Redundancy & the Mystery Eternal
I haven't done any streaming for the past two weeks. Interesting for me in as much as I've been self-disciplined enough to do a stream every Sunday, give or take a few over a two year period.I bring this up because as one that does a column of sorts, one should be consistent in doing their column, even if that includes digging into past streams and posting them. Those relatively few streams that I have done are not technically re-posts on this board but rather posts from another board over two years ago.
One's originality runs dry over time. Those should be ideal times for anyone writing (or any other art) to explore different avenues that haven't been trodden. But it can prove to be rather difficult to cultivate something new when one becomes satisfied with their settled in ways, even if they know they need to do something different in order to remain fresh. Maybe age has something to do with it... something that I am rapidly reaching.
Age is evidence of time passed. Whether we acknowledge such things or not, may or may not complicate our age, but when we remember that in such-and-such a time we were this or that and suddenly (or gradually) notice that what we were is irrelevant to that which we've become. To complicate the simplicity of age, that which we've become is not necessarily what we will remain - that is always a change regardless of age.
But our personal growth, our aging, relies upon becoming - an active verb. When do we finish becoming? The simple answer is we don't... until we drop this body and spiritually move on (if one believes in that, of course).
But there comes a point in aging where this becoming becomes stale and meaningless. Not meant to sound pessimistic here, but how many times can we change before it becomes a process that becomes redundant?
Redundancy may be the conclusion of change - when our lives don't seem to require anymore changes in order to better that life. If our changes don't bring self-satisfaction and (even more pitifully), if we don't want to change, our lives can either became fairly predictable or so damn boring that nobody would care to communicate with us... something that nobody would care to partake of if they knew the consequences), which does nothing for our health, mental or physical.
Although I personally have not reached either of those stages, I do feel them approaching. True I still enjoy a variety of subjects, but those differences lessen with the desire to know as much as I did back when. Back when they were new to me. Nowadays they seem to be rather the same - same ideas, same thoughts, same desires, just dressed in different words. Take off the words and there's little substance to anything.
Therein lies some thing... a thing (for lack of a better word) that still has a wonder about it. What is this unchangeable 'thing' that never really changes, that never really improves over time? For me it is the spiritual... that matter-less 'thing' that is always there, always here. Like an eternal home of sorts, the spiritual is at once a material conception when it is spoken about, but much, much more powerful when this spirit lights up within.
It's a comfort that always is here, within. It's not boring, it doesn't become redundant, it doesn't grow old without meaning - it's a 'thing' that is eternal and infinite. The only 'thing' about this is running into the (here we go again), redundancy of the words that speak of this eternal spirituality within us all... there are many choices throughout the world that write/speak of the spirituality, all of which have different words to describe it.
Could it be that entering this spiritual state, by whatever means works for the individual, is not a boring exercise, but an exciting 'practice,' because the majority of us have not given that aspect of ourselves any serious consideration? Given the largely material world we surround ourselves with this certainly could be true. However, anyone that has entered their spiritual state, I would think, know that there is something so secure and 'knowing' about it that the word 'boring' or any of its other definitions, is not acceptable. It is a grand journey that, if nothing else, reawakens anyone that has experienced it. The word 'fulfillment' come to mind.
The knowing of this Absolute alleviates any idea of death as simply the end of what we think we are. How different we become simply by acknowledging the 'me' we call ourselves, is but a temporary condition that is superseded by this infinite spiritualness that is within every living thing. At times just reviewing this in contemplation brings on such a sense of wonder and excitement, that to do anything but surrender to its existence is foolishness.
Mystery Eternal
Pearls are born
of irritation
Diamonds are born
from pressure
Resistance to change
will leave no growth
but surely a call
to return
again and again
to learn the lessons
that bring us
to awareness
of the Light
that overpowers
all shadows of doubt
It is our minds
used in selfish ways
that bring the
darkness within
as we cannot believe
that we are all
part of this
Mystery Eternal
______
Pearls are born
of irritation
Diamonds are born
from pressure
Resistance to change
will leave no growth
but surely a call
to return
again and again
to learn the lessons
that bring us
to awareness
of the Light
that overpowers
all shadows of doubt
It is our minds
used in selfish ways
that bring the
darkness within
as we cannot believe
that we are all
part of this
Mystery Eternal
______
Cecil
10 Deciembre 2006
When I first read that letter you posted regarding this, I agreed with all other comments. But there was a voice in my head that offered a different comment. I didn't respond with it (as you know), but... you may develop a style in spite of yourself. 
)
