We yearn to connect

The human soul yearns to connect. I imagine we yearn to connect to God. This yearning continually plays like a silent tape within our being. We are driven crazy like the musk deer. We know there is something beckoning us. The perfume of the musk. We search, gaze, seek and wander not knowing that the musk is attached to us. Such is the yearning of the soul.

In this wilderness of yearning how does one get a quenching draft of that connection? There are countless ways of doing this. I know a few. Before I share these with you, let me draw to your attention that there is a common element to each of these practices. Indeed we all like to know the how and why about things mysterious. The story about quenching one's yearning is also such.

I once heard a minister comment, "There is a void in your soul, only God can fill." That statement is not only true, but apparently identical to what I am saying in this blog. Yet you will discover there is a sharp distinction between the ministers words and my commentary below. The void the minister was peddling had only one solution. The unspoken solution was a membership in his church and adherance to his theology. The God who can fill my void, I have come to learn, is not a God of confined spaces and theologies. The God who can fill my void is Omnipresent in every molecule and in every breath. The begining of the filling of this void is the awareness of the void.

Like the musk deer our yearning to connect manifests in many forms. People attempt to fill the void through relationships, food, alcohol, drugs, religious explorations etc. Some of these attempts offer temporary fulfillment of the yearning. Then the yearning reappears. The reason such yearning reappears is that we often fail to reckon the source of the yearning. It is the awareness of the source of our yearning that brings about fulfillment.

At the core of our being is the spirit that is our driving froce. This force seeks our recognition. For lack of a better word I call it the lamp of God. This lamp beckons us all the time. It is the light of this lamp that is trying to reach us all the time, but is clouded by our unmindfulness. This is how the yearning, restlessness and the incompleteness is born. As such we desire to connect.

Among the many ways of connecting can be something as simple as walking in a park. It could be even a simpler thing like observing one's breath; or it could be a practice of prayers. Even mundane things like watching a plant germinate, holding an infant's hand, visiting an art gallery, listening to beautiful music, reading fine literature etc. Anything could take you where you need to be. Even a romantic dinner with your beloved could take you there, if you do not miss the crucial common element.

The crucial common element is you have to be connected to the core of your being. This connection comes only from practicing awareness. Use silence to become aware of yourself. Practice it each day. May you discover your bliss. Once continual awareness is instilled in you, the yearning will not return. You will engage in things that evlevated your awareness not out of yearning anymore. It will be out of blissful joy.

Blessings.