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A View Without a Room

1/22/2016

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So, there might be a planet in our solar system beyond Pluto... but is that the Big Possibility that gets you up in the morning? 

When there is nowhere left to turn, which way do you go?

Is it true that the writer Hunter S. Thompson said, "When the going gets wierd, the wierd turn pro"?

In my way of meandering through thought, I frequently settle upon the notion that "survival" is not the end-game: but loving is. While not a few folks among us play for their angle, loving has no angle. Oh, we might be seriously lacking in self-confidence -- perhaps we are convinced that no matter what we do, we will simply never be "good enough" -- and so we numb-down into a nearly invisible smallness: controlled by fear and dominated by every negative possibility... But loving is a radically different choice: to love is to step out into a vast field of a different invisibility: the invisibility of an Energy Field that wills Every Good Potential...

The "professional weirder" has given up on image and chosen instead imagination. Imagination is the endless conversation between "What if?" and "Why not?" The professional weirder acts as if she can actually participate in that conversation! She will activate her will for possibilities: perhaps she will dress bohemian when everyone else parties with the latest cool. Perhaps she will do anything today to surprise herself and everyone else: like gut-laughing on a crowded bus to see if she can make everyone else start laughing... You see, we are all exactly the same! We all want to become truly happy in our one, incredibly fragile, and precious, life! 

If it feels good to you, celebrate your Christian faith: or your Jewish, or Muslim, or Hindu, or Buddhist, or Sikh, or Aboriginal, or Pagan faith: recognize that it is a way-station on your journey through life: celebrate! But don't hunker down into a fantasy of either correctness or dominance: what has "correctness" or "domination" to do with the heart anyway? The tattoo in our blood is our divine humanity! So the professional weirder will also celebrate the folly of "knowing for sure" -- just about anything! He will know his pain, remember it, and strive to live in such a way that he reduces the pain in the world. He will summon the courage to let his heart guide his daily life, religion, politics, and economics. He will circle back into becoming an activated agent for healing and compassion...

This "view without a room" is life without the constructs of form for the sake of form: in previous centuries, shamans, priestesses, mystics, hermits, gypsies, artists, poets, and bohemians lived as "signs of contradiction" in the midst of the crowds who were, most often, simply humans in various stages of pain... The professional weirder chooses to live and feel and think and organize and agitate in such a way that the truth eventually becomes obvious -- as if from the inside out -- we are blessed beyond measure to be able to add a bit of enthusiasm to the human gene-pool! Holy Moly! We are breathing! We are playing and working! We are dreaming and sexing! We are gardening and farming! We are building the soil for future generations! We are parenting and teaching children! We are creating new endeavors and institutions of equality, justice, and peace! We are making art, music, and poetry! We are imagining dynamic new possibilities! We are not taking our moments or any other human being for granted: for we are choosing to love without limits... and like the professional weirder we are, like the bohemians before us, we choose to live our life in a view without a room...     


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Only Justice Validates Meditation

1/18/2016

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                                             Only justice validates meditation.

Only justice validates religion, politics, economics, and culture! Or, one could say, that every injustice exists as an invalidation of religion, politics, economics, and culture. Justice is to a people, what soul is to the body. Justice is the life-giving force that elevates the suffering of humanity into the cause of humanity.

If you don't or can't feel this in your bones and know it to be true, you have not yet entered into the deepest dimensions of your humanity: without such an engagement, it will be impossible to embrace your essential divinity. Here's the exact point: your life, your religion, your politics, your economics, and your culture is not about you! It is always about the "other". You are never going to be "saved" by yourself or for yourself: that's a phony interpretation of religion: whichever religion! We entertain angels only as we love the "other" in our midst.

None of us enter "grace" by ourselves: there is no "heaven", no bliss, without everyone else sharing in the Banquet: as it is in heaven, so it is on earth. You want to love G-d? Then love the one you're with. You want to love G-d? Then create justice for all. You want to love G-d? Then build equality for all. You want to love G-d? Then nurture compassion for all. There is no way to love G-d without loving in deed, in action, in practice, and in public policy your sister and brother who are your essential, your very, self. There is no meditation for "self-realization" that can avoid this truth and at the same time actualize its purpose. 

Does your head touch the ground in surrender to the Divine? Then practice the nonviolence of justice. Do you gather to listen to the Torah? Then practice the nonviolence of justice. Do you sing Gospel hymns? Then practice the nonviolence of justice. Do you receive the Eucharist in adoration? Then practice the nonviolence of justice. Do your feet walk the pagan path? Then practice the nonviolence of justice. Do you think that all this G-d stuff is a bunch of hoo-ee? Then practice the nonviolence of justice. Our humanity is validated by our passion for justice for everyone: leaving no one on the outside looking in: leaving no one hungry, without health care, without meaningful work, without decent housing, without equal pay for equal work, without a basic income, without a living wage, without education, without care for the soil, water, and air, without access to beauty, without leisure and recreation, without quality child care, without ending capital punishment, without ending youth incarceration, without gender reconciliation, without eliminating greed and the lust for profits without limits, without ending male aggression towards women, children, other men, and the planet...

So when you practice yoga, sit on your meditation cushion, chant the Holy Names, pray your rosary: whatever your spiritual practice is, take the entire world with you! Practice so that your heart breaks open and your "little self" with its isolated and fear-based ego leak out all over the place... Practice so that your heart will awaken to the truth and reality of its being: you have been created by love, for love, to become love: your "validation ticket" to enlightenment, to the Beatific Vision, is your love poured out in pursuit of justice... 

