Ecstasy as a Spiritual Path
Vision
"To the property of motherhood belong nature, love, wisdom and knowledge and this is God... God speaking to Juliana: I it am. The greatness and goodness of the Father, I it am: the wisdom and kindness of the Mother, I it am: the light and grace that is all blessed love, I it am."
-- Juliana of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love
"The drunkenness of lovers comes from the soul."
-- Rumi
"I give you the end of a golden string,
Only wind it into a ball,
It will lead you in at Heaven's gate,
Built in Jerusalem's wall."
-- William Blake
Ah, to be in Love! To sleep curled in peace with acres of skin touching... a night-time of caresses in sleep... To touch morning nipples with lips and tongue... To rise and bless the day, invoking the Divine Name with a deep cleansing breath, and to embrace the One Love Consciousness with silent surrender and adoration... To continue in gratitude the work and play of the day, until the gathering again at the Family Table and the breaking of Bread... To live every day in gratitude and thankfulness... To live fully engaged, passionately awake, intensely committed to Vision and Place... To live with an everyday-practice of Divine Remembrance: the cultivation of flowers, vegetables, and fruit: and the offering of Blessings to one and all: the organizing of possibilities into an increase of justice, kindness, equality, peace, and beauty into neighborhoods and communities: and the ecstasy of the One Love Communion of awakening: there is Only One: and we are All It!
Overview
Ecstasy: ex stasis -- we have stepped out of the ordinary consciousness of multiplicity, or separation, into the Divine Unity: everything is One: a flowing, an inter-penetration, an atomic copulation of "Only One"... Sacred Imagination is unleashed and wine is blood is dance is wonder is the orgasmic blessing of atoms, matter, bones, flesh, consciousness, kiss, in the Cosmic Celebration of Love... as Bread that is broken, torn, chewed, consumed, the Worker advances the Cause of Justice and Harmlessness through the Divine Surrender of Service: the poor, the lost, the broken, the harmed, and the forgotten are brought from the margins and returned to the Center: Ecstasy is the spiritual path of delight in the outrageous possibility of life! Ecstasy is the spiritual path of the Divine Feminine: Woman, Lover, Mother weaving a web of silent music to course through the seemingly empty spaces of both atoms and galaxies: a symphony of inter-being: suddenly we can awaken into "no separation" anywhere... Ecstasy is the spiritual path of liberation into the "Tao of Oneness", and the freedom to love-without-limits: and the freedom of life without the need to dominate, manipulate, or control another being: the "Tao of Oneness" is the path of mutual aid, mutual adoration, mutual surrender, mutual kindness, and mutual beauty: the "non-action" of the "Tao of Oneness" is the daily practice of loving: without attachment and the need to possess any being: ecstasy is humility: humility is still the door that opens upon the Infinite...
So
the Lover has chosen a place to stand
not a small thing for the doing of nothing much...
but that nothing much
adds up to one surprise after the next
like the apples that fall -- Ker plunk --
into the waiting hands
into the laughing mouth
into the tonguing kiss
sweeter than honey,
an everyday passion for only this:
not rushing ahead,
not looking behind,
but being only love...
in the deep bow of the Universe.
It is clear to anyone with eyes to see (and heart to feel) that this precious blue Planet, and the life and humankind who dwell upon it, are in grave danger. Billionaires and giant corporations who profit from both exploitation and pain continue to buy politicians and governments (the "dollar-ocracy"), but even these "nowhere men" cannot escape to another world: we are here, and this is home to every one of us. Policies and programs may, or may not, change: but the real power is neither in institutions nor in a collective unconscious: power is an awakened human being: and in a gathering of everyday-folks whose intention is to awaken into each of their passionate possibilities... The exertion of the will to the good, the kind, and the beautiful is infinitely more powerful than the dulling pull of the systems that manipulate or dominate: there is no real happiness "there"... whatsoever... How to begin to awaken into ecstasy?
Beginning
The first "yawn and stretch" into the possibility of living in ecstasy is the essential realization that one is not alone! First, the One Love Consciousness lives, moves, breathes, and has It's Being within you: secondly, this is identically true for everyone else. Thirdly, as we have learned from both mysticism and quantum physics, every atom "exists" in a very loose "state": and all of our atoms are here, there, and everywhere! Many religious fundamentalists worry about genitals that wander in the fields of pleasure: hetero, bi, gay and trans without realizing that their atoms go shooting off constantly to meet and mingle and exchange "places" with other atoms: this unending exploration -- unarticulated and certainly uncontrolled by any dogma -- is key to the mystic life: if you can't "control" your atoms, isn't it about time to loosen up in your spirituality? No doubt we all have atoms that were once, twice, or many times "parts" of everyone and everything else... even of distant stars... To "loosen" one's spirituality is not necessarily to leave one's traditional faith, but rather to begin to practice on a much deeper level and, ultimately, to become as comfortable in the religious skin of every other as one is in one's own: there is Only One: always adoring each one of us: and here's the crux of the matter, we all, each of us, adore the Holy through our own eyes and heart: so there are bound to be differences of insight (and illusion): genuine spirituality, though, is the everyday practice of kindness, compassion, mercy, and as much harmlessness as is possible...
Next, stretching into ecstasy requires that one become intentionally part of the Network of Light: begin to understand issues on a deeper level than that of existing political and religious groups / societies. We live in such a fascinating time: there is the very real possibility of Planetary collapse as there is of a global rebirth in the pursuit of the Good, Kind, Just, and Beautiful. Pooling ideas and resources, aligning with allies, and clearly articulating every intention for living gracefully with and for others is fundamental to creating change. Authentic realization is always "mundane": how does one earn one's daily bread, how much is enough, and how to effectively share in an abundant simplicity is the stuff of heroic endeavors. But there are millions of people young in either body or spirit the world over who hunger for a thoughtful rEvolution, and flowering in virtually every land are groups of "paradise possibilitarians" who are globalizing love-without-limits, and profiting from all those exchanges in ways that money cannot buy... Youth, especially, are looking for ways to reconstruct a social order in which we are all liberated from political, economic, religious, and cultural domination: recognizing that pleasure and poetry have much more in common with the soul than does power, and ultimately offers far more than either profit or oppression...
