The Summary - Finale - Lent 2023: Day 46

As I begin writing this post, it's just gone 8am, the spring sun is already high between the treetops in the neighbouring forest in a cloudless sky. Shortly after midnight as Easter Saturday becomes Easter Sunday, I shall traditionally open a beer and drink it with a whisky chaser and some kiełbasa as zagrycha - cheers! - my first alcoholic drink and meat since Shrove Tuesday, 21 February.

So - to end this cycle of 46 consecutive daily Lenten blogposts, I'll sum up the spiritual side of Lent: 'The Name of God' and 'Alignment with the Unfolding of the Universe'. 

My quest has never been 'whether or not there is a God' - I have always intuited that there is - but to better understand God.

The word 'God' is a useful human shorthand for a phenomenon which we cannot readily define but nevertheless still strongly intuit. There are aspects that need to be pared away though, such as a literal, anthropomorphic reading of the nature of God, as in 'God the Father'. Our knowledge has evolved; we must move on in understanding.

In our universe (one of many?), we can observe some two hundred billion galaxies, each of around a hundred billion stars - so why should we still conclude that the Maker and Purpose of all of this vastness takes the form of a male elder of the species Homo sapiens, as found on the third planet of an average solar system in a galaxy known to us as the Milky Way? 

'Reason', 'Maker' and 'Purpose' as Names of God would be my starting point.

Why is there something rather than nothing? This question has bothered philosophers sever since they started writing down their thoughts, and probably earlier. The 'why' must have a reason; that Reason might well be an integral part of any definition of God.

Where did the Universe come from? Well, scientific consensus suggests a finite beginning of space and time at the Big Bang. But how did that happen? Here one has to either posit a Maker, or just some curious, causeless, random cosmic act. Either notion boils down to pure belief. Sure, you can have a cyclical cosmos in which Big Bangs endlessly repeat. But what started that process? Sure, you can posit 'infinity' and say it's always been like that, but then you have an effect without a cause, the very thing reductionist materialists say you can't have. So 'Maker' it is for me.

And 'Purpose' - I would hold that there is a trajectory, there is a direction, to the Universe's Unfolding. Our Cosmos is on one hand naturally sliding from order to chaos (entropy), while on the other witnessing ever-growing complexity in the form of evolution. A strawberry left on a plate for a week will breakdown into mush; single-celled creatures have evolved to fly to the moon.

Is the Reason righteous? Is the Maker beneficent? Is the Purpose good? I believe so. The infinitely long journey from Zero to One is full of steps back, but overall, we move forward in understanding, slowly progressing away from barbarism - taking pleasure from inflicting cruelty - and towards a more angelic form of life. This journey will take a myriad lifetimes. The end point - All in God, God in All. Total, Universal understanding of everything, ever.

The Jewish notion of not uttering God's name makes sense; God is the ultimate mystery; to utter God's name is to suggest that you understand - you do not, no one does, nor will they for many aeons to come.

Plugging in your will to align with the overall course of the heavens is my way to grow. I have written much about the interface between science and spirituality; I believe that at our stage of evolving knowledge, quantum mechanics is currently the best way to reconcile the difference. That is - the conscious observer's role in any quantum system is crucial to it. Without it, the ambiguity of superposition would endure eternally. 

We will, I believe, in future, have learned to harness our consciousness to go with the flow - indeed, to grow with the flow - willing quantum outcomes to ones that are in harmony with our deepest needs, and synchronised with Cosmic destiny. Right now, we are toddlers in this. Vaguely feeling it, unable to describe it, but sensing that it's there. Growing up in this is a process that must span life after life after life after life. One lifetime is too short even from the most spiritually minded genius.

I'd like to thank Intuition for being with me throughout - it's funny how sometimes (increasing in frequency with age!) I get stuck for a word that I know, and yet when I'm typing like this, I'm in the flow; words just come to me, and the sentence makes perfect sense when I read it back. That's intuition. Channelling, if you will. The perfect guide through life. Once you come to recognise its power. For which I am grateful. I'd also like to thank all my readers, especially those who've stuck with me for the whole of Lent. And a big thank-you to Bożena for supporting this effort on Twitter! Below: just before pressing the 'Publish' button, the view from my desk.

