HUMMING IN MY UNIVERSE By Jim Paredes (The Philippine Star) | Updated March 27, 2016 – 12:00am
I am passionate about many things. There is music. There is writing. I also teach. There is also the power in me that creates my own daily life in this world. Then there is the passion I have for what I can best describe as being present to life itself. I describe that passion as an “awakened” state of being. I am sometimes an awakened person.
What is an awakened person? What are you awakened to?
If you feel a passion for anything, then you probably have detected that life has a purpose, direction or meaning. These all go hand in hand. And in your life, you feel alive, awakened to entities and forces that are using you to unfurl or unfold wholeness. You feel it. You are the force. You are wholeness itself. You are the Universe. You can’t help it.
In the past few years, I have embraced subjects that hardly resonated with me in the past, such as physics, mathematics, medicine and science itself. These subjects are amazing, governed by rules that you can depend on to work.
The rules and logic of science are there for physical navigation. How their rules and laws were put into some order is nothing short of majestic and mind-blowing. Truly, the universe must be a conscious one.
I am often thrilled, amazed, perplexed or challenged by something. I look at a challenge from the point of view of the physical sciences, and also intuitively and spiritually. I like to be involved and engaged on as many levels as I can.
When you do, you discover not just the world but also aspects of yourself. You come alive in big ways and in ways you do not expect, which can be fascinating though not always pleasant. But they are authentic and true. The more you know about something, the more details you learn. The engagement becomes bigger. And so do you.
This Holy Week, I have been thinking about God in the Christian tradition I was born into. Jesus, the Son of God entered into the world and walked, talked, lived and died like a human person. God, through Jesus, was the abstract Word which wanted to become flesh and blood. He was spirit embodied. He lived in a specific time and place. He entered our history to alter evolution.
All holy books carry more myths than factual historical accounts. They are not by any measure scientific books. Their historical accounts may even be wanting; they are not known for their factual accuracy. And I do not denigrate them in anyway by saying this.
They were written to engage and inspire us in a much deeper way though mystery. Through stories, parables, psalms, they draw us into a discussion of the human condition: sin, suffering, pain, death, forgiveness, faith and redemption.
They offer us the promise of discovering God’s love, which is intrinsic to being human. We are called to the mystery of why God became man, and makes us wonder why we try so hard as humans to be God.
It is as if God and humans are seeking each other out, looking for that middle ground where both can come together.
For me, the “awakening” I mentioned earlier is discovering that we need not do anything, or go anywhere, or search and struggle. We just need to awaken. It’s as simple as that!
Whatever enlightenment you discover anywhere is something you actually brought with you. That is the great find, the awakened state. Nothing is ever lost. We already have it in us. We have never lacked or needed anything. We have always been whole. God has always loved us and has been here, inside us.
This Easter, may we awaken to the holiness and glory of being alive and discover that our capacity for redemption has always been here.
To awaken to both the inside and outside world and shine and feel alive, to celebrate the logic and beauty in everything, to know that God’s life force is with me — that’s what Easter means to me.