 Aware of the sacrament of conversation, I am committed to maintaining an attitude of humility and a spirit of kindness in my family, associations, and communities. I will look for ways to honor, engage, and serve the "Other" by the practice of Beauty and Compassion. The essence of the Mindfulness Trainings is the subtle, yet powerful, awareness that every "other" is a trinity of being: her / himself, you, and at the same time another manifestation of the Holy One! This awareness is meant to shock us to the very core of our being. This awareness is meant to rip our minds apart This awareness is meant to shatter every single one of our temptations to "think" instead of "live" the truth of "form without attachment"... Ah! "I gave my heart and soul. My fortune too. I've no flock anymore, no other work in view. My occupation: love. It's all I do." -- St. John of the Cross "What is the life of the guerrilla fighter like? His normal life is the long hike." -- Che Guevara Awakening is not a movement into a unique personal experience. Rather, it is a total, radical, self-emptying into every other as sister or brother, as servant and lover. Awakening is the discovery: "Hey! Everyday grace will see to it that there is less and less of me and more and more of You!" This "long hike" becomes something of a slow, beautiful, unveiling: peeling potatoes, comforting a lost soul, listening to the scrambled words of an addict, organizing for justice, scrubbing a toilet, writing a paper, washing the dishes, teaching a class... everything becomes foreplay... everything becomes holy... everything becomes the deep practice of the "sacrament of conversation"... A Story There is no sudden illumination. There is only a certain calmness, an empty-fullness, that is content with a moment of sacred space, of consecrated time... A car speeds by. Tires squeal as the corner is turned. Dogs bark and gunshots penetrate both the night air and my interior silence. Words slowly form in my mind and my voice surprises my ears: "Lord, make me an instrument of your peace." But only minutes later, as I lay in bed, I hear shouting and the rustle of many bodies coming from the street. I jump from bed and rush to the window. I see a crowd of young men wailing upon someone sprawled upon the street. Seeing the force of their blows and kicks, I know that their victim's life is in danger. I grab my pants and run outside. Attempting to get in between the many attackers and the youth on the street, I dance around him, all the while pleading, "In the name of Jesus, stop!" A car turns the corner and stops. The driver jumps out and also begins to kick the downed youth. I'm wondering what the hell is going on -- while silently begging the Holy One to not let my pants fall down (in my rush outside, I had only buttoned the top button) -- I know that what little moral authority I had would quickly disappear if my pants fell down! Finally, all the attackers stepped back and then started to walk away. One of them pulled a gun out and fired half a dozen shots into the air... Alive, yet with skin as gray as the road and covered in blood, the attacked youth begged me to drive him away before the police arrived. We went about a mile into a neighborhood "safe" for his gang... a long story to get to the "sacred conversation" part: About a year later, there was a knock at the door in the dead of night. there stood a young man, and a young woman holding an infant. the young man asked me for a ride to a neighborhood safe for him, his bride and their baby. He knew that I recognized him as one of the attackers from the year before. As we all squeezed into my small car, I also recognized the strange "pregnancy" of that moment. He knew he could come to me for help, as I knew that a scary "dance of compassion" had created a little space for the sacrament of conversation..." Toes To the Line Michelle and I look at each other in a deep appreciation for our opportunity to listen to and adore another human being! Such splendor and delight in loving! We talk and tease each other of our favorite positions -- laughing loudly, we agree that it is holding hands and walking together and following the many trails of a wandering conversation. We wonder at how we all might overcome our addiction to fear -- and all the oppression and theologies that support it? All we know is that what we can do, we must... but with as much kissing, humor, loving, and talking as is humanly possible! We both remember those volunteer meetings at the Soup Kitchen in which we are "training" our guest volunteers. Somewhere along the line we ask them, "Do you think there is a God?" They all agree that they are hopeful... even in the midst of their addictions and failings. We ask them to describe their picture of "God's" characteristics. They all agree that the word "All" is good: "All Powerful", "All Knowing", etc. We ask, "How about All-Fast?" To the collective, "Huh?" we respond, "Get up Bustar! Put your toe to the line. Race me to the front door. Ready? Set. Go!" Bustar barely moves, he's not convinced we're not fooling him. But the explanation is forthcoming: "Okay, let's say that God is All-Fast. Our job is still to put our toe to the line and enter the race: we are supposed to try to beat God in Kindness, in Generosity, in Mercy, in Smiles, in Good Conversation, in Loving!" "I will bow and be simple, I will bow and be free, I will bow and be humble, Yea, bow like the willow tree. I will bow, this is the token, I will wear the easy yoke, I will bow and be broken, Yea, I will fall upon the rock." -- An old Shaker Hymn "Love calls -- everywhere and always. We're sky bound. Are you coming?" -- Rumi
