Into the light

It was a brilliantly gorgeous day, unusual for Portland, Oregon, where it rains most of the time, except when summer finally arrives on the doorstep in June to stay firmly planted until October when the rains take over again.  It's almost as if the rain genie gives over his duties to the sun god for four months.  It's pure heaven, almost worth suffering through those long endlessly dreary months of perpetual  rain to get to summer.

Out of such glorious radiance I stepped into the old church, dark inside, womb-like.  I was on a spiritual quest and hadn't stepped foot in a church in awhile and yet fully aware that the Church now resided in me. But something in me longed for an external physical visual expression of what was inside me.  

I was surprised the church was open.  A recent rash of criminal activity had led residents to put decorative bars in front of windows and doors and churches seemed to be the first to lock up, sadly, even ironically.  Rather than cast wide their doors, turn on their lights and invite the stranger to the banquet table of life, liberty and the pursuit of holiness, they locked them out. 

I quietly stepped down the long, cold polished cobbled center aisle to the front of the church.  Before me hung a larger-than-life crucifix, carefully carved in a beautiful ebony wood.  Behind me, above the choir loft was a rose stained glass window, reminiscent of the magnificent one in the gothic Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris, France.  I felt embraced in a way, between Spirit and God, surrounded by the ancient images from one man's passionate odyssey which inspired many to follow, to understand, to go where he went, to do what he did.  Today, that's what I was seeking, a deeper knowledge, a greater personal experience of the Holy, an infusion of His Spirit in my life's mission.  

The Church was quiet for a Tuesday afternoon.  The sun shone through the bright blue, gold, green, red hues of the stained glass windows, each marking a poignant step on the way of his sacred walk. What was I seeking?  What message did I come to hear in this place?

I knelt at the altar rail as I had for hundreds of Sundays since my youth, looked up at the Crucifix and felt my heart open again, perhaps larger, perhaps wedged open more than it was before.  I felt humbled, honored to be alone with the Master for a few moments.  How could I be a better disciple?  How could I do what I so dearly wanted to do?  And, then, I recalled, strangely, the words of St. Francis that a friend of mine lives by, "rebuild my church."  Are you kidding me, I thought.  You can't be serious.  Feeding the poor, loving the broken, oppressed, homeless are his rebuilding effort.  We each have a unique expression of that missive. 

The world is in the greatest peril of its history.  There is only one hope.  On that hope rests all of humanity's survival.  And, it is NOT to get more people to church or increase their giving or prostelize the church's teachings, which are not entirely the whole message.  It is to teach them all what he was trying to say by dying (or actually NOT dying) on Passover.

"Yes.  I get it," I heard myself acknowledge.  Several years ago, I had a revelation, a fuller understanding at the passion at that time.  Recently, that wonderful deeper understanding returned to me during a long walk on another beautiful Portland afternoon, a kind of walking meditation, Thomas Merton-style.  

Passover is old news.  Or, is it? As in any act of the holy in our world, there are layers and layers of deepening meaning, speaking to us throughout the ages at every level of our spiritual maturation process at every stage of our development, evolution, toward our ultimate place as divinely self-realized beings of light.  

Was there a deeper reason for dying on a cross on Passover?  Was it because none of the disciples really fully understand his message to the world.  Yes, we know now there was the gorgeous life-giving mysticism Thomas understood and shared in his Gospel, and John, Philip and the Apostle to the Apostles, Mary, as well as many others. Maybe James understood, maybe Paul got it later.  But, today, the world may be partially in the mess it's in because the more profound, overarching message the Master wanted to impart to us, to humanity for all time, has been overlooked in the details.

As God sent the Angel of Death on Passover, the children of Israel the night before they were to embark on their long sojourn toward the Promised Land were spared. They were spared and then led out of captivity, through 40 years in a desert, on their quest to the Promised Land of freedom and prosperity.  Master Jesus was speaking to the world's people through the archetype of that story.  He was saying, perhaps, or at least I think, that the Passover is extended to all people.  He was showing us something that maybe he trusted would be shared, told, even if none of the disciples would survive to write it and teach it. 

Again, this is not rocket science, rather poetry.  There is no death. Period.  We do not and cannot die.  If in our essential nature we are in union with God, creator, and our Creator is eternal, endless, so are we.  Jesus is showing us the way to abundant living because he is removing the heaviest burden humanity could carry and that is the fear of death.  His message lifts that burden and shows us that Passover is a given, it is a sacred, unending liberation from fear and death.  He shows us the way and passage into that eternal life.  It is UNCONDITIONAL. It is a given, just like your birth was a given.  It is real.  It happens.  If you could accept it, live into the freedom and joy that awareness brings, your burden here in this life would be significantly reduced, even eliminated. 

Yes, the body will die as all matter eventually does, but the spirit does not.  You are not your body. YOU are WHO lives in your body.  That one single fundamental thought is the cornerstone to our entire existence.  Without that awareness, we live in fear, manipulated by those who think they have the right to negotiate and broker our salvation.  

Also, one more thing, he didn't come to start a new religion or increase membership in an old one.  He came to free us ALL from anything that has a lien on our personal spiritual property - our own souls.  The way to abundant life - is through the awareness, consciousness, that we are now, here, and everywhere, always have been already living our eternal lives.  This will become abundantly clear when you die because then you will realize that you never stopped living - except when you lived in darkness, steeped in fear being controlled by those dark powers during your time on Earth who kept you imprisoned in your fear.  We will wrestle with the angel of death until we finally step through those old familiar (dis)comfort zones where we were burdened and bounded by others' control over us. Then, finally, we set our own spirits free of whomever, whatever - absolutely whatever - controls us, including and especially some of the religious authorities.  