Social justice and ecstasy are like the two sides to a fully human life: we are meant to weld together compassion for every "other" with our own pursuit of enlightenment and pleasure: secular concerns are equal to spiritual liberation. The wretched of the Earth need voices and hands to champion hope and justice: yet we all also need the indulgence of a spacious Imagination for Beauty and Delight. Of all the prophets, it is perhaps easiest (but real hard for some) to imagine the humble pleasures of Yeshua and Mary Magdalene cooking together with their friends, lounging around a warming fire, engaging in the normal talk of friends and lovers, exchanging kisses that mingle both tongue and wine, before considering the work needed on the morrow: who will bring the bread? Who will see to the wine? Who will care for the children? Who will compose a song? Who will organize the work party? Who will meet with the authorities? And who will plan the street theater in case of trouble? Finally, with a rousing song, a humble prayer, and a hearty night-blessing for all, they all retire here and there... a few stay and make love by the fire... but everyone blessed with the ecstasy of lives lived with passion...
The culture of domination and technology looks askance upon the vision of a prophetic life reveling in delight: who has the right to be happy -- for free -- when it is always "for sale" by a business represented by a chamber of commerce with a plan for hustling an international market? When the "mind" of the mystic-activist "descends" into the heart, one may finally awaken into the splendor of a new life: "I will give you the end of a golden string" wrote William Blake. Scholars debate meaning, while lovers take hold of the string and follow it into their heart... there, at "Heaven's gate", is the awakening of every breath a gift and an extension of the original "One Love Blessing"... upon every creature, upon everything, and especially upon every person... Is there any exercise more sacred than the silent gaze into another's eyes?
Essential practice of adoration, as in "Occupy Eyes" (see Rumi the Ecstatic), reverses the descent into the heart, and propels the "sacred self" out into the world for blessing and service: and the rEvolution of Possibilities and Imagination: may we all be saved from the "single sight" of the politician or the theologian! We need the dynamic vision of the free and what Blake called the "fourfold vision": dreaming, loving, and imagining, with such intensity that the Dream obliterates the "day" and is re-created according to the dream: one could say that this way of vision is like the first kiss of falling in love: extended infinitely into time: "And we are put on earth a little space, that we may learn to bear the beams of love", again says Blake... To see the surface of everything as resplendent with light, and to know everyone as lover, face to face... And then to see all Women and Men gathered together for the final Dance of the Universe: through our mutual delight and imagination, all evil is uncreated by forgiveness, and the New Creation is revealed by the Child and the Rose...
The Ecstasy of Love-in-Action
Do you remember your first love -- oh, say when you were about nine years old? Do you remember the first time that someone really looked at you and liked what they saw? And do you remember feeling snuggly-warm that you were "good enough"? Sadly, not everyone -- many people in fact -- never experience such memories and are never safe in "snuggly-warm"... But for those of us who have been so blessed, those first exploratory feelings no doubt prompted a search for an adult love: a partnership, a challenge, and a blessing gift. But still, not everyone concludes their search in the wonder of a mutual surrender... and a lasting experience of bliss. Nevertheless, it is an aspect of soul that seeks intimate contact with other human beings: and the desire for intimate contact is a primary indicator of this essential revelation: every human being is as a "mirror" of the Divine in our need to give our being -- completely -- away: as the saying goes, "come hell or high water"...
For most human beings, this giving is enacted through sexual union: some, unfortunately for them, get attached to limited physical sensations and then lost in a misunderstanding of sex as a "taking" of pleasure from another being (the play boy or girl mentality as well as that of the abuser and rapist): this attachment to "taking" oftentimes also becomes an attachment to domination in every aspect of relations (leading to violence, exploitation, greed, and oppression). Because these attachments are so seductive and powerful they become the standard, or model, for institutions and society as a whole: witness all the many justifications for war and violence, for predatory capitalism, and for religious elitism: all rooted in the mistakenly-perceived "right" of "taking" or holding power over others. Of course, if successful, attachments pay very well... but only for so long... for there always comes someone, or group, or nation capable of "ascending to domination"... but again, only for so long... Even a cursory glance at the pages of human history shows this inevitably shifting tide: yesterday's star is today's dust, yesterday's dictator is today's prisoner, and yesterday's billionaire is today's food for worms...
On the upside, giving can become one's self-identity! The love-play of givers is extraordinarily different from that of takers: for givers, the whole body (connected to both mind and soul) is a means of giving pleasure: conversation, fantasy, massage, kissing, caressing, holding, releasing, and final sexual union is, each step of the way, intensely orgasmic-giving: this is music, poetry, song, and dance: and the deep satisfaction of soul unleashed from the imprisoning walls of "me, myself, and I" into the liberation of "together we are One": which includes in its embrace every single "other" and the entire Universe as well! The ancients called this "tantra", it is surely an essential mysticism: and a practice for every area of one's life! Our nature as human beings -- again, as mirrors of the Divine -- is to seek the communion of love: this communion can be fostered by the giving of sexual union, the deep pleasure of parenting, the quality of work performed well, the reverence of nature, and the service of love-without-limits in the society in which one lives...
Quantum physics has discovered that the material universe is not the "solid stuff" we once thought it was: it is, instead, perhaps best described as fields of energy into which is consciousness is somehow enfolded... In a similar manner, psychologists are discovering that consciousness is not limited to "self", but is also "transpersonal" and also open to "transcendental consciousness"... Both examples are another way of saying that we live in a very interesting Universe! "Our" Universe appears to be "organic" -- perhaps even "alive" although not in a way that we can yet perceive or understand. If the entire Universe is a manifestation, or movement, of the primal One Love Consciousness, then human beings can only be understood as "within" this communion of love. The One Love Consciousness is the will to love, the act of love, and the goal of love. Created as "mirrors" of this One Love Consciousness, the human being is tasked with remembrance and awakening: and then serving love. Remembrance corresponds with will, awakening with act, and serving with goal: being love now in each moment of one's life is the divine secret of everyone who has ever lived as an ecstatic! This metaphysics of "no separation" is key to both the mystic life and to the activist goal of global transformation...
