Читать книгу The Dwelling Place of Wonder - Harry L. Serio - Страница 6

I was born at an early age, and so I have difficulty remembering the day I emerged into this world. I don’t recall whether that September morning was a bright, sunny day that would be an indication, true or not, of the life to follow, or if it was a gray dawn that would mark a cloudy future.

Sometimes I think I remember the day, or at least my departure from the other side, the realm of the spirit. There is a legend that assumes the pre-existence of the soul and that at the moment of entry into this life, an angel puts her finger to the formless lips of the child-to-be and says simply, “Forget.”

There is then no longer a conscious awareness of the former existence until the return following death. There are only fragments of memory, a feeling that there is more to life than what we observe, some fleeting moments of yearning for what had been in another time, another existence, perhaps even in another state of being.

Lurking somewhere in the primal consciousness that begins developing in the cerebral cortex of the embryotic brain are the faint traces of that memory of a previous existence. It is that element that leads to religious constructs to explain who we are, where we have come from, how we can maintain contact with our spiritual origins, and what our purpose and our destiny might be.

A group of early Christians known as the pre-existiani believed that the souls of all persons existed before they were born. The early church theologian Origen shared this belief, and it was later perpetuated among the Albigenses who further developed the concept of Christian reincarnationism. Although Origen was condemned by the church at the Second Council of Constantinople in 553, his beliefs continued as an expression of Christian mysticism.

My own belief is that I have entered this life with a purpose, and that my experiences—a combination of events, feelings, relationships, knowledge, and wisdom—all are part of why I am here. I am less certain as to why this purpose exists, whether for my eternal spiritual growth, or for some aggregate spiritual entity or collective unconsciousness in whom resides the totality of all that is and has been and is to be, and of which I am ultimately a part.

Nevertheless, I feel that there is a divine spark within me, a manifestation of the divine, the Christ-essence if you will, that makes me at one with all living creatures and spiritual entities on this planet and those that may exist throughout the universe.

If this sounds “esoteric,” that’s OK, because we are all “out of this world,” which is what esoteric literally means. We have our origins beyond the realm of time and space. What I have written, however, is a narrative of this temporal existence and my attempt to make sense out of my own life, those who are a part of it, and those who have skirted the edges of it bringing their own gifts of insight to my life.