The Relevance of Kabir is a book that teaches the 'art' of living by exposing the root causes of our misery. How often do we really question our own thoughts and beliefs that create our anxiety, fears, and depression? Beliefs and ideas that may have been instilled since birth and are taken as pure facts without much justification. Todd utilizes the writings of a 15th century poet to analyze these often unquestioned beliefs about life and ourselves. Through debunking many commonly held assumptions in a very clear and logical way, this book allows one to remove the habits of mind that keep us trapped operating in a lesser capacity than is possible. These habits are so prevalent that we commonly accept them as normal through indiscriminate everyday use. Save yourself thousands of dollars on therapy, drugs, and self-help books, and instead, read this book. This is a book of self-discovery.
Here are a some excerpts from the book that stood out to me. Writing about Todd's book cannot do it justice. It really must be experienced.
"How consciousness exists is not the problem I am interested in, instead, I am interested in the problem of human misery that arises from identifying ourselves with experiences and ideas. Let us remember that what we mean by consciousness does not come with a label. Any explanation of consciousness (or anything else) must be a product of the mind, a hypothesis."
"The more serious the disillusionment, the more difficult it becomes to explain away contradictions. When events of our lives surpass our capacities to rationalize, then our confidence will shatter, particularly regarding beliefs about ourselves. Kabir’s poems take the place of disillusioning events to quicken our understanding about life. When we let go of prejudices, we gain access to alternative ways of responding."
"It is important to make a distinction between the two different types of spiritual seekers. Someone looking for a reflection of themselves in their spiritual experiences is doing something different than someone who quiets the mind without getting lost in the novelty of an altered state. In other words, the latter does not seek to prove an idea about the self through experiences that come and go."
"When we use people, we probably destroy or limit our affections in the process. Emancipate others from being just a prop in a cerebral autobiography."
"Meditation is driving into the neutrality of our being. The various forms of introspection are vulnerable to the contamination of wishful thinking. Unfortunately, people mistake meditation as a means to attain some imagined state. Con artists make use of the altered states generated in meditation as proof of their nonsense. We will not gain anything from silence and, instead, will temporarily lose what we build out of thought."
"There are two treasures hidden in our own life, one is the recognition of our joy and the second is the recognition of what we cannot accomplish through the satisfaction of desire. When we stop expecting our delights to achieve some other ideal, then we find ourselves without as many disappointments. Such a loss of misery is a great gain."
"Kabir points toward an understanding of the mind that allows creativity without the burden of identifying ourselves with what we create. Quiet the mind, see the fictions and live."
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