Friday, September 28, 2012

Transcendental stirrings shore this writer up; beckon him onward


(In the final chapter of my 2007 book, The Neocon Aberration, I take liberties and go far afield by exploring briefly my spiritual belief system. While a critic might justifiably point out that this material belongs in a different book, I wished to end my often caustic political commentary on a slightly positive note by pointing out that, ultimately, all will be well in my opinion and according to my spiritual credo. -- D. Grant Haynes)

Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:
The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar. -- William Wordsworth

Chapter 11

A divergence...

What follows represents a radically divergent facet of my belief system and thinking--certainly a change of pace from anything presented in this work previously.

My belief in the transcendental nature of existence--of the eternality of the soul and of the essential impermanence of all Earth life experiences--provides me solace and a welcome refuge from the storm occasionally.

An interest in the metaphysical and esoteric is long-standing in me. I was reared in such a tradition. For this priceless gift, I pay homage to my parents--humble people who dared to be different in an American Bible Belt community.

I have not always lived up to their or my highest ideals, but I’ve always maintained some tenuous connection to my roots and to an alternative view of reality--one that has deepened as I have sought to mold and embrace it--make it my own--in my maturity.

I believe that we as humans are more--much more--than frail physical organisms sentenced to toil for a brief span in an imperfect realm characterized by war, disease, disaster and mayhem, only thereafter to face extinction of individuality or, alternatively, timeless residency in an environment popularly imagined as heaven or hell.

Rather, I see us as wayfarers on a journey, the goal of which is attainment of a more perfect state of consciousness (i.e., life) as the dross of materialism with its inherent sense of separation from the source of all good is cast aside through lessons learned along the way.

So, a thoughtful reader may at this point ponder, why have I as a writer and thinker permitted myself to be drawn so deeply into the endless rounds of hypocrisy, machinations, lies, brutality, cruelty, genocidal wars and rumors of wars that have characterized American politics for the last decade?

If I am a transcendentalist, why didn’t I simply sit in the lotus position, om, and deny the reality of it all?

In answer to this valid question, I can only offer that my inclination has been to utilize my only talent of note at this time--an ability to write--to expose the injustices that are rampant in the energy system that largely constitutes my reality as I pass through it.

I trust that my efforts have not been entirely in vain--that I may have touched a few consciousnesses and altered a few outcomes through my writings, samples of which have been presented in this book.

I remain buoyantly hopeful that I can continue the good fight for that which is aligned most closely with the Light, as I am given to perceive the Light, in whatever situations and circumstances future venues may afford me.

D. Grant Haynes
May 2007
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Above, the abandoned nymphal shell of a Cicada that emerged from years in the soil to transmute into a winged iridescent creature should serve as an object lesson for us all. Life is eternal and soul ultimately transcends the outgrown shells of its temporary expression. Emerson said, "Nothing is dead. Men feign themselves dead, and endure mock funerals and mournful obituaries, and there they stand looking out the window, sound and well, in some new and strange disguise." (Photo by D. Grant Haynes)