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 Aware of the possibilities within gratitude and passion, I am determined to be expansive and delightful as I serve others and share in the mutual liberation of our dreams and visions for everyone on this precious blue Planet. "Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I will meet you there." -- Rumi There is a Sufi story that goes something like this: a dervish left his favorite café in the dark of night for his walk home. Reaching into his pocket for his prayer beads, he fumbled them onto the ground. He spent some time on his hands and knees searching in the dark for them but to no avail -- but looking up he saw a street light some distance away. He walked to the light, got down on his hands and knees again, and proceeded to search for his prayer beads. Meanwhile, a friend of his who likewise was walking home, approaches and asks if he can help. Both men are on their hands and knees searching for the prayer beads. Finally, the friend asks "Where did you drop the beads? They don't seem to be here." The dervish answers: "I dropped them way back down the road", to which his friend responds with, "You fool! If you dropped them back down the road, why are we on our hands and knees here?" The dervish answers: "Well, the light is much better over here..." Another story: A volunteer showed up in the Soup Kitchen available to cook for a couple of days. He proceeds to cook a huge, righteous, pot of pasta for our two hundred or so guests. With his special garlic bread and salad, we had a veritable feast! And then he does actually show up the next day to cook once more! We eagerly anticipate the day's meal. Ah, minestrone soup... a slew of fresh vegetables are chopped, beans are cooked on the side, small shell pasta is added at just the right time... the slow, deep, bubbling of cooking soup releases its sacred aroma into the waiting air... a head pops into the Kitchen and we are asked, "Hey, what's for lunch today? I've got a bag of cans for recycling, if I don't get back in time, would you save me some?" Then, about fifteen minutes till serving time, our cook pulls from the walk-in six gallons of mayonnaise, which he empties into the soup pot with as much pomp and circumstance as he dares under the shocked eyes of the assembled volunteers. Six gallons of mayo! "What the heck?" is everyone's startled question. He turns to face his accusers: "You've ruined the soup! Now what are we going to do?" He smirks and simply states: "Yesterday's gunk can become today's Unity." Unbeknownst to everyone, he had saved the liquid drained from yesterday's pasta. He'd saved the liquid in empty gallon mayo jars that he'd scrounged from our storeroom. The liquid had thickened over-night in the refrigerator and taken on the appearance and consistency of mayonnaise. "Waste not, want not." We were speechless: and the soup was perfect, indeed! Opinions-Perceptions-Attachments take the colors of our lives and this world and shade them all gray. We will never find that which we are looking for if we are only willing to look "in the light" of our own opinions, perceptions, and attachments! We will never know all the mystic-possibilities the "soup of our lives" could become if we are unwilling to drop our opinions, perceptions, and attachments... The true colors of our lives and this world will bowl us over with their stunning beauty the minute we "change our mind"... "If God lived on earth people would break his windows" (Sinead O'Connor). Why is this true? Well, just like Yeshua the Poet, if the Holy One were today to come striding through our lives, nation and world, She would shred all of our opinions, perceptions, and attachments because all they do is divide and separate us from love, gratitude, and our essential condition of "One" -- and we would be filled with such self-righteous resentment that we'd start looking for a way to get rid of Her... so long as 85 of the world's richest have as much wealth as the "bottom" 3.5 billion people, so long as even one drone missile is wrecking its havoc, so long as borders mean something other than hedges, pretty trees, and rivers we are supporting and perpetuating suffering: all rooted in opinions, perceptions, and attachments... So long as the vast majority of the 65,000 or so thoughts we have on any given day are negative and destructive, so long as we live in narrow-minded justifications, so long as we pay only lip-service to the demands of the times in which we live and refuse to surrender to One Love, we are supporting and perpetuating suffering... but there is a Way... paradise is possible: "Suppose it never, ever comes true, and there is no paradise... well, I'll still go on preaching. And yet how simple a matter it is: in one day, in one hour it could all be brought about at once! The chief thing is to love others as oneself, that's the main thing, and that's it -- absolutely nothing more is necessary: you would immediately discover how to bring it about." -- Dostoevsky, The Dream of a Ridiculous Man "Aware of the possibilities within gratitude and passion..." The transformation that we seek begins here: "I am determined to be expansive and delightful..." If the very fate of humanity and of this Planet depended upon your thoughts, words, actions, and example, how would you act, what would you do? What if you were to live everyday with as much passionate desire for social justice, equality, and liberation as a drowning man fights for air? "If you are for real, risk everything for love. If not -- get out of here!" -- Rumi This rose is for you: for your delight: for your inspiration: because your life is of infinite value (I know this!): so live great: give it away in Love, for Love, to become Love!  "Aware of my desire to love and of the possibility of building Paradise upon this precious blue Planet, I commit my life to this sacred work... I will to live as an agent of transformation... I will help in the building of a new world of justice, equality, peace, and liberation for everyone, everywhere!"
Genuine awareness is an opening of the heart: to feel more, to dare more, to give more, and to love more: into the becoming of Love Itself... Genuine awareness unveils a willing expansion of the boundaries of the heart: until there are no boundaries remaining... Genuine awareness is rooted in the realization: "I am You, You are Me, and We are All Together One"... As "One", we give birth to the Holy One, in our time and in our place... Aware of the suffering that is in and that is this world, we take to heart the words of an illuminated master like Fr. Bede Griffiths, "We become ourselves as we enter more deeply into relationship with others", and "The ultimate goal of humanity is a communion of persons in love." As compassion increasingly becomes our essential identity, our increasing awareness resurrects the image of Martin Luther King, Jr. in our mind's eye. Like Moses of old, Martin gathered a people and shepherded them across a great divide with an example of grace in action and in words, "Forgiveness is not an occasional act; it is a permanent attitude"... Awareness is an open invitation to "look deeply" -- and that "look" inevitably leads to a little awakening, like a ripe fruit dropping from the tree above, "Ah! Now that my head hurts I see that I have a choice. Do I curse the tree, cut it down, or eat the fruit?" Awakening means that we choose to eat the fruit: and tend the plant... In this "tending" our minds are beginning to change... Awareness leads to one small awakening after another: which then becomes an invitation to action... Who has suffered and then chosen to use that suffering as a vehicle of change and service? Here's a short list: Yeshua, Rumi, Francis, Teresa of Avila, Gandhi, Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King, Jr., Cesar Chavez, Nelson Mandela, Aung San Suu Kyi, Wangari Matthai, Amma, and the Dalai Lama... Awareness leads a servant of the Holy One, like Desmond Tutu, to say: "When God created the world, God did not create one set of rules for black people and another for whites. God did not say that the tall, or the blue-eyed or the big nosed were superior. God did not say women were better than men, or that only heterosexuals would go to heaven. Prejudice and discrimination are psychosis invented and perfected by people." We can only begin exactly where we are: and so we begin in the Great Unity of our Humanity: we all desire to love: before we learn suffering, before we are harmed in any way, we are all, through and through: only lovers. Awareness is the tool of awakening: we desire to love and to be loved: so we start taking the risk of love! This is called either foolishness or compassion and sometimes both... nevertheless, we begin: and then we begin to see and make the connections: there are direct causes for suffering, for poverty, and for all of our experiences of harm... "Every time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance." -- Robert F. Kennedy, Capetown, June 6th, 1966 "I commit my life to this sacred work..." In the union of contemplation and action in a suffering world, there is the possibility of cultivating sustainable change which will slowly, yet steadily, lead to widespread personal and social transformation... "I will to live... I will help": this is compassion in action and the root of the love and essential sanctity that will inspire others to their own applications of community, imagination, and creativity: "We have to fight injustice, and we can fight it in many ways. The best way is the way that can bring justice, not create more injustice... if you are calm and you get the right vision, you are going to succeed in bringing change to society." -- Thich Nhat Hahn  Wisdom invites us to take up the Mindfulness Trainings, because in our moments of heightened awareness, we know that sooner or later we will forget... and in our frequent states of forgetfulness we need "light on our path"... We search out many Sources and they are all true, deep, and good... Yeshua the Poet has stories and counsel, Rumi has poetry for the mid-night soul, Dorothy has a strong hand and a potato-peeler to lend... and Thich Nhat Hahn, through the suffering of war and exile, came to the liberating insight that we are all One: One Reality, One Love: One Circle of Inter-Being: and so first presented, and continues to teach, the Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings...