Lent 2022: Day 46
Easter Everywhere, but not Ukraine

Lent 2021: Day 46
The summing up

Lent 2020: Day 46
Nor followers, nor leaders; one's own way to God

The Summary Pt 1 - Lent 2023: Day 45

Gosh - it's whizzed by quickly. Gets faster every year. This marathon's becoming a sprint; the pilgrimage through time becomes less and less of a challenge. Lent is six-and-half weeks long, representing one-eighth of a year.

Coming up to the end of my 32nd consecutive Lent, the most significant part of my year - indeed of my life. Indeed, next year's Lent, by which time I'll be 66, will mark the point at which I'll have observed it for half of my life. (And as such, I will subjectively experience it as passing at twice the speed that it did when I was aged 33.) Having embraced Lent, it has become a defining feature of my life, and over the decades it has become an increasingly spiritual endeavour.

Resolutions that started off as being Lent-only have over time become year-round, life-long habits. I have long abandoned sucrose in the form of sugar - no confectionery, cakes, biscuits etc, no sweetened yogurts or other processed desserts. For good. I have massively limited salt snacks (nuts I still eat outside of Lent). Daily exercising, initiated long ago for the duration of Lent, has become a daily routine. Meat outside of Lent has become far rarer, an occasional restaurant treat rather than a staple. My alcohol intake has dropped greatly (in 2014, the first year I counted it, I was drinking on average over 33 units a week, now it's  down to 14 units, that is - within the UK government guideline).

So - Lent for body is an excellent discipline, I'd encourage it for one and all. The time of year is important too. Although Easter is a movable feast, sliding backwards and forwards by up to one lunar month, it always begins in winter and ends in spring (unlike Ramadan, which wanders through the year). Although this week has been dismal weather-wise, there are buds on the trees, wildflowers are starting to appear, the grass is beginning to grow, insects are emerging and the miracle of Rebirth is about to kick off.

But how about Lent for the soul?

The discipline of sitting down every day to order my thoughts and intuitions about matters spiritual has been deeply rewarding for me. 

One thing I have come to realise is this: we are all different. Only some of us have questions regarding why we're here and what it's all about. What percentage of humanity, I wouldn't want to say. Of those who are engaged on an earnest spiritual quest, some will do so in communion with co-religionists, in keeping with traditions set out in Holy Books written long ago. Others will eschew all forms of organised religion, seeking instead their own path towards spiritual understanding. 

I somehow feel a bond of recognition with religious folk who intuitively have a sense of the existence of the Metaphysical, while also feeling that bond with the scientific community whose curiosity drives them to new discoveries and understanding. However, those stuck in a materialist-reductionist mindset, who obstinately refuse to countenance anything beyond classical physics, deriding the very concept of consciousness with a fundamentalist's zeal, are hard work for me. As hard work as those who will only accept a literal interpretation of their holy text.

But through whatever prism we look at humans, we can see countless individuals, each leading their own life, each psychologically different, each with their own personality foibles, habits and obsessions.

These act as filters which colour the way that each of us sees what we consider to be 'the truth'. The question is - are we stuck with it, or does our curiosity drive us forward in an active quest?

I see it as something that's becoming clearer with time - my spiritual search adds focus and higher resolution to my understanding. From out of the monolith is emerging a ever-more finely sculpted statue.

In the meantime, I trust in my faith in the Purpose; I believe in my trust in the Purpose. I believe in my pure intuitions, over and above what others might wish to persuade me to believe.

[Link to Part II, the 2023 Lent finale.]

We all have a lot to learn.

Lent 2022: Day 45
What is the point of it all?

Lent 2021: Day 45
Mindfulness vs Materialism

Lent 2020: Day 45
Unconsummated memories

The Purpose - Lent 2023: Day 44

Should you ever catch yourself asking "Why am I here? What's the point?" you may have lost your way; the sense of  wonder of being alive has (temporarily I hope!) gone out. A brief reset is required.

