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Original Sight...

3/21/2016

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                         In witness to the Angels in the Fire, in the Sun, on the Earth...

William Blake asked, "When the Sun rises, do you not see a round disk of fire... Oh no, no, I see an Innumerable company of the Heavenly host crying, 'Holy, Holy..." Original Sight is the intention to activate one's Sacred Imagination to see both the "within and the beyond" of "normal sight": you know, the sight that, first of all, divides our perceptions of reality into categories of differences: the sight that ultimately serves not wisdom but the pursuit of power...

What if we were to deliberately practice this alternative way of seeing? What if we were to gaze upon the rising Sun, and see not a golden orb, but a vigilant chorus of Singers shouting out in praise of Mystery? What if the deliberate practice of "awe" were to become the gradual unfolding of our every-day consciousness? What if "awe" was to become our daily practice of mindfulness, economics, culture, religion, and politics? What difference would such a practice make?

What if these questions were not shrugged off as "poetic" -- but were instead accepted for what they really are: an emphatic call to transformation and rEvolution! Of course, to deliberately cultivate a spirit of "irrationality" and "anarchism" is an affront to the purported rationality of the State and market-corner of its representative religions... But do we really have any other choice? The super-wealthy are willing to bet that they can continue to amass unlimited privilege and power until they pass on, and couple that bet with another: the rest of us won't really care... and the Dominator Paradigm will simply continue to roll on...

Experiments with meditation, mindfulness, sensuality, expansive and unlimited orgasm, simple living, perhaps with LSD or bhakti ecstasy, might carry us to a visionary precipice... or perhaps not... But at the very least, our attention might be diverted from the vapid culture of consumption and politics of destruction, to engage, however briefly upon the wonder of possibilities inherent in an activated Sacred Imagination... Why should the possibility of lives of radiance be subordinate to the claims of politician or priest? 

Immense wealth serves power and privilege: whom, or what, do you serve? Isn't that the point? Every-day sight sees things in a certain order: that order is first of all, convenient and lazy: it takes great effort to break free from the general delusion that their "stuff" matters. So, what does matter? Isn't it people as persons and Earth as live-able? And further, isn't it of fundamental importance that our consciousness expand, just as it is important that everyone's quality of life also expand to its fullest potential, individual and collective? Secondly, every-day sight requires of us the cultivation of fear as opposed to love: ah, so there the Dominator Paradigm has you: if you can recognize only differences, fear will steadily erode whatever natural sources of empathy or compassion that you might have: and power will exploit your fear in order to complete your submission... but you might still "feel good" because your religion promises you access to a heaven: with your eternal pleasure increased because you will know that countless others are at the same "time" suffering eternal torment...

Sacred Imagination is magical and visionary: it invites our expansion, not our submission... Our mundane collection of life experiences might very well become the means to a transcendental reality: more real than the trinkets offered for our purchase by corporate thieves... Sacred Imagination invites us into the drum-sounds of the mystic shaman that reverberate into the whirl of stars, planets, and atoms... Sacred Imagination is an awakening into horizons of radical abundance:
there is enough equality, justice, peace, and beauty for everyone... Sacred Imagination is a remembrance of the Divine Feminine as the essential personality of Nature and the Mystery Divine... Sacred Imagination is an invitation to both see and hear the Voices of Creation: trees speak, water speaks, winds speak, animals speak, cosmic mysteries speak: everything, every existent being, and every moment is a Divine Pregnancy that Births endlessly the possibilities of a reality malleable by bliss and wisdom... Sacred Imagination understands everything to be a sacramental substance: everything and everyone is a full measure of sacrament: every task and every function is sacramental: how one votes -- and for whom -- is as holy as anything gets: how you make love, is how the Divine will be with you...and the really grand thing about Sacred Imagination is this: it is inexhaustible...  



 
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Rape Insurance?

3/19/2016

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                                                       Rape insurance?

Again: rape insurance? The Right-Wing, whether in America, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, the Vatican, India, etc., just can't seem to get enough of warring on women. Oftentimes it is subtle: one has to be a woman to know it's happening: unequal pay, unequal opportunity, and glass ceilings all over the place. And then there are the hidden secrets like: nearly 100% of homeless women in the United States were sexually abused as children. And, finally, there are the in-your-face ways of warring: like getting shot in the head if you want an education, rape and gang rapes, genital mutilation, body shaming, workplace sexual harassment, oppressive religious theologies and justifications, and so on... All of which raises a very fundamental question: "What does it mean to be a man?"  

Is manhood measured in age and / or inches? Is manhood determined by the use and / or abuse of power? Is manhood determined by the possession and / or number of guns one owns? Is manhood determined by the number of women, men, or children that one can fuck, exploit, abuse, manipulate, or oppress? Is manhood a religious experience and / or the imitation of a "Father-God" who likewise excels in fucking, exploiting. abusing, manipulating, and oppressing? Is manhood, at its most inner-core, violent?

When reading of the exploits and legislative proposals of the various Right-Wings, if one is not shocked, repulsed, or outraged then one can only be defined as one who, at the very least, would like to be able to rape a woman and get away with it. This is the world in which women live. Is this world actually worthy of women? Is it worthy of our daughters or granddaughters? Is it worthy of the generations yet to come? Is there anything, honestly, that can be done to change it? More than even the possibility of global climate change, this is the fundamental issue of our time: unless we answer it, unless we get it right, we'll just keep raping this precious blue Planet as well...

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There's No Wasting Warmth...

3/1/2016

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                                          [A recent photo of the Mother of God]

"The sun climbs in its course
and at mid-day burns in full glow.

This is how it is with those who are just.
They demonstrate fullness and justice.
They cannot be hindered,
just as the sun cannot be hindered in its ascent.

No warmth ever goes to waste."


-- St. Hildegard of Bingen

There's no wasting warmth... what do you think?

Isn't it true that every act of love somehow redeems the world? Isn't it a magnificent view to gaze upon an image of the Mother of God and to realize that we too are called to climb upon a maternity bed and give birth to the Divine One: through our lives lived in a passionate commitment to justice and peace?! "Limitless love, from the depths to the stars: flooding all, loving all.." (St. Hildegard): is there a differing religion, politics, or economics worth the breath of your life?

We are made in the friction collision of Divine Thought with egg and sperm: whoa! We began in an explosion of delight: so how is it that we tend to hunker down in small-minded fears and issues of domination and control? If there is a "Mother of God", and if we too are mystically called to give birth to the One through our love and loving, doesn't that also make us the Mothers of God? This, especially this, is the heart of a mystery that escapes the attempted managements of both priest and businessman...

There's no wasting warmth... we are music... we are poetry... we are motion under the blanket of wool and sky... every part and particle of the mystery of "us" is resplendent with acres and acres of sunshine, star shine, and Divine Shine: through and through... There's no wasting warmth: so give it away! Free art, free song, free justice, free food, free play, and equal time in the hammock of Every Good Possibility... We live, move, and have our being within the Warmth of Oneness: so turn out the cold sellers of judgment, violence, abuse, hatred, racism, sexism, oppression, exploitation, greed, privilege, and power: walk into the Mystery, the Tao, the Tree, the Woman, the Divine: everywhere and in everything...  
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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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