Absolution From Noise
When there is no noise, there is silence. When there is no noise, whatsoever, there is silence. Noise and silence are both literal as they are symbolic in this discussion. They can be tackled at various levels. I wish to encourage the reader to absolve from noise and move into silence in a far more deeper arena. The transition is never simple and as The Last Samurai suggests, it is not for everyone. I take back. It IS for everyone but not all find it or inch closer to it. Given today’s givens and the kind of lives we live, double, triple and even cyber lives, it is not hard to understand why we live in the domain of so much noise. The art of moving to inner silence has been both underestimated as an endeavor and fully-blown as a mission. Not everyone has time for it and so it somehow follows that people don’t value it as much. At the same time, some people look too much into it that they forget to live in the now. I do not wish to go into the realm of philosophical thought but in reality we can never be so devoid of right to engage in this arena.
World religions have their versions of this reaching for inner peace. Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism and even the most fundamental of Islam promote this peace as an end goal. Fascists and anarchists fought their fights well and in their own right to seek this larger scope of peace. Both men and nations move towards this peace. Not all find it. Some have given up to bother. In college, I was taught a lot of this idea of security at various levels. We can feel secure in our personal realm. We can feel secure at a national level. We can feel secure as a world. Sadly, this is not the condition of the present. This is what I want us to address— a new idea of peace that is not so surprisingly new in the first place. This “peace” is not the end-all of my conversation. And by this I save the idea of peace from the overly commercialized, bastardized and de-sensationalized idea that the world order promotes. I refer to peace as something more of than just an ends and a means. I refer to a state of being that may not necessarily coincide with our priorities but what we need so constantly. I wish to think it as that and that alone.
We live in the time of noise. It is so true that worrying won’t add a single day to our lives, won’t solve much of the problem and is a complete waste of energy and good will. But I guess we all know these. We take it to heart. We turn it into a philosophy. We just have to look at Oprah’s beloved New Earth series to see how far this search has taken. However it gets worse. Why? I could only attempt to explain why as I am not solidly planted in any paradigm or any framework capable of providing a plausible and impressive explanation. Yes, I am no priest or scholar but something in the same sphere. I do however have a narrative shared by many. We start our journey into the realm of thought with the simplest of thoughts. We start with a question. Then we have an answer. And as we live our lives, our answers become a compendium of beliefs that become our philosophy. Our narratives feed our philosophy. Allow me to assert that the world’s philosophy has gone array. The problem with the New Earth and this New Age movement is fundamental in both philosophy and common living — the problem of not addressing the main issue. We do not confront the issue and so we cannot possibly come up the conclusive response. This is the disillusionment of our times. This is the big smokescreen on some things that should have been cleared up first. And so we live in noise of our souls.
Yes, I assume that men have souls. I am the kind of man who seeks the point in living. A lot share this belief. A lot share this narrative. There has to be a point in living and that point is found in the depths of the soul. This is what Darwin could not understand and those highly-exalted names that are now, ever so ironically, being demolished from their plaqued pedestals. Man has soul. Man had soul before reason. By this we exist first and think later. And by this I assert that the spiritual man cannot be detached from the rational man and the rational man cannot exist without the spiritual. Darwin and many scientists believe this detachment of spirit and reason. So we are mere monkeys evolving over time. So the humanist responded by saying that man, even at his primitive state, is distinguishable by the soul and his abilities. It is no surprise that a lot of the founders of this kind of thinking were deists. There had to be a deity. There has to be one or else everything that makes us human crumbles. Meaning is lost. Truth is distilled only to be twisted anew.
And as I attempted to think about last post, that man now lives in the postmodern. This is absolute betrayal then (or so hang me for it) of our being man. There has to be a definitive reason for living. That reason is rooted in the soul and its existence. We find the truth through reason but also guided by the spirit. It cannot be done by ourselves. A democratic examination of mankind will only show what anarchy we can be if we honored everyone’s thoughts and tried to live by a compromise. We need the spirit within and the spirit that brought us here. I do not wish to be so transcendental if only to sacrifice clarity. My point here is simple: Man cannot exist fully alone. His existence has a source. His meaning has a source. Meaning and thus truth are absolute and defined by the source. You know where I am heading to. You know where my car will collide. You may want to raise the finger and stop my argument at this point. This is my philosophy. My narratives, my experiences, my thoughts support this. So has it been for many who share this train of thought and living.
Does it result to peace, this acknowledgment of the soul and reason? It should. Those who did not live by the dictates of the soul lost their minds. Those who lived by the dictates of the mind alone lost their souls. Peace comes when we live fully, in full recognition of how volatile our lives are and how incomplete we are. I will leave the filling of the missing blanks to you. As for me, I ascribe to a set of defined absolutes. I live by rules and this is how it should be. Sure, that’s what I say. But I think for many of us, this is the better way of living. This is “us” coming full circle back to the embrace of our source. There is no denying that my happiness resides with my philosophy, that shared by my brethren whose pursuits and narratives are shared and intertwined. I am happy here. I am productive here. I maybe living to the fullest this way. I believe it makes me complete. It makes me strong by not necessarily empowering me but by saving me.
Going back to Darwin and even Oprah’s company, I say strongly that they do not confront the issue at hand. The problem lies in the corrupted soul. It needs not a lot of thinking through. Changing lifestyles is not enough. It does not come from a personal “eureka” moment. It does not come from a book alone. It is a ripple from the soul that changes us. I am reminded of my days serving in the college council. We debated on structures and policies. I kept still and could not put into words this view of mine. My words were easily mistaken for conservative, structuralist and even rightist. I do not mind being labeled as such in some arenas for some of my beliefs reflect similar thinking. But take me for my whole and my ways as part of my whole. Sadly, not a lot of our ways tap the reality of the soul. The soul is calling out and it is just us.
I am taken back to a still and quiet moment. How good it is to be on a mountain when the valleys are in chaos. I am led to a small room where sparks can indeed fly. It’s so hard to leave the echoing noise of the valley—our fast and glorious lives, our shabby selves. It’s so hard to abandon the noise of past victories. But I offer the peace, the inner peace found in the silence of the mountains. Someone once did the same for me. Try the mountains where thinkers, heroes and even hermits are born. The mountains offer the silence. The room offers purging. Absolution never was so needed. So let us take it.
Absolved.
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