The Essence of Being Humanity’s Spiritual Destiny (By Pietro Grieco)

The mission and spiritual destiny of humanity are the reason of his existence.

Have you ever asked yourself why people seem permanently dissatisfied? What is the reason why it is impossible to arrive at fulfillment in this world? It is not because we cannot obtain what we wish for. Paradoxically, people can get what they pine for, many times to excess. If it is a home, they get it. If they eventually want a bigger one, in time they will get it, but that does not get them fulfillment. If it is a new car, after a short time it feels as if they always had it. Perhaps they wish to get some new friends; after they have them the same problems arise. If the idea is to move to a different place, there are always reasons for disenchantment.

It becomes obvious that the problem is not rooted in work, home, family, friends, health, monetary assets, success or fame. The problem is that we do not know our destiny. And that destiny, as it is infinite cannot be found in the limited human sphere.

When can humans find their destiny? When they can put forth that which is in them and that can come to fruition by giving themselves to the world. A seed can roll all over the world or it may be hidden in a pyramid for thousands of years in a golden tomb; does that mean that its destiny was realized? It won’t be until it germinates and brings forth the tree that is in it that its destiny will be fulfilled. It must die as a seed in order to become a tree. Jesus said this about himself.

This is why every person regardless of his years, or the places visited or things experienced, should ask her or himself: have I realized my destiny? In the 20th century there have been some people who gave much of themselves, such as Ghandi, Chaplin, Picasso, Stravinsky, Marconi and Edison. To fulfill one’s destiny means to be transformed, opening oneself to the individual essence and liberating the inner magnificence. Such as the weaver Kabir and Simon the fisherman did.

If that spiritual energy cannot flow freely, or if one unconsciously separates oneself from it, the feeling of dissatisfaction and frustration may alienate – even destroy - the person. The delinquent, the suicide case, the mercenary soldier who fights for causes foreign to him, are alienated because they could not discover their primordial sacred nature and share it with the world as a flower shares its fragrance.

Jesus said “Behold the lilies of the field . . .” Their beauty surpasses that of a queen because itgivestheessenceofitsnatureeffortlesslytotheworld. TheGreekscalledthisDaemon, the Romans: Genius, other peoples called it the call of the soul or of the heart.

The outpouring of artistic, literary, scientific or creative genius makes possible a Leonardo, a Mozart, a Marconi or an Edison. Uncovering this genius or daemon in each of us is what defines each person and what makes the individual and collective destiny for each of us.

This essence is the leitmotiv in the symphony of the human being. It defines character. It discovers the Kingdom of Heaven in each of us. It is to find the pearl of great price and sell all what we have to keep it. It is to find the hidden treasure. It is at this point where we realize that we don’t have to go anywhere. We are where we need to be to fulfill our own destiny, to find the ultimate meaning of existence. This is what Victor Frankl verified in the Nazi concentration camps, in himself and others, including the unfortunates who were to meet their death there. Once you discern this meaning of transcendence, you have no problem facing death and passing through it.

Thomas Merton said: “If you want to know who I am, don’t ask me where I live or what I eat or how I comb my hair; ask me instead what keeps me from living for the real reason that I want to live for.” This is the root of all our troubles: the distance between the reason for our existence, which is the essence that we bring to the world, and the present reality. This is the cause of the alienation of the world. This situation produces a constant questioning: what am I living for? And, what is it that keeps me from living as I know I should and want to? Where do I find the essence of my being? The answer is in the search of the meaning of our existence and our destiny.

This aspect is so crucial that one of the greatest wise men in the middle Ages, the Persian Omar Khayyam, wrote: “Let us admit that you solved the enigma of creation. But, what is your destiny? Let us accept that you have found the Truth, but what is your destiny? Let us admit that you have lived happily one hundred years, and will live another hundred, but what is your destiny?”

It is clear that if a person would solve all the enigmas of creation, know the most intricate details of Truth, or have more riches than King Solomon in all his Wisdom, he could not be happy because he has not realized his destiny. An example is Siddhartha Gautama, who lived in his father’s palace in ignorance of the world’s problems and enjoying riches and pleasures, yet could not realize himself. On the contrary, riches and pleasures became obstacles in fulfilling his destiny of enlightenment. Until he reached enlightenment and became a Buda he could not realize his destiny. It wasn’t even reaching Nirvana because that would have been egotistical, instead he enlightened others and that was his order meaningful destiny.

Jesus found his destiny not in being a good carpenter, but preaching the Kingdom of God

among men. The kingdom of order and harmony in each human being. The sacred center of life, where each one of us experiences the divine, the temporal and the eternal. From that kingdom, he demonstrated the spiritual power that can conquer all evil, including hunger, sickness, lack of money, false theology, hatred, wars, laws of physics and fear of death. He demonstrated the power that lets us be transformed and ascend to a higher state of being. He demonstrated that it is even possible to conquer death, the ultimate enemy. And his highest mission was to demonstrate that love is invincible and the union with the Principle of Life, his Father, an indestructible link. His disciples followed him and then went on to preach his teachings.

Everything that the Master and his disciples proved only make sense when we understand that behind them is the spiritual essence of man created in the image and likeness of the Spirit, the source and energy of life.

That is the essence of the Messiah or Christ in Greek. It is the new being of every man and woman; the one all of us have to bring out and participate of. Achieving that we will be illuminated with a light that like Buddha’s light cannot be hidden.

The Being is the indivisible identity of the spirit. It is the invisible essence of man, luminous, present and hidden; it does not mix in with history or with the world but maintains its unity with Being. It is the great treasure that belongs to all of us and that Jesus came to reveal: the Messiah or Christ in each one of us: the ultimate reality; the consummation of our life. The everlasting and hidden incomprehensible peace; the Logos, the Alpha and the Omega. It is the all powerful force through which we live, we move and we realize ourselves. To understand our being in unity with The Being gives us identity, individuality, beauty, mission and destiny.

© Pietro Grieco