Читать книгу An Endless Quest for Spiritual Truth: A Practical Guide to Everyday Spirituality - Eric Chifunda - Страница 5

Preface

Growing up, I wondered about life. I was in search of something beyond the usual humdrum life we seem to go through, but I couldn’t put my finger on what it was. I thought I had a sense of what it was, yet not quite. It seemed real and palpable yet intangible and elusive.

It seemed far yet as near as my heartbeat. I knew with curious certainty that it was something that could show me the way. The way to a new and brighter tomorrow with a promise of freedom from the shackles of this world. I felt that I wasn’t going to rest till I found it. I hoped that finding it would help unravel the mystery of my unfulfilled life.

I had a deeper, unquenchable desire to understand life in general and my life at a deeper level. Questions about who I was, where I was coming from, where I was going to and why I was here taunted me.

I often felt I was at the mercy of life—a life that seemed random. The paradox was that I felt I was alive, yet at the same time I was asleep—spiritually. Deep down within me was a yearning to wake up—spiritually. Hoping that by waking up from my apparent spiritual slumber I would begin to live a life with meaning and purpose. Not forgetting to be cognizant of the fact that life has unending traps that come in different subtle but enticing and well-packaged guises designed to lead one astray. Not forgetting how temptations constantly dog us, trying to trip us so we can yield to them. Should I yield to temptations, get trapped and fall, as I often have, I would fail in my quest for deeper truth about life. But if I had an awakened consciousness, I could muster up enough strength and courage to rise and continue on my life journey, stronger, wiser, and with clearer sight. With clearer sight, I could sidestep life’s unnecessary traps that serve to cause unnecessary pain and suffering. With clearer sight, I could select to endure the pains only which are necessary for my growth.

Questions upon questions, my search for the unknown seemed unending. Finally, at the height of my long apparent futile search, feeling worn, tired, frustrated, driven to the brink of giving up the quest for the call of unknown truth, an epiphany hit me. It felt like a sharp ray of light pierced through my hardened and closed consciousness, lighting up my inner world. I caught a glimpse of a new world, at the same time I experienced a much-needed reprieve from the pressures of my daily grind, if only for a fleeting moment. Momentarily, I enjoyed a brief foretaste of heavenly joy, beyond words, that would await me should I fully awaken to this higher unknown inner reality. Suddenly, it became apparent that it’s Light I have been searching for. Light emanating from a higher source I understood to be God. The Light of God to guide me along my apparent random and uncertain journey of my life. In the Light, I can awaken to higher truth, love, freedom, wisdom, and joy. In the Light, I can begin to move, live, and experience life in its fullness. Is there more to life than Light? Is Light an aspect of love, I began to wonder. A deep desire to understand love, its nature, its role, its reality, its source, and all things God began to gnaw at me. I felt that Light will lead me to higher truth. And in Light, my ardent quest for spiritual truth about life, love, and God began.