Notes

In our discussion, we asked if city life and the currents of the universal being worked against each other, or if they actually worked to complement each other. The majority of the responses believed that city life and “the currents of the Universal being” are essential complements to one another for individuals to understand and experience a true balance between the natural and spiritual world. Diya, for example, said that it was necessary for both of these factors to coexist because society was an inevitable factor and influence on humans. But there were people who thought otherwise and believed that Emerson was right to believe that city life works against nature and prevents people from strengthening their relationship with God. An example of this belief is in Conan's reply, in which he stated that he believed that city life held a lot of distractions that could "thwart an individual's ability to discover nature", and that ability to discover nature was what was needed to establish a relationship with God and maintain peace. Because of the hectic and busy nature of city life, people find themselves not being able to go into solitude and explore nature. These two ideas made up most of the responses but other people found a balance between the two previous ideas. They believed that it was wrong to assume that city life cannot coexist with nature, but these two have separate effects on the individual. As written by Anya, some people may not be inhibited by the crowds and pollution associated with city life. Instead of physical environments, they find peace through emotional development. Another opinion that we saw in our discussion was that it is “not so much what is being observed” but rather “how it is being observed”. Sahand said that. With an open mind, the environment loses its significance and the importance is rather placed on a spirit’s ability to guide itself to inner balance. There were a lot of interesting opinions in this discussion.