My Journey Thus Far: Part 3- 100 Posts!

As I progress along my spiritual journey I have introduced myself to a wide range of ideas, thoughts, and concepts so that I may understand and love my fellow man. For my 100th post I thought I would like to summarize my spiritual growth over these last few months. I have learned a lot since I've started this blog and I hope to continue learning for years to come.

[Note: The links below link to previous posts as snapshots of my spiritual growth so far. Enjoy!]

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Brotherhood
The number of posts themselves mean nothing if I did not learn anything, but fortunately, I have. I have learned that people rely on hope even though it doesn't seem to get any brighter. That symbols may be more powerful than words when it comes to moving the human heart. And that these very same symbols used to describe love, peace, and hope can also be twisted into hate, fear, and damnation. This is not always the case and people are beginning to embrace each others as equals, as brothers. It is difficult to be able to love your enemy at times, but if we take on new eyes and take a second look we may find that we may no longer have enemies. I'm not saying we should ignore threats to our very safety but we must come to understand the nature of those who hate us. We share one home and one humanity, that alone should be a start. If we look hard enough we just might realize that these enemies are just as human as we are. They eat, sleep, hope, fear, cry, and breathe like we do. More similarities. Look further still and we might realize that we like the same food, cheer for the same sport, and even cry over the same things. We are fallible, we are mankind. Let us never forget that mankind (adam) was made from the same dust and given the same breathe of life.

Questions
I've also learned to question EVERYTHING! By questioning even your most foundational beliefs you understand why you believe them instead of swallowing spoon fed medicine. Others may say that asking questions is dangerous and may even damn your soul, so its better to "just believe". Of course, if Martin Luther and friends didn't question the church then we might all still be Roman Catholic. Questions make us think, not doubt. If our questions cause us to doubt and then to change our beliefs who's to say that we made the wrong decision to question in the first place? I don't believe it matters where your questioning leads you as long as your comfortable with the answer. Questions leading to Mahayana Buddhism are just as worthwhile as those leading to Islam. As long as we can still call each other my brother! my sister! then these questions were worth it.

The Puzzle
I started this blog so that I may learn and share with others. To study and immerse myself in very personal part of all people so that I may know them. As I continue my God-sized puzzle I realize that it will always be incomplete in a sense that there are no borders that could contain the Eternal. Even peering into the vast array of religious beliefs throughout history (I wonder what cavemen believed?) is immensely and immediately humbling. Humanity has always searched and may continue to search in ways that may be alien to us yet powerful to those who believe. I envision my spiritual self standing on the God-Sized puzzle that reaches beyond human sight.

What will the picture reveal? What will we learn? I wonder what it could be?

Even imaging what the puzzle holds for us adds more and more pieces until we reach a point of infinite regression! We can look back and see how far we've come, look forward on pieces to come, while always remembering that we ourselves are part of this puzzle, a part of universal transcendent Love.