The reset should depend on acknowledgement of Consciousness, of the eternal 'I am.' 

Not 'I am sad' or 'I am in pain' or 'I am tired' - but simply 'I am'. I exist; I can feel that I exist - and that feeling, on its own - unmodulated by material reality - is quite splendid. Who are really - merely the biological, ego-driven product of your parents' mating? What would you have been had your parents never met? I'd posit that you'd be someone else - an entirely different biology and ego - but with the same essential consciousness that you possess right now. And that's the real you-ness of you.

I have written earlier this Lent about the amazing miracle that is you being biologically alive, given your trillions of forebears going back to the Last Universal Common Ancestor. Most of them single-cell organisms. And every link in that chain - unbroken! With so much peril at every step of the way! 

And yet... you are. 

Relish that fact.

We age at an ever-accelerating pace. A ten-year-old subjectively experiences a year passing at the same pace as a 50-year-old experiences the passing of five years - both periods equate to one-tenth of their total life lived so far. Should you make it to 100, you'll feel time passing twice as fast as you did when you were 50. And as you feel that life is accelerating you ever faster towards death, there is that encroaching anxiety as you realise there's not enough time to do what is essential.

So what is essential? It is, to me, to understand the big picture. To have meta-awareness - even if it's only an awareness of all that you remain unaware of. Curiosity is a great driver, a spur, a magnet. Wanting to know - wanting to uncover - that satisfaction of the 'click' moment of insight - so many remain as yet unclicked. Even to the most brilliant scientists and philosophers. 

As I try to put it all together, I realise that I'm nowhere near reaching any answer - it will take a great many lifetimes! All I can hope for now is to read, listen, discuss, learn, and build upon it - taking it one level up at every turn. 

I hope to reach my father's age - he died at 96 and half - indeed, yesterday would have been his 100th birthday had he survived just three and half years longer. What kept him going was a sense of purpose and unquenchable curiosity; I believe that he is back among us, in a new incarnation. That he willed himself back. And this is how it goes; life after life after life after life - from Zero to One [see below].

The path from Zero to One is from being an isolated individual, and Ego out on its own, to becoming part of the Eternal Whole. Small acts of kindness and charity help connect us with others, bonding into a society that's more win-win than adversarial, more trusting than suspicious. If you doubt life's purpose, thinking it merely a random collection of atoms, consider how you could actively help others.

Lent 2022: Day 44
Habit, discipline or obsession

Lent 2021: Day 44
Life after life after life after life

Lent 2020: Day 44
A myriad paths to God

Wayside shrines - Lent 2023: Day 43

Easter Sunday is approaching rapidly, the weather is chilly for the time of year, but walking is a must. And walking around Gmina Chynów, I come across a large number of local wayside shrines, at least one per village. Not being affiliated to any parish, I don't know about their history - in particular whether the local church directed their erection, or whether local folk just decided to put one up, to what extent these were community initiatives or just the whim of individual householders or families. The inscriptions on the shrines generally have one common thread - they are supplications to the Blessed Virgin Mary, asking for good fortune, and to be spared misfortune.

Below: One of three shrines in the village of Staniszewice (pop. 81).

Below: the other two shrines in Staniszewice. Clearly, people have an urge to build these. 

On my walk today (11,900 paces), I passed five shrines - one in Jakubowizna, three in Widok (plus one large wooden cross) and one in Dąbrowa Duża. None particularly awe-inspiring (especially not on a cold and cloudy evening), but providing some comfort, some local frame of reference. A touchpoint to the Eternal? Or just a familiar element of everyday life?

Rural Mazowsze is full of such shrines, often on private land but facing the road, testament to the enduring power of faith among a population that still sows and reaps in time with the seasons. The supernatural determines droughts and late frosts, hail storms and pests. 

[If you are interested, have a look at this website which seeks to catalogue wayside shrines across Poland - only Małopolska province has more than Mazowsze]

O Traveller that passes by - spare but a thought for Providence; express gratitude for the bounties it may have conferred upon you.

