The Celtic spirit-heart is, once again, at loose in the world... and perhaps, not too late to help us into a very needful future...
One of the most important and articulate interpreters and practitioners of the Celtic spirit-heart is J. Philip Newell, author of The Rebirthing of God and Listening For the Heartbeat of God. He wrote in Celtic Benediction, "Celtic spirituality is marked by the belief that what is deepest in us is the image of God... The second major characteristic of the Celtic tradition is a belief in the essential goodness of creation. Not only is creation viewed as a blessing, it is regarded in essence as an expression of God..." Of course, these thoughts are just hints towards something deep, engaging, and enlightening...
Study and practice will get you just so far... as with every spiritual practice, a certain point is reached in which there are only two remaining options: turn back, or leap into an empty darkness, unsure as to whether or not, there will be any sort of "safe" landing-site... but, leap, you must...
Newell writes of theophanies or 'showings' of God... Listening intently for the heartbeats of the Divine Beloved and resting upon the breast of the Beloved, opens doors of both mind and heart that you were not even aware of... Emptying all the "furniture" of each of those "rooms of the mind" is a stripping and a dying... a stripping and a dying of the sort that is as a woman in the midst of labor: loving into the emptying... leaning into the pain is the only Way through...
The multitude of believers were of one heart and soul, and none of them called any of his possessions his own, everything was held in common... (Acts 4). If everything is a theophany, or 'showing' of the Divine Beloved, how could we have turned away from theophany and into paths of violence, destruction of the earth, oppression of women, and the predatory economics that is shredding the future which we will be giving to our children? How could our forefathers / mothers have jettisoned the wisdom words of the Magic Man for an institution now nearly foreign to Mystery?
Okay. Perhaps that last sentence was not a needful stretch, but then again, how are the institutions of religion actually cultivating transformation into the Likeness of the Beloved? All that really needs to be said about religion has been in the recent news: children still in cages in the "christian" United States, Rumi the best selling poet in Iran even as they export terrorism, Israel becoming an apartheid state, Buddhist monks killing Muslims in Myanmar, Gandhi excised from the oppressive Hindu nationalism of India, eee-gadz, the mere fact that I could continue with this listing is appalling... and yet, and yet...
Isn't it also true, though, that a Way is still evident! The Poet of Nazareth, yes, that Magic Man, is still alive and calling: bend your ear to the ground, listen to Mother Earth! Eee-gadz again! The Celtic spirit-heart is way that embraces -- even seeming opposites -- like the way of Lao-Tzu, the smile of the Buddha, the opened hand of brothers Jew-Muslim: when the way is understood to be a path to be walked, instead of a creed to affirm and soon abort, everything changes... Those persons consumed by the lust for children, privilege, profits, domination, and power, will always glad-hand one another: they will likewise seduce crowds into the acceptance of violence, injustice, racism, sexism, and hate as a means to divide the many for their advantage... and they will call it religion...
But it is not yet too late!
What is one to do? Question everything. Insist upon personal experience. Question your own mind. Insist upon personal integrity. Practice opening your heart. Stretch the limits to your sacred imagination. Consider alternatives. Build intentional community. Practice opening your hands in nonviolence, building justice, and gender equality. Realize it isn't about you: it is all of us together: or it is for none of us. Re-vitalizing soil, water, and air is real religion. Safety, food, health, shelter, and opportunities for an expanding happiness is the right of every human, everywhere: this, too, is real religion. All of this is Way... so, get your feet to moving, dance along the path, pull others along with you, walking into this truth will gift everyone with life...
"Feeding the hungry is a greater work than raising the dead." -- St. John Chrysostom
"God has arranged all things in the world in consideration of everything else."
-- St. Hildegard
"Jesus himself came close and walked with them..." -- St. Luke
One of the most important and articulate interpreters and practitioners of the Celtic spirit-heart is J. Philip Newell, author of The Rebirthing of God and Listening For the Heartbeat of God. He wrote in Celtic Benediction, "Celtic spirituality is marked by the belief that what is deepest in us is the image of God... The second major characteristic of the Celtic tradition is a belief in the essential goodness of creation. Not only is creation viewed as a blessing, it is regarded in essence as an expression of God..." Of course, these thoughts are just hints towards something deep, engaging, and enlightening...
Study and practice will get you just so far... as with every spiritual practice, a certain point is reached in which there are only two remaining options: turn back, or leap into an empty darkness, unsure as to whether or not, there will be any sort of "safe" landing-site... but, leap, you must...
Newell writes of theophanies or 'showings' of God... Listening intently for the heartbeats of the Divine Beloved and resting upon the breast of the Beloved, opens doors of both mind and heart that you were not even aware of... Emptying all the "furniture" of each of those "rooms of the mind" is a stripping and a dying... a stripping and a dying of the sort that is as a woman in the midst of labor: loving into the emptying... leaning into the pain is the only Way through...
The multitude of believers were of one heart and soul, and none of them called any of his possessions his own, everything was held in common... (Acts 4). If everything is a theophany, or 'showing' of the Divine Beloved, how could we have turned away from theophany and into paths of violence, destruction of the earth, oppression of women, and the predatory economics that is shredding the future which we will be giving to our children? How could our forefathers / mothers have jettisoned the wisdom words of the Magic Man for an institution now nearly foreign to Mystery?
Okay. Perhaps that last sentence was not a needful stretch, but then again, how are the institutions of religion actually cultivating transformation into the Likeness of the Beloved? All that really needs to be said about religion has been in the recent news: children still in cages in the "christian" United States, Rumi the best selling poet in Iran even as they export terrorism, Israel becoming an apartheid state, Buddhist monks killing Muslims in Myanmar, Gandhi excised from the oppressive Hindu nationalism of India, eee-gadz, the mere fact that I could continue with this listing is appalling... and yet, and yet...
Isn't it also true, though, that a Way is still evident! The Poet of Nazareth, yes, that Magic Man, is still alive and calling: bend your ear to the ground, listen to Mother Earth! Eee-gadz again! The Celtic spirit-heart is way that embraces -- even seeming opposites -- like the way of Lao-Tzu, the smile of the Buddha, the opened hand of brothers Jew-Muslim: when the way is understood to be a path to be walked, instead of a creed to affirm and soon abort, everything changes... Those persons consumed by the lust for children, privilege, profits, domination, and power, will always glad-hand one another: they will likewise seduce crowds into the acceptance of violence, injustice, racism, sexism, and hate as a means to divide the many for their advantage... and they will call it religion...
But it is not yet too late!
What is one to do? Question everything. Insist upon personal experience. Question your own mind. Insist upon personal integrity. Practice opening your heart. Stretch the limits to your sacred imagination. Consider alternatives. Build intentional community. Practice opening your hands in nonviolence, building justice, and gender equality. Realize it isn't about you: it is all of us together: or it is for none of us. Re-vitalizing soil, water, and air is real religion. Safety, food, health, shelter, and opportunities for an expanding happiness is the right of every human, everywhere: this, too, is real religion. All of this is Way... so, get your feet to moving, dance along the path, pull others along with you, walking into this truth will gift everyone with life...
"Feeding the hungry is a greater work than raising the dead." -- St. John Chrysostom
"God has arranged all things in the world in consideration of everything else."
-- St. Hildegard
"Jesus himself came close and walked with them..." -- St. Luke
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