 Have you ever had the opportunity to surrender
in every sense of the word to the absolute delight of love? Have you ever lost your breath into the breath of another? Have you ever gazed out upon a perfect scene and knew yourself to be truly at home on this precious blue Planet? Have you ever with no need of thought knew yourself to be One with the Infinite? Have you ever experienced a moment one moment as everlasting -- and fully realized that it perfectly summarized your every possibility for Love? Five questions: each requiring your answer: your honest answer. If you have answered five times with a definitive "Yes!" -- you may consider your life as radiant with blessing, meaning, and purpose! If your five times answer has a gap, or two, or three or more: you are not a failure -- but you must consider yourself a seeker (and it is very good to be a seeker...) But that seeking begs one more question: how is it, exactly, that you are seeking? This question is perhaps the most important of all! All genuine seeking begins and ends in the good of another: nothing is about "you": when "you" find your joy in serving, lifting, and loving another: your soul will be served, your heart will be lifted, and your love will be set loose to love without limits! Then your days will simply circle back in so many creative ways to answer those first five questions: with an everyday radiance and the absolute delight of love... So, as a seeker, strategize with your possibilities! Seek out opportunities to give without receiving anything obvious in return. Seek those living on the margins -- invisible to you and to nearly everyone else -- become a friend to at least one of these persons (without trying to change, rescue, or save him / her). Seek out places of refuge, of quiet, and of peace: become a refuge: cultivate an interior garden of quiet: become a witness for and a builder of peace. Seek elders who have turned gray with a calm courage and yet have not lost their ability to play: listen to them. Seek space for a garden, a work of art, and a song or a poem. These five essential, core, "seekings" are oftentimes overlooked: yet in finding them, you will have found answers to your every question, and each of those answers will point to the One Love before / beyond / within both question and answer... and then you can simply relax into the endless giving... for that is what everything is all about...
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 Where are the Christians?
This is not a rhetorical question, but one that comes simply and directly from the heart. If the Poet of Nazareth is alive as a force of transformation and liberation, where is the evidence? Where are the Christians who carry the lambs of this world to safety? Where are the Christians when societies debate economics, culture, politics, war and peace, agriculture and care for the Earth, gender and LGBT equality, and every issue intimate with our human meaning and purpose? Where are the Christians in the debate on violence, its justifications, and its looming-presence in every life? Where are the Christians who have thoroughly washed their ears so as to hear -- as if for the first time -- the stunning Beauty of Vision proposed by the Poet of Nazareth? Read again, a few words of the Poet (selections from The Ragged-Man's Gospel): "Welcome home you who have learned the poverty of justice -- Paradise is yours! "Welcome home you who follow the path of harmlessness -- the entire earth will one day revere you! "Welcome home all who have entered the whirlwind of history to build justice, peace, community, and equality amongst all people and all creation -- yours is the surety of a joyous Homecoming! "Your minds are radiant reflections of the Holy One -- be radiant, even when life is a burden and troubles multiply like rabbits. Seeing your radiance, others who are also carrying heavy burdens will have reason to hope. Be their hope! "The rulers and powers of this world have no lasting part in the destiny of this beloved Earth home -- nor in the Paradise to come! "You must learn to trust in and to practice the Way of Love -- all action rooted in Love will bear fruit, while all other actions must needs be pulled out by the roots! "Holy One, I hold your Name in my heart! I hunger so for Paradise! May Love be known on Earth as it is in your Heart! May the most wretched life on Earth be fed this day! May we each discover the power and beauty of mutual forgiveness! May we each be helped to carry the burdens of life, and save us from bad attitudes and worse humor!" There are implications in the words of Yeshua! And those implications are neither implied nor proposed by tea parties, right-wing propagandists, or the power-centers of the "religiously correct". So, where are the Christians who imply, propose, and most importantly, act in the living spirit of Yeshua? My suggestion would be to look to the margins: look to folks like Dorothy Day, Oscar Romero, the Nuns on the Bus, the Berrigan brothers, Cesar Chavez, in Catholic Worker Soup Kitchens, in the Nevada Desert, in alternative schools, communities, and churches: wherever Love and Justice and Peace and Equality and Harmlessness are practiced as the means to the Hope of Yeshua: wherever the Poor and Marginalized are brought back into the center of both faith and politics: wherever the whole person -- every person -- is honored and exalted equal to that of the unborn: wherever this precious blue Planet is revered as befitting one's Mother: and wherever the Sacred Image of Yeshua can just as likely be that of a young girl, an undocumented immigrant, or a black youth in a hoodie, as a man with long hair and a beard... ah, but then again, I always used to see him walking around among the hippies...  