Finding
Meaning
“Just
as a candle cannot burn without fire, men cannot live without a
spiritual life.” Buddha
Sometimes
I think about what life was like when Jesus or Buddha walked the
earth, and how it is different now. It's not that it was peaceful for
them—after all it was the sight of people suffering and dying in
the streets that drove the Buddha's quest for enlightenment, and
Palestine was occupied by the Roman army during Jesus' tenure. People
lived much shorter lives—if they were lucky, half as long as we
live today, and many of those lives were filled with toil and
suffering. I don't think living a spiritual life was easier then
than now, but they had fewer distractions, and felt far more
need of God's intervention.
We
don't have so much intense suffering today unless we live in one of
the many war zones, or in one of the countries where Ebola is
decimating whole villages. Perhaps we don't require much from God,
and feel less need of a spiritual life. Maybe we believe that going
to worship once a week is sufficient to our needs, and lets God know
we haven't forgotten all together. In between, we are caught up in
modern life with all its crisis-driven news, and violence, and
political unrest. We're too busy trying to make ends meet, and
keeping up our social connections to spend a whole lot of time
thinking about our souls.
But,
here's the thing, we do need wholeness, and all the media input and
social connections in the world will not lead to that. We may have a
thousand Facebook friends and receive hundreds of tweets per day, but
they won't fill a hungry soul. Body, mind and spirit—those
are the components of wholeness. If we leave spirit out, through
arrogance or neglect, we will feel the emptiness as a yawning hole
within. And that gaping wound will grow, no matter how many miles per
day we run, how many gym work-outs we accomplish, and no matter how
intelligent we may be. There is no substitute for the spiritual
life—it gives meaning to everything else. We must make time for our
soul-work every day in order to connect all our dots into a healthy
whole.
In
the Spirit,
Jane
No comments:
Post a Comment