A Lesson Learned (838 hits)
Category: GeneralRating: 1.28 on 13 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by The Lone Stranger (View user info) at 2006-06-28 16:26:21 EDT
As his life progresses he has come to realize he has done this before. Many, many times. He recognizes a scent, an image, a person, that he has not experienced since his last birth, but so familiar that it strikes him like a blow. It is a recognition transcending the five senses. The faint traces of past lives, all of which make him who he is. Sometimes it is the slightest detail. Others, a vague recollection of an entire culture.
He has been a tribesman living on the shores of some island, living with nature, loving the sun and the sand and the water. Knowing nature and knowing true freedom.
He has been a Samurai serving some great lord. His sword, his life, for honor, only to die for it on the field of battle.
He has been a faithful wife, standing by her lord throughout her simple life.
He has been a Spaniard, a great lover, each woman a new conquest.
He has lived thousands of lives, and learned thousands of lessons, each life teaching him a bit more. Each life suited to teach a lesson sorely needed. Humanity stains the soul like a dye, time and time again, blending and bleeding, creating a unique mix of timeless wisdom.
The lesson is always there, if you look for it. Even in doing the wrong thing, you will learn. Even in suicide, though you may lose the earthly lesson, you will learn.
He is born again. Now, born into a world of man supreme in arrogance. Man leveling the field in his eternal struggle to conquer and tame nature. Man living for himself and for his wealth, with hardly a care for his fellows, or even for the very world created to sustain us.
This world is familiar, but the tone of this life is completely foreign. There is something missing. Joy.
He is an old soul.
He views the young souls with a certain disdain mixed with envy. They are so simple and naïve, not yet jaded by the evils one encounters in a thousand lives. Yet they are so jubilant, full of energy. They flit from place to place like a starving butterfly come upon a vast field of flowers.
He despises their ignorance, but loves their innocence. He hates their frivolity in serious matters, but yearns for their childish joy in simple ones.
He stumbles through this life with a confident nonchalance. Nothing is really difficult, but everything is tedious. He is not dazzled by the marvels of progress. The bureaucracy, the rules, the pollution, the total lack of social and personal responsibility that envelopes him, has left him yearning for another time. He remembers a simpler time, living with nature. A time where the Truth was as simple as feeling the warm sun dry the sweat on his shoulders. Sweat earned from working for the earth to sustain himself.
He realizes that simple time is long gone, and he yearns for a quick end. For some, death is a cold grave on a summer day. For him, death is a warm blanket on a chill night.
It is unbearable. He sinks to the bottom, begs for it all to end. He cannot end it himself, for he has learned that lesson, and it was not a pleasant one. Above all that he has learned he knows he is here for a reason. There is something he must take away from this miserable existence.
After a year of dwelling in darkness, losing all hope in himself, forced to put whatever faith he retained in the Truth, he is enlightened.
Compassion. Selflessness. Love. Compassion and empathy break the seal of his dark tomb and flood him with the light of Truth. He understands now. Why he is here. In a world ruled by greed and bound by lust, driven by the love of money, he must share his wisdom with those in need.
He has learned.
User Reviews
Submitted by JonnyX (user info) at 2006-10-18 17:01:27 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
Submitted by JonnyX (user info) at 2006-07-19 16:18:54 (#)
Ranking: -2
Submitted by the_lone_stranger (user info) at 2006-07-19 16:12:40 (#)
Ranking: -2
where's the content?
Submitted by the_lone_stranger (user info) at 2006-06-29 01:06:20 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
buh?
Submitted by Darth_Famine (user info) at 2006-06-28 23:01:14 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
being an old soul myself I must point out that you left off mentioning the void.
It calls to me, but still I ignore it, one day perhaps.... but not today
Submitted by wookie (user info) at 2006-06-28 18:33:25 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Yeah, well...I'm pretty much with you on that.
Submitted by the_lone_stranger (user info) at 2006-06-28 18:27:35 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Wokkie, I think you are right in the larger sense. I am just bitter about how fucked up man has made the world.
Submitted by Amontillado (user info) at 2006-06-28 18:22:36 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment.
Submitted by BigD (user info) at 2006-06-28 18:00:07 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Part of me hopes thats how it really is.
Submitted by Boatplank (user info) at 2006-06-28 17:38:56 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
"he has done this before"
Submitted by c1ndy (user info) at 2006-06-28 17:22:33 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
this deserves reviewing!
Submitted by the_lone_stranger (user info) at 2006-06-28 17:19:35 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
yep. and it got a whopping 2 reads.
Submitted by wookie (user info) at 2006-06-28 17:19:32 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I've never really thought of old souls as being joyless. I always imagine them as being much more at peace...with themselves and the world.
Submitted by Tracer0351 (user info) at 2006-06-28 16:52:26 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
it may be a repost, but its still worth reading
Submitted by Boatplank (user info) at 2006-06-28 16:32:40 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
You've posted this before, with a different title.