www.theburninghand.com

Awakening to the One Beauty, Adored by many Names

       from the desk of
Robert Daniel Smith
Cook, Dishwasher, Walker, Gardener, Writer, Poet
and Companion of the Way

    Author:
www.theburninghand.com
Resplendent In Rags and The Jewel In The Lotus

Everyday: Chop Wood, Carry Water
-- Chinese Taoist Sage
Come to my home. I will make tea. Noodles. We can talk poetry. -- Tsung Tsai
We find our souls all soaked in grace... -- Thomas Merton
The birth of a wholly new kind of human being, and so of a new world, is
possible. -- Fr. Bede Griffiths

The hope of the future would seem to lie with
the small communities, sometimes associated with a larger
community, which are springing up all over the world, consisting
of men and women, married and single, seeking a new style of life which
will be in harmony with nature and the inner law of the spirit.
  These communities cross all barriers of race and religion and are the
expression of the urge to go beyond the present economic, political, and
religious systems and to open a way to the future.
-- Fr. Bede Griffiths

The universe is a sacred marriage between God and matter, spirit and flesh, an entirely holy emanation of divine love; the destiny of human life is to live this sacred marriage here on earth, with as complete and compassionate a consciousness as possible... the Kingdom is now, is here, is the inmost heart-core of reality itself, the fire of love and justice blazing at the heart of all things and beings. "The Kingdom is inside you," Jesus is telling all of us; it is our inmost consciousness, that divine consciousness in us that is our real consciousness, which, one with the Godhead, intuitively sees and knows the real as the play and work of love... -- Andrew Harvey

I am listening now with all my senses, as if the whole universe might exist
just to teach me more about love. -- adrienne maree brown

Imagine Paradise, Practice Beauty
The Cosmic Cross is a Circle: In the Name of Love, Lover, and Loving...
       What if? Why not? What next?
Gospel Franciscan Celtic Nonviolence
Being-Becoming / Cosmic Consciousness / Infinite Bliss
Holy Mother Meditation and Life
Mother, Daughter, Holy Soul
Tao
Divine Mother Mary

How then shall we live?
  Is there not an heretical imperative implicit in the Gospel
and in our absolute amazement in awakening to the Blessed Trinity:     Love, Lover, and Loving...

The Kingdom of Heaven Is Within You!
(Pan-Sacramentalism)

Is it not true that the Gospel, and the Heart of Every Religion, is an invitation to build, with a radical faith and hope, intentional communities rooted in the Mystic-Action of the Kingdom, of pan-sacramentalism? Is it not true that the Gospel, and the Heart of Every Religion, calls us to live a life of prayer, cooperation, compassion, service, justice, simplicity of life, and nonviolence (a Beatitude life)? Is it not true that the Gospel, and the Heart of Every Religion, calls us to save Planet Earth by living in such a way that we serve all species and the re-generation of our Home? Is it not true that the Gospel, and the Heart of Every Religion, calls us to gender / race / and class equality (equality of and in the personhood of all human beings -- especially since the Kingdom of heaven is within all of us!) as the foundation of social transformation towards the just, the good, and the beautiful? Is it not true that the Gospel, and the Heart of Every Religion, calls us to live lives of contemplative prayer, gratitude of mind, availability and vulnerability of heart, and a harmony of body, mind, and soul? Is it not true (it could very well be!) that our Surrender to the Holy Mother, in an invitation of the Kingdom, of pan-sacramentalism, might be the most efficacious means of cultivating the Conscious Evolution, the Growing Christ, required by this 21st century? And finally, is it not true that the Gospel, and the Heart of Every Religion, are roadmaps of the Way -- into our surrender to the Divine and our growing / greening identification with this Love -- and with Every Manifestation of the Beloved in a pan-sacramental non-dual Universe (Whoa! the Kingdom of God!) -- and then our ultimate transformation in and through this same Cosmic Christ Consciousness? The Tao... The Divine Unity... The Oneness... The Dark Enigma... I Am
-- Core Questions and A Way of Life
Companions of the Way

Emergent strategy is how we intentionally change in ways that grow our capacity
to embody the just and liberated worlds we long for.
-- adrienne maree brown

Vow of the Order of the Sacred Earth:
"I promise to be the best lover and defender of Mother Earth that I can be."

