Neo-stoic

this is a description of what i believe that i recently posted in a new yahoo group that sandra and dave put together.

i am a neo-stoic in training, attempting to learn and adopt a pre-xian faith system that worked for kings and paupers alike.

i think i have found the name for the pervasive, immanent deity, that i personally resonate to. it is encapsulated in the greek work 'phusis'. think of it as life, nature, the way things grow and improve. phusis is what makes it right for an acorn to become an oak. it is evolution.

this 'phusis' is at work everywhere. it is like a soul, or a life-force, running through all matter like the soul or life of a person runs through all of their limbs. it is the soul of the world. it is the law of nature. it is the great chain of causation by which all events occur. it shapes things towards their ends. it is the natural law, but it is natural law which is alive, it is life itself. it is indistiguishable from a purpose, the purpose of the great world-process. it is like a fore-seeing, fore-knowing power.

as such it can be regarded as god(dess), nevertheless it is not ephemeral, it is material. but it is the finest material there is. it is made of fire, not ordinary fire, but intellectual fire. it is the fire that is present in living things, but not there when they are dead. a fire which has conciousness and life and does not decay. this fire, phusis, god(dess) is therefore in all life, and is what gives everything it's life.

this fire within each of us, this knowing life-force, this will of the gods, this concicous purpose, is why we feel that there must be a purpose to life, a reason for it all. this is why we feel that some lives are wasted, while others are fulfilled, regardless of how long they have been lived. when we really live, deliberately choose to live, in accordance and alignment with this universal purpose to grow and improve and acheive something lasting, that we are fulfilling the will of god(dess), meeting our purpose, filling our life.