Exile, at its root, means to wander (ile) away (ex). The “ile” was derived from the Latin word for soil (Online Etymology Dictionary). Thus it means to be away from one’s own soil, one’s own earth, one’s own place. To be in exile is to be in a place not one’s own, a foreign place, a strange place, a place of discomfort and unfamiliarity. One can do one’s best to be at home there but it is not one’s home.
Exile can be enforced or self-imposed. One can be cast out or one can cast oneself out. In the type of exile we will consider, the two are simultaneous. We are cast out as we cast ourselves out. The two lose their distinctiveness. How is this so?
When stripped to our core, letting go of all the mental, emotional, interpersonal, spiritual, and physical attachments, we find that what is left is Presence. We are the Immediacy of the ever changing Now.
When we remove our Presence from a consciousness realm, we are automatically cast out. We have done it to ourselves. No one has done it to us.
To hopefully make this more clear, let us turn to a story, a story that is the template for all exile stories, the story of The Hymn of the Soul.
Exile can be enforced or self-imposed. One can be cast out or one can cast oneself out. In the type of exile we will consider, the two are simultaneous. We are cast out as we cast ourselves out. The two lose their distinctiveness. How is this so?
When stripped to our core, letting go of all the mental, emotional, interpersonal, spiritual, and physical attachments, we find that what is left is Presence. We are the Immediacy of the ever changing Now.
When we remove our Presence from a consciousness realm, we are automatically cast out. We have done it to ourselves. No one has done it to us.
To hopefully make this more clear, let us turn to a story, a story that is the template for all exile stories, the story of The Hymn of the Soul.
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