Echoes of the Spirit

My grandparents rent apartments to anyone looking for a place to stay. Whenever a renter leaves an apartment, I would begin playing inside the emptied space. I wondered how echoes vibrate in an empty room, in contrast with the time where all furniture and appliances were still in place. It was fun hearing my voice shouting against the wall. There was an airy feeling in my echo like a voice of some enchanted being. I would run around the room, stump my feet on the floor, then whisper, coo and shriek like a caged raptor unwary however my cry sound like. It was then a child's play. Many years have passed, people come and go to this apartment, and have left it behind as empty as I have found it. I have lost this childhood memory, yet it echoes back again with an insight.

In a one-to-one Commune, a new friend, who is one of our room renters, told me his story of struggles and that lingering lesson he has learned every time we talk and greet each other. He lives his life based on others expectations, on everyday survival from his deep agonies to make his family happy. He wants to discover a richer life. He keeps on lifting his self-esteem as he pits against all difficulties in his life. He has risked the meaning of life in this inner war.

An insight flashed while listening to him. I saw myself zoomed throughout the past years of my spiritual evolution. His life today was a realm I had tried to escape from. I found myself seeing the faces of the people I have met through him. It suddenly dawned on me that all those people bear the same response. All these people have been pondering that very essence of meaning that I have been searching and discovering. Now, I am sharing with them the meaning they have often brushed off as they live their lives everyday.

It never fails to surprise me how those wonderful people I have met can easily amplify that echo within. They have this longing to fathom this mystery. When conversations roll, they would zestfully share the string of events that had threaded unrelated possibilities for them to be right here in a perfect Commune moment. These events happened days before, or some years in the past, when they had tried to answer some Life's big questions through their own naivete.

Stories that echo these connections are abound in my each Commune. For example, a friend told a story of Love being discussed over a hearty dinner the night before a Commune; someone narrated a story of a boy with a hellish mood turned into a reconciliation full of Love; another had puzzling decisions made in the past, and the answer came in the Commune; some group of friends in a middle of quarrel were led to a synchronistic Commune; or some students and professionals who were undergoing a predicament when insights ignited while Communing. These and other precious sharing are worth our time. We would always be in timeless awe when the sound of Love echoes by itself.

I have begun to see myself not in contrast with the people I meet, but a spirit which another can echo oneself. Every person I meet is also an echo of my own shortcomings and triumphs, of this incessant search for the meaning of Life. I have heeded the call of Love coming from the eternal universal music that rhythmically echoes throughout our deeper consciousness. Every person I meet seeks Love, speaks about it them the best they can using the most fitting language they know. As they speak, there is an innermost voice that sings from each of their hearts. In return, voices reverberate within me, and my heart sings Love with them.

I imagine my spirit like a dolphin, swimming in this oceanic universe. My spirit sings a song and waits for the echo to bounce with another spirit. The spirit in the other sings, too. While the ocean seems to be endless, within it our spirits cross paths and connects. We begin to swim together and discover this vastness. We echo in unison, and the whole ocean is now being filled with that echo, the inner, resonant echo of Love.