One Mystical Monkey

I’m reading a lot these days; trying to find my metaphysical and spiritual ways a bit more. I am trying to find the specific path I am meant to tread, knowing that my time is “now”, and that it is time to call past experience to bear the fruit that has been many years in growing. And although I have no doubt that Spirit will guide me correctly at the right time and place and branch of the path, I also have no doubt that this investigation is all part of the process. I’m doing my research, reading, studying, learning and growing. And although my path is still quite broad, I’m getting a much better idea of what my path is right now, as well as where it may lead as one foot surely follows the other.

But it is not just the spiritual path on which I am finding my way at the moment; it is also the blogging path. I am sorting through the interface, the tools, the design, the community, the process, the technology - bringing my more worldly experiences in technology and design to bear in this newer medium. In some ways, it is going slower than I’d like, but nonetheless, I am finding my way, discovering where I am and where these investigations and experiments in blogging may lead.

And so things are coming around full circle for me on both the metaphysical and the physical planes. But it’s more than the quick little cycles of the experiences within this life. It’s the trick (yes, a trick!) of recognizing these cycles, of seeing the patterns, and listening to the echoes from the last cycle. It’s the trick of echoes; Echoes of technical know-how that hasn’t been used in a while, echoes of spiritual knowledge that has been blacked out by the cycle of rebirth and the curtain of obscurity. Echoes. {{ echo … echo … echo … }} (Sorry, couldn’t resist! )

Echoes are interesting in that if you hear them, if you listen to them, they can lead you places you may not have found on your own. This is true of our personal echoes as well as the ones you may find deep within a cave somewhere. It is true of the physical echoes in our day to day lives, as well as echoes from Spirit. Journeys (and that’s what life is, isn’t it?- a journey?!) are about listening to echoes and following their lead. The leads, these whispers and echoes from Spirit tend to bring us closer not only to our goals but closer to Spirit, closer to each other, and closer to ourselves. Can we hear the echoes? Do we listen? What are they saying….?

Peace.

Aaaaaah… as a bug goes across my computer screen and I automatically go to smash it, the question of the day: What is our intrinsic nature as human beings? What is our base nature? Are we tainted, or are we pure? Are we physical or are we spiritual? Are we both? Are we neither?

This is a topic many monks, priests, and other spiritual leaders have contemplated over the centuries, and depending upon who you ask, you’re likely to receive a wide variety of answers. In my limited experience and explorations of such things, I believe that humans are intrinsically good and that we are not inherently tainted or evil. Despite our materialistic society and pressures for the physical, we are spiritual beings. Yes, we are Spiritual beings!

Our world has it backwards - we are not physical beings with a soul, but spiritual beings with a body! We have gotten so enmeshed in our physical sensations and society, perhaps, that we have forgotten our true nature and calling -so enmeshed that some have become overwhelmed and reacted violently (literally) to the stimuli and chaos of the physical world- but we remain spiritual beings nonetheless. Somewhere along the line, our species started to “forget” this little truth. As time went on and more of us forgot our spiritual basis, our physical cultures twisted the reality around further, separating man from “God” with rules and dogma and ritual.

After centuries of fostering this separation from spirit, our world, our people, is sick - heartbroken. Why? Because we have lost the connection with our true spirit. We have allowed ourselves to be separated from truth and from each other. If we do not recognize our neighbor as an expression of the same higher power from which we came, it is easier to harm him in word or deed, ultimately enforcing the vicious “un-spiritual” cycle. If we do not recognize ourselves as expressions of the ultimate spirit, it is easier to fall into the materialistic physical trap; Easier to fall prey to our own anger and jealousy and ego-trips. Sounds like fun, doesn’t it? What does that say about us, about the state of our world?

Ironically (and fortunately), we are beginning to reach out for each other through the technology that once served to separate us. Online communities of all kinds are all over the internet! Yes, some of them are absolutely overrun with emphasis on the physical (or is it the virtual?) and inundated with egos of all kinds. Yes, sometimes the technology that brings us together also makes it easier to forget there’s another human being across the world who is going to see your unnecessarily harsh response to a post. Nonetheless, we are reaching out to each other. We are reaching out across the world to each other in an attempt to reconnect with our species. Reaching out at a time when our immediate physical surroundings may seem overwhelming. But we are reaching out, and that is an amazing step in the right direction. At the same time that we are reaching out for each other across the internet, many folks are also beginning to realize and explore their spiritual side. Yaaaay us!!

And as we continue to reach out for each other and continue to realize our spiritual nature, our species is starting to evolve. We are changing ourselves and our world, for the better. And although I haven’t completely curbed my impulses to smash bugs, sometimes, just sometimes, my karma is spared a tiny bit from inflicting pain on another expression of spirit (I missed the bug).

Namaste!!

So it starts - my blog. So why a blog? Why a site at all? Well, simply put, it’s just the right thing to do. Ok, so that sounds a bit corny to a lot of you… but *why* is it the right thing to do? And what am I hoping to accomplish here?

Well, I am somebody on the “Path” and my time is “now”. This is part of my particular path. Everything that I’ve done so far in my life has lead me here, to this blog, to this site. It is a way to reach out to others much like myself who are making a similar journey. The World is changing. Our concepts of “reality” are changing. It is time to share with each other, to reach out to each other, to learn and grow and evolve as a species. This is a part of that.

On a favorite bookmark, a quote by Edith Wharton: “There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.” Whether the candle or the mirror, I’m not sure which, nor am I sure it matters right now. What does matter is that the light is spreading. If you are on a similar path, or curious about it, then I welcome you to accompany me, and to share with me. If not, then you are not meant to be here yet, and I bid you adieu and good luck on your journey.

Let us discover, together, where this particular branch of the path takes us…

Namaste!