From Quietude to Enlightenment
"Why", I am sometimes asked, "do you write so much about so many things?". Writing, I think is more than a hobby to me. It is an outlet for those serious thoughts which consume my attention mostly in four environments----the dead of night, the stillness of nature, the noise/bustling of city streets, and the random thoughts generated by awakening in the morning. Not all the thoughts stay with me until I write, but some do and those that do I try to assemble in some order and fit them in with the pieces of my own life puzzle. Most of any serious insight into anything seems to come during these enlightening environments. And for these thoughts to arise I have to be alone----absolutely alone. This is when one takes the experiences of life and melds them together to reach conclusions. It takes the quietude.
Evolution intrigues me, not the nuts and bolts of it, but the general gist of it. Life is a continuum built around DNA molecules. In that strange sense we are a part of all that has gone on before and a part of all that will go on in the future. Each of our lives is like the hand in a card game, we play the cards dealt to us, and then when the hand (our life) is over the cards continue to get shuffled. The difference in evolution is that the card deck itself keeps changing. The rules of evolution don't change but the nature of the hands dealt does change.
I never feel less alone or more contented than in the quietude of enlightenment from these 4 environments. Everything else seems perfunctory, predictable, and robotic----almost mindless noise that drowns out mystic chords of time which march ever onward. There are feelings, of which we are capable, that do not lend themselves to verbal or written definition. I think, on some matters, it is possible to understand without the ability to assemble the right facts which would lead to the understanding. I hate to see so many people addicted to communication gadgets like cell phones, TV, movies, computers, etc. It is like they really need to go someplace quiet where their own mind could be allowed to generate some creative thoughts, some quality emotions about life itself and their own place in life.
Some people get high to feel right. Feeling right can sometimes simply mean freedom from physical or mental pain. But this kind of feeling 'better' is not the same as comprehension obtained while sober from the stillness and quietude of those environments which lead to such enlightenment. The kind of enlightenment obtained from these environments is not the kind that will make you more money, or gain you more power, or more friends, or better health----it will just make you more content about life. The quietude of enlightenment is not restricted to any particular class, socio-economic status, ethnicity, religious sect, political bent, age, etc. It is there for everyone. It gives meaning to life. It helps keep things in perspective. It fosters understanding for diversity. These are the moments which give a person the "serenity to accept the things I cannot change: courage to change those things I can and wisdom to know the difference."
These periods of quietude seem, in my case, to go back even to childhood. I can remember sitting in fields with my dog Buff and talking to him about all the confusing aspects of life. Pets are great listeners and one is free to think and say whatever to a pet. Your own babble becomes more refined, more logical, better thought out and the pet loves the sound of your voice talking to them even though they don't understand anything more than this attention signifies a strengthening of the bond between the both of you. When people dismiss this wanton destruction of species via human overpopulation as God's will, a natural and God endorsed dominion of man over all other creatures, I find this obnoxious and outrageously self serving. Just like we understand the value of a pet, I suspect God likewise understands the value of species diversity. If we ourselves like our pets to the extent we do, who is say God does not like other species to the same extent we like our pets? If so, try telling God, "Why do You give a shit about some dumb-ass insect in the Amazon Jungle?" I think some people may misjudge how God really thinks about the diverse species which have evolved from His own created evolutionary process. We are guests in God's created universe. Maybe we need be more respectful of our own environment. Much of what is going down today is not very respectful.
This musing is short. Short because there are no more words to define this quietude of enlightenment. Perhaps it is peculiar to my own life. Whatever.
