Great kōrero, thanks! Love, music, sunsets, spirituality, religion, Santa…. are all grounded in a sense of generosity and hope. We could all do with a bit more of that right now.
Hey Jesse, thought provoking piece. As a passive non-believer, I can’t understand the need to put so much energy in to something non-real like religion and gods and the like. I put my ‘spiritual ’ , connected, in the moment energy in to my life, friends, family and place. Religion uses the past to ‘make’ people believe in a future, usually holding a carrot in one hand and a stick in another to gain compliance. Believers are not in the moment, they are looking to the past or future, neither of which exist. As I age I’ve become more strongly attracted to being in the moment and the incredible joy that can be had from it. Anxiety and depression are about the past and the future I think. Love your mahi!
I do think we overthink what belief in the mystery, the ineffable actually is. It gets tangled up in religious doctrine and being right and blergh.
But if you think about what it means to be open to spirit, its not that complicated or far away for most of us. Its the awe when your child enters the world. The smell of eucalyptus on an early morning walk. Dogs. Pie. When someone you love smiles as you walk in the room. Sharing a hug with a trusted friend. Swimming in the sea. All of these wondrous moments that seem to add up to the meaning of life. Who knows if there is a force behind it?
I think there is, I don't pretend to know what it is, but there have been too many experiences that show me there is so much more to this than material reality. And I suspect we have been spiritually neutered by capitalism. Imagine if we believed in something more than buying the next thing or going for the promotion? Imagine if we believed in the inherent value of every living being and this planet that holds us all?
It is one of life's enduring puzzles - is the chaos of the world & our personal lives just that "chaos" - or is there some ultimate "plan" that makes all the incredible suffering of millions of people "worth it" to achieve some ultimate goal that we are not permitted to understand? I find "spirituality" per se both real and comforting, but an overall "plan" and/or God illogical 🤷
"Spirituality" for me is appreciating what IS - like the wonder of a Piwakawaka flitting around catching miniscule insects, or the blood moon rising over the sea, or the fascination of watching children develop from tiny infants into full grown adults, or same on a much faster timeframe of watching a live feed of a bird's nest from egg laying to chicks fledging weeks later (or if you are a Royal Albatross chick on the Otago Peninsula - months later!) I don't NEED for "something" to be behind it all, as the knowledge that it IS, and I can have a part within in it to make it survive and thrive, is the whole point for me.
Bill Bryson's book, The Body, is a fascinating journey into what make us human beings as opposed to any other animal, and amongst many observations that struck me (and I paraphrase here) when talking about our brains, is that much of it's ability & capacity is unecessary to basic living - but it has evolved to enable humans to make & appreciate music, art, etc far beyond just finding food, having a place to safely live, raising young etc. Some people need an architect to have caused this, but I am happy with evolution and happenstance to explain it all 👍 (ie the extinction of the dinosaurs opened a void, the ancestor who came down from the trees gradually evolved into one who stood upright & could chase down an antelope by being able to run distances without overheating, fire & farming enabled them to stay in one place & have leisure time to create artistic endeavours ⁉️)
Great kōrero, thanks! Love, music, sunsets, spirituality, religion, Santa…. are all grounded in a sense of generosity and hope. We could all do with a bit more of that right now.
Such a good piece Jesse. It expresses exactly how I been feeling reaching seventy and living in this world of ours. Thanks.
Everyone has blind faith in sOmEtHiNg. 🙃
Hey Jesse, thought provoking piece. As a passive non-believer, I can’t understand the need to put so much energy in to something non-real like religion and gods and the like. I put my ‘spiritual ’ , connected, in the moment energy in to my life, friends, family and place. Religion uses the past to ‘make’ people believe in a future, usually holding a carrot in one hand and a stick in another to gain compliance. Believers are not in the moment, they are looking to the past or future, neither of which exist. As I age I’ve become more strongly attracted to being in the moment and the incredible joy that can be had from it. Anxiety and depression are about the past and the future I think. Love your mahi!
Thanks Stephen I don't disagree with any of this!
I do think we overthink what belief in the mystery, the ineffable actually is. It gets tangled up in religious doctrine and being right and blergh.
But if you think about what it means to be open to spirit, its not that complicated or far away for most of us. Its the awe when your child enters the world. The smell of eucalyptus on an early morning walk. Dogs. Pie. When someone you love smiles as you walk in the room. Sharing a hug with a trusted friend. Swimming in the sea. All of these wondrous moments that seem to add up to the meaning of life. Who knows if there is a force behind it?
I think there is, I don't pretend to know what it is, but there have been too many experiences that show me there is so much more to this than material reality. And I suspect we have been spiritually neutered by capitalism. Imagine if we believed in something more than buying the next thing or going for the promotion? Imagine if we believed in the inherent value of every living being and this planet that holds us all?
Love this, thank you!
It is one of life's enduring puzzles - is the chaos of the world & our personal lives just that "chaos" - or is there some ultimate "plan" that makes all the incredible suffering of millions of people "worth it" to achieve some ultimate goal that we are not permitted to understand? I find "spirituality" per se both real and comforting, but an overall "plan" and/or God illogical 🤷
"Spirituality" for me is appreciating what IS - like the wonder of a Piwakawaka flitting around catching miniscule insects, or the blood moon rising over the sea, or the fascination of watching children develop from tiny infants into full grown adults, or same on a much faster timeframe of watching a live feed of a bird's nest from egg laying to chicks fledging weeks later (or if you are a Royal Albatross chick on the Otago Peninsula - months later!) I don't NEED for "something" to be behind it all, as the knowledge that it IS, and I can have a part within in it to make it survive and thrive, is the whole point for me.
Bill Bryson's book, The Body, is a fascinating journey into what make us human beings as opposed to any other animal, and amongst many observations that struck me (and I paraphrase here) when talking about our brains, is that much of it's ability & capacity is unecessary to basic living - but it has evolved to enable humans to make & appreciate music, art, etc far beyond just finding food, having a place to safely live, raising young etc. Some people need an architect to have caused this, but I am happy with evolution and happenstance to explain it all 👍 (ie the extinction of the dinosaurs opened a void, the ancestor who came down from the trees gradually evolved into one who stood upright & could chase down an antelope by being able to run distances without overheating, fire & farming enabled them to stay in one place & have leisure time to create artistic endeavours ⁉️)
Good topic 👍💜