 It has been written that Yeshua bar Alaha (Jesus of the One) said, "My Father and I are one"... Some people, upon either hearing or reading these six words thought that he was telling everyone, "Hey! Look at me! I am more special than you!"... and so they started a brand new religion... still others, though, guessed that what he was trying to get across was this: "Now, repeat after me: my Father and I are one." On the one hand, a brand new religion. And on the other, the end of religion...
Taking a radical leap of extraordinary faith and one is met by a very sweet surprise: when following the "repeat after me" route, it leads right-smack-dab into the Divine Realization that it really is true! There isn't anyone who is somehow excluded from this "primal" "ontological" relationship: this "cosmic grace" is localized in you, and you and you and you and you: without exhaustion, world without end... There isn't anyone anywhere who is not This! It does take a whole lot of courage to look into a mirror and to see who you really are in the figure looking back at you: "my father mother and I are one"... It takes an equal amount of courage to accept this divine truth about everyone in your life (everyone in the world)... Holy Moly! If everyone is a localized partaker of divinity, how can we kill, oppress, exploit, harm, or hate anyone? How can we allow for the death of a single child, of anyone at all, through our economic or political negligence? How can we avoid a radical restructuring of our economies to serve and free every being upon this Planet? How can we not see that every religion is called to practice this divinity of being? How can we not begin to cultivate the nonviolence of the heart: "I care, therefore I am"? Yes indeed, "I am You, You are Me, and We are All Together: One"... this is the Christ Consciousness let loose upon the world... and the real beginning of worship...
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 In my more daring moments, you might hear me muttering to myself that the "Song of Songs" is the one book from the Hebrew / Christian Scriptures worth saving... Of course, to give voice to such a thought is to invite vicious retribution -- not from the Holy One -- but from "believers"... Am I not a believer as well, I might think, as condemnations are hurled my way? So, anyway, if you had to pick a book -- a section from any Holy Scripture -- which would it be? Genesis? Exodus? The Gospel of John? Al-Fatiha from the Qur'an? Chapter 18 of the Bhagavad Gita? Would it be a word from Lao-tzu or the Buddha?
Would you say, oh what the hell, and throw caution to the wind and pick a poem of Walt Whitman, Mirabai, Kabir, Mary Oliver, or perhaps Rumi? Would you forget the written words altogether and go for a painting of Van Gogh's? What about the Grand Canyon or Yosemite Valley? What about your beloved dog? What about that one, perfect, moment when you felt your heart capable of expanding to encircle your lover, or this precious blue Planet, or even all that is Divine and Holy beyond the visible Universe: with your love? Welcome, then, into the arms of an earth mysticism... the Song of Songs is a poem of lovers and of the world as it could / should be... instead of the manic greed and exploitation championed by the powerful and privileged... instead of the mindless violence perpetrated by a fantastic number of men the world over... instead of the folly that fills way too many of our days... we could be living our poetry! Our lives could be hymns of both delight and praise! We could actually go through one day without forgetting to bless this earth and all the life that it supports: we could forgive our enemies and show them mercy: we could be the compassion that waits activation in our hearts... The literalist in every religion will turn red in the face and scream bloody-murder if he / she were to read this: although it is not nearly as daring as what I really think... Does that mean that I am trivializing or putting down someone's / anyone's religion? Well, perhaps, but not really... all religion -- every religion -- is an exercise, a praxis, in the seduction of the mind and heart: from "things" and "out there", to "in here" and a transformed way of seeing: life is a seduction: but who, or what, is seducing you? Is it your faith? Is it your bank account? Is it your politics? Is it your apathy? Is it your fear of immigrants or "other" sexuals? Is it the Holy Book you believe in -- or the one that you burn? If your religion, and the sum total of your life, does not lead you to Yeshua bar Alaha (Jesus of the One) and these eight simple words of his "Love one another as I have loved you", then you are quite frankly missing the seduction of your life... "We were created by Love, for Love, to become Love" as Simone Weil said. This is the Song of Songs: we are meant to live in Love: to chase It down, and compel It to surrender. This is also why so many of us are so screwed up: gun dealers, arms merchants, mass killings, terrorism, ecocide, racism, exploitation, greed, bigotry of every sort, oppression, sexual slavery, injustice, conspicuous consumption, and on and on... we have forgotten our divine calling! Not one of us is exempt! This is why we are here: right now: breathing... Our task is that of remembrance: read the Song of Songs: forget the "explanations": delve in: become the bride and groom both (you are): become a lover of the Divine One (you should): walk into nature and go back to your home a changed person: become earthy: feel the soil between your toes: let the sun tickle your skin (all of it): breathe harmony with your every breath: breathe blessings upon everyone whom you meet in your life: sing "One Love" with your meditation: become transformed into Fire! Stretch up your fingers to the night sky: you are awakening! Now, you are an Earth Mystic: one who unifies everything in her heart: and you now stride into your destiny loving others as you know you are loved: without limits...  Once again, the Right-Wing has gone rabid over: over what? Over Planned Parenthood? Over a citizen's right of choice? Over the definition of fetus? Over... over getting THAT woman back into the "House of Strict Control"?
