 Commit to a life of exploring your radiant possibilities! Commit to a life of wonder and gentleness as you live in the Beauty of the Sacred Feminine! Adopt the spirit of Rumi the Ecstatic and Yeshua the Poet in your daily life. Read, study, and apply the social, revolutionary, activism of Mahatma Gandhi. Build "sacred circles" of 6 -12 people who will honestly, seriously, and playfully transform their own minds and hearts -- and then work vigorously to transform the world around them. Connect with others in networks of sacred circles, all in service of justice, nonviolence, and this precious blue Planet. Form work co-ops and creative economic options for wider communities; build viable alternatives to the dominant culture. Ensure that the dominator paradigm does not infiltrate the imagination of any "paradise possibilitarian" through deep listening and conversation: we are each worth the very best! Recognize the subtle presence or temptations to domination, power, and greed in your own mind: resist by the steady practice of mindfulness and harmlessness. Embrace the Way of adoration and surrender to Only One / One Love. Liberate your consciousness into the Divine Feminine... Meditate... Practice Beauty... Work the Soil... Embrace the Earth as a living entity of "inter-being"... Recognize our Planetary Union in One Love... Trust in the Beauty and All-Attractiveness of Love... Kiss More... and Welcome Home!
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 The Way of Radiance: isn't that the dream that fills your quiet hours, when it is just you, your thoughts, your stories (all true and false that you have on perpetual repeat), and the dreams that you don't want to lose... you want to shine, you want an opportunity for bliss, you want to hold and be held, and you want someone to stop long enough to know that you are worthy of adoration... for just one day, you want to be a sun capable of setting the sky ablaze!
You are tempted to "get real and stay real" -- what have either your desires or your dreams ever gotten you? You've loved -- not enough -- but you keep losing. You have a job -- so you do count your blessings -- but you are still in debt. You have some dear friends, both near and far. You even have a serious spiritual practice... but the "buts" keep your feet shackled to a clock that is steadily running out of time... you never thought that you would be so content with being so deeply unhappy... But then once again, there are those same few words coming at you like a sticky fly that you don't want to kill but it won't soosh-away: the way of radiance... who first planted that phrase in your head? Every-once-in-a-while it comes seemingly intent on scorching your mind with possibilities... but possibilities for what? And why risk everything for another shot at failure? So tonight you just pull the blanket around you tighter and vainly recite an affirmation of hope... After an hour of tossing and turning, you sit up in bed and turn the light on: no head is resting on your second pillow and God has slipped away into some blue perfection that has abandoned you... you cry: and then out of the blue, you decide to laugh... not just laugh, but to uproariously surrender to a gut-wrenching, soul-shredding, laugh! "Out of the blue"... you wonder: maybe God didn't, after all, slip away into blue perfection... but maybe God is that precise moment of "out of the blue"... you ponder and then you find incredible delight in pondering "out of the blue"... What if you were to simply change your mind? What if you were to put down the life-cards you've been thinking you were shuffled, and pick up only "out of the blue" cards from here on out? What would your life look like if you lived everyday for those moments in which you could mimic God and be "out of the blue"? What if you sent a single red rose to your 148 friends... well, you don't really have quite that many, you know, "facebook" and all... but still, a lot of them really are your friends... What if doing something sweet or kind or beautiful -- "out of the blue" -- was to become your spiritual practice... and then your life? What if this -- exactly this -- is the meaning of your life? What if you stopped thinking about yourself, and instead, simply became about "out of the blue" for others? What if God is "less of Me and more of Others"? And so... one more person discovered the way of radiance...  It is perhaps true that too much wealth does not addle the brain; but it is very evident that too much wealth addles the spirit of democratic citizenship: "We the People" steadily changes to become: "Everything is about me and mine". This is our sad state of current affairs... which is not only a profound commentary upon politics and economics in our nation, but more importantly, a true reflection of our culture and our religion. Our religion! Most folks who will be voting for Republicans in the 2012 election consider themselves to be "Christian"... and voting so because of their faith... Yet, the Master they declare "Lord" taught a Way that included a deep and radical love for all that was to be enfleshed by nonviolence, justice, simplicity of life, equality for women, and reverence for the Earth. Even a cursory glance at the life stories and styles, speeches, and policy proposals of the candidates for President, from among the dominant parties, reveals that the one clearly adores money and believes that capitalism is a gift from God (but according to the Master, the love of money precludes one from the ability to love God), and the other as tending us (as much as the political system will allow) towards an increase of concern for the other, an increase in the possibility of justice for all, a clear passion for equality for women, and the great work of building peace and reverence for this precious blue Planet... (all in deep harmony with the Master's story of the Last Judgement -- Matthew 25: 31-46). The coming election results will reveal whether or not -- at this moment in time -- we are going to choose the democratic spirit and all the hard work it requires, or slip into the haze of an ill-placed trust that the wealthy will create the conditions of justice for all... and while this is of great immediate importance, it is all somewhat beside the point... The Way as articulated by the Master's words and life, and other luminaries such as Francis of Assisi, Rumi, Meister Eckhart, Mira, Kabir, Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, Hildegard of Bingen, Paramahansa Yogananda, Mahatma Gandhi, Simone Weil, Martin Luther King, Jr., Thomas Merton, Bede Griffiths, and Dorothy Day shine a very clear light on the Truth of our human predicament: we have been given the breath of life as a free gift to use in the exploration of love and the service of others. One of Gandhi's core teachings was "as the means, so the end". The application of this teaching is the genuine way forward: if we want peace, if we want justice, if we want equality, if we want tenderness, if we want gentleness and harmlessness, if we want respect and dignity, if we want food for all, if we want to save this precious blue Planet: if what we truly want is the good and the beautiful for us and for all, then we enter everyone of our days as servants of love and practitioners of beauty! In other words, "as the means, so the end." There is no more powerful force on this precious blue Planet than a small gathering of folks who live everyday their dedication and commitment to transformation: "We were created by Love, for Love, to become Love" (Simone Weil). It is possible to live this with passion, with joy, with mutual tenderness, with delightful pleasure abundantly given and shared, and so become radiant beings consciously evolving into love without limits!  The Holy One isn't interested in making a purchase from the marketplace of your mind -- your thoughts are like dime store trinkets to the One who spins Diamond Planets! But what really "rings Her bells" are the rolling waves of your heart: every movement of your heart into Love delights the One who is Love!
