The Soul's Spark and Our Spiritual Journey
The film “Soul” is one of the recent films in these dark times that offers laughter, hope and reflection on the true meaning of life. The opening scene flies over the topical Disney castle with fireworks in the sky, but overlaid with out of tune music. It is Pixar’s way of raising doubts on Disney’s motto “where dreams always come true,” as the rest of the film explore what the true meaning or purpose of life is.
What is life’s purpose or calling? Is there such a thing?
Many people are taught to live a life filled with meaning, living a purpose-driven life, and that we need to use our lives to glorify God. But what does that actually mean? Is there one set calling for each of us?
In the film, we see Joe, who may not have lived an incredible life in many people’s eyes, not being able to fulfill his calling as a jazz musician, where he had many failures and challenges, never amounted to “anything” till his death. But through Curley and Connie, we see Joe’s passion has rubbed off on others and planted his passion of music to others. Even after Joe finally lived his dream, to play that one gig he waited for his entire life, then he asked, “Now what?”
Dez, the barber, originally wanted to become a vet, but life happens and he just needed to follow the flow of life. People may feel that he must be disappointed in himself by just being a barber, but Dez was able to live joyfully everyday because he has the opportunity to meet many interesting people and listen to their stories through the chair.
What are we actually leaving behind for others? How would people remember us?
Are we actually living out of our true self? Or are we living to live up to the expectations from others and the society?
What is 22’s true purpose? What is her spark?
Do we have a choice to choose when we are faced with all these struggles in life?
When we have to face death or illness, it is often a wake-up call to question what is truly important, and if we have been living our life to the fullest. People who are not able find purpose in life eventually would become lost souls. They are busy with making a living but rarely truly lived. They are often overwhelmed by despair, anxiety and obsessions. However, those who are in the zone, who pursued their passion with all their heart are not too different either. As Moonwind commented, “You know, lost souls are not that different from those in the zone. The zone is enjoyable, but when that job becomes an obsession, one becomes disconnected from life.” There are many people are very passionate in pursuing their dreams, or committed to ministry and serving God and others, but they often neglect those closest around them. At times, the “purpose” has become a channel to nurture their ego, self-fulfillment, an excuse avoid intimacy with others and deep engagements with life.
22 seems to know everything about life on earth because of the many mentors she followed. However, there is a great chasm between her knowledge in the mind, information of what she knows with her actual lived experience because she has no body and cannot experience life through her senses. This caused her to lose interest and become indifferent to the living journey, along with everything else.
This is one of the great dilemma of our times, as we are being overwhelmed with all sorts of information through the internet and social media, thinking that we already know all there is to know. We are always eager to seek the newest trend, but never actually lived or experience much of life or stop to smell the roses. This trend can be seen being promoted by the latest video games, like Cyberpunk 2077, or TV series like Altered Carbon which continues to see the body as a baggage that needs to be improved upon by biotech or even get rid of, where the mind can be digitized into body sleeves. The age-old human suffering of death has finally been defeated by human technology.
The problem is not death itself. If we do not know how to die, we would not know how to live. It is a reminder of how fragile life is, how we need to cherish our limited time on earth. Death is not a foe, but a friend to be accepted and cherish.
The Christian culture often teaches that the body is evil, where our heart is the most deceitful above all things. Many Christians would suppress their emotions, body sensations, desires and longings because they are deemed “evil.” However, if we look at the story of Creation in Genesis, God created all things with original goodness, where all of creation was deemed good. Humans are created as wholistic beings, with our mind, body and soul, we cannot compartmentalize and put them into little boxes for better managements. Jesus rebukes the crowd and Pharisees in the New Testament where they have eyes, but do not see, they have ears, but do not hear or understand. The people’s hearts are calloused and hardened, and they do not sense the presences of God right beside them. Signals in our body give us warning signs, telling us that we are taking more than we can chew, where we are burned with stress and anxiety, that we need to take rest and sabbath. Our bodies and emotions lead us to the presence of God in our daily lives through feelings of joy, peace, and being loved. It opens our eyes to appreciate the beauty in creations, relationships, community, and life itself.
“One day, the small fish asked the older fish, ‘Where is the ocean?’” This is an except from the book “Awareness” by Anthony De Mello, in response to people’s questions about God and how we can feel the Divine presence. It is very similar to directees who come to Spiritual Direction sessions to ask where can they find God’s presence? How can they feel God’s love? God’s love and presence are all around us, like the fish swimming in the midst of the ocean. This is an issue about awareness. Awareness arises from our body and senses. Just like 22, it is only when we are fully present and immerse ourselves in the present moment, where we feel, touch, eat, smell and see that we can truly connect with all the goodness and love that God has instilled all around us.
To paraphrase another story by Anthony De Mello in the meaning of spiritual practices, he tells his students that one day a spiritual seeker goes up the mountain to seek a guru to find spiritual practices to help him be more connected to God. The guru replied, the spiritual practices that we engage in have as much to do as our ability to make the sun raise each day. The student got really frustrated and asks, then why are we doing these spiritual practices? Aren’t we wasting our time? The guru responded, so that we can stay awake when the sun rises. The spiritual practices themselves do not help us connect to God, but to help us be more present in the moment to see that God is already present.
How are we going to live our lives?
What do you think you are going to do?
How are you going to live your life?interact
© JOSEPH WONG - THE WAY WE ART