Perhaps it is in the belief in God (or the belief in the divine, in a creator or also expressed quite differently) itself that it often appears to people outwardly „radical“, „fanatical“ or also simply „strict“.
The realization of one’s own soulfulness and the bringing together of the soulful and the material in one’s existence inevitably leads to changes in the person who recognizes, which are alien to the other people in their predominantly consumption-determined and material life. And strangeness produces fear.
I can only speak for myself. The recognition of eternal truths leads to the fact that there are some new factors for me in the world that need to be taken into account in my life. These factors cannot be mitigated or explained away, nor is there any form of compromise there. One reason that people do not fear me and do not call me „fanatical,“ „radical,“ or „strict“ is that my change is taking place within me. I do not push outward. I do not disturb people by forcing them to look at me and listen to me (worse, by expecting them to do the same!). Another reason is that I have recognized the inner unity of all of us and therefore I meet people with inner love (which does not necessarily mean outer!). And since my „radicality“ is not particularly „radical“ in the usual sense in the outer one, „radical, fanatic and strict“ becomes „strange, self-willed and apart“. One is ridiculed and not feared. And I am only one. Possibly, ridicule would quickly turn to fear if 20 of my kind were to get together in a bunch. They would do the same as alone, but now it creates an uneasiness. The fear of the stranger… Maybe there wouldn’t even have to be twenty. Maybe three would be enough.
The rigor, the fanaticism and the radicalism are the same with me with which every man must take each of his breaths. There is no compromise. One cannot explain away or weaken the breathing. The mind cannot achieve anything with its methods there, dilute it or direct it in its sense. Breathing is an inevitable factor of our existence. If we do not breathe, then we cannot exist. I think – I don’t know – that it is like that with all religious „fanatics“ and „strict believers“, whom we get to see through the media or on vacation or even sometimes in our neighborhood with their peculiar practices and their peculiar clothes. Because of their inner realization, they cannot do otherwise. Whether these clothes, the practices of these people and their outward pushing and their motives are „right“ is beyond my power of judgment and shall not be judged here. Whether Mormons, Sufis, Evangelicals, Opus Dei, the Pope, workaholics, „Islamists“, Buddhist monks, hermits, bank managers or whatever „radical“ or „strict“ group or person we take: They all think they are following an inner call that cannot be mitigated or explained away. Whether and who of them is running after a golden calf and who has a „true“ insight… who is to judge that. In case of doubt everyone points the finger at the other, because the own inner attitude is irrefutable… I feel the same way. Quite radical and strict. I am right with my world view. That’s how I feel. That is what makes religious groups so unpleasant and often unappealing. They don’t fit into our world full of individualized arbitrariness. No one „has to“ here (apparently). Everyone „may.“ Everyone builds his lifestyle and his „spirituality“ in the big supermarket of opinions through material consumption as it suits him. To go shopping again tomorrow and see everything completely different. To buy the new book of XY. The mind numbs man with beautiful sounds, scents and melodious slogans. Man does not get beyond things. But at least serves the gross national product by buying the available „spiritual“ lifestyle products. In this softly rinsed world of the external possession, which is already complicated and unclear enough for the individual, it does not fit in, if all at once someone comes around the corner and says: „Pay attention. I have recognized something. To get beyond your outer incense bowls and sarongs and ’namaste’s and ‚blessed be’s and ‚OM’s and angels and cards and books, you have to do this or that (or not do or whatever that someone represents). Uncompromising. There is no wishy-washy about it (if you have a bank loan, you know there is no wishy-washy about the repayment terms either). If you recognize, then you cannot act differently anyway than in such a way. If you do not act in such a way, then you also grasped nothing. Then you are still prisoners of the outer consumer world with its material industrial rules. So either you act like this (or not like this or whatever) or there is nothing for you to achieve except external things. Then you are actually already dead.“ All humans with a God experience think more or less exaggeratedly in such a way (I assert that now once). The difference is only that with some of them „you must“ has become „you should“ and again the others don’t care at all and they don’t feel any missionary need to communicate with people. They are in silence. In inner retreat. At peace with themselves and the world. They go about their business and do not attract attention. I believe that there are very many of these „unrecognized radicals“ and that the counterbalance of their inner work against the prevailing material one-sidedness makes it possible at all that our world exists, that it can be in a fragile balance at all. The louder and more sensory deafening the mind designs the world in order to breathe the illusion of life into it with a lot of hoopla (excitement! fun!) the quieter and more inconspicuous become those who stand in unity and nurture their inner being. They don’t seem to exist at all…
To cultivate a field in order to have food throughout the year is obvious to every mind in its logical context. The tilling is the outer expression of the necessity to eat. The fact that the farmer insists „radically and strictly“ on tilling his field year after year in order not to have to starve, the mind sees as a „natural“ behavior. For the covering of the internal food need (which is just as vital as the external one) also a field must be cultivated. This is only no field in the conventional sense and the tilling differs „radically“ from the conventional way known in the material. It expresses itself in an inner and outer attitude, which lets the inner food prosper. And this attitude (just in its uncompromisingness) and behavior connected with it appears to the observing mind as „radical“ (or as „crazy“. Depending on it). Because the logical connection, the cause and the goal do not open up to him. Because it lies outside of its perception and concept ability to recognize that it does not need such parameters at all. The uncompromisingness of the material pawn is seen by the mind as „purposeful“ or „persevering“. The uncompromisingness of the mental farmer is seen by the mind as „radical“ or „dogged“. There is no difference between the two.
It is impossible to hold your breath permanently. Perhaps one can breathe shallowly. But the breath regulates itself when the mind gets tired of controlling it. The healthier it is, the deeper it goes.