The ecstasy of love-in-action is the one essential divine ingredient for the "bread" of a new humanity to rise and to consciously evolve. The rEvolution of the mystic-activist will either be personal, and joyous, or it will not happen. A transformed humanity will never have the cheap trinkets to sell in the bazaars of the world to match the trinkets offered by predatory capitalism: so it had better be able to offer bliss and justice both, or there will be no one following us! The complete transfiguration that is our goal -- a reflection of the fullness of the Unbound-Christ-Consciousness of Yeshua the Poet -- will only be achieved by the full development and liberation of every human person. The inter-being of Nature and Humanity needs the loving service of an awakening people! The full dimensions of the person must be revealed and consciously explored: as a giving of service in love and ecstasy: this is the beginning of the New Creation, consciously lived, consciously given, consciously loved without limits...
Suffering and Ecstasy
We can't complete the picture of ecstasy as a spiritual path without confronting suffering: oh, I know the fact of suffering has been a consistent thread throughout this brief essay. But have you really stopped to consider the dilemma that we each face? We were "created by Love, for Love, to become Love (Simone Weil), in other words, we have been fashioned through and through with an infinite capacity for ecstasy: and yet we are everyday confronted with suffering: and for many among us, life is only defined by endless suffering, with no end in sight and no hope for anything else. This is the reality of life for the many thousands of children who die of malnutrition every day: this is the reality of life for the many thousands of children living everyday as sexual slaves: this is the reality of life for the many thousands of children who commit suicide every year: and for those of us, who on the surface, are exempt from these tragedies, we know that (even if we do nothing about our knowing) these are truths or facts that spite our claims of civilization. And we all suffer, too, in many countless ways: from illnesses to accidents, from the many ways of being harmed to the many ways we have harmed others, and from a certain knowing that nothing is really working well for anyone: the Earth is suffering: climate change, losses to biodiversity, exploitation, oppression, injustice, cruelty, inequality, consumerism, and every sort of violence is chaotically present about the entire Planet...
According to Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, "Humanity is being taken to the point where it will have to choose between suicide or adoration." This is like a Zen-slap to the mind! There will be no escape for anyone or for anything! Hanging by our fingernails from the cliff of our collective arrogance and guaranteed of a socially-shattering fall, where can we look for rescue? Some biblical fundamentalists like President Reagan's Secretary of the Interior, James Watt, triumphantly proclaim that, "Jesus will return when the last tree falls." Others of similar ilk pray for total war in the Middle East, believing that such a war is necessary for ushering in the end-times and, once again, the return of Jesus (who will promptly crush all non-believers -- non-Christians). But what of the mystic view: that this Christ Consciousness never left?
So then, where is this Christ Consciousness hidden, but present, still? There is probably no better introduction to the mystical presence of the Christ Consciousness than this brief selection from the Gospel of Thomas: "When you make the two, one, and when you make the inner as the outer, and the above as below, and when you make the male and female into a single one, so that the male will not be male, and the female not be female, then you shall enter the Kingdom"... or, the Christ Consciousness: the core-realized identity as "Only One". To such a one who has experienced this direct transmission of grace, even the apparent tragedies of life -- every bit of suffering -- are resplendent with a diaphanous Light: Love is Alive, and Magic is Afoot! The Communion of Love is our "Welcome Home" in everything that we do, and in every place that we are: this person, the One right in front of you now is your opportunity for mystic action: it is by loving that Love is revealed and actually increased: it is singularly possible to start a contagion of bliss through a pure intention to love-without-limits: "The drunkenness of lovers comes from the soul..." (Rumi) It is precisely here that genuine life finally becomes possible... though this mystic secret is seldom taught in faith communities, schools, or psychiatric offices it is nevertheless essential for the radical healing and liberation being sought by nearly everyone, and surely by this precious blue Planet as well...
Next comes the stunning revelation of people like Dorothy Day and Thomas Merton: if you want to be loved, then love others with no unconscious desire to either manipulation or control: love and serve simply because a sister or a brother is in need: have no expectation or requirement of results: have no attachment to verifiable outcomes: love and serve simply because it is the right, and graceful, thing to do. Someone is hungry? Feed him. Someone is thirsty? Give her a drink. Someone is without shelter? Build a home. Someone is alone or forgotten? Remember her and be present. Someone is an addict? Understand the terror of causes and heal. Someone is ill? Create a health care system that serves all equally well. Someone is unemployed? Organize strikes-in-reverse and create meaningful jobs. Someone can't afford college? Start a free university. Someone is suffering from war? Get out into the streets and work for change with purpose and meaning. Someone is farming and can't save seed? Start a seed exchange... and a rEvolution.
Are you beginning to see? "Whatever you do to the least of my sisters or brothers, you do exactly the same to me." Was there ever a more radical plan of action -- and deep spiritual revelation -- from Yeshua the Poet? Suffering is a fact of existence: but we are not supposed to accept it with soulless inattention! Rather, we are all supposed to self-identify as "community organizers" (mystic-activists): about the sacred work of loving-without-limits; of serving the poor and marginalized with soup, bread, roses, and justice; of creating the needed social, political, economic, and religious transformation to the Kind, the Good, and the Beautiful; and to build intentional communities of retreat, resistance and rEvolution. The only mystically acceptable response to someone's personal suffering is loving reverence, presence, and service: the only mystically acceptable response to social suffering is loving resistance, creative actions, and constructive programs focused on a complete global transformation.
The beauty of the Mother
is confusion to the proud and self-assured --
and the simplicity of wonder
escapes both politician and theologian...
meanwhile the flowers continue to bloom
and the holy is resplendent in rags: drunk like the bees:
adoration, adoration, adoration with every breath...
down, down, down like the dropping of waters:
into all the hidden places that are filled
with the humbled, the broken, and the lost...
the perfect bowl of soup
placed in the coldly hesitant hands of the addict
settles all the accounts of the Universe.
