Life is such an improbable event. We don’t know that because we are born in the midst of it. We don’t know how rare it is. It seems ordinary. It is here every day, and we are living it, but know it not.
Before we have a sense of it, we know what pleasure and pain feel like; we know the discomfort of hunger; and the satisfaction of fullness; we know mother and father; we learn about the world and the passage of time. But we do not know life.
We live it but it remains hidden to us for a long time. We manifest it, perhaps we more than most living things, yet other living things seem to be just what they are. We are often not sure about life and what we are and frequently don’t give it much thought, for we know what we have to do today and tomorrow; we know what we need and what we want and we know it usually takes time and effort to get them. Life is not high on our priority of things to think about.
Yet life is a process and can be participated in, in many ways. The way we live it will define what we get out of it. For many, life is just what unfolds before us. We know it makes a difference if we choose to do this or to do that. We know what we strive for often does not come to pass. Our hopes rise strong in us, many to be met, many not, thus giving our life a flavor that lingers on, day to day, such that we develop a taste of life, for life, and in life. Therein lies the measure of how we value our living. For some the coming day is anticipated with interest and pleasure, for some with trepidation, discomfort, and dislike, and, for some, with just the resignation that it will be another day.
Life does not have to be like that. We can wake up. We can recognize that we are living and with that awareness, live life differently. We can bring a great sense of meaning to life, that enlivens it, bringing a sparkle and a significance to it that it has not had before. We can make our life a life worth living.
Here in the midst of this highly improbable event, we live, without the sense of the amazingness of us; here, we are unique individuals, doing life, making a difference to the life about us, making a difference to the world, and having little awareness of this. We live here in the here, often not aware of how broad and deep are the choices that surround us, and we often just ride the wave, letting it take us where it wishes, not making choices to go where we may want to go. We are too often passengers along for the ride, not travellers forging our own journey.
We are biological and psychological, and social beings. There are many things we can do in each of these realms that can bring this sense of wonder and specialness to our lives to enrich our living. In this course, we are going to explore these things; we are going to learn about them and practice them. We are going to learn about living; how to do this in a way that makes life more meaningful, more joyful. We are going to explore how to live life with an understanding that life is worth more than living. We are going to consider becoming travellers. If you wish to come along, please join us.
This course, is called ‘Meditations for a Traveller’ and starts with the examination of a vertical writing manuscript called, ‘Whisperings of life‘. This explores the journey of the mind through life and examines the play of our awareness throughout that journey. It is life, your life, that provides you with choice; choice of how to live; choice of what to do with your awareness as you pass through the stages of life; challenging you not to just pass along living a life in response to what life presents to you, rather to live in the awareness of the wonder and mystery of existence. We can be a passenger in this world and live a fruitful, interesting, and stimulating life. We can be a Traveller and live actively in a life beyond living.
‘Whisperings of life’ is a poetic story of this passage of the mind through life and how the systems of the mind, form and grow in the biological, psychological, and social realms as the mind passes through time. It is the story of us. It chronicles the richness of our lives but suggests how we can paint them with the colors of the spirit emanating from living as a Traveller.
This course is a set of meditations for those who wish to be a Traveller. They are presented to you for your consideration and contemplation. They are designed to allow you to become aware that you have choice in the way you live your life. You can change it. If you are already a Traveller, then perhaps it can offer you some suggestions on how to further enrich your Travelling.
Whisperings
Things written on the winds
That echo through a mind
That wants to know
Resonate in a heart
That longs to love
That flow
In hands that ache to hold
In feet that yearn to tread
The journey still unknown
The Traveller
For those
To whom
Life
Is for more
Than
Just living
I will deal with elements of living as a traveller in this core blog section. If you wish to explore this journey more fully, please subscribe to the course Meditations for the Traveller – Whisperings of Life.
We make a beginning.
We often begin life with song; with the cry of that first breath, announcing that I am here. I have left the womb and have ventured out here into the world, into this something that I have no knowledge of; I have no ideas about it – show yourself to me. And so we come to life.
If this interests you, come join the course.
John B. Carlile 