A Time to Reflect
- Reflection of trees in the Big Sur river
Four nights ago we entered into a special month, the month of Ramadan. For close to 1/4 of the world’s population, this is a month of worship, a month of struggle and a month of reflection. Prayer and devotional recitation of the Quran increase throughout the day but especially at night, and sometimes well into the wee hours of darkness while the world sleeps. For the entire month, Muslims abstain from eating any food or drinking anything as well as abstaining from any marital relations with spouses during daylight hours, – these being the outward acts of fasting.
But fasting has an internal aspect as well, one that requires a person to reflect on one’s own condition. Reflection and introspection are an important part for anyone who is on a path of self-improvement. We suffer greatly as a species when we fail to reflect upon our actions as a whole. If we stop and just realize what it is we are doing day to day I think we would be shocked. If we are not making head way to higher states of existence then we are falling back. There is no standing still. For most people, they never act in any manner that is higher than any other animal that populates the Earth. We wake, defecate, urinate, ingest food, copulate and fall asleep again. Now that seems harsh on my part to say such a thing of my fellow humans, but in essence I do just the same, in fact we all – animals included – all fall back to this very basic common thread of existence. However I don’t think that that is all life has to offer us. I don’ think that this is all we are supposed to do in this life. It most definitely is not the state that I want to exist at. Continue Reading »