(From The Tao of Old Dan of Walking Green Mountain)
It should not be surprising that, here in the Mystic Garden, there are references to the "Mother", to the "simpleton", to "drunkenness" and to "adoration": each connected through the Communion of Love to the wretched of the Earth: and where, through the humblest, simplest, and most human of actions: placing a bowl of soup into the hands of an addict, and in the perfect surprise of Love, settling "all the accounts of the Universe". Look around once again: people are still arguing about reverence for the Earth and ecological sustainability; people are still arguing about whether or not food, water, shelter, health care, education, and work and leisure are human rights; people are still arguing about equal rights for women, minorities, and others oppressed by unjust social, economic, and religious institutions... (of course, it is mostly men doing the arguing)... and on and on... But out on the margins of society (and right under the belly of the Beast) is where the real action occurs: be assured, the prophets still gather to stir the dust!
The contempt that men have authorized for Nature, the Body, and for the Feminine is the very root of the barren plant of what is passing for civilization: only by recognizing the barrenness of this plant will we successfully re-create it. This is the heart of The Revelation of Divine Love received by Juliana of Norwich, and of the possibility of a re-created of civilization: "To the property of motherhood belong nature, love, wisdom and knowledge and this is God... God speaking to Juliana: I it am. The greatness and goodness of the Father, I it am: The wisdom and kindness of the mother, I it am: the light and grace that is all blessed love, I it am." This radical re-orientation away from the "God of Power", the Dominator Paradigm, and all of its institutions and justifications must be interiorized by every mystic-activist: a rugged examination of conscience, intention, motivation, and action is here required: daily! One cannot go to the Dance of Power and not expect to be seduced! When was the last time you were aware of being "in the arms" of power? When have you been aware of "swaying" to the rhythms of manipulation, deceit, and corruption? How often have you been silent when someone with power was hurting a co-worker, selling a dream, or profiting in some way from someone else's pain? That we all, at one time or another, have shown up at the wrong "dance" is understandable: it's where nearly everyone goes! The point is, though, do you really want to leave and find your heart's true desire? There is the Dance of Ecstasy... "Out in the fields, beyond right and wrong... I'll meet you there..." (Rumi)
A New Turning
While it is a significant oversimplification, it is nevertheless helpful -- perhaps even necessary -- to think of "stages" in our collective drive for accessing the deepest truths of our humanity. The first stage, which might be likened to infancy, seems to have been matriarchal (of course, you should begin your research through the writings of Riane Eisler). The second stage -- still our current reality -- is most definitely patriarchal. So we've gone from a "magical" harmony with nature and a particular reverence for Woman and Mother, to a decidedly rebellious (similar to the teen-age years) declaration of independence from all that had gone on before: the Mother, represented by the Chalice, was cast aside (or burned at the stake), and replaced by the "Blade", the masculine symbol of Power: and complete submission to the Dominator Paradigm. It has been the role of the mystic-activist, the poet and prophet, to keep alive the Sacred Memories that still inform our consciences: if left alone, our tendency is still towards kindness, for that is how we wish to be treated. But since we can seldom "be left alone", we pick and choose as we are able, just how far we are willing to be silent, look the other way, or to hope for the best: it is very difficult to make it through life without getting seriously harmed. Nevertheless, it seems that now we are entering a third stage which Eisler calls "partnership" and which I increasingly refer to as the "New Solidarity Paradigm", and still others a "global transformation": the common ground in each inkling of possibility is that of the recognition of our essential Oneness... so to "Oneness" is our new turning... or perhaps, to our "returning"...
The mystic ingredients to be poured into the cauldron of Oneness are what one would expect: imagination, reverence, harmlessness, intuition, nurture, and of course, ecstasy... Being born a human being is an invitation to extend into conscious evolution, as far as one is capable or daring. If, in truth, the "One Love Consciousness" is our Source, Sustainer, and Seducer, then it stands to Mystery, that to awaken into our Divine Likeness and co-create the furthest expansion of Love is the essential reason and purpose of our being. To live -- to fully engage -- one's everyday life from this awakened perspective and intention is our liberation into ecstasy. Of course, it is only too obvious that we have each been born into degrees of "forgetfulness"... having "forgotten" our divine identity and purpose we get intensely side-tracked by all the illusions of separation: the use and abuse of power becomes central to many lives, as do the "drugs" of forgetting: manipulative dramas and all the stuff that is sold as entertainment. All of the manifestations and justifications for separation are as the scaffolding surrounding and supporting the enormous tower which is the Dominator Paradigm. Ecstasy: ex stasis: is the choice to stand -- outside -- as a sign of contradiction to forgetfulness: and to remember!
Outside the normal range of consciousness... outside the learned forgetfulness of separation... and outside the prescribed boundaries of the Dominator Paradigm: is the vast field of our human potential. To firstly become aware of one's inherent possibilities... and then to intend the greatest exploration of those possibilities: is to begin to awaken. To practice awakening is to actually live with intention: to feed the hungry, to work for equality and social justice, to liberate the divine feminine, to touch the Earth in reverence and to rehabilitate soils, to become harmless, gentle, and kind as much as possible, to center one's being in our One Love core by meditation and mindfulness, and to bless and adore everyone and everything as essential manifestations of the Divine... This awakened life, then, is ecstasy and ecstasy is for our utter delight! Ecstasy is living awake: giving each moment its spectacular due... Ecstasy is the Action of Being that follows from awakening... Ecstasy is the purity of heart to choose Love over anything easier... Ecstasy is the opposite of giddiness: it is bold and creative... Ecstasy is "being Love" from the deepest, truest, point of our being: Only One...
Simple Gifts
A Shaker Dancing Song... And Perhaps the new International Anthem?
'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free,
'Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be,
And when we find ourselves in the place just right,
'Twill be in the valley of love and delight.
When true simplicity is gained,
To bow and to bend we shan't be ashamed,
To turn, turn will be our delight,
Till by turning, turning we come 'round right.
The Earth is our mother and the fullness thereof,
Her streets, her slums, as well as stars above.
Salvation is here where we laugh, where we cry,
Where we seek and love, where we live and die.
When true liberty is found,
By fear and by hate we will no more be bound.
In love and in light we will find our new birth
And in peace and freedom, redeem the Earth.
