One of the questions of existence, (one of many)
is the question of, how do we feed our soul?
To be technical correct, this thread/post ought to be
in the “Problems of being human” thread, but I view it important
enough to give it its own space…
To feed the soul… that might be the best description
of the last 200 years I may come up with… The various
revolutions of the last 500 years have left us with a whole
in our soul…The scientific revolution has moved us from
being the center of the universe, to being just another run of the
mill, star and planet and life form… that there is nothing special
about human beings still, to this day, chafes the hell out of millions
of people… We are beings that want, perhaps even need to be
the center of the universe… its an ego thing…in my family,
I was the second of 5… I certainly wasn’t the center of the
universe growing up… My daughter was an only child… she
was pretty much the center of her universe… and these things
matter… far more then they ought to…but they matter…
so one path to feeding our soul, is to be the center of the universe…
to be the “most” important person around… but let us carry this
a bit further… this belief in god, whereas you are loved and the
center of god’s universe is certainly does play a role in our feeding
our soul… we can feed our soul by a wide variety of means…
the religious is one such way, but no all religions, Buddhism
for example, doesn’t work that way… to work at, to become one
with the “universe” that is the goal of Buddhism…to deny,
reject ego, is a distinct aspect of Buddhism… Whereas this ego,
is part of Catholicism… and Protestantism… to be able
to reflect in the shared glory of god is part of the appeal of
both Catholicism and Protestantism… the light may not shine on
me directly, but at the right hand of god, it will shine on me…
and therein lies part of the ego of human beings… we are pretty
dam sure that we will go to heaven and sit at the right hand of god…
we human beings like to deceive ourselves that way…
much of the soul’s conflict in the religious aspect comes from
the need to be part of the reflected glory of god, and yet,
we feel ourselves to be sinners… and sinners certainly can’t sit
at the right hand of god… how do overcome this sinner/ acts
of sin and still think of ourselves as being worthy enough to
sit at the right hand of god? The psychological understanding of
the religious person could take one a lifetime to work out…
for the religious state is a psychological state… the needs of
the religious is/becomes a psychological issue… how do I
feed my soul? and the religious becomes one possibility…
but I hold that we have to work out what our “final” meaning is
before we can decide upon the religious becomes our goal…
so, what is the point of existence? and that will tell us what we
need to do to feed the soul… is the point of existence really to
sit at the right hand of god? One of the things to understand is
that millions, millions of people lead full and satisfying lives
without “any buy in” to sit at the right hand of god…
and if one leads a full and satisfying life, isn’t that an excellent
means of feeding one’s soul? we can find meaning within the
daily goings on in our lives…If I find meaning in seeking out
what it means of being human, do I really need the additional
need of sitting at the right hand of god? NO… not at all…
In fact, I would suggest that we look too far in seeking out
our meaning and go too far in seeking out how to feed our souls?
which is to say, we can find meaning, feed out souls in
who we are and our daily lives…the feeding of our souls
can happen within, and we have no need to seek out, go outside
of ourselves to find meaning…to be kinda psychological,
we can find meaning within ourselves… by being who we are
and not escaping into seeking meaning and the food of our souls,
outside of us… we feed our souls by internal means, not
external means…
for myself, feeding my soul is found within, I read, I think,
I live my life, with my wife… there is nothing external I need
to have meaning or purpose, I can feed my soul within, by my
own actions…
but too many people, far too many, cannot feed their soul by
internal, within… they must find their meaning/purpose
by external needs and wants…the many trinkets of existence,
are means to feed the soul by external methods, by wealth,
fame, titles, power are external goals and methods of
feeding our soul… my wife feeds her soul by external means,
I feed it by internal means…she seeks external validation,
whereas I am internally validated… I validate myself…
I have no need to sit at the right hand of god to validate who
I am… I can just be and be validated for who I am…
and this is just a side benefit of being old… I have no
need to impress anyone on planet earth… in my youth,
I wanted to slay dragons and save beautiful young maidens…
I wanted the glory and notice of being the dashing young prince…
no longer… I no longer need this to validate my life…
for to prove my valor and greatness, I had to go out and conquer
the world…that is how I was going to feed my soul…
with my validation being found in great deeds and finding glory
in the world… but the truth is those are a young man’s lie…
truth be told, grown old is about losing those “truths”…
think about the path of the Jedi in Star Wars… those things
that Yoda speaks about, about not seeking out, but seeking within,
is really an old man’s understanding of existence… not a young man…
everything that Yoda tells Luke, how to be a Jedi, that is wisdom
of the old… the truths we find once we are old… not a young
man truths…
with wisdom comes the knowledge that I am no longer Luke,
but I am more like Yoda…where I am in life, gives me my
understanding of the path I must take… the best I can hope
for now, is to pass along my wisdom and take hope in that…
nothing more…
for I am closer to the end of my journey, than I am to the beginning…
I can feed my soul by having a realistic understanding of who I am
and where I am in my life’s journey… I no longer need to slay dragons
or save damsels in distress or sit at the right hand of god to feed
my soul…
so, how do you feed your soul?
Kropotkin