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Wholly Holy

1/17/2016

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                 We are, each and all, wayfarers upon a precious blue Planet...

A question of some importance is simply how to keep from stumbling or from settling down into an inertia of will and grace: and yet, on the other hand, it is precisely by breaking that "the light gets in"... Our struggles can be so earnest -- until the vacuum of life sucks our spirit and courage dry... It is at this point that the slick politician or religious zealot can begin to wield unfortunate influence...

The wayfarers map begins with a brief word of counsel: You are wholly holy! Everything is One! This counsel would have us look first to our heart for wisdom guidance: the life and spirit that is within will never abandon us! We have the capacity for co-creation with the Divine: if we are "wholly holy and everything is One" then every moment becomes pregnant with possibilities, and we, in the words of Meister Eckhart, can give birth to G-d! World spiritualities have never before been so available to access as tools for use on our journey... Our experiences are the words of Divinity seeking our self-revelation in this Universe...

Our daily life: with its work, play, music, poetry, art, building, greening, loving, sexing, birthing, sharing, praying, adoring, and all else that makes up the sum total of our days and nights is Holy Scripture! Moment-by-moment we encounter the Divine, Life, Grace, and Goodness that is One: by living, by loving, by all that we experience in wonder and surrender, we steadily awaken into that which is and that which is always becoming... We cultivate the myths by which we live every time we please our lover in sex, kindness, and justice: when theories of Spirit become, instead, the taste living on our tongues, we will still certainly slip and tumble and break our skin or shatter our hearts: but those breaks and shatterings will transform into song and voice...

The wayfaring -- from which there is no alternative -- is our daily lives: there is no holy place or time that is more holy or sacred than your time and your place: you make it holy by your consciousness expanding into the limitlessness of compassion, pleasure, beauty, and justice: this is the artist's life, the poet's work, the musician's song, and the rEvolution of the Divine into Human and the Human into the Divine: G-d discovering G-d in, with, and through us!   


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Oneness

1/4/2016

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Mutual adoration and surrender: this is, of course, the means to a great love: as it is to our human quest for an experience of the Divine... But! This is a risky enterprise! To adore and to surrender requires of us "new minds": minds that become the subjects -- not the masters -- of our hearts: we become compelled to make decisions based upon an all-encompassing love and reverence for the "other": so much so, that in some sense the "other" becomes our very own true self. "Right" and "wrong" are re-cast into a web of contemplative connections: "I am You, You are Me, and We are All together: One"... From this new perspective, mystic-intuition becomes the door-way to untold possibilities of discovery...

Right now, at this precise moment in human history / evolution, the most radical religious or political act any of us can undertake is this turning from "division" to Sacred Unity. Everywhere we look around us, men are afraid of other men: opting for demonizing every difference, every contrary opinion or belief: ready to strike out in "justified" anger or violence: oftentimes by invoking ideas of a superior "patriotism" or " right religion". But if there is a truly Sacred Name for the creative-consciousness that is, at the same time, transcendent and immanent, it must be that of "Oneness"... A Oneness that is not in any way separate or apart from us (everyone and everything), but is, as it were, the very "within" of our jugular vein...

This essential Oneness is evident in the core teaching of Yeshua the Poet: when asked as to what he thought the Great Commandment was, he is reported to have said, "Love the One with all of your mind, heart, and strength; and your neighbor as yourself". This vital link of "One" is the ingredient of inestimable value whether one is considering a love relationship or the Love Relationship! "One" is also the way out from the plague of injustice, greed, oppression, fear, and violence that is threatening so many lives and the very life of this precious blue Planet. While some, in their madness, will strike out, harm, or kill their families and loved ones, most people who justify violence draw a line there: oneness is the assuredness that every "other" is family and one's sacred "other" self: only when we actively, religiously, cultivate this essential value and truth will we find our path into peace, justice, harmony, and
equality...


Circling back to where we began with "mutual adoration and surrender": that which is true for lovers is also true for everyone: this is the most radical economics and politics possible! Can you imagine a culture that consciously practiced "mutual adoration and surrender"? Can you imagine how instantly safe we would all become? Can you imagine how easy it would be to be happy? Isn't this the "welcome home" that everyone needs -- and we all deserve? So, if you want to discover the meaning of your life and of religion: practice the Oneness exemplified by Yeshua the Poet: this Jesus fits with every religion, no need to change your form! One is who you are... One is who everyone is... One is this precious blue Planet... One is this amazing Universe!
 
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    Author

    Robert Daniel Smith was privileged to serve the homeless and marginalized for 30 years in California. He is living now almost within shouting distance of the Twin Cities. He is a poet, artist, writer, and long-time  Companion of the Way still dreaming... 

    ​Recommended Reading:

    ​Son of Man by Andrew Harvey


    ​Be Love Now by Ram Dass

    ​Be Here Now by Ram Dass

    The Rebirthing of God by John Philip Newell

    The Hope by Andrew Harvey

    The Return of the Mother by Andrew Harvey

    ​Creation Spirituality by Matthew Fox

    Loaves and Fishes by Dorothy Day 

    Sacred Pleasure by Riane Eisler

    Occupy Spirituality by Adam Bucko and Matthew Fox

    Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda

    The Self-Aware Universe by Amit Goswami, Ph.D.

    Bhagavad Gita by Eknath Easwaran

    The Wisdom Jesus by Rev. Cynthia Bourgeault

    ​Living the Eternal Way by Rev. Ellen Grace O'Brian

    Listening For The Heartbeat of God by John Philip Newell

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