"To the property of motherhood belong nature, love, wisdom and knowledge and this is God... God speaking to Juliana: I it am. The greatness and goodness of the Father, I it am: the wisdom and kindness of the Mother, I it am: the light and grace that is all blessed love, I it am."
-- Juliana of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love
"The drunkenness of lovers comes from the soul."
-- Rumi
"I give you the end of a golden string,
Only wind it into a ball,
It will lead you in at Heaven's gate,
Built in Jerusalem's wall."
-- William Blake
Ah, to be in Love! To sleep curled in peace with acres of skin touching... a night-time of caresses in sleep... To touch morning nipples with lips and tongue... To rise and bless the day, invoking the Divine Name with a deep cleansing breath, and to embrace the One Love Consciousness with silent surrender and adoration... To continue in gratitude the work and play of the day, until the gathering again at the Family Table and the breaking of Bread... To live every day in gratitude and thankfulness... To live fully engaged, passionately awake, intensely committed to Vision and Place... To live with an everyday-practice of Divine Remembrance: the cultivation of flowers, vegetables, and fruit: and the offering of Blessings to one and all: the organizing of possibilities into an increase of justice, kindness, equality, peace, and beauty into neighborhoods and communities: and the ecstasy of the One Love Communion of awakening: there is Only One: and we are All It!
Overview
Ecstasy: ex stasis -- we have stepped out of the ordinary consciousness of multiplicity, or separation, into the Divine Unity: everything is One: a flowing, an inter-penetration, an atomic copulation of "Only One"... Sacred Imagination is unleashed and wine is blood is dance is wonder is the orgasmic blessing of atoms, matter, bones, flesh, consciousness, kiss, in the Cosmic Celebration of Love... as Bread that is broken, torn, chewed, consumed, the Worker advances the Cause of Justice and Harmlessness through the Divine Surrender of Service: the poor, the lost, the broken, the harmed, and the forgotten are brought from the margins and returned to the Center: Ecstasy is the spiritual path of delight in the outrageous possibility of life! Ecstasy is the spiritual path of the Divine Feminine: Woman, Lover, Mother weaving a web of silent music to course through the seemingly empty spaces of both atoms and galaxies: a symphony of inter-being: suddenly we can awaken into "no separation" anywhere... Ecstasy is the spiritual path of liberation into the "Tao of Oneness", and the freedom to love-without-limits: and the freedom of life without the need to dominate, manipulate, or control another being: the "Tao of Oneness" is the path of mutual aid, mutual adoration, mutual surrender, mutual kindness, and mutual beauty: the "non-action" of the "Tao of Oneness" is the daily practice of loving: without attachment and the need to possess any being: ecstasy is humility: humility is still the door that opens upon the Infinite...
So
the Lover has chosen a place to stand
not a small thing for the doing of nothing much...
but that nothing much
adds up to one surprise after the next
like the apples that fall -- Ker plunk --
into the waiting hands
into the laughing mouth
into the tonguing kiss
sweeter than honey,
an everyday passion for only this:
not rushing ahead,
not looking behind,
but being only love...
in the deep bow of the Universe.
It is clear to anyone with eyes to see (and heart to feel) that this precious blue Planet, and the life and humankind who dwell upon it, are in grave danger. Billionaires and giant corporations who profit from both exploitation and pain continue to buy politicians and governments (the "dollar-ocracy"), but even these "nowhere men" cannot escape to another world: we are here, and this is home to every one of us. Policies and programs may, or may not, change: but the real power is neither in institutions nor in a collective unconscious: power is an awakened human being: and in a gathering of everyday-folks whose intention is to awaken into each of their passionate possibilities... The exertion of the will to the good, the kind, and the beautiful is infinitely more powerful than the dulling pull of the systems that manipulate or dominate: there is no real happiness "there"... whatsoever... How to begin to awaken into ecstasy?
Beginning
The first "yawn and stretch" into the possibility of living in ecstasy is the essential realization that one is not alone! First, the One Love Consciousness lives, moves, breathes, and has It's Being within you: secondly, this is identically true for everyone else. Thirdly, as we have learned from both mysticism and quantum physics, every atom "exists" in a very loose "state": and all of our atoms are here, there, and everywhere! Many religious fundamentalists worry about genitals that wander in the fields of pleasure: hetero, bi, gay and trans without realizing that their atoms go shooting off constantly to meet and mingle and exchange "places" with other atoms: this unending exploration -- unarticulated and certainly uncontrolled by any dogma -- is key to the mystic life: if you can't "control" your atoms, isn't it about time to loosen up in your spirituality? No doubt we all have atoms that were once, twice, or many times "parts" of everyone and everything else... even of distant stars... To "loosen" one's spirituality is not necessarily to leave one's traditional faith, but rather to begin to practice on a much deeper level and, ultimately, to become as comfortable in the religious skin of every other as one is in one's own: there is Only One: always adoring each one of us: and here's the crux of the matter, we all, each of us, adore the Holy through our own eyes and heart: so there are bound to be differences of insight (and illusion): genuine spirituality, though, is the everyday practice of kindness, compassion, mercy, and as much harmlessness as is possible...
Next, stretching into ecstasy requires that one become intentionally part of the Network of Light: begin to understand issues on a deeper level than that of existing political and religious groups / societies. We live in such a fascinating time: there is the very real possibility of Planetary collapse as there is of a global rebirth in the pursuit of the Good, Kind, Just, and Beautiful. Pooling ideas and resources, aligning with allies, and clearly articulating every intention for living gracefully with and for others is fundamental to creating change. Authentic realization is always "mundane": how does one earn one's daily bread, how much is enough, and how to effectively share in an abundant simplicity is the stuff of heroic endeavors. But there are millions of people young in either body or spirit the world over who hunger for a thoughtful rEvolution, and flowering in virtually every land are groups of "paradise possibilitarians" who are globalizing love-without-limits, and profiting from all those exchanges in ways that money cannot buy... Youth, especially, are looking for ways to reconstruct a social order in which we are all liberated from political, economic, religious, and cultural domination: recognizing that pleasure and poetry have much more in common with the soul than does power, and ultimately offers far more than either profit or oppression...