But look: she is unleashed! There is simply no way that she'll ever walk back into THAT house again! The "House of Strict Control" is the religion of Western Civilization: and that includes each of the three root systems of belief that drive the Dominator Paradigm: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam: brother faiths who each have no qualm about their desires for domination... Oh, I know that outliers in each faith, the mystics, the poets, and the dreamers have entirely different takes on their faith than that of the "orthodoxies"... but still, you have to admit that things still look pretty bleak for women and now also for this Planet... These "brother faiths" each have woman created as an afterthought -- just barely above that of a mistake. On the other hand, most of the truly ancient religions of the world have Woman as Source and Center of relationships and community: the Sacred Vulva was the portal to birth, bliss, and re-birth in an endless cycle... as the seasons... as a woman's life-flow... Those same "brother faiths" have a history of theologies that demonize women, sex, and sexual pleasure: reading Church history is like a walk through a maze of "anti-grace": Emperor Constantine what a long shadow you have cast! You held out the fruit of power, with the one requirement the construction of a "House of Strict Control"! And so the Domain of Love announced by a simple peasant-worker-poet became instead a sword of domination... I don't for one minute think that the so-called "pro-life" movement is really about pro-anything: it is, instead, all about getting and keeping women in the "House of Strict Control"... Female genital mutilation differs only in degree from the visceral hatred of anything deemed "feminist" in Right-Wing circles and politics (just listen to Rush Limbaugh -- or rather, never listen to Rush Limbaugh): if the Right-Wing was pro-life they would be gung-ho for the already-born: they would be eliminating hunger, malnutrition, and starvation; they would be supporting legislation that empowered mothers to fulfill their potential; they would be supporting early childhood education and education-without-limits afterword; and perhaps most importantly, they would be about preserving and protecting this precious blue Planet... But see, this also connects with LGBT sex: they demand a society of obedience: their means is domination: their goal is the acquisition of ever-increasing power and privileges for themselves and their servants: what is more dangerous to the "House of Strict Control" than women who consider their vulvas beautiful and who desire all the passion and bliss they can experience? What next? in Saudi Arabia they want to drive cars! In Iran they want jobs! In Pakistan they want to go to school! In the Vatican they want ordination (why not the Papacy as well)! In Greece they want justice! And in America, they want the White House: first a black man with his black family: and now, someday and inevitably, a female President! Has the world gone utterly mad, the Right-Wing wonders? Women want to choose when they have sex and with whom: and with that comes, "Well, how about me too?" There is a contagion of pleasure -- (and since the Right-Wing is convinced that pleasure is a direct service to the devil: what a conundrum: they're missing out!): no wonder they're constantly pissed! Seriously though, to be fully alive in our sacred humanity is to be deeply sensual, deeply contemplative, and deeply active: living out the New Creation of Love-without-limits: in the yearnings evidenced in Yeshua bar Alaha, and the world mystics of every faith: we are all, women and men, divine beings who have forgotten who we are: we are each called upon to remember! We show the inklings of our remembrance by our thoughts which are renewed in forgiveness and courage, our words which are guided by the convictions of wisdom, and our actions which are the fruits of empathy, mercy, justice, and compassion... The old stories, written and edited many times over to serve the agendas of domination are not all "bad": they are certainly part of our human history... But the new stories we will write of our beauty and original goodness, of equality between women and men, and of the bliss possible in a renewal of our religions and theologies and the preservation of our Planet will truly free and sanctify the Divine Pleasure in us that is our birthright from the Divinely Pleasurable One: this will be good! Very good! So by all means: get out of the "House of Strict Control"! Explore your sacred humanity! Love others as you love yourself! Serve others as the "price of admission" to life! Build communities of tolerance, harmony, justice, and kindness! And in every way that you can, imagine paradise and practice beauty... we are all worth the very best... |
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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