We live our lives as pilgrims through space and time, relentlessly moving on; some of us just borne along by the stream, some of us fighting vainly against it, and some of us aware of what's going on and willing an optimal outcome. For me, these wayside shrines, largely lacking in aesthetic or metaphysical values (I find standing stones more powerful!) are reminders that we all live on the edge of chaos. Conscious supplications help steer that unthinking wave of misfortune - disease, tragic accidents, hunger, violence, as long as they are delivered in advance, with sincerity, and that gratitude be expressed when all ends well.

Lent 2022: Day 43

Spirit of Place and Metaphysics

Lent 2021: Day 43

Doubt and Curiosity

Lent 2020: Day 43

Quartodecimalism, or the fixing of the date of Easter

Where did religions come from? Lent 2023: Day 42

Imagine no religion. It's not as easy to do as John Lennon suggests. Just imagine that nowhere on this planet, not at any time in its history, did any spiritual belief become codified into a formal religion that would grow and gather millions of followers. Thinking about it, one would think that religion is a natural feature of human society, an innate part of the human condition. 

Religions of one level of sophistication or another seem to spontaneously arise as humans band together. Anthropologically curious - and yet, there we are. From Animism to Zoroastrianism, I cannot envisage any pre-industrial grouping of Homo sapiens without its own belief system.

Religious fault-lines criss-cross the world, dividing Hindu against Muslim, Muslim against Jew, Christian against Christian, often to the point of deadly violence. All because one group of people happened to have been born into one faith, and the other group, into another faith. 

Religious intolerance is not something I associate with learning. Religious intolerance is stoked by malign actors, their target group those who can be convinced of the literal meaning of any particular holy book. 

There are three levels at which one can take holy texts, or indeed the messages they convey. The first is the literal meaning of the Word of God. God literally made the world in six days, and Eve from Adam's rib. The second is the metaphorical meaning - Jesus was a Son of God, as are we all. The third is the deepest metaphysical meaning embedded within holy text, and it is at this level that commonality between religions - a highest common factor - is to be sought for.

If we are intellectually stuck on the literal meaning, unable to rise above it, we are doomed to a cycle of religious wars, with the adherents of one holy book killing adherents of another. If instead, we seek higher level meta-truths, we might finally arrive at a common position, a common understanding of each other's quintessential point of view - and agree to agree.

This approach is extremely difficult as there are so many vested interests wanting to maintain barriers between religions for so many reasons.

If we accept that we follow a given religion because we were born into it by chance, then the fact that someone else follows some other given religion because they also were born into it by chance, and seeking commonality of spiritual outlook is a righteous undertaking.

It is hard for us to talk deeply to one another about how we lead our lives; it is harder still to open up about our metaphysical beliefs without being branded a weirdo or obsessive or God-botherer. And yet this is the most fundamental question of them all - why are we here, why there's something rather than nothing, why we consciously experience the physical universe around us - and what is the ultimate purpose. You may even say - there is no reason, no purpose; it's just an accident. If you hold such a view, I'd still like to talk you about it!

Lent 2022: Day 42
A Future Like This

Lent 2021: Day 42
Actively seeking Understanding

Lent 2020: Day 42
From Zero to One

The End of Times - Lent 2023: Day 41

We humans have lived in the shadow of the Apocalypse, which was meant to have engulfed us since Biblical times. Doomsday has always been just around the corner. Wherever there was a religion, there was strand of thought within associated with end-time scenarios. The study of these is known as eschatology (from the Ancient Greek term ἔσχατος [éschatos], 'last', and -logy, 'the study of'),  the part of theology concerned with death, judgment, and the final destiny of the soul and of humankind.

I remember as a ten-year old being terrified after reading a leaflet from the Jehovah's Witnesses which stated that a great famine, similar to that being shown on our TV news every night in Biafra, would sweep the earth and that we will all die. More realistically, the Cuban Missile Crisis and Exercise Able Archer 83 were mankind's two closest brushes with global nuclear Armageddon.

