"If the deepest ground of my being is love, then in that very love itself and nowhere else will I find myself, and the world, and my brother... and Christ. It is not a question of either / or but of all-in-one. It is a matter of wholeness, wholeheartedness, and unity."
-- Thomas Merton The path to wholeness, to Oneness, is the path of remembering the truth: we have forgotten who we are (and then project our emptiness upon any / every other who does anything at all to disrupt our comfortable un-comfortableness). To be an "other" is to be unwanted by someone / anyone. That nearly every single group of people has, at one time or another, experienced "otherness" is always forgotten when that group is "accepted": which usually just means that still another group has become the new focal point of social attention. In the United States, to be black, Mexican, undocumented immigrant, Muslim, or feminist, and now in a slightly diminishing way, LGBT, is to face the brutal set-jaw of prejudice, ridicule, and oppression. Every country has their "others" who are likewise marginalized and despised... And yet our deepest human reality is the hunger for love, for acceptance, for our "place", and for the bliss of finding our "home": this reality is universal. Every Muslim wants it. Every Jew wants it. Every Christian wants it. Every Hindu wants it. Every atheist wants it. Every gay wants it. Every single one wants it! You want it! I want it! No one escapes this deep, true, wanting... The One Divine Spirit or Consciousness -- called by the many peoples of the Earth by different Holy Names -- the One who should be worshipped by the practice of Mercy, Justice, Compassion, and Beauty by All of the Faithful (believers and unbelievers alike) is EXACTLY like us (we are, after all, made in Her Divine Image): the One hungers for love, for acceptance, for Her "place" in our reality, and for the bliss of finding Her "home" in our reflective consciousness... And so the Circle of Life is meant to be... Since there is no "they", why are we wallowing in the crud of injustice, oppression, greed, and violence? Since there is no "they", how can any of us pull a trigger and watch OUR VERY SELF DIE? Now that is a question to ask of everyone, isn't it? Since there is no "they", how can any of us consider the so-called "free market" free when it so obviously profits from OUR PAIN? Since there is no "they", how can any suffer hunger, homelessness, abandonment or marginalization: since WE ARE HUNGRY, HOMELESS, and MARGINALIZED too? Since there is no "they", we always have the option of loving ourselves enough to love everyone else: and so practice our deepest humanity, beauty, and religion, too... Since there is no "they", we can, finally, build the Earth to offer safe Shelter to a lonely, hungry and hurting, God: waiting, waiting, waiting for our hardened hearts to break open enough to let the selfishness residing there to leak out: and then to be replaced by an endlessly expansive graciousness and kindness: gratitude and beauty without end: Only One is but the beginning...
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Suppose it never, ever comes true, and there is no paradise... well, I'll still go on preaching. And yet how simple a matter it is: in one day, in one hour it could all be brought about at once! The chief thing is to love others as oneself, that's the main thing, and that's it -- absolutely nothing more is necessary: you would immediately discover how to bring it about. -- Fyodor Dostoevsky
How many years ago did I first read Dostoevsky's short story "Dream of a Ridiculous Man"? Everything that I had read before, as it were, had been preparation for that one particular story: a summation of my life, to be sure, but also in a way, the continuing story of humanity upon this precious blue Planet... am I going to tell for you the story? No: you must read it for yourself! But I will say that the above quotation is from that story... near the conclusion, when the "man" accepts his vocation to love, to become love... Scanning the news, now just a few days before the supposed celebration day of the Baby born the Prince of Peace, and what do we see? Very specifically, if one is in the United States, one sees stories of calls and demonstrations to hold accountable police and their too often use of deadly force -- and stories of the assassination of two police officers by someone wanting to "strike back"... and then the vicious pundit attacks of accusation and blame, particularly against the President, but also against anyone who has ever questioned the use of force in minority communities and the systemic violence which is their daily life experience... Of course, many people in many other places around the world have things far worse: which is no consolation to any person or family anywhere who is suffering the loss of a loved one... Is there any way forward or out of these tragic events? What do you think? The "Ridiculous Man" says "love one another": but that was said by another "Ridiculous Man" shortly before he was executed as a rabble-rouser... But how about it? Why not? Why not pick a day somewhere down the road, advertise like crazy, write new songs about it, get the endorsements of public figures and governments, and say, on October 4th, 2015 (the Feast Day of St. Francis of Assisi) everyone will say he / she is sorry to everyone they can... on that day everyone seeks to reconcile with their brothers and sisters and wives and children and parents and co-workers and enemies... on that day everyone agrees there will be no killing: everyone puts down their knives, guns, bombs and drones... on that day we just forgive, party, and forget... Maybe we can, at least, have one annual "Love Day" and see if that might make some little bit of difference: if not for us adults, how about for the children? All the Earth is a Treasure... led by the children, we would know only peace and justice, kindness and mercy, forgiveness and reconciliation... instead we are led by adults: so we are led by opinions, and are oh so ready to oppress, exploit, manipulate, or kill if such actions are deemed by us as "justified"... All the Earth is a Treasure... and yet we have dropped our tools of cultivation for the intention of domination -- in every way possible -- from international corporate capitalism to immigrant hate, from the technocracy of power to LGBT fear...
