One River
“To
connect with the great river we all need a path, but when you get
down there there's only one river.”
Matthew
Fox
Do you ever wonder why so
many different spiritual paths developed as humanity spread across
the planet? Beginning with animal worship among the cave people, to
goddess worship with its female oracles, to wisdom religions and
sacred lifestyle rituals, to meditation and transcendence, to savior
religions and patriarchy. So many different paths to one single
river. New paths are still developing. Just ask any modern kid with a
tattoo, “What does this tattoo mean to you?” and you will hear a
story that reveals what is sacred to them. The paths for many, both
young and old, have moved out of organized religions all together,
because they have witnessed too much talk and too little action from
“religious” people. What they want is that connection that pulls
all the parts into one whole.
It seems bred into us to
want to find meaning in life—the questions of why am I here, what
is required of me, what is real and has substance, arise in us
whether we are Hindu, Jew, Christian, Muslim or have no religion at
all. These are human questions—ones that other mammals do not seem concerned with. Perhaps we are pushed to ask such questions by the presence
we experience within us, the part of us that observes both ourselves,
and the world outside ourselves. We feel it there, behind all the
inner yak-yak-yak, just watching and waiting. That presence is
consciousness itself. It is the Self. It is what the New Testament
calls holy spirit, and the Old Testament calls ru'ach; what the
Greeks call pneu'ma, the Hindus call aatma, and the Muslims call ruh
al-Qudus. It is our path to the One River. When you discover what
calls to you from within, follow that path.
In the Spirit,
Jane
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