The Seeker: Chasing Ghosts

By Juan Valdez

The poems in this section of the work are related to and describe the first stage of the life of the seeker, the experience of love and loss (mostly in terms of romantic love) and the experience and truth that underlies these experiences as well as the notion of change and rebirth that are ultimately connected to and provide the philosophical and metaphysical basis for coming to an understanding of these experiences beyond a superficial basis. For as we come into this world, crying, blind, and no doubt frightened, we are forced quite dramatically and suddenly to transition from our utter and complete dependence upon our mother to independent entities in our own right.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Jul 18, 2017
• ISBN: 9781524699826

Juan Valdez

At present, the author currently lives and works in New York City, is the proud father of two children, and in his spare time writes about philosophy, theology and mysticism. His work can be found online at https://peterjworthjr.academia.edu/ or on his blog at www.snowconenyc.com.

Book preview

THE

SEEKER

CHASING GHOSTS

JUAN VALDEZ

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© 2017 Juan Valdez. All Rights Reserved.

No Part Of This Book May Be Reproduced, Stored In A Retrieval System, Or Transmitted By Any Means Without The Written Permission Of The Author.

Published By Authorhouse 07/18/2017

Isbn: 978-1-5246-9983-3 (Sc)

Isbn: 978-1-5246-9982-6 (E)

Library Of Congress Control Number: 2017911023

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Because Of The Dynamic Nature Of The Internet, Any Web Addresses Or Links Contained In This Book May Have Changed Since Publication And May No Longer Be Valid. The Views Expressed In This Work Are Solely Those Of The Author And Do Not Necessarily Reflect The Views Of The Publisher, And The Publisher Hereby Disclaims Any Responsibility For Them.

For My Children.

May These Words Inspire You And Lead You, Even If For A Fleeting Moment, To The Eternal Light Of Truth Which Rests In Each And Every One Of Us.

Contents

Preface: Context And Content Of The Work

PART I     LOVE AND LOSS: CHANGE AND REBIRTH

The Flower

New Moon

Love

A Poem To A Friend

A Prayer

The Smoke

Heartache

Light In The Darkness

Be Brave Young Soldier

A Wish

Walk On

New Year’s Eve

Winds Of Change

Change Is Good

The Guru

PART II     THE MYSTERY OF LIFE: THE PLAY OF THE DIVINE

Can You See It

That Thing Called Life

The Game Within The Game

The World Of The Spirit

The Morning Gull

Sea Of Darkness

Dharma And Duty

The Eyes Of The Lord

Nature And Nurture

Don’t Forget Your Keys

The Garden And The Bunny

The Divine Play

PART III     MYSTIC PONDERINGS: MEDITATION AND THE MIND

The Great Transformation

The Lap Of The Lord

The Mad Hatter

Chasing Ghosts

Vedic Worship

One, Two, Three (Bagua)

Beginner’s Mind

The Ocean

It Is Said

Om Brahman

The Storm

The Great Cave Of The Mind

PART IV     PARTING THOUGHTS: ON

HUMANITY AND CIVILIZATION

As Easy As One, Two, Three

The Rainbow

The Way Of The World

What Can We Do?

The Price Of Progress

Words And Nations

Web Of Souls

The Mind Of Man

The Great Balancing Act

The Grand Mystery

The Little Dusty Box

Prior Publications

Preface: Context And Content Of The Work

My First Major Work, A Piece Of Pseudo-Nonfiction, Was Called Snow Cone Diaries, Published In 2014. It Narrated The The Intellectual Journey Of A Young, Aspiring (And Struggling) Professional Tennis Player Who, After Having Been Introduced To And Eventually Became Absorbed And Fascinated By, Yoga To Enhance His Athletic Performance, Eventually Became Intrigued By The Philosophical And Psychological Aspects Of Yoga, Much Of Which He Realized, Both From A Psychological And Physical Perspective, Had A Very Direct And Positive Influence On His Search For The Zone, A Term Coined By Modern Sports Psychologists To Denote The State Of Mind Of The Athlete During Optimal Performance, The Sustained Achievement Of Which Is Arguably The Goal Of All Professional Athletes.

Charlie, The Main Protagonist In Snow Cone Diaries, Found Himself Perplexed With The Lack Of Acceptance Of Eastern Mystical Traditions Not Only In Orthodox Religious Circles, But Also In Academic Circles As Well Which - Outside Of The Domain Of Psychology, And Now Perhaps In The Field Of Cognitive Science Which Has Begun To Take The Practice Of Meditation More Seriously As A Field Of Study With Respect To Its Neurological, As Well As Psychological, Benefits. This Fields Of Study, From Charlie’s Perspective, Not Only Failed To Recognize The Experience And Practice Of Meditation, Arguably The Apex Of The Spiritual Practices In Yoga (And Also In Buddhism As Well), As Real, In The Objective Sense Of The Term, But Also Failed To Lend Credence To The Practice As A Valid Means To The Strengthening The Mind In General, A Fact Which Perplexed Charlie Enough For Him To Dig, Fairly Extensively And Deeply, Into The Practice Itself, Its Origins And History, As Well As Into The History Of Intellectual And Theological Development In The West That Had Provided The Metaphysical And Scientific Groundings For This Rejection – Attempting To Bridge The Gap So To Speak.

