"How you love is the open sky"... so teaches Rumi the Ecstatic... and, "If you want to know God, enjoy the company of lovers." This precious blue Planet and all the life that it supports and sustains is pregnant with the creative Divine Consciousness -- the One Love response to the Original Question of "What If?" So if your love is like the sky, open and expansive, you become the mirror of the Divine... if, on the other hand, you contract your capacity to love, like into something as small as a fist, your reflective possibilities will be steadily reduced -- like a mirror in a steam-filled room... What is the truth of the human condition? Each and every one of us possesses two root emotions: Love and Fear. These two root emotions have the power to create certain trajectories in our consciousness -- tendancies of thought become patterns, and patterns of thought steadily become habits... this is as true for the saint as for the scoundrel. The difference between the saint and the scoundrel is this essential orientation (reinforced by family, peers, and culture) and the activated will to transformation: in the absence of familial nurturing the pervading cultural "field" becomes the dominant instructive force in the life of the child and teen: Fear requires flight or fight: violence and other survival (pain reducing) addictions result from its overwhelming power: and the activation of the will for transformation becomes then a nearly impossible task. "As for one, so for the many" could be an axiom for the cultural addiction to Fear Consciousness: we see this all around us and the world, for example, in all the justifications for weapons and violence. Turning once again to Rumi, he instructs "lovers leave what keeps them confined... you are the soul, and when you hear yourself in some hypocrisy, cut free." This is the "activation of the will for transformation": the saint sees the problem and proceeds to change. The scoundrel reacts to the problem and proceeds to contract. This plays out in our families, economies, politics, and religions until it becomes "fields" of reality: supported by fist, gun, money, and theology. But to believe with Rumi that "you have the energy of the sun in you" compels the seasoned step: "Go to the banquet of true human beings. Split open the cultural mold. Put your head up out of the sack..." In doing this, "Impossibilities occur." This very specific moment in time is a radical confluence of forces: science in regards to climate change is roundly condemned by the right-wing, while the science of genetic manipulation of seeds is roundly supported by the same right-wing; criminals have guns, children have access to guns, and other citizens -- by the millions -- have guns to "protect" themselves from their children and the criminals their policies consigned to poverty and hopelessness; global resource exploitation is endangering the capacity of Earth to sustain life; depression and suicide are rampant the world over; terrorists have no regard for anyone's life anywhere; women are globally oppressed and victims of rape, war, dominator-economics, and male-dictated theologies -- AND at this very same moment: women the world-over are rising, claiming their equality and rights to life and the pursuit of happiness; millions of women and men both are choosing to engage with a path of heart-awakening and are forging new spiritualities and organizations of alternatives to the limits imposed by Fear; "East has met West" and the globalization of information, education, and enlightenment is breaking down every sort of previous barrier; and the many justifications for violence, injustice, and oppression are being met with a sincere openness to the "other" and an increased willingness to trust in the open-ended possibilities of tolerance, acceptance, solidarity, and a new culture of Practiced Kindness, Equality, Justice, Harmlessness, and Beauty. This confluence has the potential to radically (to the roots) alter the course of our common human story: We Can Choose, Right Now, To "Love As The Open Sky", and Truly Come Alive in Our Personal Transformation (required for a Planetary Transformation). So, to say "how you love is the open sky", is not a poetic metaphor but a spiritual and political truth both. To consciously choose the way of expansion -- or to follow the dominant cultural "field" and contract -- is the meaning and power of this moment: YOU can choose to live for the rest of your life as an agent of transformation: OR NOT. But to activate the Power of One is to unleash all the pregnant possibilities of the Universe: don't kid yourself and say that you are not important and that what you do doesn't matter: You are, in fact, everyone and everything... so stand up: state your declaration: we've been waiting for you...
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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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