The "Inter-Spirituality" Mindfulness Trainings that will be presented here through the next fourteen burninghand blogs are an outgrowth of thirty years of community formation and experience: both successes and failures. It is our conviction that "Sacred Circle Formation" -- intentional community -- needs a spiritual "common ground" in order to truly thrive. This common ground is especially important now because most intentional communities have members who practice any number of different faith traditions, no tradition, and oftentimes, no specific faith practice at all. These "Inter-Spirituality" Mindfulness Trainings, then, can provide a living, graceful, framework for deep interior work: they are the "scaffolding" for an honest and intentional practice... Spiritual transformation, if it is genuine, is rooted in daily life and sustainable daily practice -- otherwise it is no transformation at all: we are either becoming more loving or we are probably just spinning our ego wheels. It is the grace and spirit of One Love that will inform the political, economic, religious, and cultural transformation: so we must practice! We must become contemplatives and activists both! By twos and threes, and on into our Sacred Circles, we need to meditate, reflect, organize, work, play, agitate, and imagine together; and in the Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings is a very good place to start! Shall we? Begin by reciting the Three Jewels of Refuge: "I take refuge in the Holy One. I take refuge in Love. I take refuge in Service for Justice and Peace, and for this precious blue Planet." Why "refuge", what does it mean? The meaning of the word reveals the answer. Refuge: 1. Protection or shelter, as from danger or hardship. 2. A place providing protection or shelter; sanctuary. Life is hard for everyone -- should it be any different for the mystic / activist? When doubt assails, when triumph is overwhelmed by tragedy, or simply on those days when getting out of bed in the morning is a struggle, we have a "place of refuge". When our minds are captured by doubt, we can embrace that doubt and shout into every fierce wind a proclamation of our sacred identity: "I will not be turned aside! I take refuge in the Holy One! Kindness and Beauty are what really matters! I take refuge in Love! We are all, every last one of us, all the way down through blood and bone and into naked soul, worth loving! I take refuge in Service for Justice and Peace, and for this precious blue Planet! The blanket of my sacred dream of blessing covering all the Earth is worth my struggle and my every breath!" In the coming days, each of the Fourteen "Inter-Spirituality" Mindfulness Trainings will be presented for your reflection and your use... check back as you are able to read them as we present them... remember to tell your friends: for the direction of the rEvolution and transformation that we need is through the formation of Sacred Circles and intentional communities deciding, together, to become the change they are working for in the world...  The What if? and the Why not? -- Quantum Consciousness: Breathing in -- the Unity -- the One Source... Breathing out -- the Energy -- the Creative Juice... Non-existence and Existence both Are within every breath... Awakening is "Only One"... "Consciousness is the ground of all being." -- Amit Goswami, Ph. D. Deeper than our cells and the DNA that enlivens our possibilities, there is a Unified Field of Consciousness creating, sustaining, evolving, and transforming all matter, all being, and all consciousness into higher and higher "levels of This-ness": of Quantum, or Cosmic, or Christ, Consciousness... One may call this "God"... as one may choose to avoid that and every other limiting human conception... One may also choose to enter upon the path of awareness and awakening... Awareness may be increased through a steady practice of Mindfulness Trainings (see the "Light" page on this website)... Likewise, awareness may be increased by "praying the news": when scanning news articles that clearly articulate local, national, and international situations (from sources that are consistent with truthful reporting), conclude such articles with the "One Love Blessing" upon the involved persons especially, but also upon all of us because we are factually connected... Awakening may be facilitated by meditation: each day dedicate 33 breaths to the One Love that is our Source and Unity (see the Radiant Meditation page on this website)... Awareness may also be increased by other practices such as "Occupy Eyes" and "Being Home" as outlined in "Rumi the Ecstatic": but the point is simply that to awaken is to activate your heart-consciousness to love more, to love loudly in actions for justice, equality, and peace. and to then to love-without-limits in mystic transformation... To