Читать книгу 366 Celt: A Year and A Day of Celtic Wisdom and Lore - Carl McColman - Страница 66

In his book Where Three Streams Meet: Celtic Spirituality, Irish monk Seán Ó Duinn suggests that neart could be thought of as mana, the Polynesian concept of “life-force.” Which brings to my mind a variety of other ways of thinking about neart: it is reiki, the Japanese concept similar to mana—of “Universal Life-Force.” It is prana—a similar concept found in the Sanskrit tradition. Sure, it’s dangerous to draw sweeping parallels like this that blithely hop across cultures and their distinctive ways of understanding the cosmos—and yet, one of the treasures of neart is how it offers us both a sense of the energy that pulsates through all things, and how that energy is a source of plenty. In this way of seeing things, neart may not be exactly the same as similar concepts from other cultures, but it is close enough to celebrate common ground. We can leave it to the academics to split the hairs that separate reiki from neart, and so forth. In the meantime, Celtic spirituality can join numerous other wisdom traditions in affirming that the world we live in is not a place of scarcity and hardship—at least not essentially. No matter what material challenges we face, we are all custodians of immense spiritual wealth.