"The center clears. Knowing comes: the body is not singular like a corpse, but singular like a salt grain still in the side of the mountain." -- Rumi the Ecstatic
"O, that my priest's robe were wide enough to gather up all the suffering people in this floating world." -- Ryokan the Hermit
"Contemplation is essentially a listening in silence, an expectancy."
-- Thomas Merton, Monk
If it is true that there is a "hidden music" in the whirl of atoms, planets, and galaxies, then it is equally true that -- right there in the midst of the music -- there are interludes of silence... If all the Universe sings: all the Universe is also "intently silent", and from that silence there is an endless stream of tears: suffering -- and as Creator -- the Quantum Consciousness did not want to be the cause of all this, endless, suffering: but now God lives with a suffering, broken, Heart... At this point, some will jump and shout, "God is perfect! God cannot suffer! God is unending Bliss!"
Ah, but what a cold love that would be!
No. The Holy Mystery -- whom we casually call "God" -- lives and dies every moment in the midst of our pain: our cruelties, our violence, our justifications, our hatreds, our fears, our racism, our sexism, our cultivation of exploitation, oppression, and injustice: everything that we do to one another and this precious blue Planet is the suffering and execution of That Being Whom we call "God"...
On our collective epitaph will be chisled these stunning words: "These people killed God."
So what do we need right now? We need to cultivate "interludes of silence"... We need to put on the brakes -- and take a break... Sit down. Have a cup of tea. Breathe a moment of emptiness. Consider your / our condition: "I love God as much as -- and no more than -- the person or the people whom I love the least." Only in silence can we bear to hear these terrible words: they are the death of God: as simple as a knife in the back or a bullet in the heart: done. Finished. Everything is all over...
Putting our cup of tea down, I / we might collapse in tears: it is true: I have killed God. I have killed each and every single one of my dreams. I have killed my beloved and our children. I have demolished our home. I have annihilated my town and country. I have caused the extinction of all life and hope. And finally, finally, I am empty: I willingly choose to cease to exist: me and God will be Nothing, No One, and Never, Ever, Remembered... this is our condition...
Ah, but an interlude of silence -- to my surprise -- turns out to be pregnant! It turns out that all that God does -- in every moment of Time -- is stretch out on a maternity bed and give birth (Meister Eckhart)... Like a kernal of corn -- without end -- the Divine Quantum Consciousness accepts Her suffering and death and planting in the ground of our being: that She might be reborn and multiplied and discovered and loved without end: as the "Queen of Corn", oh how Mama loves...
In the interlude of silence, "love is never idle, but is continually in motion, it is continually throwing out sparks, like a flame, in every direction; and, as the office of love is to wound, that it may enkindle with love and cause delight, so, when it is as it were a living flame, within the soul, it is ever sending forth its arrow wounds, like most tender sparks of delicate love, joyfully and happily exercising the arts and wiles of love." -- St. John of the Cross
It is here, in this interlude, that we find a Divine Pregnancy all around us! Every moment is the Resurrection! Every moment is the Possibility of Planetary Regeneration! Every moment is our Rebirth into Holy Nonviolence! Every moment is the stunning Realization: "I am You, You are Me, and We are All Together: One!" Jump up and look around you: God is Alive, Magic is Afoot! (Leonard Cohen). This is "Rumi Time Two": write a poem, sing a song, whirl in delight, sign a petition, organize a protest, incite a riot in your imagination, plan your summer garden, invite friends to a soup night and figure out how to tribe, create alternatives to the dominant culture and economics, make love and remember to kiss more: time and every moment of our lives are so precious... You are the one who is making God fertile!
"O, that my priest's robe were wide enough to gather up all the suffering people in this floating world." -- Ryokan the Hermit
"Contemplation is essentially a listening in silence, an expectancy."
-- Thomas Merton, Monk
If it is true that there is a "hidden music" in the whirl of atoms, planets, and galaxies, then it is equally true that -- right there in the midst of the music -- there are interludes of silence... If all the Universe sings: all the Universe is also "intently silent", and from that silence there is an endless stream of tears: suffering -- and as Creator -- the Quantum Consciousness did not want to be the cause of all this, endless, suffering: but now God lives with a suffering, broken, Heart... At this point, some will jump and shout, "God is perfect! God cannot suffer! God is unending Bliss!"
Ah, but what a cold love that would be!
No. The Holy Mystery -- whom we casually call "God" -- lives and dies every moment in the midst of our pain: our cruelties, our violence, our justifications, our hatreds, our fears, our racism, our sexism, our cultivation of exploitation, oppression, and injustice: everything that we do to one another and this precious blue Planet is the suffering and execution of That Being Whom we call "God"...
On our collective epitaph will be chisled these stunning words: "These people killed God."
So what do we need right now? We need to cultivate "interludes of silence"... We need to put on the brakes -- and take a break... Sit down. Have a cup of tea. Breathe a moment of emptiness. Consider your / our condition: "I love God as much as -- and no more than -- the person or the people whom I love the least." Only in silence can we bear to hear these terrible words: they are the death of God: as simple as a knife in the back or a bullet in the heart: done. Finished. Everything is all over...
Putting our cup of tea down, I / we might collapse in tears: it is true: I have killed God. I have killed each and every single one of my dreams. I have killed my beloved and our children. I have demolished our home. I have annihilated my town and country. I have caused the extinction of all life and hope. And finally, finally, I am empty: I willingly choose to cease to exist: me and God will be Nothing, No One, and Never, Ever, Remembered... this is our condition...
Ah, but an interlude of silence -- to my surprise -- turns out to be pregnant! It turns out that all that God does -- in every moment of Time -- is stretch out on a maternity bed and give birth (Meister Eckhart)... Like a kernal of corn -- without end -- the Divine Quantum Consciousness accepts Her suffering and death and planting in the ground of our being: that She might be reborn and multiplied and discovered and loved without end: as the "Queen of Corn", oh how Mama loves...
In the interlude of silence, "love is never idle, but is continually in motion, it is continually throwing out sparks, like a flame, in every direction; and, as the office of love is to wound, that it may enkindle with love and cause delight, so, when it is as it were a living flame, within the soul, it is ever sending forth its arrow wounds, like most tender sparks of delicate love, joyfully and happily exercising the arts and wiles of love." -- St. John of the Cross
It is here, in this interlude, that we find a Divine Pregnancy all around us! Every moment is the Resurrection! Every moment is the Possibility of Planetary Regeneration! Every moment is our Rebirth into Holy Nonviolence! Every moment is the stunning Realization: "I am You, You are Me, and We are All Together: One!" Jump up and look around you: God is Alive, Magic is Afoot! (Leonard Cohen). This is "Rumi Time Two": write a poem, sing a song, whirl in delight, sign a petition, organize a protest, incite a riot in your imagination, plan your summer garden, invite friends to a soup night and figure out how to tribe, create alternatives to the dominant culture and economics, make love and remember to kiss more: time and every moment of our lives are so precious... You are the one who is making God fertile!
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