The Premise

Having gathered in groups for millenia, we are irrevocably bound to each other as human beings. Through our assertion of communities, we have built civilizations - and even when these fall, we continue to rely on our interconnectedness to shape our world. We simply cannot exist without the presence of other people; drawing on collaboration for practical, emotional and spiritual growth as we traverse our temporal trajectory through the ages. Within community spaces, our differences and similarities are channeled as an anchoring of values, imbuing our lives with illustrious meaning. As Audre Lorde said - “Without community, there is no liberation.” - and this is the precise vision we ought to maintain through a digitally-expansive era, in which our ability to be connected is constantly shifting. Without our community - exemplified by the voices witnessed throughout this series - we would not be where we are. We remain forever grateful.

The act of letting go is perhaps one of the most challenging invitations we can receive in our lives. We tend to cast surrender as an indication of weakness; that surrender means to give up, bow out or allow the oppositional outcome to overthrow us. What if this act, of surrender and letting go, was actually the subtle art form that allows us to immerse ourselves in the flow? What if, by allowing ourselves to drop our conceptual frameworks and expectations, we instead call God/Source Energy to take the lead – to show us and surprise in infinite ways what lies beyond our mental, societal fixations? Letting go requires a practice of non-attachment; perhaps the highest spiritual attainment we can seek in a world that constantly requires our attention and obsession in order for it to be sustained.

So much of spiritual sentiment in the 21st century is wrapped up in “transcending the ego” – the aspect of Self that is rooted in humanness, validation and is ultimately formed as a tool for self-protection for navigation on this earth. We asked our speakers to elucidate on the depth of the “ego” as both a friend and a foe in our lives. The ego requires consistent attention, nurturing and self-reflection; and a healthy ego can allow us to be bold in our choices, in our self-belief and expression of ourselves. On the other hand, it can also risk us being judgmental, self-deprecating or cynical in the chaos of this world. We rarely stoke the fire of this topic from a place of honesty; as an unbridled ego usually stems from a place of embedded internal fear. We are very interested in understanding the ego as a part of us that we can foster to guide us – much like our intuition – with the utmost care for ourselves, each other and this reality that we share.

It is difficult to define the nuance's purpose; particularly in a world that is chaotic, and sometimes suggests we should all be driven to pursue something. Perhaps, as our speakers elucidate, it dwells within - and that finding one's purpose is the ultimate surrender to the great mystery, however it may appear to us in our unique experiences. Each human being has a story to tell - a blueprint - that asks us to return to who we are. Whether it is through our approach to life, or the challenges we face, finding our purpose is to return to our most authentic expressions of Self. In this musing we are held by the words of Haneem Christian, Shakil Solanki, Tukiya Mulusa and Celeste Arendse.