Building Your Sacred Life, Part Three...

                                               There is no secret ingredient. -- Po (Kung Fu Panda)

​In the building of your sacred life, there is no secret ingredient. That this subtle truth should show up in an animated movie (Kung Fu Panda) is simply delightful! Each of the three Kung Fu Panda movies reveal any number of wonderful mystic teachings all rolled up into a martial arts / animal festival: if you have yet to watch them, buy, borrow, stream, or steal them! Okay. I'll get back to the point...

​When a serious spiritual search drops into the bucket of your life, and the ensuing splash is a wake-up shout: the stalkers of profit will inevitably come knocking: Google it once, and guru-mantra-realization-salvation ads will show up endlessly... each one with an insight or course designed especially for you! Any one of them is probably of... um, value... However, an hour in a Soup Kitchen as a volunteer would be a wiser investment... or a day hike to a river... or a stroll with a camera in hand... or a copy of a Rumi poem in your pocket... 

The mystic-life is not an abandonment of your daily life: the two are inextricably one life... the only life that you have... Mysticism is a depth exercise... Embracing where you are at, those with whom you live, and the studies-chores-limitations-expectations-opportunites, etc. is always the place where you begin... Changes will always need to be made: but the changes that you are called to make must always serve your liberation into loving yourself and loving others through the eyes of compassion, justice, and beatitude...

​Now, I suppose, if there were a secret ingredient to building a sacred life, it would be drop the guilt! Guilt is, seemingly, the primary motivator for "religion", for the desire to "accumulate a spiritual life", and, as we know, for a very great many other things: but it is pretty much a useless emotion, whatever the cause... On the other hand, a vigorous and honest self-reflection, a self-inquiry informed by truth, and an open dialogue with an elder who has been shredded her / himself numerous times, is something of great value... 

​Love is the motivator for the miraculous...

If you have ever fallen in love, then you know how thoughts of your beloved tend always to come to mind... at least for us romantics, little things take on meaning, far beyond the moment... "Little things take on meaning" brings to mind the importance of environment for the aspiring mystic... not a few, in reading the lives of the saints, think of environment in terms of austerity: the fewer possessions the better: a mat on the floor: no more than half a dozen books: well, you get the austerity picture... I only dabbled in that particular phase, and frankly, every religion has a great vanguard of nuts... Nearing the end of his life, St. Francis apologized to his "brother body" for how poorly he had treated it!

​You can copy the example of the monk or nun: you can also continue as you have been living, only with the additions of serious self-reflection and the Gratitude Prayer of "I love you" and "I thank you"... changes, if they are needed, will become obvious and occur in a natural and humble way... For me, as I am a romantic poet in addition to being a sacred life practitioner, I cultivate my attractions in my living: bohemian "clutter": paintings, photographs, brilliant color, comfortable sofas, a table for painting on as well as for dining, house plants, pillows and stuffed animals, board games, book cases crammed full with poetry, politics, physics, biographies, and holy scriptures, hippy draperies hanging from the ceiling, candles, and of course, music... an altar has a privileged placement of honor... incense floats about the house... this living space invites conversation, reading, meditation, and love-making: it's all good...

​In other words, it's all about time: and the cultivation of quality and awareness of the sacred in every moment, into and through, every breath... There is another prayer form I want to introduce you to: the Liturgy of the Hours... rooted in the ancient Hebrew Psalms, this prayer-form has been consecrated by well over two, perhaps three, thousand years... While they flow out of the Hebrew / Christian traditions, they effectively serve to create moments of Sabbath reflection, spread throughout the day... I use Celtic Daily Prayer Book Two and Nan C. Merrill's Psalms for Praying, along with "fingering" my beads with an on-going breath / mantra prayer... All together, a bohemian environment and a continuing liturgy of the hours creates an atmosphere of Sacred Presence... [I invite you to read my poem Sabbath-Day on the page entitled Way above...]

​Part Four, coming Friday, December 11, 2020...