Hi Zeus, I love the framework of progression that you laid out. I sense that I am in the midst of all four of these stages at once. In response to a new year prompt, I wrote a list of my wildest dreams in a stream of consciousness, tapping into the deepest desires in my soul. The result was a mess of complicated longings that reflect each of the stages you describe. My desire to have extended times of traveling and seeing new places seems to evoke the bucket list mentality. I thought it was insightful to categorize this as consumption. I usually distinguish having experiences from having material goods, but they do seem to come from the same desire to have. I wrote about my desire to plan gatherings, to connect people to resources, to lead in my church community, which all come from a place of a desire to do and contribute. I wrote about my desire to develop as a writer and connect with other artists, and spend my time reading and reacting to other people's writing, which reflect my desire to become. And all of this, even the act of writing this list, seems to reflect Nature pouring herself through me, of my desire to be. I appreciate your thoughtfulness on this subject. Thank you for sharing!
Wow, this is a deeply knowing and heartfelt contribution. Great examples and great teaching. You so eloquently and personally demonstrate the intermingling and interplay of these necessary existential dimensions. How human! Thank you!
Dear friend, thank you for sharing these deep thought. I sometimes witness the conflict between these different states through which we experience life and their resolution in Being which includes and transcends them all. What a process of pacification to perceive all the fragments not anymore as fragments but in this unified field where everything coexist in coherence and constantly emerges renewed and recreated from our Heart at peace.
Dear friend of Heart, yes, "being-- which includes and transcends them all" as you say. One field, many facets. One kingdom, may rooms. Isn't it nice to know that these "rooms" we live in all at once! Crazy, but very invigorating! If we tried to make them coherent from our little bed under the covers, we would drive ourselves crazy, until we call the spirit into our lives and under our blankets to reveal to us the whole house, neighborhood, country, and indeed universe and beyond working as One living organism, animated by essence and always and evermore creating in love.
Brian, brilliant complement to my philosophizing! I think your biblical citation quite apropos and uncannily similar in content and tone through the Christian lens to what I have put forward in this essay from a more broadly spiritual perspective. This shows that spirit finds a way to speak in different tongues but the same intentions across traditions and realms. Thanks for the citation.
For the audience, here is the New International Version translation of Romans 12:1-8:
"A Living Sacrifice
12 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Humble Service in the Body of Christ
3 For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. 4 For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5 so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. 6 We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your[a] faith; 7 if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; 8 if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead,[b] do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully."
Hi Zeus, I love the framework of progression that you laid out. I sense that I am in the midst of all four of these stages at once. In response to a new year prompt, I wrote a list of my wildest dreams in a stream of consciousness, tapping into the deepest desires in my soul. The result was a mess of complicated longings that reflect each of the stages you describe. My desire to have extended times of traveling and seeing new places seems to evoke the bucket list mentality. I thought it was insightful to categorize this as consumption. I usually distinguish having experiences from having material goods, but they do seem to come from the same desire to have. I wrote about my desire to plan gatherings, to connect people to resources, to lead in my church community, which all come from a place of a desire to do and contribute. I wrote about my desire to develop as a writer and connect with other artists, and spend my time reading and reacting to other people's writing, which reflect my desire to become. And all of this, even the act of writing this list, seems to reflect Nature pouring herself through me, of my desire to be. I appreciate your thoughtfulness on this subject. Thank you for sharing!
Wow, this is a deeply knowing and heartfelt contribution. Great examples and great teaching. You so eloquently and personally demonstrate the intermingling and interplay of these necessary existential dimensions. How human! Thank you!
Dear friend, thank you for sharing these deep thought. I sometimes witness the conflict between these different states through which we experience life and their resolution in Being which includes and transcends them all. What a process of pacification to perceive all the fragments not anymore as fragments but in this unified field where everything coexist in coherence and constantly emerges renewed and recreated from our Heart at peace.
Dear friend of Heart, yes, "being-- which includes and transcends them all" as you say. One field, many facets. One kingdom, may rooms. Isn't it nice to know that these "rooms" we live in all at once! Crazy, but very invigorating! If we tried to make them coherent from our little bed under the covers, we would drive ourselves crazy, until we call the spirit into our lives and under our blankets to reveal to us the whole house, neighborhood, country, and indeed universe and beyond working as One living organism, animated by essence and always and evermore creating in love.
Thanks, Zeus. I wonder if Romans 12:1-8, particularly in the translation called The Message fits with your thinking here.
Brian, brilliant complement to my philosophizing! I think your biblical citation quite apropos and uncannily similar in content and tone through the Christian lens to what I have put forward in this essay from a more broadly spiritual perspective. This shows that spirit finds a way to speak in different tongues but the same intentions across traditions and realms. Thanks for the citation.
For the audience, here is the New International Version translation of Romans 12:1-8:
"A Living Sacrifice
12 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Humble Service in the Body of Christ
3 For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. 4 For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5 so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. 6 We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your[a] faith; 7 if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; 8 if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead,[b] do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully."