Life and Soul

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._N._Taber

"The soul is placed in the body like a rough diamond, and must be polished , or the lustre of it will never appear." - Daniel Defoe  

As I have said many times before, I respect anyone’s deeply held religious beliefs, but reserve the right to criticise certain aspects of it and/or their interpretation, just as likewise, they are free to criticise my own perspective.

There is nothing sinful or abusive in agreeing to differ, so long as it is not conveyed in an offensive manner; sadly, it is not a point of view I have found in many people where their religion is concerned, yet I’m expected to accept being called a blasphemer, or worse, without being given much (if any) opportunity to defend the how-and-why of my own feelings.

There are exceptions, of course, and I have felt privileged to meet a good few throughout my adult life; people with a natural warmth and interest in others, regardless of ethnicity, religion (or non-religion) and, yes sexuality too.

I have said as much before on the blogs and I will say it again, that it is a tragedy how, in this 21^st century of ours, such prejudices persist, not least in certain religions in failing to see how they lay themselves wide open to accusations of hypocrisy.

Religion literally puts the fear of God in many people, to the extent they are scared of dying in case they are called to account for... whatever haunts them. Appearing before a court on Earth is a traumatic enough experience, but the expectation of a Judgement Day, and possibly ending up in Hell for all eternity with no leave to appeal.... that is terrifying.  A former colleague once sympathised with the certainty of my going to Hell because I am gay, and she may well be right, but when I commune with nature, I sense more love than retribution in the sense of spirituality it conveys to and settles on mind-body-spirit.

 It is through nature that I came to pantheism, the ides that God is nature, not its creator. The message I have always taken from nature is one of nurture and hope, even for the likes of we fallible human beings. So, I don’t fear death, only a prolonged dying and the pain of it, emotional as well as physical. It is why I have supported the Dignity in Dying campaign for some years. Some readers may care to look it up at: https://www.dignityindying.org.uk – even  make a donation...?

LIFE AND SOUL

Religion can but point the way
to its own interpretation of spirituality
as defined by its own agenda,
but Mind-Body-Spirit as per each of us
is as likely to encourage
a self-awareness that, in turn, lends us all
the spirituality we call ‘soul’

A soul may or may not lend itself
to the poetry and prose of any religion,
be persuaded by the rhetoric
of certain preachers to their followers,
while the human self
in all walk of life, is blessed with a capacity
for an all-inclusive spirituality

Where congregations in any place
set aside for any sentiments of worship
may well bring comfort and joy
to those who come to seek and find it,
the human soul needs only
that we take heart from the same life forces
as united to give birth to us... 

It is a sense of and hunger for peace
and love in all humanity that does battle
with its demons of all persuasions
that may well appeal to its baser desires
effecting a takeover
refusing to acknowledge or give any priority
to the spirituality that is humanity

In nature and human nature,
a kind of poetry to be sought and found,
by whomsoever cares to bid
their native senses ignore worldly rhetoric,
whatever it takes
to discover - or rediscover, as the case may be,
an all-inclusive spirituality...

 

Copyright R. N. Taber, 2022