We have each been gifted with breath... for only awhile... When all is said and done, there is only the "great equality": we are as rich as our next breath, and as poor as our last... Our lives are lived in the years, months, days, minutes, and moments in between that great equality... and wisdom is an awakening into each moment as a conscious gift: flowing from the One Love into all being and creation: flowing into you as gift and flowing from you as another gift: to your family and friends, to everyone you ever encounter, and to every person on this precious blue Planet, and then returning into the Wild Unlimited Consciousness of Being... Wisdom is every breath -- received and given: as a One Love Blessing... Wisdom is the moment-by-moment practice of kindness , service, and beauty... Wisdom is the moment-by-moment struggle for equality, justice, and peace... Wisdom is the moment-by-moment touch, kiss, and love-making... Wisdom is the moment-by-moment awakening into the endless creation / re-creation of the Divine Mother birthing Love and Consciousness for Love and Consciousness to become Love and Consciousness... endlessly, endlessly... With this breath: peace... With this breath: touch... With this breath: kiss... With this breath: wash the dishes... With this breath: smile greetings... With this breath: every daily work... With this breath: meditation... With this breath: volunteer in a soup kitchen... With this breath: organize a demonstration... With this breath: construct alternatives... With this breath: affirm the good... With this breath: singing... With this breath: laughing... With this breath: playing... With this breath: adoring... With this breath: unclothing... With this breath: loving... With this breath: surrendering... With this breath: sleeping... With this breath: waking... With this breath: peace... With this breath: a rose, a life, free for the giving...  Do you hear the drum of our greatest human possibilities? Are you inching closer and closer to joining your voice, drum, and life to the "Magical Mystery Divine Subversion Symphony" in your corner of the world? (You didn't think that you could sit this one out, did you?)
The dominator paradigm: manifesting in predatory corporatism, religious literalism / fundamentalism, the oppression of women, the inequality of opportunity, the concentration of wealth and power into fewer and fewer hands, the exploitation of the Earth, and the marginalization of children and the poor, will not be "overthrown" -- but it will have to surrender to the "Divine Subversion" organizing and rising all around the world: manifesting as a loving passion for this precious blue Planet, a deep respect for our Elders among the Indigenous Peoples of the world, a sincere appreciation for cultural diversity, a belief in equality between women and men and the extention of equality to every race and sexual orientation, a deep spirituality of mysticism and action, a reverence for the divine feminine, a practice of nonviolence, simple living, cooperative economics, and intentional community, and a conviction that full development and liberation are rooted in the personal, the human, and the gentle. This Divine Subversion is, above all, the revelation of Beauty and Kindness as the two hands of Sacred Imagination: a new world is possible through the ecstasy of practice and struggle! So, whom will you serve: the dominator paradigm or the Divine Subversion? To which are you most profoundly attracted? Are you still not ready to commit? Well, then consider this: Boil everything down to a fine clear broth... and what is the fundamental choice? Isn't it between "ugly" and "beautiful"? Can anything "ugly" be made "beautiful" by an unlimited increase of "ugly"? Don't you see that "beauty" is our rEvolution? The beauty of a Planet saved, the beauty of humans justly adored and liberated, the beauty of illumination in love, the beauty of mutual aid and service, the beauty of solidarity and justice, the beauty of wonder and cultivated imaginations, the beauty of craft, cultivation, and culture, and the great beauty of Spirit unlimited in mercy, forgiveness, compassion, and harmless- ness: this is the Divine Subversion actively present -- alive and transforming -- at work from within our hearts and with our very own hands! This Divine Subversion is about the inch-by-inch creation of alternative realities, fueled by sacred imagination: when you take off the "hat of fear", "One Love" will come and settle upon you: then all that matters will be your response: "Yes! I'm ready! Let's go!" being the choice of budding ecstatics... So, now what do you think? Are you ready? |
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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