Review and Reflection: Method Tide 3 - Viraneut

This blog post comes slightly late. The Tide of Viraneut finished on 5th August and so I'm a couple of weeks late with my review. Nevertheless, better late than never, so here we go.

The Beginning:

Viraneut started well - I was focusing on trying to do acts of love to others, usually small things such as making them a drink or attentively listening to what they were saying, and I generally was attempting to adopt an attitude of vira to those in my life: colleagues, clients, commuters, friends and family.

I began to reflect on the concept of vira and tweet my thoughts and experiences, and I began to translate Bible passages about vira into the Kibtisk conlang as a way of reflecting on the concept.

1 John 4:7-8
"Beloved, let us love one another,
for love is from God,
and whoever loves has
been born of God
and knows God.
Anyone who does not love does not know
God, because God is love."
1 John 4:7-8 (ESV)

The Questioning:

Then I suppose something akin to the 'novelty wearing off' happened. I began to adjust to the Tide and so the focus on vira began to fade as I continued with my day-to-day life. I still thought about and contemplated the concept of vira, but I wasn't doing much to enact or embody it.

During this time, a few challenges also arose which inhibited me from practising vira.

The first was the question of how. What is the best way to practise vira?

For example, when a homeless person asks for money, is it vira to give them some spare change, or is it vira to donate to the charities, hoping that they will receive it?

Is it true vira to only be warm-hearted to your family and friends, or is the deeper, truer vira to be warm-hearted to everyone, as Jesus teaches (Matthew 5:46). If so, what is the way to do vira to others, especially when they themselves are cold-hearted, mean, even toxic?

"For if you [only] love those who love you,
what reward do you have?"
Matthew 5:46a (ESV, italics mine)

What's more, how are you to do vira when you're tired, stressed, ill, or hurt?

This Tide has been a real challenge for me, and what I have learnt is that what many of us, myself included, want out of each day is for us to feel well, treat well, and be treated well. The ideal day is one where you are not tired, stressed, or ill, you have been healed, and you are surrounded by and filled with love. 

However, this is not the reality for each day, if for any day; and what I have discovered is that the ideal of vira and even the reality of selfless, warm-hearted love is an extremely difficult thing to cultivate. 

The Source:

I believe that vira has a source and by drawing on that source we can retain and maintain vira within ourselves and thereby give it out to others. But doing that in itself is just as challenging as practising vira on a daily basis. 

In other words, there is a source of heat/love to which we can go to warm our hearts and from that warm-hearted place be a source of heat/love to others. Choosing to draw upon this source is a daily choice, and one we are unlikely to make when tired, stressed, ill, or hurt.

Summary:

So, I have left this Tide with a lot of questions rather than answers. 

It has been difficult for me, not only because of the questions above, but because it is a Tide focused on external action. 

I am introverted and contemplative by nature and so I thrive in tides which call for introspection and spiritual practice, but less so in those that call for action. As we've seen, it didn't take long for me to begin thinking and questioning during this Tide.

Still, I have learnt from this Tide. I have learnt that the fire of vira within, for me at least, is a single flame rather than a blazing bonfire, and as such it needs to be guarded and maintained to be of any use. This calls for daily devotion to cultivating it and during upon the Source of Love to maintain the heat within.

As summer is drawing to a close and the heat begins to fade in the world, I am going to try to maintain the heat of love within, knowing that there is a Source from which I can draw to receive love for myself and others.

Why not join me on the Way?