Oh to see it with my own eyes...

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"Wide Eyes"- the opening track to Local Native's album Gorilla Manor, seems to be speaking about spirituality. Specifically, I feel it talks about the struggles of two huge figures in the history of religion: Jesus and the Buddha. This song is moving and passionate. Every time I listen to it I cannot help but think about my own struggles with "enlightenment". My religion is ever-changing and I have found it grows and develops as I grow and develop. Those humans in the world who cease to develop, who cease to learn are also directly affecting the development of their own spirituality... their own religion. I believe it to be true that spirituality comes from a continuous flow of new knowledge and experience. A person's religion must evolve throughout their life and will change and take new directions often. It truly does not matter what religion someone's parents pressed on them. Every single person must struggle to develop their own way of thinking- their very own religion. I leave these thoughts with an incredible quote that pertains to the development of one's own religion.

One of our problems is that very few of us have developed any distinctive personal life. Everything about us seems secondhand, even our emotions. In many cases we have to rely on secondhand information in order to function. I accept the word of a physician, a scientist, a farmer, on trust. I do not like to do this. I have to because they possess vital knowledge of living of which I am ignorant. Secondhand information concerning the state of my kidneys, the effect of cholesterol, and the raising of chickens, I can live with. But when it comes to questions of meaning , purpose, and death secondhand information will not do. I cannot survive on a secondhand faith in a secondhand God. There has to be a personal word, a unique confrontation, if I am to come alive.

-Alan Jones