Once Charlie’s Journey Was Complete, At Least Complete To His Satisfaction, I Began To Flesh Out Several Pieces And Topics That I Had Initially Explored In Snow Cone Diaries But Were Ripe For Further Analysis And Thought In Order To More Thoroughly And Completely (As Much As Possible) Understand Not Just Their Meaning, As Intended By The Original Authors Of These Ancient Texts Upon Which These Mystical Practices Were Based, But Also Understand Their True Import, Again The Eyes Of The Original Authors As Best As Possible, To The Practices And Teachings That Had Become Almost Ubiquitous In The West In The 20Th And 21St Century.

To This End, I Wrote And Published A Variety Of Essays Based Upon This Original Source Material From Snow Cone Diaries, Mostly Having To Do With The Interpretation And Influence Of Ancient Theo-Philosophical Systems, Based Upon Analysis Of Original Source Material Wherever Possible (In Translation Mostly) And Its Import On Subsequent Theo-Philosophical¹ Development In Their Respect Cultures. These Works Were Academic In Nature, And Covered Much Of The Same Ground As Charlie Had In Snow Cone Diaries Except It Looked At Source Material In Much More Depth. These Papers And Larger Works Covered Ancient Greece From The Classical Period Up Until The Proliferation Of Christianity, Ancient Indian Theo-Philosophy Up Until The Time Of Patanjali And Shankara, And Also Ventured Further East To Ancient China, Covering The Early Confucian And Daoist Texts Such As The Laozi And The Yijing, Material That I Had Not Studied In Depth Prior.²

Much Of My Work Up Until The End Of 2015 After Snow Cone Diaries Was More Academic In Nature, Arguably More Thick And Dense Than Even Snow Cone Diaries Anything Else, Essays On Various Topics Related To Theology, Metaphysics And Philosophy In Antiquity And The Progression And Evolution Of Thought In The West That Built Off Of These Ancient Authors. Some Of This Work Was Published In Academic Journals As Well As On A Blog That I Had Established As I Was Working On Snow Cone Diaries As A Testing Ground For Some Of The Work As It Were, And At The End Of This Period I Published Two Larger Works On Ancient Greek And Far Eastern Theo-Philosophy That Summarized And Compiled My Works To Date On These Subjects.³

To Me At Least, I Believed Much Of This Work Was Important And Relevant In The Modern Era Of Man, What I Have Termed The Information Age Which Reflects The Abundance And Ready Access To All Sorts Of Information Given The Prevalence And Ubiquity Of The Internet Today. This Age Of Man, At Least In Most Intellectual And Academic Circles, Rejects Religion Primarily Due To Its Lack Of Scientific Foundation As Well As It’s Fairly Weak Rendition In Some Cases Of The Historical Record, A Byproduct Of This Rejection Being The Sweeping Aside Of Much Of The Wisdom Of The Ancient Texts That Underpin Religion In All Its Forms In The Name Of Science (And Its Close Theological Cousin Atheism), Despite The Fact That Even Ancient Academics And Schools – I.e. Philosophers – Knew That Much Of The Oldest Material In The Ancient Religious Texts Was Not To Be Taken Literally.

This Seemingly Obvious Fact, That These Ancient Texts Should Not Be Taken Literally, Has In Fact Been Quite Pervasive And Consistent In The Intellectual Communities That Have Cropped Up Throughout The World As Civilization Has Evolved In The Last Two Millennia. Communities That Have Taken It Upon Themselves To Interpret These Ancient Scriptures And Try And Make Sense Out Of Them - From An Historical, Theological And Philosophical Perspective.

Not To Say That Dogmatism And Literal Interpretation Of Scripture Has Not Been One Of The Defining Characteristics Of The Development Of Civilization, In Particular In The West, As Evidenced By The Muslim Conquests Of The 7Th And 8Th Centuries Or The Christian Crusades Of 11Th To 13Th Centuries Which Arguably Are Defining Features Of The History Of Western Civilization, Or Even The Modern War On Terror Which Is Framed Within The Context Of The Fight Of Democracy And Freedom Against Islamic Extremism Which Arguably More Than Any Other Idea Defines The Geopolitical Landscape In The 21St Century.

