What I think about when I see fish symbols on cars

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

I laugh when I hear that the fish in the water is thirsty.

You don't grasp the fact that what is most alive of all is inside your own house;
and so you walk from one holy city to the next with a confused look!

(Part of a poem by the mystical poet Kabir-from The Kabir Book, translated by Robert Bly.)

I put this in Religion because poetry like this is how Sufis and other mystics express their feelings about spirituality. What are your interpretations of these lines from Kabir?

[UTdem]

1. well

My fish symbol has "phish" inside of it.

[yardwork]

2. I'm taking a stab out of context because I don't know the poem

but it sounds like Bly is saying that spirituality comes from within. Those who seek for a spiritual answer outside themselves go from religion to religion looking for an answer. The answer lies within.

The fish in the water is thirsty even though it is immersed in water. It is thirsty because it doesn't realize that the water is already inside itself.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

3. Yeah.

You find that is the theme of the poems selected by Bly. I think it is interesting that science has shown us that at a subatomic level ther is no seperation, and we are all interconnected. Sort of the same thing.

[lgardengate]

4. I hear ......

Bugs Bunny laughing,saying "thats all folks".

Sorry, but i'm not to "deep," and not into self styled spirituality.

I'm just kidding here.No offence.
:silly:

[The Doctor.]

5. "Seek not what lies without but within." - That's how I turn that...

as far as my favorite "fish" symbols:





http://www.rof.com/index.htm

[Calvinist Basset]

6. I don't know about Kabir

This is the first I've heard the lines or anything about the Kabir Book. I'll have to check it out someday.

As for the fish on cars, I get sad that such a wonderful, powerful and historic image of Christianity has been misappropriated by the right wing zealots.

Plus, I get irritated by the creationism/evolution debate often evidenced in the fish symbols (like a fish with feet and the word "Darwin" in it, or a fish with the word "Truth" in it eating the Darwin fish). For me, it's not an either/or issue. Religion seeks to understand the "who" behind creation, and science merely looks for the "how" of it. I'd like to see the Christian fish and the Darwin fish "kissing" to symbolize this unity.

[LizMoonstar]

7. dang

that's what I was always going to put on my car. (the two kissing for unity.) thumbs up dude.

[vixengrl]

8. Carrying water for the age of Pisces.

A vesica piscis ending in a cross. The ancient symbol of the Goddess, turned sideways. When I see the fish symbol on cars, it seems like the origin of the fish symbol is kind of lost. It seems to have become shorthand for a kind of "followers'" Christianity--a literal Bible-believing version that actually doesn't take as much out of the powerful symbols of the religion as adopts those symbols like a battle slogan. When I see all of the clever variations, on one hand, I appreciate the wit, but on the other it's sad how quickly "simplified" slides into "oversimplified." The one I like least is the Fish with the word "Truth" inside swallowing the one that says "Darwin" inside. To quote a man who became familiar with complexity--What is truth? (My fish is bigger than your fish? Truth for the Marxists...or perhaps a vision of many little fishes devouring one large one.)

From those lines from The Kabir Book, I think I see something very true--the true spirituality isn't the trappings, the outward show, the places that one is told are holy--external religion. The temple set up in the mind and the heart (one's own house) is where religion really takes place.