A Smorgasbord of Spiritual Prompts
For your consideration from today through May 8th and beyond
Borrowing a phrase from two of my favorite Medium creators, Christine Graves and Diana C., to wit, “hello my lovelies,” and now from me, please forgive my tardiness with this week’s spiritual prompt, which I shall now make a double prompt (including this coming Sunday as well) unless a triple prompt occurs to me before I finish this not yet titled nor subtitled piece (Julius Evans I often do not know where my pieces will end up and I have not chosen a title or subtitle — we each have our own processes — neither more correct than another)(hmm, that in and of itself another spiritual prompt? — will Ravyne Hawke get cross with me for not creating clear direction? Do I care? Should I care?) Sometimes life gets in the way of Medium — nothing wrong lest my readers worry — sometimes simply moving 400 miles, even when undoubtedly the right if even a temporary move, has an adjustment period, and frankly I now force myself to reengage with you rather than procrastinate creating this writing prompt, which so far I have accomplished without a single passive-voice use of any conjugate of the infinitive “to be” and I hope to achieve that writing lesson throughout this prompt/essay, albeit with compound sentences which I love and that Medium creators tell us to avoid and as far as I believe, they can all go fuck themselves, as I believe others should, as you will see.
If you have read my story (https://readmedium.com/my-stress-avoidance-spiritual-tool-kit-2d5e55c83a67), you know I have moved from New Hampshire to my college friend’s (U Penn, which is not Penn State)(that’s not the Ivy League snob joke it may sound like — when U Penn made the Final Four way back in 1979, the ignorant announcers referred to the school as the Big Ten’s Penn State) farmhouse in rural PA. The other night, he put Peaky Blinders Season 5 on Netflix. Kyle proceeded to fall asleep while I, not having ever seen any previous episodes, binge-watched the entire season.
I loved it and I look forward to season 6, which starts streaming on June 10th, leaving me plenty of time to catch up on the first four seasons, and I would appreciate the input of readers as to whether I should catch up or whether I have learned enough about the plots and the characters just to move forward (hmm, another spiritual prompt?).
Meanwhile back in the depths of my brain, this scene caught my attention for your first intentionally intended prompt in this essay. Tommy, the “protagonist,” which I place in quotation marks because one might question whether any murderous mobster should garner that title, played by the excellent actor Cillian Murphy, whom I first remember as the devilish criminal against the lovely Rachel McAdams (who I often confuse with Elizabeth Banks, and vice versa — hey, hot is hot look-a-likes, right?) but from what I have seen his character displays enough ambivalent (which literally means of two minds — it does not mean that one does not care about something) ambiguity to make anyone question labels such as good and evil (oh, perhaps I just unintentionally embedded yet another spiritual prompt?), goes to visit his WW1 compatriot, Barney, in an insane asylum.
Barney spends 24 hours a day in solitary, in the dark, constrained in a straitjacket. Tommy offers Barney a cyanide and opium capsule with which to commit suicide. Barney refuses, saying, after some funny dialogue, “because one day, things might change.” For full effect, please watch the video:
Prompt #1 — create any form of a piece you wish based on that scene.
When I saw that scene, I immediately thought of essays I have written about the suicide of my friend Andrew, which I have geared towards suicide attempt prevention. My 17-minute version of those few essays, which has garnered far and wide my greatest number of fans (78 people leaving 2,895 claps), comments (59), and member-reading-time (21 hours), includes this poem:
Suicide provides no relief at all On ledge imagining end to my pain Pavement streaming toward me will not end fall Just before break solution becomes plain My penance to help others to refrain Thought my loved ones better off without me Truth’s too likely they’ll header into sea Had I known that death cannot be cheated Baring deep secrets would cure malady Death would not have left loved ones defeated
That poem and my essays rely heavily on the work of Viktor Frankl, a Jewish psychiatrist who survived the Nazi’s death camps, and wrote in his Man’s Search for Meaning, of successfully treating suicidal people:
“it turned out there was a solution to their problem, an answer to their question, a meaning to their life.”
…
Even if things only take such a good turn in one of a thousand cases, who can guarantee that in your case it will not happen one day, sooner or later? But in the first place, you have to live to see the day on which it may happen, so you have to survive in order to see that day dawn, and from now on the responsibility for survival does not leave you.
My lines “had I known that death cannot be cheated,” and “death would not leave loved ones defeated,” stem from these understandings of mine:
Regardless of whether one feels that suicide is selfish or justified relief, once one realizes that the date of death is predetermined, suicide becomes pointless. One’s agony will be relieved through a manner of death that does not destroy the lives of the loved ones left behind. Moreover, even a failed attempt could have disastrous consequences, both for the mental health of family members and the physical quality of life of the survivor — if it is not one’s day to die, the attempt will fail. According to Dr. Harris Stratyner, Ph.D. (champion of Carefrontation), as I learned from him in therapy, the adult children of suicides are 50% more likely to attempt suicide than members of the general population.
Prompt #2
Last evening on The Beat with Ari Melber I caught the televised portion of his full interview with Scooter Braun, who manages Justin Bieber, Arianna Grande, and Demi Lovato, among others. I urge you to watch the entire 40-minute and tremendously engaging interview. On top of the fact that today is National Holocaust Remembrance Day, one can find a shit ton of spirituality in the interview (I keep finding more and more in it), yet while I have written about Holocaust awareness and the amount of antisemitism tolerated on Medium disturbs me greatly,¹Ari did not use that portion of the interview on last night’s broadcast. I only coincidentally became aware of that portion of the interview tonight and thus synchronously decided just now to mention it.
