Rule of Life
Is there not an heretical imperative implicit in the Gospel, and in our absolute amazement in awakening to the core teaching of Yeshua bar Alaha (Jesus of the Beloved): the Kingdom of Heaven is within you-us-everywhere-everyone! Everything in the Universe is the work of this t0-the-root-coherence: from particles of possibility to the all the wonders of the Earth, from a solitary human being to the universal evolutionary hunger for connection... for coherence... and for compassion...
Is it not true that the Gospel, and the Heart of Every Religion, is an invitation to build, with a radical faith and hope, intentional communities rooted in the Mystic-Abode of the Kingdom, of a "pan-sacramentalism"? Is it not true that the Gospel, and the Heart of Every Religion, calls us to live lives of prayer, cooperation, compassion, service, justice, simplicity, and nonviolence (a Beatitude life)? Is it not true that the Gospel, and the Heart of Every Religion, calls us to save Planet Earth by living in such a way that we serve all species and the re-generation of our Home? Is it not true that the Gospel, and the Heart of Every Religion, calls us to gender / race / and class equality, in the Divine Equality of the Personhood of All Human Beings?
Is it not true that the Gospel, and the Heart of Every Religion, calls us to the inward journey of contemplative prayer, gratitude of mind, availability and vulnerability of heart, and a harmony of body, mind, and soul? Is it not true that the Gospel, and the Heart of Every Religion, calls us to surrender to the Holy Wisdom of the Feminine, in the Holy Mother Mary, for the conscious cultivation of the Growing Christ: our human and planetary evolution? And finally, is it not true that the Gospel, and the Heart of Every Religion, are roadmaps of the Eternal Way into a Living and Greening identification with the Christ Consciousness of the Kingdom of Heaven (within us and within everyone and everywhere)?
-- Questions for a Rule of Life
In the Key of Reverence...
In my life-long and passionate study of World Religions and religious philosophy, the inter-faith key always boils down to reverence... An increasingly popular word in the West, and coming from the East, is that of namaste: taking it a tad bit further than that of most English translations, I render it as "The Divine in me adores the Divine in you"... Now, we are firmly situated in the key of reverence...
Reverence and adoration and surrender are always the by-words of the mystic-intuition-practice. The way of life indicated by these words can be described as the root-of-the-root of every religion. Until one descends into these roots, one is, at best, dilly-dallying on the surface of which-ever religion. Jesus was never really about "love". Rather, he was very much into loving... there is at least a solar system of difference between the two! The Beatitudes, the Sermon on the Mount and the Plain, and the Parable of the Last Judgment in Matthew 25 are each "angles" on loving-in-action (which is the only way that love can be identified as real)...
I practice the Kriya Yoga of Paramahansa Yogananda; I practice the "surrender" teachings of the Sufi master Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan; I pray the Benedictine Divine Office and regularly read the Celtic Prayer books of the Northumbria Community; I study the poetry of Rumi and Hafiz (two Sufi poet-masters); and for over fifty years I am a student of the Tao which, not surprisingly to me, unites the ancient mystical East with modern quantum physics and theological thought. Again, the unifying "key" to this is reverence...
One could very well say that this "reverence" that I speak and write about may be likened to the great experience of falling in love. It is not for nothing that Rumi wrote "how you make love is how God will be with you"... New lovers explore the minds of one another, and as the attractions deepen, proceed into the mutual exploration of one another's bodies: everywhere is a good place to look, to touch, to kiss, and to lick: only by such an exploration can another body be truly and maddenly revered... in mutual adoration and surrender... Reverence, adoration, and surrender has nothing to do with any idea of "needing perfection"... Instead, it is pure gift, pure giving, with no need to control or manipulate for one's own power-over... sacred sex is a door-way into apprehension of the Divine...
The Tao reminds: embrace simplicity, put others first, desire little... focus your life-breath... love the whole world as if it were your self... let yourself become broken... let yourself become twisted... let yourself become empty... let yourself become old... keep to the feminine... do not shun the disgraced... embrace the world with compassion... the world is a sacred vessel... using force always leads to trouble... those who know they have enough are truly wealthy... if you want to possess something you must first give it away... the Tao never acts with force... the great view the small as their source... meditate in silence... become one with the dust... the Tao is the tabernacle of creation... enjoy the plain and simple... and compassion is the protector of Heaven's salvation...
This brief journey through the Tao Te Ching is, what I call, Broken-Vase Taoism... the Taoist "way" is that of the cultivation of satisfaction, of contentment, and of reverence... how one makes love is how one washes the dishes is how one walks down the road is how one serves and lives in stewardship: which is sort of like the answer to the question that I would ask of new volunteers in our Soup Kitchen: who would you most like to see come walking through our door for lunch: Michelle Obama? Dua Lipa? Brad Pitt? George Clooney? Your mother? Your long-lost brother?Perhaps even Jesus Christ? Serve whomever / everyone exactly as you would serve the person you would most like to see... This is applied Gospel-Tao... good stuff... Remember Rumi's insight: how you make love is how God will be with you... and making love is everything that you do: this is the religion that matters because it is the religion, the Way, of Jesus Christ: the Kingdom of Heaven is within you... so every moment is pan-sacramental... BOO!
Deep Life@ the intersection of the Beautiful, the Mystical, and the Personal
