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Insights from The Anathemas
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Like Frank de Felitta’s novel Audrey Rose or Kenneth Branagh’s film Dead Again, The Anathemas is a tale of mystery, suspense and adventure that revolves around the phenomenon of reincarnation. It, however, integrates the concept more completely than most works in the genre, delving into the development and demise of the doctrine in the West and the lingering effects, even into the present, of its ban in the sixth century. One cannot write a credible book with a multi-lifetime scope without poking into the human spirit and at least stumbling over some principles about the nature and operation of that elusive entity. Without attempting a thesis that interrupts or overshadows the story, The Anathemas is, nevertheless, studded with instances that increase the characters’ perception of spiritual principles that will, if heeded, guide them through the story’s crucial conflicts. This page will present some such scenes, one at a time and updated periodically, for the reader’s contemplation and discussion. (To comment on the current posting or to be notified when a new Meditation has been posted, click this email link: Anath_Meditations@comcast.net.) It is the author’s hope that this section will blossom, well beyond The Anathemas’ small contribution, into an interactive blog among interested parties on reincarnation-related topics. |
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Buckingham Park, Boulder CO |
Meditation # 1: THE
NEXT STEP Unable to escape from the task but uncertain as to
how to proceed in following Justinian and Theodora’s story further, Richard
Strawn remonstrates with his mentor, the retired Quaker minister John Berman: John suddenly turned, a sign he was ready to go back. “That’s it?” Richard blurted out. “That’s all you’re going to give me to go on? I don’t know where to start, what the next step is. You can’t just—” John detoured down the bank to the Delaware, which ran alongside the path, and motioned for Richard to follow. “If you had to cross this river right now, from where must you start?” Sensing a test, Richard looked up and down the ribbon of water for a bridge or boat. None. Then for shallow places, fallen logs, or jutting rocks. “If one can swim a bit, there are a number of decent places to cross around here,” he said with the confidence of a native. “Not after you’ve looked around and figured or guessed. Right now, to cross this river where must you start from?” “Right now? At this moment, literally?” Richard smirked. “Of course, right now, I’d have to start from right here, the place where I am now standing.” “Agreed. The current place and the present time.” Then John went to the river’s edge and tested a rock a bit out in the water with his foot. “Now let’s take it a step further, no pun intended.” The rock proved stable, so he stood on it. “Now I’m here on this rock. I want to get across. I can’t swim. What’s my next step?” Richard scanned the direct route across. “Not a place I would pick. The water would be over your head in the middle.” “So what’s my next step?” John repeated. Richard shrugged. “You can’t go forward without drowning. You could just stay there but that won’t get you across. Step back to the shore? That’s about all you can do from there.” John stepped back from the rock, his face beaming like that of a little boy who had just caught his first fish. “Start from where you are and take the next step that offers itself. Then again: from the new present position, another step. If necessary, step back and look again. Over and over until you get where you want to go.” At a lesson so obvious Richard finally had to laugh in concession. “An elaboration on your famous adage: Pay attention; the rest will come,” he acknowledged. (From The Anathemas,
Chapter 8) |
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