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Stillwater
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« Reply #40 on: May 24, 2004, 17:58:38 » |
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Hello, friends...
Wow! Such a seemingly narrow topic has become manifold as the old guns go at it...
Let me take the time out of this serious, multifaceted omni-covering thread which seems to now encompass the entire lot of human struggles to add my two bits... As I see this whole hub-bub, I shall for you now elaborate.
The world which we inhabit, as most here would agree with me upon, is the product of a grand consciousness which made its deep love manifest into the emptiness that was the void, the cradle of being. The universe, at large, is composed of nothing more than energy, and this energy, as some would agree, is almost exclusively positive in nature, allowing one to surmise that this universe is for the most part a grand melting pot of love and ecstacy, a pool of collective joy from which beautiful things are eternally emerging; but this world is always expanding, the light of joyous connectedness is always asuaging the ills of darkness, uplifting the downtrodden. Though the universe is an orb of joy, it is also the home of dark realms, places where, although the light of the creator is ever-present, the pain and suffering inherent to the realms themselves prevent those dwelling within to grasp their connection to all that is.
Our own world lies somewhere in this scheme of light and dark, which are, in truth, two faces of the same coin.
There are places here of insurmountible perfection of being, such as the Falling Lakes of Croatia, or the mountains of southern China, where it is difficult not to feel at one with the creator, but, to deny that there are places of quite a different nature as well, would be a naive error.
Our world is like a grand Las vegas. There is the beauty of the mountains which illuminates the darkness, and then there is what lies beyond, and all around. Our cities and our towns are wells of consumerism and desire, which shape the world around them in ways unthinkable. Our surroundings are moulded by the ways in which we think, and how we treat the living landscape. We have beautiful avenues of sparkling skyscrapers, but the nature of our cities is better reveiled through what lies beneath and within. Places like New York, Moscow, and Hong Kong are labyrinths of serpentine power grids, which serve as conduits to feed the greed of all who live there, and are primordeal nests of hostile and destructive technology employed not for progress, but for avarice, and that is only the beginning. There are vast sewer systems which transport the filth of the masses, chemical emmissions which pollute the air ( In L.A., to breathe the downtown air is equivalent to smoking a pack a day ), lairs of debauchery where narcotics, prostitution, extortion, laundering, and the murder of innocents to protect one's own vile designs is the rule and not the excpetion ( no, this is not Hollywood, such places are all too real )-all of this defilement is the result of our mindset. It was said previously in this thread that one's thoughts shaped the world around them, and this could not be more true. Our world is at times a hell of our own creation, and we have no one else to thank for its wretchedness other than our very own selves. No action goes unnoticed in this universe, and the world around us, as I have tried to stress, is a reflection of that which inhabits it. Like attracts like. The darkness we see is our own pain made manifest for us.
This world is a dark nest of fiends at times, this much is true, but it is the brightest light which shines at night. It is our place to walk in darkness, and to give hope to all who suffer alongside us. To live through great pain, and to witness vile enormity without losing faith in the light is the mark of virtue uncommon. I believe it is the story of an old Testament angle, probably Uriel, who walks the shadows of hell, giving solace to the suffering, always praising the light that is God, though all around is nothing but pain. It is an aquired skill to do this, you see, and not all can know the glow of hope which shines where none can see, for it is always out of sight. Not all can realize the light, though it ever be encompassed in shadow, waiting to be discovered.
There are countless millions who inhabit such worlds of shadow, plains where no ray glances, but the weak are tormented needlessly day by day, those who know not God, but all too well have come to know pain. There are innocents who live day by day, hoping and pining for some gleam of light to comfort them, to tell them that the blackness they inhabit is but a prison of paper bars, but this light never comes. They are only met with bleak despair, and they happen upon spectres among men, those who would only do them wrong. The house of cards which they have up to this point huddled in collapses, and their whole world falls apart. The pain which they are immersed in inundates them, and they see no more reason for living in a world of fleeting hopes, where grace is to be found, only to be a mere phantasm of false illusions. You can easily see why one might choose to take their own life, how an innocent soul can be rankled and broken to the point of final catharsis.
It is of little worth to tell these people that "it will get better", as they feel they have no pretext for thinking such thoughts, and such words have little empathetic value. The only thing which we can do for those who are the subjects of the world's broadsides is to be there for them, for the love which we show the suffering is akin to the love of God, and that is the greatest thing which we could ever give them. Compassion is an emotion infinitely more peerlessly beautiful than bliss. To learn to love others, and the poor world in which we live, is the thing at the heart of all of these strivings, the thing which brings us closest to God.
The suicidal are merely those whom the world has abused to the point of breaking, and ever so much more than forgive them their subtle error, we should stand by them, and lend them our own strengths.
Bless you all, Stillwater
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