Salt Of The Earth

Arrogance and Sovereignty are not at all the same thing or even related,
although either could be mistaken for the other – and sometimes or often is.
 
Sovereignty is recognizable for its fineness of character
combined with an inclusive and nourishing consciousness,
revealing itself by humble awareness and a sense of inner wealth,
quite regardless of outer material circumstances.

Arrogance, parading as sovereignty, is marked by poverty of character.
Whatever accomplishments or seeming wealth or beauty or achievement,
arrogance will claim these for itself and poison everything with its narcissism.

Sovereignty leaves a scent of generosity in its wake, and an after-taste of culture;
arrogance a scent of insecurity, an after-taste of bitterness;
where the former is capable of expressing lovingkindness,
the latter is left cynical, and its display of kindness is actually
an empty, self-promoting indifference.

Even a Mercedes driver might be seen to show the least arrogance,
whereas grossest arrogance can be hopelessly glaring at one
from the faces and actions of bicycle riders – one may please
take Münster for example, there one has an entire city of them.

Love is known for being sovereign, for to arrogance it is entirely foreign.
Sovereignty is a challenge to attain (not maintain,
as that wouldn't be authentic sovereignty – for if you've got it you've got it,
regardless of what you are doing);
in arrogance is a daily challenge to rid oneself of it.

Arrogance is primitive even when being stately or sophisticated,
turns the knife in the wound even when holding a glass of the best wine.
Sovereignty can afford to be noble and gracious because it has nothing to lose by it;
sovereignty knows itself – and that is what makes it sovereign.

Arrogance may well find itself nestled in the breast of crawlers as well as kings alike,
of peasants as well as presidents, of sycophants or sultans, secretaries or CEOs,
of ruled as well as ruler, those of standing or those with little or none: it eats equally
into their psyches all, like a cancer, poisoning the heart's blood as with lead.

Sovereignty likewise may be found in those of high or low station – it is the birthright
of every living Being, especially Human. It is that light in the eye,
it is the salt of our own earth.

Brick of Possibilities

Religion reminds one of a brick.
You take a fine, sturdy, dumb brick.
Paint it in your best hand, make that
Christ or Cross, Krishna or Kabir,
inscribe the entire Qur'an or Torah there,
or Siri Guru Granth Sahib of the Sikhs –
literally, it's all been done.

And it's still a brick, but what a brick!
If you paint on it that which binds you
with your most sincerely cherished Love,
then please do it, I'll weave garlands with you
and we'll place them there together.

Knowing that a brick is a brick,
we'll contemplate together and open our hearts
to what's creatively imaged into that brick;
knowing that as what was painted came from within,
so is the very Love and Source being depicted –
and the intimate Knowledge of That – entirely within,
to be merely, albeit strongly, reminded, directed there again.

But shall this be the brick of Cain or of Cathedral?
The brick of Egypt or of the Bridge which bonds us
in mutual sovereignty?

If it's to whack another in the chops or break windows
or be more bric-à-brac to keep you off-track –
then we have a problem, then a brick really is just a brick.

Let each have their brick most suitable or exchange them –
you can't exchange the Self anyway, there is only one of That.
Yes, a brick's a brick – but oh, what a fine looking brick indeed!

Christmas 2013

Even if December isn't even nearly right, whatever:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY JESUS, we love you!
Now, I've invited my dear friend Vatican Frank and everyone else.
So first, make your breath long and deep and ever so refined, like music.

And now – let's all breathe in: Kyrie eleison – and out: Christe eleison.
And in: Christ-in-me – and out: United with all.
And in: all the love, the joy, the peace you can draw into you –
then out: all that love, that joy, that peace out out out into your world.
And really FEEL IT!

Don't join any clubs, and don't jump on any bandwagons, BUT:
also never be afraid of praising God,
and never be ashamed of praising God,
and never ever entertain the notion "I'm not worthy" – because you're not –
and it's NOT ABOUT THAT!

Trust me on this – or hear it yourself:
the rocks and trees and rivers and
every living breathing form on this Earth
(hence the fullness thereof)
is praising the glory of God ceaselessly –
for "atoms reel in praise of Thee!"
Now get very very still … and BE.

And now: let's say we rock! 

 

On Fourth Advent

Friend, don't believe! It's often hollow –
Love, rather – belief will follow.
Love fiercely, love deeply, belief comes easily;
Most natural is that faith which calls Love master,
And therein is effortless, solid, everlasting.


Love is the First Idea, and the going forth,
The guiding impulse, the measure of worth –
The whisper, the call, the quick'ning spirit;
Birthing belief, training trust, feeding faith in action,
Love's the secret intention and its destination.


Be Human, be real, don't be ashamed to feel
All that courses through you – Love understands,
And that faith in your breast, belief on your brow, is its seal;
Love is most natural unfettered, and most itself when it bonds –
Now be kind toward yourself this Fourth Advent.

"Getting Religion" II

Religion is like a body –
like a body it has a head,
a heart, a gut, a yoni and a lingam.
And an asshole.

Religion is like a body –
the head is for thinking-too-much;
the heart is for bringing light into the world,
circulating divine nourishment into all organs,
manifesting love as Human so this world might survive
in knowing joy through that One Breathing Truth;
the gut is for drawing the darkness out of its scary corner:
to do the work of offering it into the light;
the lingam is for positive penetration of Consciousness
into the Earth; the yoni is for warmth and depth, bringing forth life.
The asshole, in over-abundance, gives us jihad and all manner of control issues.
(Every body has one of these – only in religion there are ever so many.)

