
Must you value what others value,
avoid what others avoid?
How ridiculous!
Other people are excited,
as though they were at a parade.
I alone don’t care,
I alone am expressionless,
like an infant before it can smile.
Other people have what they need;
I alone possess nothing.
I alone drift about,
like someone without a home.
I am like an idiot, my mind is so empty.
Other people are bright;
I alone am dark.
Other people are sharper;
I alone am dull.
Other people have a purpose;
I alone don’t know.
I drift like a wave on the ocean,
I blow as aimless as the wind.
I am different from ordinary people.
I drink from the Great Mother’s breasts.”
Incidentally, Lao Tzu has been described by Murray Rothbard as the world’s first libertarian, so the usefulness of the text is not to be underestimated! Check out the various translations and see which one catches your imagination:
http://www.nauticom.net/www/asti/dao_jing.htm
Enjoy!
Yes –
I know Lao Tzu very well and the Tao Te Ching. The divinaton practices in it are very well known and are quire fascinating and influential..
Lila
…and then, on his death bed, Oscar Wilde converted to Catholicism.
Hedging his bets…