Perhaps the high point of Western Civilization were those few brief moments of the 1960's when a new spirit of communitarian possibilities gave birth to a powerful resistance to war, injustice, and cultural / political oppression. "All You Need Is Love" sang by the Beatles and millions of hippies, students, workers, resisters, organizers, protesters, feminists, activists, homeworkers, ministers, and a multitude of others became an Anthem of Hope: a rEvolution was happening! "My Sweet Lord" later revealed the hidden unity of Hare Krishna and the Christ -- which then revealed the deeper unity of every world faith that fed and served the spirit of Love: our common humanity was known to be the reason for striving for the full revelation of Peace and Justice for All, including this precious blue Planet... All women and men: of every land, of every race, and of every religion (or none), are sisters and brothers! What inherent right have we to exploit, oppress, dominate, or kill? The willingness to justify the many ways that we are capable of reaping a profit at another's expense is the root evil that justifies every other evil. Unbridled greed has become the spiritual foundation of too many people, religions, cultures, and nations: hippies had the clarity of heart and mind to say, "Enough!" Seeking communes, alternative and free universities, simple lives in tune with Mother Nature and feminism, there was for awhile a transformative critique of the rising technocracy... "The Greening of America" and "The Making of a Counter Culture" sought to explain the changing consciousness... Thomas Merton, Daniel Berrigan, Dorothy Day, Thich Nhat Hahn, Cesar Chavez, Martin Luther King, Jr., A.J. Muste, Bobby Kennedy, the American Indian Movement, Malcolm X, were among those who strove to articulate the new spirituality the practiced a deep engagement with the world... Just a few decades later, there is FOX "News" and a Tea Party in Congress: when what should have happened was a "Love-in" in Congress! We need the long-hairs back in their resistance communes! We need a new, more radical, wave of international feminism! We need a deep spirituality of Earth: what the hell are we waiting for -- a "heaven" and a burning Earth? We need a radical economics of "Enough"! We've bought a truckload of shit from the corporate class -- oh they will be so very happy if we keep buying, or better yet, teach our children how to get into their ranks. We deserve better. Our children deserve so much better! And this precious blue Planet deserves a new race of humans walking, working, living upon Her... We need land: we need soup kitchens: we need to practice the possibilities of "All You Need Is Love": we need an economics of "Enough", of a spirituality of solidarity and sustainability seven-generations forward: we need to practice justice, kindness, mercy, forgiveness, and reconciliation: we need the radical New Thought of Divinity Alive and Well within every person and every creature and every thing: we need to "Imagine" as John Lennon wrote and sang and truly change our minds and liberate our hearts: why not? Like the labor movement sang in decades past, "All You Will Lose Are Your Chains"... In a world ravaged by violence, where do we turn for hope that our children might survive, perhaps even flourish? Oh, I know that many people are increasingly turning to religious fundamentalism for a surety that events in the world steadily denies... yet, to believe and anticipate a final judgment that will only cement as permanent the suffering that humanity has already experienced, is to believe, for all intents and purposes, that this Universe is not benevolent: that there is no such Being as the "God" of Love: for if Love does not find It's Action as Mercy, Compassion, and Forgiveness: then it is not Love but an Absolute Denial of Being. If this is true, how then, do YOU find YOUR Action?
Is your self-identity also your self-definition? Are you female / male? White or Black or Another Shade of Human? Are you Jew, Christian, Muslim, Taoist, Buddhist, Hindu, Pagan, Agnostic, or Atheist? Are you Conservative, Liberal, Progressive, or Socialist? Are you heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, or other-sexual? Are you wealthy, middle-class, or poor? Are you employed, self-employed, or unemployed? These are but a few of the many ways in which we might self-identify by means of limiting definitions. Me? Well, you would have to ask! I gave years and years to cultivating an identity only to discover that what I was actually doing was constructing the coffin I wanted to be buried in! I wanted to be remembered as "X, Y, and Z"... only to eventually discover that the task of the person entering the ranks of the elders was the de-construction of all that went before! Not that it was "bad", but rather that it really just wasn't good enough! Now that is quite some thought: "just not good enough"... Another way to look at it is simply this: "what are you worth?" Most of us are taught to settle for the signs put on our coffins: "He was a good man." "She was a hard worker." "What a fine Christian." And yet, and yet: this world is crying out in agony! We don't need "good men", "hard workers", or "fine Christians"! We need saints! We need rEvolutionaries! We need stunning workers in the fields of justice! We need radical examples of mercy, compassion, and forgiveness! We need teachers to de-construct the myths that have us corralled in all the "isms" in the book! We need to live worthy of the grace and gift of our breath and the blessing of this precious blue Planet! Now, Gandhi's vision was precisely this: we can learn to live in such a way that we create for ourselves, our institutions, and our states the only reality that matters: Love without limits. Everything else is an exercise in futility: small lives lived as boring obituaries buried and forgotten with us in the coffins we built for ourselves. How would our lives become different if we jettisoned all of our fear? Oh I'm not concerned about your fear of flying: I'm thinking of your fear of the Black man in Ferguson; I'm thinking of your fear of the immigrant in Texas, of the feminist in Berkeley, of the transsexual moving in next door to you... So with fear out of your life, what then might you begin to do? Maybe pray to the Goddess? Maybe think homosexual love could be beautiful? Maybe invite a Mexican immigrant over for burritos? Maybe invite your Tea Party friends into a study club to read Vandana Shiva? What would any of this mean in your now very real and substantial life? It would mean that you have decided to stand up and step into the actual maelstrom of human history and begin to implement Gandhi's Vision of "love is the law of our being"... There are fundamentally only two emotions -- one might even say only two thoughts -- love and fear: that which truly makes us God-like in the power of creation is this choice: "Will I hunker down in my fears or will I let them all go and choose instead to practice, as best I can, to love without limits?" When once you have leapt into Love, all the old self-definitions slough off like old dead tired flakes of skin: and that which remains becomes a living flame: What need have I to judge, to hate, to fear? None whatsoever! So I will be free in every way possible! I will celebrate kindness and pleasure! I will expand my heart to include everyone! I will serve others and take the last place! I will feed the hungry and organize for justice! I will, I will, I will and so much more until I give my last breath back to Love with a great big Thank-You!" |
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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