Adonis Diaries

A bit of “mind-shuffling”: What is “state of grace”, anyway?

There is this philosophical notion that says: “Every object that you perceive must have a mind (soul), otherwise, how our mind could perceive it?”

Beautiful abstract notion; I wouldn’t be ready to give my life supporting it.  This is not the subject of this post: It inspired it.

I so often hear people say: “I received the grace, or I am in a state of grace, or I feel at peace with myself and with the universe…”  And I wonder “what is this state of grace thing”?

I go on with my busy daily work and chores and then my mind takes a short break and starts talking with itself like “I know that I am among the living. With such little odds to be a living thing, from mother getting pregnant, and being born, and survived the first year… and kept breathing in this polluted world… how come I got to be born?  What is the meaning of my life?  Should I expect life to have a meaning?…”  I call these moments “mind-break touched by grace”

I resume my hurly-burly daily busy work and these instants of “unprofitable” queries recur frequently.  There are moments the mind takes another kind of break, an extension to the previous wondering mind, this auto-questioning is driven to a dangerous step forward.

The mind is saying: “I know that each of my traits are shared by thousands of human beings, probably by animals too, and I feel that with all that sharing story, I am still a unique individual.  Well, this “unique” attribute is shared by God too.  Can’t I deduce that I am a God? One of them Gods?”

At this junction, the mind has crossed the Rubicon River, the red line to enemy territory, and the mind has to deal with his new situation.  This new qualitative kind of mind-break that I call “mind-break in state of grace”.

And life never stops with these frequent sorts of mind breaks, and we continue the living and surviving. One day, the mind takes a plunge and decides “I am one of the Gods.  Who else is better positioned but me to be a God?”

At this stage, the mind is in the state “mind-break in God”.  Sufis would call it “being in unity with God, to be in unison with God, to be a friend of God, to be the lover of God…”

The mind has crossed all the red lines and is taking on its responsibility to behaving as a God should behave:  God is no longer going to be indifferent to his brother, neighbor, animals, trees…

God is to communicate his emotions, aspirations, hopes, errors…

God has to deal with all the troubles, problems, joys, excitements of his fellow-man…

God is to be involved and takes stands for the weak, the humiliated, the downtrodden, the meek…

From now on, the mind has decided that it is worth sacrificing once life, defending another man’s rights (all the rights that the mind wishes to acquire) against all odds and everybody.

Dying as a God is worth the entire universe.

How would you like to die, Sir?

A handful of ash, dirt, dust… Eaten by worms, ants, crows, fishes, maggots, wolves…

Everything that you despised, handled with disgust, crushed, trampled, maltreated, ignored…

How would you like to be living, Sir?