But At The Same Time, And This Has Been One Of The Driving Forces Of Much Of My Writing To Date In Fact, There Have Always Been Intellectual Communities Across The World, Throughout History, Who Have Taken A Much More Liberal Interpretation Of Ancient Scripture And Philosophy, The Texts Upon Which All Religions Are Based In Fact, And Have Gleaned True Wisdom From These Works And Understood Them In Their Proper Context. And In Turn Have Provided Very Practical And Hands On Wisdom For Not Just Individuals, But Even Societies As A Whole, From These Very Ancient Works – If Of Course They Are Read And Understood In The Proper Spirit And The Proper Context.

Where The Quest For Power And Political Influence Is Filtered Out Of The Interpretative Process As It Were, Where True "Theology’ In The Ancient Sense Of The Term Which Was Tightly Woven And Integrated Into The Practice Of Philosophy In Antiquity Is Practiced In Its Purest And Most Unadulterated Form, A Method That Is Independent Of And Separated From Politics Or The Quest For Power Which Undoubtedly Clouds The History Of Religion Through The History Of Man, In The Spirit Of Plato, Laozi, Confucius, Aristotle, Al-Farabi And Avicenna To Name But A Few Of The Most Influential Philosophers Throughout Mankind’s History, One Can Not Only Ascertain Eternal Truths In The Theological Domain, But Also Ascertain Truth That Are Of A Much More Practical Nature Like In The Realm Of Morality, Ethics And Even In Ideal Forms Of Government, I.e. Political Philosophy.

But Some Of These Ancient Theo-Philosophical Systems Go One Step Further, Moving Beyond Theology Proper And Even Beyond Ethical Or Socio-Political Ideology, And Put Forth The Revolutionary And Seemingly Preposterous Notion That The One, As Plato Referred To It As, Which Is An Intellectual Corollary To The Allah Of The The Muslims, The Yahweh Of The Jews, The Christian God, And The Brahman Of The Hindus, Can In Fact Be Realized, Experienced By Man In This Very Life.

That God, Allah, Or Yahweh - The Theological Apex Of Christianity, Islam And Judaism Respectively Which Represent Almost The Entire Theological Landscape Of Civilized Man In The West Since The First Millennium Bce - Which For All Intents And Purposes Is The Theological Equivalent Of Brahman In The Indian Theo-Philosophical Tradition (Which Underpins Hinduism) Is Not Just An Ethereal And Ideological Entity, That He (Or Again She) Is Not Some Far Off Figure In Some Far Off Land Beyond Death That Saves Us From Eternal Damnation, But That He (Or She) Is Actually Fully Realizable And Tangible In A Very Real Sense. Not In The Sense That One Can Touch A Table Or A Chair, Or In The Sense That I Am Touching This Keyboard Right Now, But Tangible In The Sense That In Deep Contemplation, Given Some Acausal Set Of Circumstances Or Experiences That Are In Many Cases Inexplicable By Any Form Of Intellectual Pursuit Or Explanation - Psychological Or Otherwise - This Ground Of Experience Which Underpins All Of Existence Can Actually Be Directly Experienced.

This Is The Radical Underlying Tenet Of The Entire Indian Theo-Philosophical Tradition, Which In Its Broadest Sense Includes Buddhism. A Tradition Whose Unique Contribution To The Theology Of Mankind Is That God Himself Can Be Experienced Directly And Profoundly By The Individual, And That By Following The Intellectual Paths And Practices Laid Out By The Ancient Texts Authored By These Ancient Sages And Philosophers⁴, As Put Forth In The Theo-Philosophical Traditions Surrounding Yoga, Vedanta And Buddhism (Intellectual, Emotional, Psychological And Physical Practices Combined) Have The Potential To Culminate In The Actualization, Again The Direct Experience By The Mind-Body Complex, The Very Pinnacle Of Theological Inquiry Itself - A Complete And Total Immersion Into The Eternal And All-Pervading Wisdom And Beauty Of The Essential Nature Of The Creator Himself. This Is The State Of Enlightenment Which Pervades The Buddhist Tradition And The Experience Of Samadhi In The Yoga Tradition, What Is Referred To As Satchitananda, Or Existence-Consciousness-Bliss-Absolute, In The Upanishads.

