Introduction to
The Quest for Being . . .
Welcome to the introduction of the poetic work entitled "The Quest for Being." The Quest is a preliminary poetic work to "The Odyssey of Heart" posted here and reflects the initial movements of the soul in quest for meaning.
Like the Odyssey of Heart in this section, and like the "Testimony of the Saints" in our "Religious Traditions," The Quest for Being does not strictly rely upon a trust for what is commonly adopted from the milieu of experience. Always at Being Quest the aspirations of the individual are thoroughly tested by experience and reflection, passed through the furnace of tribulation as it were, in order to distill what wholly belongs to the autonomous evolution of personality and character. This is always a very difficult enterprise and puts the soul at dire risk of loosing itself apart from the traditional helps of dogmatic, cultural identity norms.
As such, The Quest for Being is the beginning of what some have called ‘The Dark Night of the Soul’. Its importance to the interested reader is primarily in view of the poet’s dawning awareness of loss in the initial tribulation and honest reflection. Indeed, it is a terrible thing to too readily push oneself into the reexamination of all that one had once believed was the bedrock of comfort in their lives. And though it isn’t asserted here that everyone is called to such severe an examination of their existence, it happens to have been the way of the site’s Author and is the central thrust of all works contributed by the same at Being Quest.
Having completed The Odyssey of Heart after a long decade of careful reflection and study, it now seems apparent that The Quest for Being, which was written prior to the initial struggle of The Odyssey, is still a very important aspect of the Author’s spiritual adventure. Simply put, The Dark Night of the Soul remains the constant condition of the sojourner in quest of truth and love. It is, therefore, the Author’s humble admission that, whatever confidence is found in those insights arrived at along the way, there always remains a certain agony of the soul in search of its beloved object. The best we may ever perform is to admit and accept our essential Condition as sojourners and to seek to perfect that integrity of heart that is ever the treasure of our honest self-awareness. Such pain as this commits us to is both the source of one’s deepest understanding and the arrow of one’s ultimate being.
With a little good fortune, The Quest for Being will soon be posted here. Barring that, the Odyssey of Heart and Testimony of the Saints may well stand alone to represent the Work and aspiration that has been the Author’s best endeavor. May it not fall short of that comfort in others which it has served to commend and demonstrate in one, simple soul.