Raiders of the Lost Spark

“Pursuit of specialness is always at the cost of peace”

This is an interesting teaching from A Course in Miracles. This line resonated very strongly with me. I have always been a very goal-oriented person, and often this aspect of myself has caused me a great deal of stress. What is the purpose of goals? Many of them revolve around personal aspirations and achievements, and therefore are ego-based, hence there is a desire for a person to be “special”. This type of thinking separates us from other people. I am certainly not suggesting that people need to give up their goals, but this is a personal reminder to myself that having loftier and more altruistic goals may make me happier in life.

I’m no closer to settling on a topic for my masters thesis. However, one topic that I have been given some consideration to is Bhakti Yoga. The end goal of this practice is union with the divine. It attempts to awaken the mind through the heart and therefore, it is for the devotional type of person who usually responds best to the idea of love. In this practice, love in the ordinary human sense becomes divine love through through this practice. Through this love and devotion, a unity between the conscious mind and the heart centre of the unconscious is established, and this unity culminates in an experience of the Absolute. In saying this, I can’t help but wonder: is Bhakti Yoga therefore not a part of every religious tradition? Standing, kneeling, dancing, chanting… they are all toning and aligning the body and the mind while the adherent pays homage to the object of their devotion?

Inspirational quote of the week: “Just take one step outside your self. The whole path lasts no longer than this step.” – Ni’Matullah Wali

Some years ago, I had a small tattoo of an Alpha and an Omega (Classical Greek letters) placed on my upper back. Little did I know that this had religious connotations: Revelation 1: 8 in the King James Version, when the phrase “I am the alpha and the omega” was used.

Having been raised Roman Catholic, I fell away from my church in those rebellious teenage years, feeling it had little to offer me and that perhaps there was something else. Over the years, I have had many experiences in this arena: attending Baptist and Pentecostal services (there is something particularly appealing to me about the charismatics), visiting Buddhist templates and a Sikh Gudwara, and reading about Witchcraft and Paganism. I decided to do some post-graduate work at WLU in Religion and Culture – Asian Spiritual Disciplines, The Historical Study of Jesus, Psychology and Religion, and Cults and New Religious Movements. What I learned from all of this is that, putting aside some of the NRMs which I studied, a case can be made in favour of all of the major paths of belief in the world. I don’t think there is a correct or an incorrect answer – I certainly don’t have one, and I’m comfortable with this.

Now, at the onset of my research into my thesis for my Masters of Metaphysical Science, I realize that I am stumped for a topic. Maybe I should attempt a synthesis of all of the major world religions and see what I can come up with? It would be reminiscent of the story of “Stone Soup“.

Inspirational quote of the week: “Small heroes master their enemies. Big heroes master themselves” – Rumi