The Cold War passed; the End of History was announced. It was not to be. The destruction of the Twin Towers ushered in a new era of religion-inspired bloodshed, as soon as that was being brought under control, Putin kicks it off in Ukraine, a deadly virus sweeps the planet and then Putin invades Ukraine on the full scale. Worries (so far misplaced) about Europe freezing as Africa starves came to nought - things are never as bad as they initially seem. Will inflation wipe out our savings? Will AI take our jobs?

We are worried about more end-of-time events than ever before; Russia, China and North Korea run by nuclear-armed despots; new viral, bacterial or fungal diseases resulting from mutations, bio-lab leaks or global warming; cosmic disasters (asteroid strike, solar coronal mass ejection), super-volcano explosions, mega-earthquakes and tsunamis, and social turmoil caused by the effects of artificial intelligence. Or a combination of some or all of the above. A great tribulation, a complete unravelling of the social fabric, an societal breakdown. Survived only by those fleetest of foot and mightiest of fist. We are all going to die - and soon.

Much of this is predicted in the social media, which sucks us in then bombards us with a relentless diet of woe. Doomscrolling Twitter is such a waste of time, and so depressing. (Blimey! Just caught myself doing exactly that right now! Stop!) The 24-hour news cycle is predicated on the algorithm that good news is no news, and that bad news travels fast. Pile on the bad news (economy) on top of bad news (more Russian barbarism) on top of bad news (climate change) and soon you can readily accept the doom-mongers' claims that we are living in the worst of times and the end of days.

One answer to the Fermi Paradox is that civilisations do not get beyond their Great Filter - they invariably wipe themselves out in thermonuclear war or with climate change or some other self-made apocalypse. [An interesting digression here: should we do this, descendants of the survivors will never be able to re-create the Industrial Revolution because the fossil-fuels laid down during the Carboniferous Era have been largely used up over the past 250 years or so.]

I, however, am not a pessimist; it is our spiritual duty to stay positive. Keep on at it. Two steps forward, one step back. The path is not smooth, the journey is not without setbacks. I believe that - despite many obstacles and reversals of fortune - good will prevail over evil (evil being the absence of good rather than some satanic force). Our inflection points seem to be coming closer and closer together (1939 - 2022), but somehow I believe that historically, this will be seen as a phase, Humanity in its Adolescence; unable to take a long-term view. We will survive - and thrive. 

But will we live to see closure? Will all the things we worry about today come right by the time we die? Or is that asking for too short a timeframe?

Brought up amid the optimism of the Elizabethan age of the "white heat of the technological revolution" and the Whig view of history,  I spent the first 55 years of my life seeing progress. The past ten years have been a retreat; this is the step back after the two steps forward. But there will be steps forward again.

The End of Times will be many billions - trillions - of years from now. It will be gradual. Our Consciousnesses, which will have vastly evolved in understanding and scope, will know, and feel, and experience, greatly more than we can even hope to imagine today. The end-point? Total awareness of everything. God in All, All in God. 

Lent 2022: Day 41
A Better Future

Lent 2021: Day 41
The Holiest of Holies

Lent 2020: Day 40
God and Nation don't go together

How we Lead our Lives - Lent 2023: Day 40

The way in which we lead our lives, the way we behave, how we conduct ourselves in our daily routines is deeply personal. Our habits, foibles, preferences, goals; our personal philosophies, our constants, our boundaries, our prejudices - these are all things we set for ourselves as a result of our many-layered individual circumstances. Genetics, upbringing, environment all play a part. I'd also argue that there's something metaphysical at work too, adding another - supernatural - substrate to who we are and how we live our lives.

Rarely do we discuss such matters with each other. The how of living our lives is private, shut away in our psyches. Why we usually choose to do something this way, rather than that way; we we avoid this or prefer that. Why we set our routines the way we do, and on what matters we are inflexible, and where we'll give ground.