Social justice and ecstasy are like the two sides to a fully human life: we are meant to weld together compassion for every "other" with our own pursuit of enlightenment and pleasure: secular concerns are equal to spiritual liberation. The wretched of the Earth need voices and hands to champion hope and justice: yet we all also need the indulgence of a spacious Imagination for Beauty and Delight. Of all the prophets, it is perhaps easiest (but real hard for some) to imagine the humble pleasures of Yeshua and Mary Magdalene cooking together with their friends, lounging around a warming fire, engaging in the normal talk of friends and lovers, exchanging kisses that mingle both tongue and wine, before considering the work needed on the morrow: who will bring the bread? Who will see to the wine? Who will care for the children? Who will compose a song? Who will organize the work party? Who will meet with the authorities? And who will plan the street theater in case of trouble? Finally, with a rousing song, a humble prayer, and a hearty night-blessing for all, they all retire here and there... a few stay and make love by the fire... but everyone blessed with the ecstasy of lives lived with passion...
The culture of domination and technology looks askance upon the vision of a prophetic life reveling in delight: who has the right to be happy -- for free -- when it is always "for sale" by a business represented by a chamber of commerce with a plan for hustling an international market? When the "mind" of the mystic-activist "descends" into the heart, one may finally awaken into the splendor of a new life: "I will give you the end of a golden string" wrote William Blake. Scholars debate meaning, while lovers take hold of the string and follow it into their heart... there, at "Heaven's gate", is the awakening of every breath a gift and an extension of the original "One Love Blessing"... upon every creature, upon everything, and especially upon every person... Is there any exercise more sacred than the silent gaze into another's eyes?
Essential practice of adoration, as in "Occupy Eyes" (see Rumi the Ecstatic), reverses the descent into the heart, and propels the "sacred self" out into the world for blessing and service: and the rEvolution of Possibilities and Imagination: may we all be saved from the "single sight" of the politician or the theologian! We need the dynamic vision of the free and what Blake called the "fourfold vision": dreaming, loving, and imagining, with such intensity that the Dream obliterates the "day" and is re-created according to the dream: one could say that this way of vision is like the first kiss of falling in love: extended infinitely into time: "And we are put on earth a little space, that we may learn to bear the beams of love", again says Blake... To see the surface of everything as resplendent with light, and to know everyone as lover, face to face... And then to see all Women and Men gathered together for the final Dance of the Universe: through our mutual delight and imagination, all evil is uncreated by forgiveness, and the New Creation is revealed by the Child and the Rose...
The Ecstasy of Love-in-Action
Do you remember your first love -- oh, say when you were about nine years old? Do you remember the first time that someone really looked at you and liked what they saw? And do you remember feeling snuggly-warm that you were "good enough"? Sadly, not everyone -- many people in fact -- never experience such memories and are never safe in "snuggly-warm"... But for those of us who have been so blessed, those first exploratory feelings no doubt prompted a search for an adult love: a partnership, a challenge, and a blessing gift. But still, not everyone concludes their search in the wonder of a mutual surrender... and a lasting experience of bliss. Nevertheless, it is an aspect of soul that seeks intimate contact with other human beings: and the desire for intimate contact is a primary indicator of this essential revelation: every human being is as a "mirror" of the Divine in our need to give our being -- completely -- away: as the saying goes, "come hell or high water"...
For most human beings, this giving is enacted through sexual union: some, unfortunately for them, get attached to limited physical sensations and then lost in a misunderstanding of sex as a "taking" of pleasure from another being (the play boy or girl mentality as well as that of the abuser and rapist): this attachment to "taking" oftentimes also becomes an attachment to domination in every aspect of relations (leading to violence, exploitation, greed, and oppression). Because these attachments are so seductive and powerful they become the standard, or model, for institutions and society as a whole: witness all the many justifications for war and violence, for predatory capitalism, and for religious elitism: all rooted in the mistakenly-perceived "right" of "taking" or holding power over others. Of course, if successful, attachments pay very well... but only for so long... for there always comes someone, or group, or nation capable of "ascending to domination"... but again, only for so long... Even a cursory glance at the pages of human history shows this inevitably shifting tide: yesterday's star is today's dust, yesterday's dictator is today's prisoner, and yesterday's billionaire is today's food for worms...
On the upside, giving can become one's self-identity! The love-play of givers is extraordinarily different from that of takers: for givers, the whole body (connected to both mind and soul) is a means of giving pleasure: conversation, fantasy, massage, kissing, caressing, holding, releasing, and final sexual union is, each step of the way, intensely orgasmic-giving: this is music, poetry, song, and dance: and the deep satisfaction of soul unleashed from the imprisoning walls of "me, myself, and I" into the liberation of "together we are One": which includes in its embrace every single "other" and the entire Universe as well! The ancients called this "tantra", it is surely an essential mysticism: and a practice for every area of one's life! Our nature as human beings -- again, as mirrors of the Divine -- is to seek the communion of love: this communion can be fostered by the giving of sexual union, the deep pleasure of parenting, the quality of work performed well, the reverence of nature, and the service of love-without-limits in the society in which one lives...
Quantum physics has discovered that the material universe is not the "solid stuff" we once thought it was: it is, instead, perhaps best described as fields of energy into which is consciousness is somehow enfolded... In a similar manner, psychologists are discovering that consciousness is not limited to "self", but is also "transpersonal" and also open to "transcendental consciousness"... Both examples are another way of saying that we live in a very interesting Universe! "Our" Universe appears to be "organic" -- perhaps even "alive" although not in a way that we can yet perceive or understand. If the entire Universe is a manifestation, or movement, of the primal One Love Consciousness, then human beings can only be understood as "within" this communion of love. The One Love Consciousness is the will to love, the act of love, and the goal of love. Created as "mirrors" of this One Love Consciousness, the human being is tasked with remembrance and awakening: and then serving love. Remembrance corresponds with will, awakening with act, and serving with goal: being love now in each moment of one's life is the divine secret of everyone who has ever lived as an ecstatic! This metaphysics of "no separation" is key to both the mystic life and to the activist goal of global transformation...
