Creation vs. Constructs

Human beings were designed to be creators. From the beginning the biblical explanation for the creation of the world is that God created the world from nothing. What does it mean to create from nothing. Another way to say nothing is No-Thing. Separate out the parts of the word and we get that No-Thing although the words themselves live in language give us a sense that there were no formulas and certainly no parts to the creation of the universe. More simply because of the mysteries of who God is and how He came to the creation from nothing is ultimately inexplainable to human being for a simple reason that ultimately God is unknowable.
But that the world was created from nothing and was written as such we can begin to distinguish that God created language and gave language to human beings such that they might be in communion with God. Hence the reason for our existence or purpose on this planet which is that God made us for his pleasure and thus to be in communion with him.
Adam and Eve rejected Gods purpose for our life and thus became fallen as they became aware that they had choice. This choice led them to experiment with their curiosities in the realm of knowledge and thus they became aware of their humanity. Here in lies the struggle for all human beings.
Our freedom is slighted or taken away from us every time we turn to the constraints or vices which hold us back from being completely free. For human being this is not easily understood because each human being has his or her own past which generally dictates to human being what their automated response to life will be. Furthermore, this relationship to past experiences equals varying degrees of how we relate to circumstances and situations. Most human beings tend to live in a state of reaction in which very little space is given to situations and circumstances and thus each person is faced with slight or even heavy inner pressure that is carried with them throughout their life. Circumstances may change when a good song comes on or some contact with them-self or another human being frees them from this slight inner pressure which is merely a reaction to a stimulus typically more than not a pattern of their past.
This becomes a human beings life mainly reacting to and from life's experiences, circumstances and past constraints. Furthermore constraints are like the already always patterns which were created either consciously or unconsciously in a human beings past. Typically these constraints are deeply embedded in our thought processes that the constraints become the constructs which we live by day in and day out. We might have moments of relief from such constructs that are actually guiding our life but our natural response has merely been to fall on that which we already know and that which we have knowingly or unknowingly created or constructed.
To get to nothing then is a practice or a discipline in letting go of our constraints and constructs. To let go of patterned ways of being and to be with that inner pressure until we see that we allow this pressure to control us and dictate to us our state of being. Thus it is not our circumstances or anything outside of us that creates our life. It is merely our created way of being either from nothing or from constructs that become that which is.

Writings from a Monastery

Worry and Fear

Worry and fear about one's life are the result and outcome of lack of something. Let me say it another way. Worrying about something or anything are the opposite of being fulfilled and living a fulfilled life. If we are able to see clearly enough to acknowledge something as not right in our life, our responsibility to our self is not to harbor this resentment of our self or others or to repeat this line of thinking. From this point of view is equal to that of knowing what is right of wrong for your life but living in habits that restrict one from living in true inner peace which breads outwards expression of self.
Oscillating one's thought energy or thought patterns from "good for a time" or "at peace for a time" to "worry for a time" or "fear for a time" is like blowing with the wind and reacting to the places the wind carry's us. This same truth holds true for animals as it does for human beings. The primary difference being that human beings have the ability to think and reason the decision we make and the choices we consider in our lives. Animals on the other hand are arguably more in tune with their very nature.
A kitten for example will be less likely to put unknown objects in their mouth whilst a child on the other hand is more willing to taste most objects it finds in his hand. Of course the kitten is more concerned about survival and finding food knowing innately that without food it will suffer. Consequently for human babies this realization takes years to become conscious enough to realize it is alive and must find on its own a way to survive. Instead it is concerned with being provided for, held, cuddled and fed. If he does not have these things he will express worry and fear or lack by his actions and thus he will cry and demand that he be provided for.
In similar fashion the birds will rely on their mother to feed them for a time until they baby bird is ready to feed itself, then a push from mother sends them out into the air ready to crash into the ground or fly amongst the air. But that bird does not know by thought as human beings think that he had wings to fly that will save his life. By the laws that govern nature he simply knows to start flapping his wings in the hope and faith of staying in the air and alive as it was designed to do all along. There is however a chance that he may not make it but then again these are the words of a human. The bird certainly does not know that death is an option, he just flaps his wings because he knows by the sense of his very nature to flap. The baby also know its nature but is in a more helpless state for a longer period of time than the bird. His resolve is to cry in such a manner as to expend precious energy making sounds of moaning and suffering in desperate attempt to continue surviving.
Human beings who being to reach adulthood and the become conscious enough to recognize his ability to survive on his own is then tossed into the storm of reason, opinions, emotions, feelings and points of view no animal had to endure. For all the animal knows is that which it had been given by nature. But the human must endure through and beyond all circumstances to live in the peace and freedom as the animals do.

Writings from a Monastery

Feeling Shame

Feeling shame for one's doings of the past. Work to make up for his wrongs. Realizing a life lived for someone else. At first his intentions seemed good but with further investigation of his words, intentions and actions were merely a reflection of his beliefs in what could be if the stars aligned, his timing was perfect, his heart was right, his mind was clear and love was in the center of his life. Not any kind of love but true love, the kind of love that is for God first, others second and himself last.
Many men have fought and lost wars. But in fact all fighting is against the true nature of man. When perspective is shifted and man turns against his nature the door has been opened for corruption of man to set it. Fantasy, Illusion, Delusion, Dreams and Ideology can and will lead one astray and against his nature. For only pure heart and pure mind can lead one to his promised land. Divine intervention cannot and should not be sought after for seeking such power can only lead on in to the depths of his own undoing and away from an intense focus on realistic possibilities.
Perhaps the biggest danger to man is is the man who does not know himself but thinks he does or perhaps he does not know himself but thinks he knows his circumstances enough to get what he wants or what he things he wants or what he thinks will make him honored or accepted or unalienable from the depths of his own tragedy.
But the profound realization sets in and he knows now that he has abused his power, his innate abilities he has squandered and thus he has created a mess for himself. This mess has caused others to leave him, cause him to become weakened and sad, confused with worldly passions always searching for the answer that was and has been given to him so often but he neglected to see it, accept it and live by it until now. But this time is different for the truth has been revealed and this time he is ready to accept it at the cost of giving up the battle which he had been fighting, leaving behind a mess to be cleaned up by those who had abandoned him long before this realization. And now he was is start with a new start, a fresh start, a blank slate, new surroundings, new ways of thinking and living, sobriety, new friendships and most importantly the inner stillness and peace which he had been thirsting for all along.

Writings from a Monastery