actively engage one's consciousness -- previously imagined to be contained within one's mind and body -- with the One Love "Quantum Consciousness" is the fundamental purpose of life: as the Quantum Consciousness inter-penetrates all of existence / non-existence, being and consciousness, with an indivisible Web of One: we can imagine, intuit, see, and know the Unity through our every participation in Love, our every action for the good, the kind, the gentle, the compassionate, and the beautiful... Applying the "Creative Juice" of love and compassion: the visible manifestation of the Creative Energy of Quantum Consciousness: is the life and work of the modern mystic-activist. With even a smidgeon of awareness and awakening, one cannot help but to be radically motivated to the pursuit of the "rEvolution"... This precious blue Planet and all the life that it supports is in desperate need of community organizers, sacred activists, musicians, poets, technological geniuses, community gardeners, resource developers, interfaith ministers, and other "lovertarians" to lead in the re-creation of culture, economics, politics, and religion to place all power in the service of all the people and the Planet... "Come my friends, 'tis not too late to seek a newer world." (Tennyson)  What do we most want?
Shall we make a list of great possibilities? Start with happiness, and then on with: health, a sense of always being safe, good friends, a lover who won't leave, skills and meaningful work, a sense of deep purpose, and maybe a vision of God and of an after-life of bliss... What would you add, and what would you settle on as your "most wanted"? Now, imagine the old American Wild West... you are there, walking through a small, no-account, town somewhere... and you notice a group of folks huddled around the Sheriff's Office intently gazing at the Wanted Posters: curious, you join the group... Looking back at you, they part, and stand aside: you step forward because you recognize your face in the center poster. How can that be? You are just a solitary traveler looking for a home, a place to set down your roots: you've never really done much of anything and certainly nothing to get your name and picture on a Wanted Poster... You see now that this is not an ordinary Wanted Poster: in bold black letters it says "Most Wanted" above your picture. You start sweating and say there is surely some mistake! Someone in the back of the growing crowd shouts, "There is no mistake! You are the one!" Your eyes go blurry and you can't read the small print at the bottom of the page: you turn to face the crowd... For the slimmest of seconds you wonder if they will gather you up and take you to the nearest tree for a going away party... you rub your neck... a woman standing just a few feet from you smiles and says, "Welcome home, son!" A cheer rises from the crowd and everyone is shouting, "Welcome home! Welcome home!" Completely overwhelmed, you begin to glance back at that "Most Wanted Poster" wondering at the meaning of these last few minutes... when a door opens and out steps the Sheriff: when you first hear the door beginning to open, your fear grabs you once again by the throat... but when the Sherriff strides into view, your surprise at the day doubles... The Sheriff is a young child, maybe six or seven years old: and instead of a badge is wearing a big red button that says "No Sheriff" on it: she says simply, "Well, it appears we can take another poster off the wall." She walks to the collection of posters and asks for a nearby gent to lift her up because she can't reach your poster... he does, and she carefully takes down your poster and as she is set back down, she hands it to you and says, "Here, you can keep this. Most folks keep theirs in case they ever forget again: then they can read it and remember." She reaches out a hand and shakes yours and says, "Welcome. Now somebody get the party started!" So, what is it that we most want? No, it's not a party! We want to -- not believe -- but to know that we are "Most Wanted"! We want our few, incredibly few, precious breaths on this incredibly precious blue Planet to be noticed by someone... we want to hear "Welcome Home!" Most of all, we want to hear the One Love Consciousness tickle our ears and our very fragile consciousness with these exact words, "You are my beloved! You are so very dear to me!" And as our fragile consciousness merges in Oneness with Oneness, we want to be part of a crowd shouting to our loved ones and to absolutely everyone, "Welcome home! You are so very dear to me! Now, let's get this party started!" The truth is we are all the same. We live, we struggle, we collect a series of successes and failures, we laugh, we cry, we get sick, we recover, we win, we lose, we hope, and we give up... and maybe we try again... and, of course, we