It’s all about the rhythm…

He who controls others may be powerful,

but he who has mastered himself is mightier still.

-        Lao Tsu, Tao te Ching

-         

It starts with a need, maybe a reason…in the very least there is a compulsion based on a fundamental drive to survive – the first breath of birth…hunger for food…shelter from the storm…clothing for warmth. At this stage things are pretty simple.  First things first – the initial round of survival going to the strong!

Once the basics are secure (and this may take a while), our attention shifts to a more qualitative view:

·      Is the air we breathe clean?

·      Does the food we eat fit our taste?

·      Is our dwelling as comfortable as we like?

·      Does our clothing reflect our character?

Yes, once the basics are secure, our attention shifts to a more qualitative view…whew! Got those needs accounted for – so what’s the purpose?  Now, that’s a pretty big question.

Life has a rhythm to it - a series of births and deaths, beginning with our abrupt entrance into the world.  We are born, bringing the immediate death of our experience in the womb.  Each inspiration of breath brings birth to a new moment – expiration announcing its death…transitioning to the rhythm of the next.  In the movement forward in time, we unconsciously reach for the next moment of life that awaits us.  It is an unrelenting pattern that repeats itself millions of time in the course of our lives.  Indeed, the rhythm of the universe, at the micro and macro levels, drives us unrelentingly toward life.

Do we have any control?

We think we are free moral agents, and from the standpoint of mental will we are.

In a physical sense, however, most of what we experience, happens because the machinery carrying us around (our bodies), runs on automatic pilot.  This unconscious function frees us to focus on other things. Our thoughts shape our lives and provide us with some control in the journey for which we have been called.  It is really important to know this – many people do not.  Recognizing choice, with its benefit/consequence ratio, is key to overcoming the gravity of monotonous sameness, and breaking free from the bonds of repeating, yet once again, the sins of the past – the dead as it were.

[Semi-colon here – Personal gripe – ‘…sins of the past…’ – in common language, and indeed the language of the church, ‘sin’ is a small but powerful word…much more so than it should be.  In biblical terms it meant to “…miss the mark…” – implication…action taken unsuccessfully.  In spite of the social stigma, and subsequent usage that has led to strongly negative connotation and definitions, this word was not intended to be a stain of self-loathing, nor permanent blemish predicting future failure.  In the target practice of life we all miss.  The task at hand? Recalibrate and shoot again…again…yet once again. NOBODY HITS THE MARK THE FIRST FEW TIMES!]

The body – what a metaphor!

The physiology of the body is a great teacher. Its whole operation is wonderfully rhythmic – the ‘whole’ only works, however, when each ‘part’ does what it is supposed to do; does it well and repeats its function over and over again.

Each cell for example, is a kind of miniature body.  It has organs (organelles); it breathes, digests, eliminates waste, fights for its survival (with a little help from its friends), reproduces and has a specific purpose. 

Take the heart with its millions and millions of cells.  Each has the job of contracting (shortening).  One cell by itself has little influence, but take all of them working in concert, receiving direction from a single point in the small chamber of the right atrium, and it creates a life giving rhythmic symphony that puts the best works of the greatest composers to shame – the heart beats!

Like the individual cell the heart has a specific purpose.  Its chambers receive incoming blood, sending it on its way with each subsequent beat.  Beating on its own the heart has little use unless connected to the circulatory system.  Even that doesn’t mean much lacking coordination with other organs, through central commands from the amazingly complex, and still not well understood, brain – the body works! 

Is there a lesson here?

Many observers of life find strong connections between the physical world and the spiritual, meaning here the mental world in which we live.  Lessons from world in which we live, teach us much about the natural law of the universe.  While we have never seen gravity, we clearly understand its existence, and have found ways to both quantify and measure its effect. We’re not so good in measuring things on the spiritual side, but there is little doubt they exist and powerfully.  Love is a great example.  It is a powerful and undeniable emotion.  The fact we have not found a metric for it is more a commentary on our shortcomings, than its existence.

The physical body, also, is not very useful unless it finds a way to work in concert with other bodies.  This is where thought enters the equation.  In order for a body to have a meaningful interaction with the universe, for which it has been created, it must have a mind that is aware and able to communicate with other minds.

Many writers have discussed life as a metaphor.  One of my favorites is the Apostle Paul:

“…the body is not one member, but many. If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? ...And if they were all one member, where were the body? But now are they many members, yet but one body. (I Corinthians 12 14-21 – the Bible).

This leads to the discussion of how we, as mankind, find ourselves intertwined as individuals and as part of the human collective.  It is clear this discussion will take a little more time...more to come…

- ted