A lifetime Journey to Self-realization

Note: This is my most recent essay, published last week in the online literary magazine Artistry of Life. Check it out at : www.artistryoflife.org Journalist John Evanetski returns with a new, quarterly column entitled "Reflections from the Allegheny," with an initial essay on being and becoming that blends philosophy and journalism in singular fashion.

Very early in life, we all begin to “feel” that there is something more to us then just an everyday existence. Searching for who we are and why we are here in this time and space is as much a pilgrimage as it is a living and learning experience.

The reward, whether it comes quick, or near death, is the realization of self; that moment of clarity when we know what our duty is in life, and to life, which brings us to peace with ourselves and others.

Consider the words of the late Fr. Slavko Barbaric, a priest who lived in Medjugorje, Bosnia-Herzegovina: “Man is a being who longs for peace. That is why, one can say, without a doubt, that a persons home is where he finds 'his peace'. In order to experience this peace and to be able to remain in his "peaceful home", all segments of the person, that is his intellect, his free will, his mind and his soul, have to be satisfied. The search for peace is the main motive of every human activity, and that, for his entire life,“ Fr. Barbaric, wrote in his autobiography before he died in 2000. Inspired by the reported visions and apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary, he wrote and lectured extensively on the search for self, and gave talks to visiting pilgrims, and has written numerous books about the messages of Medjugorje.

At the beginning of this life-long quest the child-pilgrim is gifted with a time to wonder, to imagine, to explore, to examine and to discern. Children naturally “discover“ life’s secrets. We all know of, and may have had ourselves a moment of pure, innocent and spontaneous reflection that uncovered the truth of the events we witness. This is where we begin the journey of finding and understanding the self.

A well-developed childhood inquisitiveness can mature in adolescence into “awareness” at that everything around us has “meaning” both for its own sake and it relationship to all other living things. Paths begin to appear, choices emerge: go there for wealth and fame, that way for pleasure and happiness; this way leads to commitment, unselfishness, charity, and kindness; and, of course, there’s a road named Perdition. First, we must develop and exercise the freedom we have to make a choice, and the will to carry it out.

Carried into adulthood, the exercise of freedom and will leads to an enlightenment of self and attainment of peace. To be complete, our journey demands a recognition, as well as the practice of spirituality; that deep, inner sense of determination, fearlessness, austerity, and compassion.

At the end, satisfying the self-quest brightens the way and forwards our “knowing” as we pass to new existence. For when that bronze clapper tolls a final fugue to our requiem we will need not inquire the reasons for that who we are, for that which we lived: clarity, realization, and peace are already ours.