cease to breathe... There is no truth greater than this. However, you just might consider giving some attention to this particular elder who is exactly the same as you: there are three keys to clarifying reality: 1) serve others, freely, without expecting or needing anything in return. Make service an essential aspect of your reality and daily life; 2) surrender your heart to Love. In every way possible, love others and love Love: make Love your self-definition and your driving-force in life. Give your heart over to Love: adore the One Love Beloved; 3) live in solidarity with every other: especially with those for whom to live means to suffer. Work for justice, equality, and peace. Build the Earth in reverence for all life and creation. Create beauty and practice beauty. Change all economics, politics, culture, and religion to be only about service, surrender, and solidarity: in Love... Love is the voice of the One Love saying to you, with your every breath, "You are my Beloved! Welcome Home!" Practice... and listen...  Who wouldn't want bliss? Who wouldn't want to live in the certainty that Love is forever? Who wouldn't want to sleep each night enraptured and embraced? Who wouldn't want to completely rock their world -- for easy access to Love without Limits? Who wouldn't surrender everything -- including their breath -- for Love like this? It is hard -- incredibly hard -- for most folks to realize that their essential nature is a "refraction" of the One Love Consciousness... "We were created by Love, for Love, to become Love" wrote Simone Weil: no truer words have ever been uttered by a human being: this is where we begin... where we live... and where we end... The trick is to wake up! Holy Moly! Holy Moly! Holy Moly! Say it: "I am Love!" Give it: "I give Love!" Be it: "I am Love!" Every time a contrary self-definition creeps into your mind, return to your core: say it, "I am Love!" Every time a contrary experience of reality imposes itself upon your truth, say it, "I am Love!" Every time a choice of contradiction presents itself, give it, "I give Love!" Here's the thing: when you magnetize your consciousness and reality with affirmations of the truth of your being, you will increasingly find happiness, friendship, delight, pleasure, and ultimately, bliss coming your way and becoming attached to you... Here's the next thing: you can't keep it for yourself! You can't control it, manipulate it, direct it, or dominate it! Like a straw, you've got to let the Grace and Love flow through you -- coming to you, going from you -- with the freedom of non-attachment... This "no need" to claim attachment, is the essential recognition that everyone in your life is exactly like you: created by Love, for Love, to become Love. This is the living experience of deep spiritual solidarity... Being Love is the ultimate attraction: you want bliss? Be Love: be gentle: be kind: be loveable: be humble: be delightful: be thoughtful: be compassionate: be just: be merciful... Being this is being Love, is being beautiful! And this beauty has nothing to do with whatever you see in a mirror: that is always a distortion of the Really Real: you are beautiful only to the degree that you are kind: and that you actually and truthfully practice Loving... The Way of Love is service: everyday engage in some free service to people in need: you've got to personalize compassion by your action. Join an organization (or start one) that offers opportunities to serve in your community... Everyday practice deep spirituality: meditate, adore, and surrender within your heart to the One Love Consciousness: practice the remembrance of the Holy Name with your breath: engage in regular mindfulness trainings: make adoration of the Divine Love your secret identity... Everyday practice a vibrant solidarity: organize and work for justice and peace: build equality into the very fiber of your being: liberate the Divine Feminine through practices of both remembrance and justice: work for the education and empowerment of girls: advocate for a transformation of economics, politics, culture, and religion to the just, the kind, and the beautiful... You want to access bliss? Fill your mind and your days with evidence of "service, surrender, and solidarity"... Believe and practice, with a smile on your face, "I have been created by Love, for Love, to become Love!" Don't cling to the Love welling up in your heart: give it all away! Be Love: bless everyone you see with these simple words: "One Love Blessing"... as soon as "you" get out of the way, bliss will fill that blessed empty space... "Amma" with your incoming and outgoing breath... Let your breath give birth to God in this beautiful world... |
AuthorRobert 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... Archives
May 2022
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