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!

Yoga For Jews, or: Karuna Is Also Kosher

Ha-Shem breathing concentration:

For all those linear, mono-dimensional Jews who think Jewish has nothing esoteric in it; and for all those Kabbalah-freaks or wannabes who either let themselves be convinced that complexity is a path to God-experience or else run around selling some watered-down Kabbalah so they can sound smart – this could be for you. You may have never touched a Talmud, a Torah, a Mishna or Gemorra, never heard of Zohar, never eaten kosher or kissed a mezzuzeh, never worn talit or t'fillin - you can do this, no problem.  Or if you have done all these things, you can still do this, it won't hurt you.  But if you don't like direct alternatives, fine, enjoy being complicated or materialist, or both. You don't want to take a boat? So swim. You don't want to take a car? So walk. But if you want something real that you can carry into the world with you and make paradise there where you stand, where others can get a hit, a taste, of God's most loving Presence here-now and in reality – then this just might be for you.

Considering the Absolute, taking as a metaphor all the immeasurable vastness of Space, transcending all time and distance, knowing that while you may not comprehend God, God certainly comprehends you - and letting yourself feel it - now address this, your Noble Lord and Cherisher, the Light of your own Origin, so:

With Ha-Shem Echad draw all of this in, from the center of your crown, on the in-breath, drawing, drawing: your breathing long and fine like a thread, through your nostrils down into your heart and your belly and genitals, sending it out through your limbs but holding it central in your heart region and belly. You are drawing on The Unity of Being, on The Source, on The Light within that very breath, letting it circulate. And with it: ha-Shem echad.

Holding that breath, or rather: letting it be held, there in the center of your person, in the chest and belly, heart and hara, glowing, expanding. Inwardly see the blinding sun, for which the sun up there is but a metaphor. Don't strain the brain or the lungs, don't try to do or to control anything, rather let it "do you".

And having held that for just but a scarce moment, let the out-breath proceed with Baruch Ha-Shem releasing up and through that breath passage and out the nostrils, gently, naturally measured. And using the same concentrated visualization – just as will has no impulse without concentrated feeling – let that outgoing baruch ha-Shem really, actually, tangibly radiate as love, through your very pores, through your hands and your feet, out your back, out your chest, 360 degrees, through your eyes, let it expand out, out, out, limitlessly back into the Cosmos and touching all of Creation therewith. Not theoretically, but really. It's not "you doing" it, it is being-done, and with and through you, as you are willingly devoting yourself to this action, this very creative, humble little action.

If you can believe this is being done, that this is happening, then that is faith, you have a faith to build on, you're cooking on the Big Burner.

Practicing this, opening to, Being, sending, drawing in the Oneness of All, blessing the earth with this nefesh, this breath of consciously unconditional love, then of unreasonable, illogical joy, then of peace – not cease-fire, not opposite-of-war, also not graveyard-still – but living, pulsating, symphonic and mind-blowingly of the full I-Am-ness: peace.

Being Jewish like this, you'll never be arrogant like you were, nor self-conscious like you were. And all your family ancestors can finally give it a rest, and your future generations get an endowment better than putting your name up on another hospital. Hey – now you are no longer part of the problem, you're part of the solution, you're healing the planet! And the great thing is, you don't even have to graduate medical school!

So - now you embody the Six-Pointed Star in your own form:  or, "as above, so below."  A real Magen-David now, that's what you are.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=YcOQY-n-EWs 

Woman Rising

A male ultra-orthodox Jew would tell me:  that if a woman so much as touches him he has to do ablutions again or he can't perform his prayers, or lay hand on a Torah or a Talmud.

A male orthodox Muslim would likewise tell me:  that if he so much as touched a woman he also has to repeat the ablutions before he can orient himself toward Mecca and perform his prayers, or even lay hand on a Qur'an.

I would reply to both:  that if I've touched a woman I no longer need ablutions, and if a woman has touched me I can skip the prayers altogether.

The common root for the Arabic "compassionate" and "merciful" is the word WOMB, and it is no accident or coincidence that the cleft in the big cubic Ka'aba holding the sacred black stone for so many centuries, still kissed by throngs of worshippers, strongly resembles a YONI.

The orthodox male is terrified not merely of the power of a woman or of her sexuality - he is terrified of her divinity.  Terrified enough to regard her as "weaker," as second order, and as the sexual trap reflecting his own underdeveloped, unevolved ego - so that she remains for him "sexual" in order that he can "master" that in her.  (She becomes for him:  master-bait.)  So he cloisters her or throws a burka over her, beats or brutalizes or humiliates her, owns her or pimps her, or keeps her barefoot and pregnant, or shoots her or pours acid on her, or marries her off to the nearest cousin.  Anything but see a partner in her - and why?  Because he is "God" - and naturally "God hath no partners"...

The relegating of woman to second or third class citizen in the Name of God will wind up in the dustbin of history, and we will even see women standing in the Catholic pulpits as they once had done among the very earliest Christians - this or the Vatican will crumble once and for all.

The Aquarian Age has arrived.