Religion is like a body –
in which head defines and calculates, feels separate from body;
whereas heart is in that body, nourishes it constantly, earthy and divine.
Head thinks thoughts, writes a theology, says heart doesn't think;
heart indeed thinks – but in dimensions of Unity head cannot grasp.
The asshole is entirely thoughtless, narcisstically striving to
dominate and to rule with unquestioned authority.

The Bringers of light – for whom religions were named, systematized
– these always were first of the heart,
feeding the body as only heart can.
They taught in heart, knowing there would be heads later.
And they knew that religion is like a body –
there would be assholes.

When Sufis give themselves over to zikr,
or Yogis to nada and laya, the Yogas of sound –
when these are practiced devotedly in homes,
in temples, in caves, or in ashrams;
when choirs move listeners and members both
to inner heights which only heart can offer:
then is religion like a body well-served.

(O pious egos! Ablutions will never remove your dirt,
a clean heart will: clear your hearts not of taste of pork –
but rather of envy and intrigue, of bigotry and loathing,
of supremacism and subterfuge, of primitive posturing.
If enemies would just finally love their enemies, then
"the enemy of my enemy" just might well be my friend.)

Then you can think with your heart, act from your heart,

heal other hearts through your heart, as God so intended.

For God is Love, and this Love brought us into manifestation.

Buddha Did This

The sun ever burning its own ego

is a powerhouse of Light for that;

it sees no clouds, doesn't even know

what a cloud is!

Clouds for their part, belong

to our weather, protect us

from all that seamless solar might.

The clouds of your opposition, however,

seek only to block and inhibit your light.

Be that sun you are, dismiss their existence –

let your ego burn and let their shadows

swallow them, not you.

Be Light, travel light, in this delight,

triumph without a fight.

Right.

(on Wanta Jampinjinpa of the Walpiri Community)

I briefly heard an Aborigine,

watched his face and felt his timbre,

how he softly told of moving and acting,

thinking and feeling with the earth of

this world, the surroundings...

And invariably every second phrase or sentence

he would end in all but a whisper with, "... right."

Mild, sovereign, humble – but reflective, not self-conscious,

rather like an afterthought, matter-of-fact.

As he spoke before the camera,

punctuating his simple and generations-rich

statement with that barely audible "... right,"

he was doing more than talking, he was giving Teaching.

He could have been Native American,

Native this, Native that, but he's Australian,

Native of there – and whether they all do this

or just he does this, what came across

were all those thousands of generations

of living in close Wisdom with the Earth and her creatures,

all the Knowledge and Heart and Being, in that "... right."

And all that he wanted was, for us to finally get it … right.

Thoughts After First Advent

"Belief" or "unbelief / disbelief" in "God" remains for me a superfluous curiosity.  Superfluous because it has more than anything else to do with, not God, but "God" – that is, someone else’s conception of God which you don’t want to buy into – or which you do.  Curious is, why so much energy is expended in a) wanting others to believe in your God, b) cajoling, even forcing others to believe in your God, c) rejecting / denying God at all and copping an Attitude over this, d) worrying about God, or e) spreading death and destruction on account of your God.

This believing or not believing in God is as superfluous to – well, God – as we would naturally see any notion of belief or unbelief / disbelief/ nonbelief in our own Body, our own organs, our own circulation, our own respiration and respiratory system.  This body functions;  as this body is so, God is so.  As these organs, this circulation, this respiration are so, God is so.  Try this:  stop believing that your heart pumps blood through the arteries which carry nourishment throughout the body and the lungs, which blood returns for nourishment and reinforcement of oxygen through the lung passages – all of this functioning, entirely indifferent to your knowing or believing or denying it.  So stop believing in that going on without let-up, and stop believing that those lungs draw in all that life-reinforced fresh air into themselves, to go through the conversions and transferences which make your Body a rich tapestry of perfectly orchestrated harmony and wholeness, well-Being, with or without your being consulted; that your brain is in constant coordination with all functions, that your glands and your tracts, from growth and development to consuming, digesting and expelling, from over all defense to activity and rest and the in-joyment of both.  All this is there.

Now, here’s a catch:  believing, you give attention to, offer your attention to, perhaps even your concentration and even devotion to, that which is being consciously contemplated – that’s contemplated, folks, not complicated – by doing this with your Body you become no longer the indifferently passive non-participant, you become the active, creative participator, you are now with your Body, and in it by being conscious of it.  Does it mean becoming a "Vegan" from another planet?  Or hitting the fitness center like a fanatic, or jogging your guts out?  Or preaching granola?  None of this, it means just being with yourself, with your body, loving this Body merely by knowing it and validating it and being in it.  This kind of attention already wards off illness, this kind of attention is entirely oriented toward your health because it addresses the wholeness.  When you are bending, talk with your back, through your breath, ask it if it’s alright with what you’re doing, let it suggest something better.  If you are eating, does your stomach have a vote?  Every single part of you is indispensable, and part of every other part of you.

Be clear in your Mind that you are not about illness, that you don’t need sick leave to feel whole about yourself. And as this makes the question of belief, for me, so superfluous - because Body is so - likewise and even more does this apply toward God - because God is so.  When you love you have every reason and power to believe, and as this belief develops into faith and into devotion and into Knowledge, then you become the active, creative participator of that inner life which expresses outward in all directions.  Kabir, as rendered by Robt. Bly, tells us:  "What is God: he is the breath inside the breath."

Making that subtle, you become subtle.  Becoming subtle in that, you meet with the subtle.  Meeting with that, you come into contact with That, about which we bandy about words like "belief" in the first place – which then makes the latter superfluous.