a treatise of sorts

the discourses of philosophy, love, spirituality and existence seem to constantly overlap one another; a magical and mystical dance of sorts that captures our human attention and draws us in, begging us to question the meaning of life, the means to the end, the rhyme and reason to our relationship to the divine.

i'm reveling in the cooling mist that has drifted effortlessly down upon every delicate part of the earth this morning, relieving me from the intense heat of the past few days. i've watched the light from the new day surreptitiously find its way into my bedroom window, annointing every object and space with a soft, hopeful, and cheery glow. i've spent time in this silence, doing my morning meditation and prayer, gaining energy and a peaceful demeanor towards the day...and now i'm beginning to piece together a sampling of beautiful thoughts and ideas from the reading i've become so immersed in lately. like the small spark you experience when you rush too quickly across a carpeted surface, i've caught a glimpse of the larger picture that all these pieces, all these colors, are working towards completing...

a novel i just finished, Steppenwolf, Herman Hesse discusses man's desire for finding communion with the divine, for escaping the duality of one's self and one's despairing emotions to find true happiness, to exist in all the fullness and richness that being alive can offer. again and again i'm reminded of what John records of Christ's teaching in the New Testament- "I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds" (12.24). Essentially he suggests that we as humans must always first die to ourselves in order that we can live the full life intended for us by our Creator God. The miniscule exposure i've had to different yoga practices and teachings emphasizes the same message; each of us is responsible for all the rest, every individual soul is essentially a part of the larger communion of souls, therefore we must take on the responsibility of loving others before ourselves. Deep within us IS the kingdom of God, in the stillness that is so often muddied by our material lives we have an unlimited state of existence and bliss. there has to be some degree of separation from ourselves and our physical needs, worries, attachments, in order to increase our capacity to experience god, to experience joy and weightlessness...
another author, Milan Kundera, writes The Unbearable Lightness of Being describing our tendency to make our lives incredibly heavy, burdened by emotions, questions, fears. he writes a beautiful romance that underscores this notion of living in the moment, not taking everything with such gravity but letting life unfold around us and participating fully in it and ascribing meaning and depth to life, but not being limited by our mortality. like Nietzsche would argue in nihilism: there may be no eternal return or cycle of living. all of our experiences occur only briefly, and only once, therefore we MUST make the most of every moment and live fully alive. god's spirit is in us and he has blessed us with the ability and the opportunity to enjoy a beautiful, rich, blissful existence with him, if we would only let go of ourselves and our egos and take part in the glorious story that we're already swept up in...