Wednesday 19 December 2012

I want more

A poem about consumption, quite relevant at this time of year, with a chorus from an old favourite tune:

I want more

More entertainment
More sport
More news
More channels
More cooking shows
More food

When the urge hits your mind
like an emptiness blind,
that's a-more!

More music
More variety
More choice
More games
More laughs
More travel

Fill the gap in your gut
there's no end to the glut,
that's a-more!

More downloads
More apps
More speed
More sizzle
More pizazz
More thrills

Jam the void in your soul
the insatiable hole,
that's a-more!
that's a-more!

Thursday 6 December 2012

Soul

“As soon as we allow ourselves to think of the world as alive, we recognise that a part of us knew this all along. It is like emerging from winter into spring.”
Rupert Sheldrake, The Rebirth of Nature
I went walking not long ago in the hills behind the central Victorian town of Heathcote. It is dry, rocky country full of hardy box trees and wattles. The earth is red clay dressed with grey tussock grasses, and you feel the silence more than hear any sound from a living thing. If you sit down somewhere you might see an industrious bull-ant heaving a dead bug off to its nest or a curious skink appear on a lichen-covered rock. 
I came to a lookout from where in the distance you can see the roofs of the town. The wattles were in bloom, spiky saplings with bright yellow balls lighting up the dour, olive-grey bush. 
Sitting on a rock at the lookout I began to get a sense of the presence of this land. A shimmering feeling came to me, a joy for the aliveness of this place and its unique character. I felt blessed to be there. And this joy seemed to be emanating from the land, shining from the very surface and through every living thing – it sparked the air all around. I felt like I was witnessing a gentle but deeply profound force.
For better or worse, my mind wants to conceptualise. I want to be able to connect the intangible, which I recognise to be a large part of life, to the material world.
Soul is not talked about much in our society, but its effects are profound and everywhere to see. In fact without it, life could not exist. It is the principle of quality that informs and interpenetrates material existence. All objects need soul for their integrity. Take something like a block of wood – inspecting it on many levels we can see its shape and grooves, its geometry, the mathematics of its angles, its cellular structure, its former presence as part of a tree, its design as part of the framework of a house. The block of wood has integrity and purpose, and therefore soul is present in it. 

Everything in the universe has soul, but we must have eyes to see it. I think it requires fine and developed appreciation, and this is something that the religious spirit over the millennia has tried to cultivate. Religions have sought to connect people with the meaning and integrity of their existence within a meaningful universe. All religions, whatever their differences, are ultimately ways to relationship with soul. They are means by which the gaze can be shifted from everyday material life to the inner forces that infuse and enrich that life.

At a time of decline in organised religion, we can still connect with soul. It can be through poetry or meditation, through being in nature or any place that sparks reflection, through any good relationship, celebration or ritual. Wherever there is quality, there is soul. And for those who experience it, even just an occasional glimpse, everything shines and is truly wonderful.
We humans have the capacity to recognise soul but we can also deny it and act against it. When we deny it, we have the potential to align with what could be described as the “dark principle”, the manifestations of which are disconnection, destructiveness and evil. What is often labelled “soulless” – for instance a treeless urban environment of concrete high-rise buildings and freeways – is an example of human work (conscious or not) for disconnection and dissolution. The symptoms of living in soulless environments include relationship breakdown, alienation, addictions, and poor mental and physical health. These have been well-documented in the outer suburbs of cities where there is a lack of community and integrated, meaningful life.
Soul is still present in that kind of environment, but it is obscured by that which is its opposite and which works against it. We have to liberate soul by acting to increase relationship, connection and community. Even in the most extreme circumstances, such as wars, it is impossible to say that soul is not there. If it were totally absent, there would simply be no existence.  
My experience in the hills behind Heathcote was a personal pointer to soul. I wish that I was more aware of it in my life and in the world at large, and that I acted more in concert with it. This is a challenge for all of us as individuals, but I believe it’s also something we have to face collectively as a global human community. Perhaps all the global issues – the need for environmental repair and economic, political and social justice – ultimately mean us acting together in service of soul.