This portion had grabbed my attention last night and formed what I intended as prompt #2:
Ari says, as a complete my sentence prompt: “failure means?”
Scooter: “failure means you’re on a pit stop to success.”
Ari: “reaching the summit means?”
Scooter: “I don’t think you ever reach the summit — I think we’re all on this journey until one day you’re not.”
That really caught my spiritual attention.
I took away from that what I consider the truth that spiritual gurus speak nonsense about the pursuit of enlightenment, aka, nirvana. I read or used to read before I muted their authors, essays discussing the achievement of enlightenment as something achievable by anyone. To a certain very limited extent, they speak the truth, but not in the way they deliver it. I have a very specific definition of enlightenment, which stems from my channeled discussions, via Ane, with my highest power, Rama, an avatar of Vishnu — for all intents and purposes — God.
“To attain nirvana, you would go on a completely different cycle, and that usually happens after a vast number of lifetimes lived. The lifetimes that you start to choose to live [at that point] are with great suffering. Think of the severely retarded, the severely mentally ill, POWs, people who have died violently at the hands of great evil and even stillborns who give up their life experience for the host.
These life cycles will continue again and again and if you have lived your life according to our plan, will allow you to go to higher and higher levels. One obtains full enlightenment when there is nothing more for you to suffer — when there is nothing more for you to learn!
Then you would be in the realms with the great archetypes, messengers and guides and archangels. You then would have an awesome burden and responsibility to heal those souls that remain on earth.”
My soul has now incarnated 17,043 times and we have not lived anything close to a vast amount of lifetimes. So, anyone that preaches or sells a path to achieving enlightenment in this or any reasonably foreseeable future lifetime (as opposed to becoming more enlightened), in my spiritual opinion, with which you may disagree, can go fuck themselves.
Anyway, notwithstanding my take on it, I prompt you to create any form of a piece based on your reaction to that exchange between Ari and Scooter.
Additional Food for Spiritual Thought
Tonight while watching the full video, this line regarding David Geffen caught my attention and forms yet another unintended portion of this multi-level prompt. I hope readers and writers will come back many times to all of this rich interview, which here I paraphrase:
“In 100 years, no one will remember me so they sure as hell won’t remember you so don’t have an ego…don’t go through life hoping someone will remember your name, just hope you will have made a difference.”
Later, with respect to another point Scooter said, creating yet another unintended spiritual prompt:
“You’ll have plans and then life will show up.”
That evokes these thoughts of mine from another but not nearly as well-read essay:
I love the irony of this oft-quoted and misunderstood saying:
“Man Plans, and God Laughs.”
This statement is used to diminish the role that free-will has upon our lives — that we cannot defeat the universe’s scripts. The irony is that while our higher powers have to approve our scripts/outlines, we wrote them. I wonder what goes on in the Executive Producer’s lounge as Zoroaster and Vishnu and Shiva and Rama and Kali and Kama and the rest of the heads of our tribes negotiate the interplay of their charges’ life spans.
I think Steinbeck said it better in Of Mice and Men,
“The best-laid plans of mice and men oft go astray”
which to give credit where credit is due, which is more than I can say for the esteemed Eckhart Tolle and others who profit off the ideas of others, John paraphrased from Robert Burns’ poem, To a Mouse.
Saul Levine, M.D., discusses these concepts very well in an article he penned for Psychology Today:
“Mann Tracht, Un Gott Lacht” is an old Yiddish adage meaning, “Man Plans, and God Laughs.” Despite our most careful planning, the Road of Life is unpredictable. We might have driving and destination strategies but scenic new vistas might beckon us or unforeseen roadblocks can deter us.
Our best-laid plans in life can be upended by unexpected changes, which could be either disappointing or exhilarating. Personal or other setbacks, losses of loved ones, illnesses or accidents, broken hearts or tortured souls, are not uncommon occurrences in our lives. On the other hand, fate can provide unanticipated good fortune or heartening experiences.
Another unintended prompt today — Later Scooter says: “stop making excuses about why you can't start the journey.”
Reminder: You can use these prompts here on PW or anywhere else on Medium (which I strongly encourage as it builds a wider audience and I believe in cross-pollination between and among publications). Regardless of where you publish, please tag me, and Ravyne and use “promptly written” as one of your reader interest tags, and include a link to this prompt. Also, if you use the prompt in another publication, please come back here and drop a link to your story in the comments as the tag notification system is notoriously unreliable.
In Rama I create, with soul-energy surging through my body, inspiring me and breathing wind into my sails,
Marcus (Gregory Maidman)
Endnote:
- A top writer in poetry, whom I used to consider a friend, wrote in February what would have amounted to an intelligent politically scientific poem, had he eliminated “and Zion” from the lines, “Britain and Europe divide what’s deemed minor, Dominated by kings, bigwigs and Zion.” I pointed out to him in private notes that the inclusion of those two words propagates the stereotypical and scapegoating myth that Jews control the world, used by Hitler and others, to cause the Holocaust and other genocide against Jews. The writer responded that Jews are too sensitive. I reported the poem to Medium and they responded that the poem does not violate their guidelines against hate speech. Clearly, their guidelines require revision.
