Readings from the book Launch

Sunday, February 22, 2015 at McNally Robinson Booksellers, Winnipeg, Manitoba

Life’s Four Most Basic Questions

Pages 33/44

The power of keeping life’s four most basic questions in mind and using meditation to balance and integrate one’s SELF and SOUL as a whole is exactly what this book is all about. Life’s four most basic questions are:

Who Am I? is a materially-motivated process that predominates our thinking as we try to make sense out of the sensations of our childhood experiences and our adolescent interactions; 

What’s It All About Is? is an intellectually-focused process that predominates our thinking when we are in transition from education to employment and are looking for direction;

Where Do I Fit In? is an emotionally-charged process that underlies the first two questions but that surfaces to predominate when we are evaluating our successes in life such as having a career, a family, and contributing to the community;

Why Are We Here? is a spiritually-speculative process that is more or less active in the background of all of our questioning but that predominates Toward a More Loving and Caring World. 

When we are ready to consider ourselves in terms of the purpose and meaning of life and to review past, present and future issues in this larger context. All four questions are best asked in an integrated fashion as they can have different emphasis and meanings when considered separate and apart.

Page 262

Linking psychology and theology will improve Developing the SELF. Resolving the issues of technology versus spirituality will improve Growing the SOUL. There is a dialogue going on within us at all times between SELF and SOUL. We need to be able to be more aware and supportive of this ongoing dialogue to realize that we are four-dimensional – body, mind, heart and spirit. In a rapidly changing world, our basic knowledge and know-how has to be carefully balanced and directed in keeping with this awareness.

In this way, scientists, technicians, politicians, all of us can search within ourselves for the integrated sense of direction that we need to work toward a better world. Peace, justice, generosity and harmony can become the cornerstones of our newly emerging global community. To make this happen an increasing number of us will have to be steadfast in the inner conviction that we want to be heading in direction of this progress and that these ideals and the vision they support are both desirable and attainable. By keeping life’s four most basic questions uppermost in our minds and foremost in our hearts, we can remain targeted toward this idealistic goal. They are like the points of a cosmic compass guiding us from one generation to the next toward a more loving and caring world where the fullness of our humanity can be expressed and we can contribute to a better tomorrow.

The process of globalization with its ever-advancing technology and insistence on a deeper sense of spirituality is already in high gear. It’s putting enormous demands on us as individuals and as a humanity to be more informed about ourselves, the world around us and the choices we are making. I will be continuing to reach out to Kindred Spirits to add to the research outlined in this book. With this in mind, I have created a website at www.donayre.ca and I invite you as a valued reader to visit it and to include your comments. We all have different life experiences, different sources of knowledge and wisdom and different points of view. But together, we are creating the future. Let it be a more loving and caring world.