Spiritual Beings
"Life is not some kind of test, that if we fail, we will be punished. We are not human creatures who are being punished by an avenging god. We are not trapped in some kind of tragic place out of which we have to earn our way by doing the "right" things. We are Spiritual Beings having a human experience. We are here to learn. We are here to go through this process that is life. We are here to feel these feelings."
-- Robert Burney from his book "Joy to You and Me"
While in break during class yesterday, I was talking to a friend from school and I shocked myself when I said some preposterous things about life being a series of sad experiences. I mentioned human suffering and I heard myself say life is hard most of the time. Then I stopped and thought about it. I really do NOT believe that. I got especially worried when I heard my friend say that he doesn't really believe in anything and that the more he studies Biology, the less he believes God exists. I felt like crying, and I even questioned my academic choice, but that's another story.
All human beings are faced with pain at any given moment, and while we see some people going through more painful lives than others, at some extent every person in this world experiences suffering in some way or another. It doesn't matter you lead a life others would consider good, it is always touched by sadness. And we ask why, we want to know who's playing a big joke on us every time things get bad. I could go on about the whole God's giving us free will and such, but rather than getting into a religious discussion, I'm just trying to understand human nature. And unfortunately, suffering makes part of it.
I really have no idea of what I want to say. That quote at the beginning of the post was sent to me by a friend after I told him about my friend in Colombia passing away. I suppose I just wanted to share it because I really liked the "We're spiritual beings having a human experience" part. This human experience is full of trials and tribulations and I personally choose to go through them under the light of my faith in God. It's very sad to see there are people like my schoolmate who don't want to believe and who have that sad look on their faces because they have no hope, no meaning and no goal... no joie de vivre!
November 28th, 2006 - 10:03
For what it’s worth . . .
The main feature of human existence is that we are born and we must die. Thus, we spend some – or a lot – of our time trying to make sense of these truths and trying to find some sort of meaning in it.
Pain, like happiness, bliss, love, and loss, are part of that human experience. But why must we suffer? First, the only guarantee in life, once you’re born, is that you will die. What happens in between is a matter of chance and choice, in different measures. “Fairness” is a human concept. It is not tied to existence. Fair or not, you exist.
Second, life without diverse emotions is like looking at a canvass painted with one color. Or listening to a single note. How would we be able to appreciate the human experience if we didn’t have hate to contrast it to love. If we weren’t overwhelmed so we could contrast it with peace.
Finally, I somewhat disagree with the quote. I believe we are here to experience life. Not to “learn” but to “experience.” Whatever lessons we are to draw from life will be revealed through our experience of life.
As for your friend, there’s a difference with not “believing” in something and not knowing what you believe in. Maybe your friend’s experience does not let him share his same idea of “God” in the Judeo-Christian way you do. Yet, he is experiencing life. There’s no rule saying that his experience is any less valuable or meaningful or edifying because he questions his beliefs. He’s no Catholic, for sure, but he may find his spirituality on the less traveled roads.
Which is all a long way to say that the human experience is what it is and it is different for each person. The sooner we realize that the bad times do have a role to play, the sooner we can embrace them and work our way past them.
November 28th, 2006 - 10:16
“He’s no Catholic, for sure, but he may find his spirituality on the less traveled roads.”
Good point, Roberto. I know that in the past he has tried to look for some meaning and now I just see a person who has given all hope, who says there isn’t anything beyond life. I personally cannot walk through life thinking that way, and that’s why I hold on to the hope of something better once my life is over. Looking at it at the light of my faith, I do believe in eternal peace and isn’t that what we all want? My life is good as it is right now, even with the rough patches along the road. But it’s that hope of something better beyond, what keeps us going, what keeps ME going.
It isn’t that my friend doesn’t believe in anything different from what I believe. I embrace diversity, I embrace other beliefs. He just doesn’t have any and I think it’s sad. I don’t judge him for it, though. And I know if it’s wrong, but I just feel sorry for him. You have to hear him to understand me… Really, really sad.
November 28th, 2006 - 11:01
I look at pain and suffering as one side of a balanced equation. While I hope that the equation for my life is solved in this life and not the next one, there must be sadness if there is to be happiness.
Taking a page from the Oriental belief of yin and yang, things exist to balance each other and we must experience sadness to know the difference between bliss and desperation.
I did not know how desperation felt until recently and I thank God for the opportunity to feel that. I now know that I will experience bliss. I not only experienced desperation, I learned from it… especially that I do not ever want to feel it again.
I like the analogy that Roberto use of the canvas, however, in life we must chose our colors. His comments made me think of the Buddhist monks that make the choice to live in peace and harmony with the universe, almost like artist that chooses to not use the whole palette but only the pastel tones.
I agree with the quote and see life as a learning process. I believe self actualization is all about learning what works for us as human beings. Every day we strive to better ourselves learning from each step we have taken, looking at the progress we are making in our walk. I like the quote “The destination is not as important as the journey,” but mainly because of the knowledge we gather during that journey. When we choose to learn from life, we are always wiser because of our experiences, we learn with every step. It is awesome to look at the concept from the point of view of spirituality.
I am not sure if hope is human or divine, but I know that the more I live, the more I believe in God, the more hopeful I am of the future that is to come.
November 28th, 2006 - 12:57
“I know that in the past he has tried to look for some meaning and now I just see a person who has given all hope, who says there isn’t anything beyond life. . . I embrace other beliefs. He just doesn’t have any and I think it’s sad.”
Emphasis provided. It is precisely that he doesn’t have any spiritual beliefs now, while he had some before, that makes me believe he’ll take a long walk down the roads less traveled. Faith without doubt is impossible. After all, our spiritual beliefs are not something we can prove empirically. We can’t put God under the microscope and examine Him/Her/It (“it” to me is not demeaning in this case, but rather the acceptance that God is beyond genders since genders are essentially pairs of opposites).
But rather than focus on some supernatural sign from “up above,” maybe your friend will find what some Unitarian Universalists have referred to as “the ‘super’ in the ‘natural.’”
Take, for example, you, or me, or, Logtar, or anyone else on the face of the Earth. Your average woman is born with 2,000,000 eggs. Your average man produces 5,000 sperm cells per minute from puberty until he’s about 70 years old, or about 9.85 billion sperm cells over a lifetime. Yet, for each of us, it took one specific sperm cell and one specific cell to make us. I don’t know statistics that well, but I know the odds of “us” being here are pretty small.
“We” would not have been born at all any other way. Of all the possible human beings that would have been formed by your mother and father’s union, you, Bea, are here.
Your friend may say this is biology at work.
I call it nothing short of a miracle.
November 28th, 2006 - 16:20
Roberto, you can’t imagine the meaning of your words. It reminds me than despite the things that go wrong, there is a reason to go on, because there’s a reason we are here, and it isn’t just nature. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!