classical music, celibacy, chastity and clowns

.... Will my life, O tyrant master, be the miserable victim of these wretched chains that clasp me; Since in them, I vow to God, I will tear myself to fragments with my hands and with my teeth ....   Pedro Calderone de la Barca 

The origin of the word chastity is the same as the word caste: to cut off. It shares the same meaning as the Hebrew word for holy (kadosh): to set apart. By separating oneself in order to be better aligned with a higher power, spiritual consecration involves setting oneself apart from the secular. Unfortunately, this kind of holy often also implies judgement and/or condemnation of the profane, precursor to the holier-than-thou attitude we despise in martyrs who do violence both to their own disavowed parts and to their narcissistic extensions which unfortunately almost always include other human beings.

It is noble to aspire to holiness but this can turn rapidly into spiritual bypassing when the aspirant fails to embrace their own humanity which is shaped by the vulnerability of the "fallen" state of a body subject to the temptations, failures and foibles of human nature. 

The word human shares the same root as the words humble and humus: made from the earth, the dust from which we came and to which we will return. It is also the name of the first man, Adam. Masking our natural state (or trying to) is the stuff of pathos and comical sketches that subtly, or not so subtly, unmask our nudity with fig leaves and sad happy faces. 

We need to love our unholy selves, becoming humble before becoming holy. There is an expression that goes, "Sinners think they're saints. Saints know they're sinners".

Living a life that is chaste, like performing classical music or celebrating mass, if it does not come from a place of vulnerability, turns the offering into a performance or, worse, a martial arts routine where heart and soul are denied by a stony face. Without weakness there is no beauty, only an army of soldiers muscling their way through a symphony of disembodied ideals by force of will. 

The English word for holy finds its etymological roots in the almost opposite meaning of the Hebrew word kadosh: to be whole, to be intact but also to heal.

Fully human.

How I wish that our spiritual leaders, Buddhist, Christian, Jewish or other... would encourage their aspirants to be whole persons, one with their bodies and the world rather than cut off from them, humble rather than strong, and vulnerable rather than defended.