The Way and the Life

A Revisit

A marine returns from Vietnam … and is found to be a changed man. Prior to his war duties … he lived his life carefree … drawn to the many interesting activities … sports … gals … and so forth. But in Vietnam … he came to be familiar with the nature of the life force … and increased his association … as a person … with the experience. His personality undergoes a transformation … and he is brought into a new attitude about himself. But mostly … the soldier realizes … that he has been put in sole charge of his life … and the experience … has shaken him.

The main difference in his disposition is the fact that … he always considered himself perfectly capable of taking care of himself … but an encounter with the life force … introduces him to the many issues … inherent in life. Its an experience that visits all of us … in one way or the other. A traffic accident … an ailment … financial loss … a break with a loved one … death of a relative and others … are a common event in life. Is this what we come to understand as the way … in which we grow in our understanding of life? Certainly the Christ … is the one … who first brought western man … to the acquaintance of the issue.

Prior to the Christ … a young prince … closeted in the palace … takes a tour of the kingdom one day … and observes a corpse being carried to its funeral. He is aghast at the possibility of death … leaves the palace … and spends his life as a wandering hermit … to discover … the complete experience of life. Both of these illustrious gentlemen were thereafter … brought to report … with regards to their experience … and their experience conveyed as a message to man. Its been the quintessential relation between man and God.

In our lifestyles in these times … we find man … directly seeking the answers … to the way of life … himself. The usual method has been … for the man to heal from his tragedy … and then one day … later in life … to refer to the experiences of the Prophets … and relate his experience to that in some way. Why is that unusual? Because handling the life force … and the trauma of life threatening events … normally puts a man .. in an aggravated condition … that renders any … peaceful attempt to face the issues … difficult. Besides … the issues that are raised in contact with the life force … are too large in scope.

In taking to understand the life of the prophet … we form a relation to him … and co-relate our experiences with his … as the common identity we share with him. The practice produces a curious effect in man … as the student … and the Prophet as the master. Its the way man views his position … in creation … in comparison to that of his master. It makes for an enduring relation … and the many moments when we break or return to the relations … speaks of the warm understanding we create with him … as man.

Its not unusual to find in these times that … when our attempts to work out our problems ourselves do not produce a satisfactory result … we return to him … from our former experience. Perhaps we come to realize something new … for having made the attempt at self understanding ourselves. And that may introduce a new factor to the relations … maybe making his experience more real and coherent to us. Perhaps we are not in that way … entirely dependent on him anymore. Perhaps we also bring a smattering of our experience and knowledge of the way and the life.

What we find significant in these experiences … is the way man makes himself avail … of all possible guides and help … already existing in the world's offer of support … to the average man. The one thing that makes our endeavors difficult … is when we insist …. in our pride and obsession … that we can achieve that ourselves … by our own will and intelligence. We reject any suggestion of our faults … and bring ourselves to view our own … visions and perceptions … as a profound statement of understanding … by us. That of course would beg the question of … who we think we are.

I seem to recall an instance in my reckoning … when a belief I expressed … made me realize its actually borrowed from the Christ … another from the Vasudeva … and another from the Buddha. I just thought it common sense … and certainly everybody else was doing the same. What made the difference this time? I think it was the way I was applying my will at my career … and the usual work routine. All of a sudden … I was faced with a clash of wills … about what properly constitutes my will. And it took place in a private and personal part … of the way I thought of myself.

So I figured … Hey! I don't have a problem with that! I'm prepared to allocate such rights correctly. But a small problem did arise … owing to habituation. I had grown so accustomed to treat the many aphorisms I lived by … as common property … that I had difficulty thereafter … isolating myself … and paying obeisances … to the source of the thought … from before and from someone else. I re-organized my view of myself … as man with a mind … and the others … as the Gods … and that improved the condition considerably.

In creating that separation between me and the Gods … I came to see myself as simply the living specie … and the Gods as the domain of the universe … the world … and the lives that may have preceded mine. It causes some anxiety of course … to experience man … as separate from all else … but the occasional visit to the house of worship … the contact we maintain with the divine idea … and the way in which our life … seems to be outside our direct management … makes for a thoughtful and paced manner of handling the issues.

The issue has become so prevalent in the world's affairs … as to suggest that its a sign of the times. The mindless acts of violence … the daily grind of shootings and bombings … is no doubt … a matter that rises from our will at managing this new package of … the ways of providence. Man brings his mind to the issues … while the Gods seem to offer their passion for life. Together we might hope for a greater stability in the world's affairs. But its going to take some work.