Contrast

I am back again and apologise for the length of time I have neglected writing blogs. Please if you read this and find it meaningful, tell your friends about it. Go with your God, Lionel



We live in a world of opposites it seems, although some claim that such a view is arrived at because we form our judgements based upon appearances only, in other words they are superficial. Many see a world where chance and accident play apparently vital parts and where design seems at the best imperfect and at the worst non-existent. If we dare to look beneath the surface or beyond the immediate, then a completely different world order is revealed. As Alexander Pope, the eighteenth century English poet said in his Essay on Man, “All chance is direction which you cannot see” and “All are but parts of one stupendous whole, whose body Nature is and God the soul.” Thomas Say from Philadelphia told us, “Each moss, each shell, each crawling insect, holds a rank important in the plan of Him, who framed this scale of beings.”

I believe these statements have the ring of truth about them and how anyone who accepts them can hold there is no plan, no design to life is beyond my understanding. Indeed it can be argued that because of the insistence of science on having empirical evidence for everything, which in the West at least has become de rigour, we have thrown away a valuable map that could lead our faltering footsteps around the apparent pit-falls and obstacles of life on earth. That map is our in-built sensitivity or intuition. How we feel is a far more accurate measure of underlying reality than are our five very imperfect senses.

Indeed I believe that in the very contrasts which are an integral part of our perceived world of opposites, we can find the underlying verities of a life that is far from accidental or spontaneous. It is by examining the contrasts that we gain a true understanding of the colourful and awe-inspiring reality of this wonderful world we are privileged to live on and share for a few short years. By listening carefully to the raucous cries of the Rook or the screams of the Peacock, we grow to appreciate more the glory of the song of the Nightingale or the Song Thrush; By examining the microscopic world of Particle Physics, we come to understand the order and beauty that pertains in the Cosmos and how identical it is to what the microscope reveals; By seeing the colourless life-forms that inhabit the dark places of our world, we grow to appreciate the value of light and colour in our lives; and by gazing in wonder at the power of a mighty waterfall, we come closer to understanding the peace and tranquillity that is at the heart of all life.

There is no doubt in my mind that our lives are planned. Despite the existence of free will that enables us to follow the plan in our own individual way or even to stray from it, we are always led back to the path that is right for us at any particular time. We truly are where we are supposed to be and experiencing what we are supposed to experience, even when at the time, such an experience seems painful or even tragic. To understand this, we need to use our higher senses, feel what is happening around us and spend some time regularly going within in meditation. By using these sadly neglected attributes that are part of each one of us, we will become convinced from within, not by empirical experiment, that life or consciousness to give it a better name, are eternal.

Therefore, is this earthly life a mere part of a much larger reality for which our experiences and relationships here are preparing us to understand and live in its full glory.