The ecstasy of love-in-action is the one essential divine ingredient for the "bread" of a new humanity to rise and to consciously evolve. The rEvolution of the mystic-activist will either be personal, and joyous, or it will not happen. A transformed humanity will never have the cheap trinkets to sell in the bazaars of the world to match the trinkets offered by predatory capitalism: so it had better be able to offer bliss and justice both, or there will be no one following us! The complete transfiguration that is our goal -- a reflection of the fullness of the Unbound-Christ-Consciousness of Yeshua the Poet -- will only be achieved by the full development and liberation of every human person. The inter-being of Nature and Humanity needs the loving service of an awakening people! The full dimensions of the person must be revealed and consciously explored: as a giving of service in love and ecstasy: this is the beginning of the New Creation, consciously lived, consciously given, consciously loved without limits...
Suffering and Ecstasy
We can't complete the picture of ecstasy as a spiritual path without confronting suffering: oh, I know the fact of suffering has been a consistent thread throughout this brief essay. But have you really stopped to consider the dilemma that we each face? We were "created by Love, for Love, to become Love (Simone Weil), in other words, we have been fashioned through and through with an infinite capacity for ecstasy: and yet we are everyday confronted with suffering: and for many among us, life is only defined by endless suffering, with no end in sight and no hope for anything else. This is the reality of life for the many thousands of children who die of malnutrition every day: this is the reality of life for the many thousands of children living everyday as sexual slaves: this is the reality of life for the many thousands of children who commit suicide every year: and for those of us, who on the surface, are exempt from these tragedies, we know that (even if we do nothing about our knowing) these are truths or facts that spite our claims of civilization. And we all suffer, too, in many countless ways: from illnesses to accidents, from the many ways of being harmed to the many ways we have harmed others, and from a certain knowing that nothing is really working well for anyone: the Earth is suffering: climate change, losses to biodiversity, exploitation, oppression, injustice, cruelty, inequality, consumerism, and every sort of violence is chaotically present about the entire Planet...
According to Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, "Humanity is being taken to the point where it will have to choose between suicide or adoration." This is like a Zen-slap to the mind! There will be no escape for anyone or for anything! Hanging by our fingernails from the cliff of our collective arrogance and guaranteed of a socially-shattering fall, where can we look for rescue? Some biblical fundamentalists like President Reagan's Secretary of the Interior, James Watt, triumphantly proclaim that, "Jesus will return when the last tree falls." Others of similar ilk pray for total war in the Middle East, believing that such a war is necessary for ushering in the end-times and, once again, the return of Jesus (who will promptly crush all non-believers -- non-Christians). But what of the mystic view: that this Christ Consciousness never left?
So then, where is this Christ Consciousness hidden, but present, still? There is probably no better introduction to the mystical presence of the Christ Consciousness than this brief selection from the Gospel of Thomas: "When you make the two, one, and when you make the inner as the outer, and the above as below, and when you make the male and female into a single one, so that the male will not be male, and the female not be female, then you shall enter the Kingdom"... or, the Christ Consciousness: the core-realized identity as "Only One". To such a one who has experienced this direct transmission of grace, even the apparent tragedies of life -- every bit of suffering -- are resplendent with a diaphanous Light: Love is Alive, and Magic is Afoot! The Communion of Love is our "Welcome Home" in everything that we do, and in every place that we are: this person, the One right in front of you now is your opportunity for mystic action: it is by loving that Love is revealed and actually increased: it is singularly possible to start a contagion of bliss through a pure intention to love-without-limits: "The drunkenness of lovers comes from the soul..." (Rumi) It is precisely here that genuine life finally becomes possible... though this mystic secret is seldom taught in faith communities, schools, or psychiatric offices it is nevertheless essential for the radical healing and liberation being sought by nearly everyone, and surely by this precious blue Planet as well...
Next comes the stunning revelation of people like Dorothy Day and Thomas Merton: if you want to be loved, then love others with no unconscious desire to either manipulation or control: love and serve simply because a sister or a brother is in need: have no expectation or requirement of results: have no attachment to verifiable outcomes: love and serve simply because it is the right, and graceful, thing to do. Someone is hungry? Feed him. Someone is thirsty? Give her a drink. Someone is without shelter? Build a home. Someone is alone or forgotten? Remember her and be present. Someone is an addict? Understand the terror of causes and heal. Someone is ill? Create a health care system that serves all equally well. Someone is unemployed? Organize strikes-in-reverse and create meaningful jobs. Someone can't afford college? Start a free university. Someone is suffering from war? Get out into the streets and work for change with purpose and meaning. Someone is farming and can't save seed? Start a seed exchange... and a rEvolution.
Are you beginning to see? "Whatever you do to the least of my sisters or brothers, you do exactly the same to me." Was there ever a more radical plan of action -- and deep spiritual revelation -- from Yeshua the Poet? Suffering is a fact of existence: but we are not supposed to accept it with soulless inattention! Rather, we are all supposed to self-identify as "community organizers" (mystic-activists): about the sacred work of loving-without-limits; of serving the poor and marginalized with soup, bread, roses, and justice; of creating the needed social, political, economic, and religious transformation to the Kind, the Good, and the Beautiful; and to build intentional communities of retreat, resistance and rEvolution. The only mystically acceptable response to someone's personal suffering is loving reverence, presence, and service: the only mystically acceptable response to social suffering is loving resistance, creative actions, and constructive programs focused on a complete global transformation.
The beauty of the Mother
is confusion to the proud and self-assured --
and the simplicity of wonder
escapes both politician and theologian...
meanwhile the flowers continue to bloom
and the holy is resplendent in rags: drunk like the bees:
adoration, adoration, adoration with every breath...
down, down, down like the dropping of waters:
into all the hidden places that are filled
with the humbled, the broken, and the lost...
the perfect bowl of soup
placed in the coldly hesitant hands of the addict
settles all the accounts of the Universe.
