Credo

Now in my sixties, each time I get into bed at night I’m aware of a background feeling of dread. Yet another day has passed all too quickly; I have a very real sense of hurtling through time towards death. I have no illusions that death is anything other than the absolute extinction of consciousness. Whilst I fear the process of dying, the thought of personal extinction does not appal me, at least whilst its not an imminent threat. I do fear that it will come all too quickly, especially since I feel that I have nowhere near achieved my potential. Life is sweet and I would not want to leave my wife and family whilst I am still able enjoy life with them. But far greater than my fear of extinction is my fear that just ahead of me might lie years of physical and mental incapacity and dependence. That seems to me to be the ultimate degradation of what life should be.

Yet I have faith, or perhaps just hope, that it is possible, whilst we are still engaged in the midst of life, to achieve a radiance of being from which joy, meaning and purpose can flow. Such a radiance of being would enable us to live creative and compassionate lives in communion with others and in a way that deepens our resilience in the face of the worst that might confront us. My hope is that if the worst happened and I became completely helpless, even unable to speak, I would still be an inspiration to those supporting me, because such radiance would still be evident, if only through a gleam in the eye or a squeeze of the hand. Perhaps my last gift would be my need for their compassion, which would ennoble them. So, perhaps, the prime goal of life ought to be to achieve such radiance, so that one’s life is transformed for the benefit of oneself, others and the World.

But how might such radiance be achieved? The mystics and seers of the World’s great religions tell us that a profound serenity, even bliss, can be achieved through deep and sustained meditation or prayer, the purpose of which is to focus our attention onto what is most fundamental about existence in that moment. It is said that in such moments one achieves a state of consciousness freed the ego-centric realms of fantasy or of a distortedly remembered past or imagined future. It is commonly reported that when the ego is overcome it can be replaced by what William James, the American philosopher called ‘cosmic consciousness’ – a sense of not being a separate entity observing the rest of reality, but of being an integral and inseparable part of all that is.

Too often it seems those who claim to have achieved such a spiritual breakthrough are in the World but not of the World. I live in hope that it is possible to achieve a radiance of being that is intimately connected to the stream of daily life of ordinary people, with all its joys, sorrows, struggles, failures and achievements. People need to a find meaning and purpose in life that is greater than themselves – something that both ennobles each life and outlives it. If, as I believe, the quest for an eternal life is both self-defeating and negation of what is most important in human life, the only entity worthy of our love and devotion that far outlives us is the World itself: the miraculous physical, ecological, cultural and social environment that gave birth to each of us and that will bear our legacy into the future. My hope, therefore, is that there is a way to live my life as a radiant and compassionate gift to the World, which is the realm of humanity’s shared existence, hopefully for millennia yet to come.