Oftentimes while meandering around this "engulfed cathedral" of a place (The Asylum). I hear discussions on belief and purpose, "meaning of life" kinda stuff. So I thought I would state here, how I try to live my life.
Tecumseh and the Shawnee Nation
"So live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart. Trouble no one about their religion; respect others in their view, and demand that they respect yours. Love your life, perfect your life, beautify all things in your life. Seek to make your life long and its purpose in the service of your people. Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide. Always give a word or a sign of salute when meeting or passing a friend, even a stranger, when in a lonely place. Show respect to all people and bow to none. When you arise in the morning, give thanks for the food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies only in yourself. Abuse no one and nothing, for abuse turns the wise ones to fools and robs the spirit of its vision. When it comes your time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with fear of death, so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way. Sing your death song and die like a hero going home".
Tecumseh – Shawnee (1768-1813)
I am in the process of writing up an essay (of sorts) that includes my beliefs at this stage in my life, and have found it to be surprisingly difficult to do. The process usually goes like this;
• There is no "one" name or word to describe what it is I'm trying to express.
• The more words I use to express my belief, the further away from it I get.
"The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao"
When I was very young, about eleven or twelve years old, I joined a religious order called the "Brothers of Charity". I lived, studied, prayed and played there for a few years until I felt something lacking and left to rejoin the outside world again.
Years passed, and then in my early teens, during my training in martial Arts, I was having a problem with focusing my energy, both in combat and in training. My teacher noticed that I was not paying due attention to my breathing, to my control of "Chi" (life energy).
I, in my wisdom, had decided that all this talk of life energy "Chi" or "Prana" to use another term was theatrical stuff (martial arts and religion I had found was full of unnecessary "props and window dressing" that only distracted the unwary).
He set me this task to do. He pointed to a large chair across the room and asked me to show the class (in training) how I would pick it up. I walked over to it slowly, positioned myself, straightened my back, bent my knees in the prescribed manner and lifted it a couple of feet and put it back down again. Then I was asked to explain to the class what technique I used to perform the action. This is the usual method in our Doju. When I had finished, he said, "You have missed one important thing out. You have told us where you positioned your feet, how and why you kept your back straight, but you did not mention your breathing."
I realized that just before I had picked the chair up I subconsciously must have estimated how much the chair had weighed and inhaled just the right amount of breath and held it to perform the task. Had it been a heavier chair I would have taken a deeper breath, a lighter chair, a more shallow breath. We all do this all the time without realizing it. My teacher had shown me that my body and subconscious mind know all about the "Chi" energy and how to use it whether I realized it or not.
I mention this because it signaled a change in my life; I resumed my study of religions or belief systems that included Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam and Taoism. My martial Art training now also included a large amount of Meditation and breathing techniques.
I have found that in most of our "life's Quests" be it academic study, physical prowess, learning a musical instrument, IT skills, whatever, there is a need for a certain amount of discipline, and structure to build on.
I believe our spirit/soul also benefits from a structured regular "workout" just as much as our physical body or mind does. I just feel that organized religion used to perform this role in our lives, but now has "lost the way", for me anyway.
The Big questions of, Life after death or whether God exists, are so far beyond our comprehension our understanding, that (I think) we would be foolish to worry about them at all.
There is so much more I want to add, but the more I say, the further from the "truth" I seem to stray.