In our discussions, the vast majority of our conversations focus on mundane practicalities, on the banal, casual small talk. Deep attempts to probe the inner workings of our minds as they guide us through life are quickly shut down as being uncomfortable, something left to mental-healthcare professionals if at all.

It is our faults that make us who we are. And so, we tend to avoid such issues for fear of arousing discomfort in our interlocutor. But does it feel uncomfortable to the Ego, or to the Consciousness?

I have argued that comfort is a prerequisite from which spiritual contemplation can begin; if you are not comfortable, you get distracted by that which causes you not to be at ease. So are uncomfortable discussions to be avoided? "You can only grow by stepping outside of your comfort zone" is a management-school mantra. How true is it? Professionally, very true. You will not conquer your fear of public speaking by avoiding it, or of analysing P&L spreadsheets by not learning how to do so. But is this statement true spiritually? 

I believe that learning slowly, one learns deeply. The acquisition of truth takes time - and here I'll get metaphysical - the truth dawns on you once you are ready to accept it. Imagining a conversation I'd have with my 25-year-old self, I can see the younger me scoffing at the advice I'd offer him about how best to lead his life. This makes me wonder what advice I'd now reject from a centenarian me. One develops spiritually through the contemplation of germs of truth, these come at the pace we can digest them.

But there is an entire vast cosmos out there to learn, to understand. We cannot hope to grasp more than the tiniest fraction, especially if we are slow learners. And so, I believe, those who - whatever their circumstances - are genuine in their curiosity, those who sincerely wish to grow in wisdom and understanding will get more than one lifetime to do so.

Lent 2022: Day 40

Fasting and Temptation

Lent 2021: Day 40
Medicine, Mindfulness and Miracles

Lent 2020: Day 40
Coercion, Persuasion, Conversion and Faith

Peace of Mind - Lent 2023: Day 39

Spirituality isn't something that rewards you with peace of mind. Rather, peace of mind is a both precondition for spiritual development, and a byproduct of being on a spiritual quest. 

Modern life isn't optimised for peace of mind. It entails digging in with your elbows against the ribs of others and making moral compromises. It is driven by the Ego. Modern life jangles and clashes with any sober assessment of what's needed to be truly happy. Being continually bombarded with adverts does not help bring about a state of contentment; your expectations are being stoked beyond what you are physically able to realise.

But there must come an end-point to the rat-race. All loans paid off; savings in the bank, and a modest monthly income or two.

This should be the moment in life when you finally feel materially comfortable. When you work out how much cash you need from month to month to last you until the end of your (biological) life with a safe reserve to live comfortably. Once you reach that point - slow down or stop. 

Get off the materialist treadmill. Dial back your wants. Focus on genuine needs. Adopt a simpler, cheaper, more sustainable way of life. Retreat to a life of quiet contemplation. Meditate, walk, read, discuss.

Me, I'm still working - it's something I do because I want to, and no longer simply because I have to - and I shall continue to do so for as long as possible; if your work is fulfilling it does give a sense of purpose. Peace of mind does not arise as a result of an absence of intractable issues in one's life - but being on top of them. Not letting them wear you down, nor letting them dampen your spirits. 

My father, who survived the Nazi German occupation of Warsaw, the Uprising, prisoner-of-war camps and finally exile, would tell me that with time you can get used to anything. And when the pain stops, the relief takes on a spiritual dimension, if you feel profound gratitude that the nightmare is over.

So aim to lead a life that's calm, unhurried, joyful and spiritually unfolding towards a Purpose, and peace of mind - craved for these days - will follow.

I certainly feel the need for contact with the metaphysical and spiritual growing within me as I age - this is not just the result of mortality creeping up on me, rather it is the result of a observations of what is valuable in life and what isn't. And focusing on the former.

Five and half weeks of Lent have flown by, the final week begins now, and ends on midnight, Sunday 9 April. In the final week, I will be drawing together strands from previous posts and putting together some conclusions

Lent 2022: Day 39
Animal spirits, animal consciousness

Lent 2021: Day 39
Praise the Sun God

Lent 2020: Day 38
Don't let misfortune catch you unaware!