How Do You Spell "Soul"? Part Two...

To "catch" s-o-u-l with a definition is to attempt to shove into a box that which is pure magic, imbibed with wonder, and toxic to control: you may as well, as Donovan sang, try and catch the wind... On the other hand, you could approach s-o-u-l as a guest arriving by invitation to a traditional Japanese Tea House: there is a little door, about three feet square, at the left corner of the hut: to enter, one must remove Samurai sword or AR-15, and crawl on one's hands and knees to enter: now, properly called by Lady Humility, one must simply sit and wait: the Tea Master will eventually approach...

Like the rocks in the above photo, the best that we can do, in regards to s-o-u-l, is to color it with fantastical intentions, humble sincerity, and the enveloping vistas of an activated compassion... this is the point of life... to contribute our thoughts, words, and lives to the gathering of Sacred Meaning for the Divine Itself... This s-o-u-l-f-u-l intermingling of our passions with the Initiator of Passion is the eternity worthy of Us and It... 

​How do we learn what it is that we are supposed to learn? 

​One can meander through life thinking that this or that is a lesson, but the real lesson might be how we put on and take off our shoes! Big things like big events might be the stuff of legends, but how many of us are on a big legendary path? Most of us live as little fish in a humungous ocean... so it isn't about the shark we might face, but rather, it is really all about what happens in our own mind and heart... Are we beginning to release our mind from every attempt to dominate or control the other "fish" in our lives? And are we beginning to release our heart from the limitations or restrictions under which we have been living? This is the School of S-o-u-l... to stop running away from ourselves is all the education that we need...

​Naturally... 

​Wisdom begins to attach itself to us, sort of like barnacles to the sides of whales or ships at sea... by cultivating a certain way of ambling... when once we have stopped running away from ourselves, purpose increasingly becomes apparent... help rendered is help that is received... planting seeds and garden-caring is righteous endeavor... massaging one's loving partner is spiritual gifting... ambling reduces fear... a reduction of fear liberates into delight and wonder... sort of like, beginning to recover one's child-heart...

Mistakes...

Once there was a man who, while walking and lost in thought, accidentally dropped his house key... he came from that direction, from a dark alley... but now he was here on this street... he got down on hands and knees under a street-light, probing in the grass and flowers for his lost key... Someone walking by asked, "What are you looking for?" He answered, "I dropped my house key in the alley." The stranger, perplexed, asked, "If you dropped your house key in the alley, why are you looking here?" "Because this is where the light is," was the answer... 

Like the man in the story, we all make mistakes... we oftentimes probe the wrong places for some sort of means of recovery... but unlike keys, we never actually lose the love that is our secret identity... Sometimes all that we need is the flashlight of sacred remembrance... First off, as Erich Fromm wrote, love is not primarily a relationship to a specific person; it is an attitude, an orientation of character... If I truly love one person I love all persons, I love the world, I love life. If I can say to somebody else, 'I love you,' I must be able to say, 'I love you in everybody, I love through you the world, I love in you also myself.' This orientation of our character is the flashlight of our secret identity...

Remembrance is prayer of the heart... for millennia in the East, prayer of the heart, linking the Divine Name with our breath, has been essential religion and a living spirituality... This science has been studied and applied, in significant depth, especially in Sufism and the Orthodox Church... This orientation of our mind is the floodlight of our daily re-birthing...

​It is all about cultivating your place...

​Place is about scanning your environment: how much is enough is always a legitimate question for the spiritual practitioner... S-o-u-l develops in simple living, intentional community, meaningful work, joyful play, and the mystic arts: creativity, contemplation, and sacred intimacy (practiced or in vowed celibacy)... Place is supposed to be deeply sensual and intensely intimate: music, poetry, literature, and conversation: a place for the greening (see St. Hildegard) of mind and heart... a place that brings life to each of your sacred senses and frees you for sacred exploration: life is not meant for boredom... we are supposed to be able to give steady example of loving in action and an increasing capacity for erasing the boundaries we have placed upon our hearts...

​How do we live s-o-u-l?

​Plato said that love is the pursuit of the whole... And the Dalai Lama has said that the purpose of life is to increase the warm heart. Think of other people. Serve other people sincerely... and that if we cannot do that, at least do not harm... Henry Miller, of course, has had much to say about our human condition, to make life more beautiful, more wonderful, more deep and satisfying, we must gaze with fresh, clear vision upon every contributing element of life... All of this is s-o-u-l... welcome home is the call and response of s-o-u-l... welcome home... it really is about an honest, intentional, practice...