(From The Tao of Old Dan of Walking Green Mountain)
It should not be surprising that, here in the Mystic Garden, there are references to the "Mother", to the "simpleton", to "drunkenness" and to "adoration": each connected through the Communion of Love to the wretched of the Earth: and where, through the humblest, simplest, and most human of actions: placing a bowl of soup into the hands of an addict, and in the perfect surprise of Love, settling "all the accounts of the Universe". Look around once again: people are still arguing about reverence for the Earth and ecological sustainability; people are still arguing about whether or not food, water, shelter, health care, education, and work and leisure are human rights; people are still arguing about equal rights for women, minorities, and others oppressed by unjust social, economic, and religious institutions... (of course, it is mostly men doing the arguing)... and on and on... But out on the margins of society (and right under the belly of the Beast) is where the real action occurs: be assured, the prophets still gather to stir the dust!
The contempt that men have authorized for Nature, the Body, and for the Feminine is the very root of the barren plant of what is passing for civilization: only by recognizing the barrenness of this plant will we successfully re-create it. This is the heart of The Revelation of Divine Love received by Juliana of Norwich, and of the possibility of a re-created of civilization: "To the property of motherhood belong nature, love, wisdom and knowledge and this is God... God speaking to Juliana: I it am. The greatness and goodness of the Father, I it am: The wisdom and kindness of the mother, I it am: the light and grace that is all blessed love, I it am." This radical re-orientation away from the "God of Power", the Dominator Paradigm, and all of its institutions and justifications must be interiorized by every mystic-activist: a rugged examination of conscience, intention, motivation, and action is here required: daily! One cannot go to the Dance of Power and not expect to be seduced! When was the last time you were aware of being "in the arms" of power? When have you been aware of "swaying" to the rhythms of manipulation, deceit, and corruption? How often have you been silent when someone with power was hurting a co-worker, selling a dream, or profiting in some way from someone else's pain? That we all, at one time or another, have shown up at the wrong "dance" is understandable: it's where nearly everyone goes! The point is, though, do you really want to leave and find your heart's true desire? There is the Dance of Ecstasy... "Out in the fields, beyond right and wrong... I'll meet you there..." (Rumi)
A New Turning
While it is a significant oversimplification, it is nevertheless helpful -- perhaps even necessary -- to think of "stages" in our collective drive for accessing the deepest truths of our humanity. The first stage, which might be likened to infancy, seems to have been matriarchal (of course, you should begin your research through the writings of Riane Eisler). The second stage -- still our current reality -- is most definitely patriarchal. So we've gone from a "magical" harmony with nature and a particular reverence for Woman and Mother, to a decidedly rebellious (similar to the teen-age years) declaration of independence from all that had gone on before: the Mother, represented by the Chalice, was cast aside (or burned at the stake), and replaced by the "Blade", the masculine symbol of Power: and complete submission to the Dominator Paradigm. It has been the role of the mystic-activist, the poet and prophet, to keep alive the Sacred Memories that still inform our consciences: if left alone, our tendency is still towards kindness, for that is how we wish to be treated. But since we can seldom "be left alone", we pick and choose as we are able, just how far we are willing to be silent, look the other way, or to hope for the best: it is very difficult to make it through life without getting seriously harmed. Nevertheless, it seems that now we are entering a third stage which Eisler calls "partnership" and which I increasingly refer to as the "New Solidarity Paradigm", and still others a "global transformation": the common ground in each inkling of possibility is that of the recognition of our essential Oneness... so to "Oneness" is our new turning... or perhaps, to our "returning"...
The mystic ingredients to be poured into the cauldron of Oneness are what one would expect: imagination, reverence, harmlessness, intuition, nurture, and of course, ecstasy... Being born a human being is an invitation to extend into conscious evolution, as far as one is capable or daring. If, in truth, the "One Love Consciousness" is our Source, Sustainer, and Seducer, then it stands to Mystery, that to awaken into our Divine Likeness and co-create the furthest expansion of Love is the essential reason and purpose of our being. To live -- to fully engage -- one's everyday life from this awakened perspective and intention is our liberation into ecstasy. Of course, it is only too obvious that we have each been born into degrees of "forgetfulness"... having "forgotten" our divine identity and purpose we get intensely side-tracked by all the illusions of separation: the use and abuse of power becomes central to many lives, as do the "drugs" of forgetting: manipulative dramas and all the stuff that is sold as entertainment. All of the manifestations and justifications for separation are as the scaffolding surrounding and supporting the enormous tower which is the Dominator Paradigm. Ecstasy: ex stasis: is the choice to stand -- outside -- as a sign of contradiction to forgetfulness: and to remember!
Outside the normal range of consciousness... outside the learned forgetfulness of separation... and outside the prescribed boundaries of the Dominator Paradigm: is the vast field of our human potential. To firstly become aware of one's inherent possibilities... and then to intend the greatest exploration of those possibilities: is to begin to awaken. To practice awakening is to actually live with intention: to feed the hungry, to work for equality and social justice, to liberate the divine feminine, to touch the Earth in reverence and to rehabilitate soils, to become harmless, gentle, and kind as much as possible, to center one's being in our One Love core by meditation and mindfulness, and to bless and adore everyone and everything as essential manifestations of the Divine... This awakened life, then, is ecstasy and ecstasy is for our utter delight! Ecstasy is living awake: giving each moment its spectacular due... Ecstasy is the Action of Being that follows from awakening... Ecstasy is the purity of heart to choose Love over anything easier... Ecstasy is the opposite of giddiness: it is bold and creative... Ecstasy is "being Love" from the deepest, truest, point of our being: Only One...
Simple Gifts
A Shaker Dancing Song... And Perhaps the new International Anthem?
'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free,
'Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be,
And when we find ourselves in the place just right,
'Twill be in the valley of love and delight.
When true simplicity is gained,
To bow and to bend we shan't be ashamed,
To turn, turn will be our delight,
Till by turning, turning we come 'round right.
The Earth is our mother and the fullness thereof,
Her streets, her slums, as well as stars above.
Salvation is here where we laugh, where we cry,
Where we seek and love, where we live and die.
When true liberty is found,
By fear and by hate we will no more be bound.
In love and in light we will find our new birth
And in peace and freedom, redeem the Earth.