Brian’s Reflection: Friday, Aug 21, 2009

Life is not an easy matter... You cannot live
through it without falling into frustration and
cynicism unless you have before you a great
idea which raises you above personal misery,
above weakness, above all kinds of perfidy
and baseness.

- Leon Trotsky, who died on this date, 1940, in
Mexico City, after being shot by an assassin


True. But. It just can’t be any “great idea”! And of course it depends on the definition of “great”. I’m sure that Hitler thought he had a great idea, but most of the rest of us don’t think so - at least I hope so, though the present World political and religious totalitarianism gives me serious pause.

The “great idea” I find myself pondering these days is “I Am You”. “You” includes Everything. All that exists. The core path that I have walked is The Gospel – as opposed to “Christianity”, which is very often the self-serving manipulation of The Gospel by human beings. (This happens in all religions.) The figure of Jesus I connect with is not a “person” who offers me “personal salvation”. He is the universal personification of that “great idea” called Love/Compassion. Essentially, I am an aspect, however flawed, of Him. The more I espouse Him, the more I am raised “above personal misery, above weakness, above all kinds of perfidy and baseness”.

At 63, I am still exploring the great Mystery of Life. Still thinking, pondering – and delighted at new understandings. When I think of the many intriguing things that Jesus is reported to have said, I see how He was constantly trying to lift us out of “frustration and cynicism” by expanding our view of Life, of “God”.

“Life is not an easy matter”. True. For me it gets a lot easier when, as John the Baptist famously said, “I” must decrease, “He” must increase” – if you get my drift!

Brian+