Quiet Voice of Soul How to Find Meaning in Ordinary Life

Chapter One Self ANSWERING THE CALL OF THE SELF How shall I grasp it? Do not grasp it. That which remains when there is no more grasping is the self. #151Panchadari When our son was in third grade, I asked him why he didn't want to sign up for after-school activities. His eyes deepened. He stood up and looked out the window, and I could see he was turning in on himself before he replied. "To be honest, Mom, I don't have time."When I asked him what he meant by that, he explained. "I need to come home and have time to play, to watch cartoons, to be with you, to play with all the toys in my room, sometimes just to walk around my room, maybe go to the store and have time to play with my friends in the building." He said that all day people told him what to do, and there was no way he was going to put himself in a situation where people were going to continue to tell him what to do after school. To me this reflected a simple and direct understanding of what made him happy and rounded out his life to his satisfaction. He understood the joy and the serenity that simple things brought to him. He seemed wholly unfettered by the thought that he might be missing out on something or that he was not doing what his good friends at school were doing. He was not anxious that he was not following their program because he was in touch with what felt good to him. I have always enjoyed my son's company because he is so present in the moment. Being with him can make the most ordinary activity seem fun and exciting. To be in tune with the moment is to be in tune with life's subtle pulse and to have at your fingertips the wisdom of saints and sages. Ultimately, becoming more spiritual will not make life something different. What will change is how we experience the life we have. - - - - - - - - - - - - Instead of standing on the shore and proving to ourselves that the ocean cannot carry us, let us venture on its waters just to see. #151Pierre Teilhard de Chardin SOUL AND SELF We have now discovered that it was an intellectually unjustified presumption on our forefathers? part to assume that Man has a Soul, ... that there is a power inherent in it which builds up the body, supports its life, heals its ills and enables the soul to live independently of the body, ... and that beyond our empirical present, there is a spiritual world from which the soul receives knowledge of spiritual things whore origins cannot be discovered in this physical world. But ... it is just as presumptuous and fantastic for us to assume that matter products spirit, that apes give rise to human beings, ... that the brain cells manufacture thoughts and that all this could not possibly be other than it is. #151Carl Jung The individual self is the channel through which the soul finds expression. If it is tangled in the ropes of self-hatred, false identity and confusion, the soul will have a difficult time shining through. When life is confusing or overwhelming, or when our lives allow little room for personalized variation#151in a troubled family or an autocratic workplace, for example#151the self goes into hiding. When this happens, we learn to look outward rather than inward for answers. Often soul is not regarded as a part of ordinary life, but as something belonging to the sphere of religion or metaphysics. But individually we have the right to open communication with soul, just as we have the right to feel the sun on our face and to breathe the air that surrounds us. Access to soul energy enhances access to ourselves, and to a deeper reality. Although we cannot necessarily describe this other reality, we can experience and share it with others who also are able to experience it. ManyDayton, Tian is the author of 'Quiet Voice of Soul How to Find Meaning in Ordinary Life' with ISBN 9781558743397 and ISBN 1558743391.