So put down or aside every one of your words -- especially the ones that you've formed into Creeds -- for the Holy One is Wild beyond belief and waits for the allure of your heart opened in adoration and surrender... Yoga is the mystic science of remembering our Identity as Only One - One Love. While there are many systems of practice, the "yoga of the heart" is the one I am most attracted to: it includes, of course, meditation, focused intention and affirmation, attention to physical well-being, and the cultivation of a way of life and environment of beauty... but this yoga of the heart is the discovery -- day by day -- that we have heard and are answering the Call of Love: "We were created by Love, for Love, to become Love" (Simone Weil). The heart is not interested in a life of separation! The heart craves union; the heart beats only and truly for Love. The heart craves the loving of an 'other' -- and then, to love without limits until one is utterly transformed into Love. It is this transformation that we have been born for -- this is the "lila", or "play" of God... Ultimately, yoga is the mystic science of our transformation into the One Love (whom we were all along)! That which pervades the entire manifested Universe -- from giant galaxies to invisible spinning atoms -- is Only One. That alone truly exists -- we "exist" as "yearnings of the Holy One to Love More"... enlightenment or realization is our awakening into this One Love... Yoga of the Heart is the radiant path of total adoration and surrender to One Love: in every moment, everywhere, in everyone, and in all things fully alive and present...  Perhaps best known now as a garden statue, St. Francis of Assisi stands much better, though, as a figure in the revolutionary vangard of Yeshua, the Poet of Nazareth... gardeners might place his statue amongst the flowers -- but his place is actually in a Soup Kitchen, in a field with farmworkers, in an Occupy demonstration... or best of all, in an Equality Parade... An Equality Parade? The Ragged-Man of Assisi lived -- not among flowers -- but among lepers! He lived side-by-side with workers, not the wealthy. He walked the dusty roads in bare feet -- even when they bled. He organized "places" for his friends to pray -- and instructed them to rotate leadership: and to call their leader "Mother"! The Ragged-Man who loved Yeshua with an unmatched intensity, so much so that "Franciscan Mysticism" is one of "identification with the Holy Beloved": not within the mind (through correct dogma), but through the heart: which inevitably leads to compassion for every "other" and a daily life of solidarity in struggle: the struggle of life-in-poverty, the struggle of hunger, the struggle of suffering, the struggle of injustice, the struggle to change the power dynamics of the dominator paradigm... the Ragged-Man of Assisi continued the pre-figuration of Yeshua of the Eternal Way: "We were created by Love, for Love, to become Love" (as Simone Weil wrote)... Washing the wounds of the lepers altered forever the way in which the Ragged-Man interpreted his life-experience... and he struggled mightily to bridge the differences between his experience of love and compassion and the dogmas of limitation, judgment, and exclusion fostered by a church hierarchy... he knew liberation: but was confronted with heavy-handed theologies and politics that fostered and manipulated division in service to power... what was his response to all of the abuses of power that cruelly oppressed the poor, every woman and child, and the Earth itself with the beginnings of "capitalism"? Recognizing his powerlessness, he sang! He wrote poetry. He preached to birds and to wolves. He reconciled opposites whenever given the opportunity. But most importantly, he was really the first person to radically recognize, honor, and revere Mother Earth, all the Creatures, the Elements and Forces that have created Life, and from that new awareness, call Power to submit to Peace and Justice... His last great poem, the Canticle of the Creatures, is still a clarion-call to a solidarity spirituality: solidarity with the Earth in deep ecological commitments and actions: solidarity with all of life as a weaving of "inter-being" and a call to practice beauty and harmlessness: solidarity with every human being in Justice, Equality, and the Good, Kind, and Beautiful... Does it need to be said that the Ragged-Man of Assisi has been very effectively ignored by the insitutional church which recommends his devotional path and way of life? Looking at him, one can easily understand why Dorothy Day said she didn't want to be canonized a saint -- she didn't want to be dismissed so easily! So St. Francis is a saint, a garden statue, patron of puppies and other pets... but once you really get to know him, he's a shredder! Walk next to his spirit for awhile, and he will shred every good thought you ever had! He will shred your ego, shred your manipulative pretensions, shred your lust for power and domination, and as importantly as anything else, shred your love for the church... with all of the shredding will come the identification and solidarity and "Way" that the Lovers of Yeshua hunger for... So, yes, the Ragged-Man of Assisi would be in the Equality Parade: walking in solidarity with sisters and brothers who have been marginalized and oppressed and judged unworthy of the New Creation of Yeshua: walking with them: but calling everyone into the "next step" of Equality of the Creatures and this Precious Blue Planet... we must get to the roots of the dominator paradigm, dig them out, and re-plant the Tree of Life: this is the essence of franciscan mysticism... and the way into the future worthy of our children and all of our hopes and dreams... |
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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