Inspirational Quote
You are not a human being in search of a spiritual experience. You are a spiritual being immersed in a human experience.
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
A Father’s Guide to Wisdom
To take part in the forbidden fruit. To understand the secret between good and evil, as God had only known before. It is a plight of humanity, to engage our somewhat humane capacity to understand a paradoxical form of awareness, so that we may be stewards to the vast plains we have God entrusted to us. But something seems awry, especially when we compare the beauty of God’s love for humanity with the origins of an unawakened state from which we came.
In the original story of Genesis, it seems that Adam and Eve, the primordial parents to humanity, the bearers of our genetic, linguistic, emotional, spiritual, and cognitive heritage, are in a state of simplistic reverie. They exist, take in the paradise that is theirs for the taking, walk with God, yet remain somewhat in a simplistic, trance-like state. They are in no way conscious by any standards that we may understand. Yet they are the parents to all, the bearers of consciousness.
A simple paradox exists here—one of paramount importance to our emotional, spiritual, and physiological wellbeing. As children, we live in this state of unconsciousness. We exist and walk as one with nature, learning from its bounty the knowledge needed to identify friend versus foe, good versus bad, holy versus evil. Have you ever seen a child pick up a spider or a bee to explore? Snakes are common areas of interest for the child because they have yet to learn what can or cannot harm them. Nevertheless, a parent’s role is to teach of these dangers and walk in the footsteps of a father or mother to impart the wisdom gained from our life experience. That is the price of the conscious descent we undertake to become humane in our capacity to walk with God.
As you can see, God did not make the journey a simple undertaking. For something to have created something so grand, this form of consciousness would not suffice. A choice must be present, for even in the first chapter of Genesis, God’s will breathed order into chaos, separated light from dark, and the heavens from Earth. We, too, must engage conscious choice and learn ways to return to this form of consciousness, so that we can realize the full brevity the circle of life affords us.
As parents, we watch our children grow. We “raise” them. We lift them and pave the way for their upward ascent into consciousness. Hopefully, we “raise” them well. It takes a good mother and a good father, even a village, to raise a successful child. Nurturing is paramount, yet consciousness must have the polarities of moral commandment and prohibition present to guide its course. The nuclear family provides the road from which the life cycle will emerge, and it is from this basic building block of life that civilization appears.
Our life cycle is like the seasons of the year. We raise into consciousness to one day fall back into that state of unconscious bliss. The story we allowed to unfold during our journey makes the life cycle of paramount importance to the one that has always followed us all along.
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin’s quote reminds us of the beauty of God’s intent. It reminds us that we are but vehicles for the unfolding of a larger plan, one that dwarfs our life’s individuality. What compassion would be present if we approach life as a spiritual being immersed in a human experience? Today I chose to walk with spirit. Today, I decided to walk with the light.
Namaste, my friends. May prayers and blessings find you on your journey to believe, achieve, and advance confidently in the direction of your dreams.
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