Come In!
Dismissing Deism's conception of the unmoved Prime Mover, all of the world's most popular religions (except Buddhism in its purest form) choose instead the other fork in the road.
These cosmologies portray a universe supervised by an engaged Godhead who seeks our spiritual advancement, a fatherly eminence who invites worthy humans into a paradise of infinite contentment, to be attained chiefly after we die. Most religions hold that life should be lived as a monumental self-improvement course, instructed in detail by God and comprised of strenuous exercises in speculative meditation, disciplined perseverance, selflessness, and delayed gratification. Life is about making the grade with our omniscient, existential tutor, and thereby advancing ourselves steadily toward graduation through the pearly gates of life's great university.
"Come In!" is a poignant chamber piece by Vladimir Martynov, who introduces the work with this parable:
"An ancient hermit said to his disciple: 'Strive to enter the inner cell of your soul and there you will behold the heavenly cell. Both are one: you enter them by the same door. The staircase to heaven is inside you: it exists secretly in your heart.' And it is true. Our whole life is but an attempt to find this miraculous entrance. All our deeds are but a timid knocking on this mysterious door. All our hopes are to hear, one day, perhaps, a voice that would respond, 'Come in!'"
This, at bottom, is the core promise of religious faith.
TITLE - "Come In!"
WHERE - Port Moody, British Columbia (2015)