In My Own Experience As I Had Dug Deeper Into These Eastern Spiritual Practices, Practices Rooted In Deep Antiquity, And In Turn Had Begun Writing About Them Which In Its Own Way Reflects An Immersion Into These Very Ancient Underlying Belief Systems In A Very Direct And Tangible Way (At Least Psychologically And Intellectually), It Struck Me As Odd That Much Of The Modern Academic Literature Related To The Interpretation And Meaning Of These Ancient Texts, And The Related Understanding Related To The Authors Of Said Works, Took A Very Analytical Approach To Not Just Discerning The Meaning, I.e. The Interpretation, Of The Texts Themselves, But Also Reflected An Almost Academic (Academic Here In The Sense Of Lacking Serious Theological And Metaphysical Leanings) Interpretation Of The Lives Of These Great Ancient Sages And The Reasons Why They Wrote These Texts To Being With. As If They Wrote To Pursue Some Sort Of Vain Goal Of Name And Fame, When In Fact In Almost All Cases These Ancient Authors Risked Their Very Lives By Publishing, And Teaching, The Material Therein.

The More I Studied The Source Material Itself, And The More I Read The Scholarship Surrounding The Ancient Works, The More I Discovered What I Believed To Be Its True Meaning And Import As At Least I Thought The Original Authors Intended. I Saw Meanings And Ideas, And Eventually Connections As Well, That Were Either Missed By Modern Scholars Or Glossed Over As Seemingly Unimportant, When From My Perspective At Least It Seemed That The Theological And Metaphysical Aspects Of These Ancient Texts Were At Their Very Core, The Very Reason Behind Their Creation⁵. As Such, It Occurred To Me That A Revisiting Of Their Material, In A More Global And Far Reaching Geographical And Historical Context That Included Not Just The Ancient Greek And Indian Texts, But Also The Far Eastern Texts Of The Ancient Chinese As Well, Whose Authors Incidentally Dealt With Almost Exactly The Same Questions And Challenges – Theologically, Intellectually, Morally, Ethically And Even Socio-Politically – As Their Counterparts To The West.

It Became My Belief, Through The Study And Related Interpretation Of The Works Of These Ancient Philosophers, Viewing Them More As Sages And Espousers Of Eternal Wisdom Rather Than As Pure Intellectual Academics In The Modern Sense Of The Term (With Aristotle Perhaps Being The Notable Exception), That If These Ancient Texts Were Studied And Read Within This More Broad Based Metaphysical And Theological Context, They Could Have A Much More Direct And Practical Grounding Influence On Modern Lives In Modern Times, Despite The Fact That They Lived And Wrote Some 2500 Years Ago More Or Less. This Notion I Believed To Be Especially Relevant In The Modern Era, What I Refer To As The Information Age, Given The Prevalence Of Nationalism, Racism And Popularism (To Use The Political Words) That Are The Source Of So Much Divisiveness, Strife And Conflict In The World Today That From My Vantage Point At Least Is Bereft Of Any Serious And Thoughtful Consideration Of The Metaphysics Or Theology In The Pure Intellectual Sense – I.e. The Essential Nature Of The Divine According To All Religious Traditions Throughout The World, And The Compassion And Empathy That Is Directly Associated Therewith.

Leaving Aside The Somewhat Circuitous Journey Described Above Which Relates The Reason And Driving Force For The Bulk Of My Writing, The Impetus Of This Work Lies In A Simple New Year’s Resolution. One That I Made At The End Of The 2015 Year After Having Spent Many Years Writing A Series Of Essays That Marked The Follow Up To My First Work Snow Cone Diaries (Published In 2014) And Before I Completed Theology Reconsidered (Published In The Beginning Of 2017) As A Sort Of Winding Down As It Were, A Crystallization Even, Of Some Of The Topics That I Had Dealt With In The More Academic Pieces That I Had Written. Almost All Of The Work Was Quite Dense, And Arguably Is Difficult To Approach And Stay Attentive To – Especially Given The Attention Span Of The Modern Day Reader In A World Of Videos And Pictures And Facebook Where People Tend To Read A Headline And Perhaps A Few Sentences Thereafter Before They Move On To The Next Form Of Entertainment.

It Was Clear To Me That The Audience For The Published Work To Date, Given Its Content And Style Had A Very Limited Audience At Best. And Even Within The Academic Community, For Which At Least Theology Reconsidered (As Well As The Precursors To It, Philosophy In Antiquity: The Greeks And Philosophy In Antiquity: The Far East) Was Written For, Was Not So Easily Reached, Despite My Repeated Entreating Consideration Of The Work(S) To Many Within The Community Itself.

So To This End, Both To Try And Wean Myself Away From The Quite Consuming Time And Energy Requirements To Complete The Material That Had Been Characteristic Of My Writing To Date, As Well As To Try And Package Up Some Of The Material In A More Readily Accessible And Readable Form For A Broader Audience, I Decided To Begin To Write Some Poetry - Poems That Could Be Written In One Sitting More Or Less (Generally In The Early Morning Hours After The Practice Of Meditation), And Poems That Could Also Be Read In One Sitting – In Around 15 Or 20 Minutes Or So. This Seemed