 Peter Maurin
When I was a young boy, I was certain that when I grew up I would either be the LA Dodgers centerfielder, or President of the United States. Not once did I entertain the thought of running a Soup Kitchen... In the Third Grade, though, I did answer the question posed by the teacher, "When you grow up, what do you want to be?" with "I want to be a minister..." I suppose that would have been after, or in addition to, centerfield and the Presidency... Murder Most Foul, Bob Dylan's epic song about the killing of President John Kennedy in 1963, is also about the spiritual vacuum that has overtaken both the United States and the Western world... adding up the political murders, the "average" murders, the mass shootings, along with the rise of mind-numbing extremist rhetoric and the Trump-seduction of millions of "marginal" Christians, and you've got clear evidence of a nation on steep descent: to what? Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. would have made a great team in the White House in 1968... But what I want to know -- and even more to hear -- from anyone: where goes wisdom? What we really need is a resurgence of interest in the wisdom of compassion, of the common good, and of the spirit of national (and international) cooperation... Only a heart-mind that has been broken open by wisdom can offer a vision sufficient for these times in which we live... Wisdom, (surely you know the difference between it and propaganda?), will emphasize the ways of unity and common ground, will disturb the comfortable sleep of the tired with examples of possibility and opportunity: not just for consumption or wealth, but for the lasting values of community service and creative endeavors, and will challenge the spiritually dead with a new life of building the earth for our children and grandchildren: because every child deserves a world that is worthy of them! Peter Maurin, co-founder of the Catholic Worker Movement with Dorothy Day, wrote in one of his Easy Essays... "I want a change, and a radical change. I want a change from an acquisitive society to a functional society, from a society of go-getters to a society of go-givers." Coming across an issue of The Catholic Worker revolutionized my life: the Gospel was, in precious fact, possible! St. Francis was more than a bum-on-the-loose for comfortable Catholics to put in their gardens: Mother Mary was not a dominated, blonde-blue-eyed, American middle-class woman... she was Strong, she was Bold, and she was Prophetic, and in a way not yet understood, Cosmic: faith is the certainty that the shit will always hit the fan, but that we can anticipate popcorn to result... That is exactly what happened in our Soup Kitchen... everyday, as a matter of fact... And it could happen everywhere and at anytime!
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 In the Name of Love, Lover, and Loving...
First, the bad news: there is no awakening that can be described as "one and done"... self-realization and enlightenment are an unfolding, regardless of stories that you've likely read about... You see, it is all about surrender and availability... one moment into the next... And, you might as well get this straight: surrender and availability are the door and the lock... Go ahead and try to be a master-mind and pick the lock! Any success would simply be met with another door and another lock... And, of course, there is an and yet, and yet... Now, the good news! You will make it! (Not "you" of course... but the "you" who is really you... or not...) Both surrender and availabilty are practices: practices intended for the steady "reduction" of the egoic self and the "release" of the de-constructed self into the bliss of wonder, of amazement, and of delight... The de-constructed self is naturally one with the Tao (the undifferentiated Being-Becoming) from which flows Consciousness, from which flows, in a Cosmic Circle, Bliss... This has been variously described by me as What if? Why not? and What next? and also more exactly as, Love, Lover, and Loving... Surrender drops your mind into your heart, while availability opens your newly engaged heart-mind with a slowing down of Time: wonder and delight become the happen-stance of your daily life... Bliss is the realization that, while Time is evident on our level of reality, it too, is a construct: the undifferentiated Tao is without Time: It is always the "Is is the was of what shall be"... No finite mind can embrace the Infinite Mind: no finite consciousness can hold within itself Infinite Consciousness: I mean, really, who would really want to? Instead of infinite, we have been given, and entrusted with, a finite number of precious moments... we don't kiss everyone, but we do get a first kiss... Pansacramentalism is a sort of big word with a sort of even bigger idea behind it: it is the awakening into the opportunity for the mystic-operation (BOO!) of wonder-delight... The Tao: Being-Becoming, Consciousness, Bliss: Love, Lover, Loving: is always present in every moment, in every breath... If you want to talk about reverence for life, here's a good place to start! Can you revere life in every life, in every encounter, in every moment? How can you be living in reverence if your life is motivated by greed, driven by privilege, and consumed by desire for power? And yet, every human system (and far too many humans) are organized by this radical abuse of reverence! Now, back to that first kiss... I gotta tell you that that first kiss with Michelle shifted the axis of the entire Cosmos! It is something that you might not have noticed, and yet I am sure that it happened! Here it is: surrender and availability in one exact and precious moment: oh, and here you were thinking that I was setting you up for how to encounter God! (Well, actually I was!) Here's how it works... Surrender and availability are Cosmic Dances to a Slow Music... Love, Lover, and Loving are always both transcendent and immanent (outside and within) everything, everyone, and everywhere... Dropping your mind into your heart by means of loving becoming love in the unitive consciousness re-arranges your experience of "reality" so that instead of a defined span of years, you receive the infinity of this beautiful moment... So: pansacramentalism is the experience of the Divine Beloved in your everyday moments: the look in the eyes of a migrant farm worker girl as you read a book with her: the look in the eyes of a young black man who asks to use the restroom after-hours: the feel of your lover's breast against your tongue: the sound of birdsong just before the sun rises: the encouragement of thousands of people marching for equality, for social justice, for the environment, and for peace: and in the solitude of a single breath received and given in loving to the Divine Beloved, alive, in your heart-mind, exploring being through your eyes, through your hands, through your work, through your dreams, and even through your genitals: every moment is pregnant with the Tao, with Non-Duality, and with all the grand and humble stuff of the Universe... Go ahead, climb into the Cosmic Circle (of one exact and precious moment): enjoy the view, and perhaps with tears, say "I surrender... I am available... I too, am Love, Lover, and Loving... It all begins right there... And so It was, and so It shall Be... |
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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