Recommended Reading:
The Hope / Andrew Harvey The Sufi Book of Life / Neil Douglas-Klotz
The Grapes of Wrath / John Steinbeck   Son of Man / Andrew Harvey
The Forty Rules of Love / Elif Shafak Loaves and Fishes / Dorothy Day
The Chalice & The Blade / Riane Eisler   Be Love Now / Ram Dass
Autobiography of a Yogi / Paramahansa Yogananda Earth Democracy / Vandana Shiva
Gandhi the Man / Eknath Easwaran The Wisdom Jesus / Cynthia Bourgeault
Rumi: The Big Red Book / Coleman Barks Creation Spirituality / Matthew Fox
Occupy Spirituality / Adam Bucko, Matthew Fox Sacred Pleasure / Riane Eisler
Living the Eternal Way / Ellen Grace O'Brian The Hidden Gospel / Neil Douglas-Klotz
Feminism Is For Everybody / bell hooks Existence / David Hinton
The Dream of a Ridiculous Man / Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Self-Aware Universe / Amit Goswami, Ph.D.
Quantum Creativity / Amit Goswami, Ph.D.
How Quantum Activism Can Save Civilization / Amit Goswami Ph.D.
Awakening, A Sufi Experience / Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan

  "By little and by little" was a frequent saying repeated by Dorothy Day, in both her writings and
in her daily life: living in a shelter that included intentional community, homeless, and a soup kitchen. And so her "by little and by little" continues with us in our home -- far from the shelters, soup kitchen, drop in center, health care clinic, community garden, silk screening, art gallery, summer camps for youth, and other projects that taught us how to love, broke our hearts, and always pieced us back together again... Now, our "work" is family, home, teaching, writing, creating art, and the layering of gratitude in our daily life experiences... and gardening... which really amounts to the long, slow, haul of creating soil (perhaps the one essential work of humanity)... we've two apple trees, three hazelnut bushes, berries, assorted juniper-like bushes and trees, and hostas and ferns on the north face... but really, the reality is straw, wood chips, and collected leaves from the city compost site that we layer everywhere... eventually, the hardy plants will genuinely rejoice, and the longed-for veggies and fruits will finally be abundant! Meanwhile, we still cook and share "Soup Nights" with neighbors and friends, read poetry together, and share our spiritual practices... Looking around, deep meditation is everywhere: Mother Mary and St. Francis have their representations, as does Kuan Yin (Bodhisattva of Compassion), and the Indigenous Mother and Child... kneeling in the straw and tucking it around the plants (realizing that winter will be here soon enough) is just as sacred as sitting in prayer and meditation before our altar (centerpiece of our "Great Room", comfy with soft sofa, old rockers, book cases, art work -- some even hanging from the ceiling, dining table, and drifting incense and music)... Our past in Dorothy's Place is cherished, but our present, oh our present, is the stuff of life: poetry, adventures, and the intentional cultivation of "enough", "gratitude", "kindness", and "awareness of the Mystery that pervades all life and everything"... Your thoughts, comments, and questions are always invited!

Stunning love is where the soup boils. Justice and Mercy stand in the breadline. The Blissful Mother receives there Her bowl of soup and piece of bread. Kitchen theology is getting up out of the easy chair and going where the onions need to be chopped! Kitchen theology is the understanding that "salvation" is not the profession of a creed or a "personal relationship" with Jesus, Allah, Krishna, the Buddha, the Torah, the Way or even the Goddess. Rather, it is the radical commitment to not enter Paradise until everyone among us has found their fill of bread and roses, and entered first. -- Robert Daniel Smith Resplendent In Rags

If we believe in the Incarnation of the Son of God, there should be no one on earth in whom we are not prepared to see, in mystery, the presence of Christ. -- Thomas Merton

Peter Maurin and Dorothy Day founded the Catholic Worker Movement which continues to operate Houses of Hospitality throughout the world, with the workers publishing newspapers, building farms, serving and advocating for the poor, and witnessing for peace and justice.

The price of the kingdom is the food you give to those who need it. -- St. Leo the Great

Our problems stem from our acceptance of this filthy, rotten system. -- Dorothy Day, Saint of the Gutter Beautiful

In hurried flight down a darkened path
my soul is seeking a wooded house and garden green
where her Lover waits with love's expectations
and only the Breath of God stirs the fragrant leaves
-- Robert Daniel Smith

Imagine Paradise, Practice Beauty

Creation was fashioned to be adorned, to be showered, to be gifted with the love of the Creator. The entire world has been embraced by this kiss. Limitless love, from the depths to the stars, flooding all, loving all. It is the royal kiss of peace. God hugs you. You are encircled by the arms of the mystery of God. -- St. Hildegard of Bingen

Divinity is everywhere and within everything: it is the Holy of Holies, the Secret of Secrets. It is both above and beneath, within and without. It is before and it is behind: it lurks behind every veil -- always ready and waiting for the perfect moment, the surprise of the perfect pounce... -- Robert Daniel Smith Resplendent In Rags

Every single act of kindness is a call into Being for the Divine Beloved -- the Source is born -- again and again throughout all of time -- by every moment and movement of Love from "one" to "another". We become the Mothers of G-d by our Love and through our Love! We give birth to G-d when through a thought, word, or action we exist -- in that specific and precious moment -- not for ourselves, but only for the "other"...

The experience of all mystics is a new knowledge and relationship to the world, a union in love that begets in the mystic a burning desire to serve the world.

-- Fr. George Maloney, S.J.