The Fire and the Rose are One

And all shall be well and

All manner of thing shall be well

When the tongues of flame are in-folded...

Into the crowned knot of fire...

And the fire and the rose are one.


-- T. S. Eliot, Little Gidding, Four Quartets


There are essentials for the "life-pack" of the modern mystic / activist: if one legitimately anticipates awakening "into the crowned knot of fire..." One must begin with an active sense and vision of "Unity", or Oneness: perceptions and opinions must each and all be "massaged" with the truth of Oneness: differences must yield to this higher wisdom: illusions of separation must likewise surrender to this essential mystery and truth. Observer and observed are One: perceiver and perception alike are under the "umbrella" of One: the patterned waves are all existing within an invisible wholeness that is neither / and both "here and there"... Collaboration is the synergy of Communion... on every level, the mystic / activist is called to live within this synergy...

The "I" who is reading this, is called to the disappearance of "self" in the discovery of the "other": this is essential practice! "Self" must "vanish" in Love for the "other": our previous learned boundaries of relationship must be increasingly experienced through the new lens of "CSC" -- collaboration is the synergy of communion: one touches, not a boundary, but a Person and the Divine... The politics of division, the economics of exploitation, and the religions of domination all await the transformative power of Oneness as experienced by the mystic / activist. It is this collaboration in the synergy of communion that is the One Reality: cause and effect are not independent of the whole. All that we call "natural", is a symbiotic network of matter, minds, bodies, and consciousness: with the core question being, "How do I lessen the pain in the world?" 

This core question, "How do I lessen the pain in my world?", is a daily practice: and the sure step "Into the crowned knot of fire"... which is the vocation of the mystic / activist. Oneness is a modern expression of the ancient Tao. The Way of Lao Tzu is an excellent guide into the mystery of the One Reality: there is an ethic and an aesthetic which grants access to the collaboration in the synergy of communion... The "natural" human is "crafty" in the face of an ever-advancing technocracy: like lovers and poets who can embrace the daily moments of life with radiance: like workers of the soil who live gracefully in the flow of the seasons... Looking around with even a smidgen of honesty, the modern mystic / activist recognizes this truth: very few people live in obvious bliss: looking around with even a smidgen of integrity, the modern mystic / activist makes this simple decision: there simply has to be a better way... I am going to find it... And the fire and the rose will be one...

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