Once free, our Spirits seem to know exactly what to do.  When you give the keys to your spirit to the ultimate Spirit, it seems to know exactly what to do.  You are free of the burden of determining your destiny.  The great, Holy, Spirit will always lead you to the deepest joy, the greatest love you could ever experience.  What happens then, is beyond awesome.  It also is an unconditional gift, most authentic experience you could ever realize.  It is the truth, the way and THE life.  

There in the deep recesses of the inner sanctum of that old church, I had been reminded again of that very simple message, which is - and always has been - open to all people of all faiths, of all nationalities, all cultures, all races.  It was seeded in us from the beginning, but the heaviness and darkness of this world has blocked its view.  We all need to remove the fear that darkens its door, blocks its radiance.

I got up, bowed, thanked Him again, turned, glanced up at the gracious rose window glowing in pink tones, lovingly, that afternoon. Feeling bathed in radiance, I stepped back up the aisle, pulled open the heavy oak doors and slipped out into the warm sunshine.  A dome of light seemed all around me, wrapped in a blanket of rich quiet.  Nothing in me stirred, no thought, no idea, no words. Silently, I walked down the street to my car.





Top photo:

The North window of Notre Dame de Paris.

The magnificent roses of the transepts at Notre Dame date to 1250-60. Unlike most of the glass in Paris, and much of France, these two contain nearly all of their original elements. The ravages of time and war destroyed a majority of the great glass works of the Middle Ages, though human arrogance also took its toll. By the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the distaste for Medieval styles was prevalent across Europe. In efforts to modernize the churches and cathedrals, windows were callously smashed out and replaced with a lightly tinted glass called grisaille. In the nineteenth century some of these works were restored. Sadly, there no longer existed an extant tradition which supported the same degree of craft evident in such masterpieces as the roses of Notre Dame de Paris and Chartres.

Image: Rhey Cedron

  

Beauty in the mind breathes life into the world

As you embrace this beautiful new day of your life, look around you at the beauty in you and everything else?  

Can you see how beautiful and proud you are?  Look again, and again and again, until you can see it. Look as far and wide within your gorgeous Self until you find it. On your way to work this morning, did you see the flowers outside or did you see the litter, the billboards, the traffic?  Did you growl at the back-up on the expressway to work, or did you think you could take a deep breath and listen to that lovely song you were listening to the other day on the CD player? Did you take a moment to pray, to whisper a thought of thanks for this moment you are alive in?

When you find something beautiful (beauty is in the eye of the beholder.  It is what you say it is)  focus on it, allow it to grow and expand in your awareness. Allow yourself to see nothing but the beauty.  The interesting thing about this is what you focus on, persists and grows and gains and blooms.  Your concentration on something is like giving water to a thirsty plant.  If you watch, you'll see it actually perk up. 

This is true for what you want as well as what you don't want. If you keep thinking about what you don't want, it shows up more and more in your life.  If you keep thinking about something you don't like about your body, your looks, even the behavior of your spouse or child, what you focus on will increase.  Watch your thoughts.  Where do they turn to? 

If you focus on what you love about yourself, about your body, your job, your home, that image will come into focus and what you are trying to shift away from, will begin to fade.  Our outside reality is a reflection of our interior one.  So, if you think the world is a mess, it means that our minds are dreaming this up, it's what we're thinking about.  Sadly, I think we were taught to think in ways that created it in the first place. Now we have to change our collective worldview. If each one of us, like poppies in the garden, grew big and tall, whole and empowered, one by one, then is it possible the whole world would become a more beautiful place?

If you look around your life and think its not what you want, it may be falling short in one area or another, do you think about the shortfall, focus on what you don't like or don't want or about what you would like it to be? Are you an editor or a writer of your life?  If your life is your art, let's say, a beautiful Michaelangelo sculpture,  would you look at the big lump of marble before you begin to sculpt and be critical of it for being a big lump of marble? No, you see something beautiful in your mind and as you begin to bring it into focus, through sculpting the marble, it appears.

Your life can be like that.  Can you step back from being critical of yourself and look at all that you've done that you're happy about.  If there's stuff in your life you're not happy about, forgive yourself, and forget it.  Highlight, then delete it.  Focus on what you like about yourself and most of all on your dreams for your life.  Sometimes we forget that we are artists of our life and we can brighten the pallet, change the colors,  focus on the sunrise or sunset at the beach.  Erase the litter and see the beauty.  In fact, always see the beauty. I truly believe we can train our minds to do this.

When you look for the beauty, you will find it and you will increase its presence in your life by the simple act of observing it, seeing all of it and allowing it to fill the space, fill your mind, lift you into another space.  Beauty has a kind of life of its own.  Now, apply that perception style to your friends, spouse or lover.  See their beauty, as you look past outer appearances or at least consider what those outer appearances are saying about the occupant within. Outer appearances may reflect something about the person's state of being so it might be of value to at least take notice. Maybe appearances are like the front porch to the house.  Is it littered with old beer bottles and garbage, or does it have flowers and a wreath and a bench to sit on to take off your boots?  Some invite you in, some ask you to keep on walking past.  Same is true of people.

See the beauty in yourself.  What do your appearances say about you.  Do you invite others to engage in conversation and friendship with you, or do you send them away?  Do you even think about this?  Do you see yourself as beautiful (spiritually, intellectually, emotionally, relationally - as well as physically)?  If you use self deprecating language about yourself as in, "I'm just a college student," or "just an overweight middle aged guy who drinks too much beer and really should get to the gym a couple times a week" or whatever you are telling yourself, you are programming yourself to be just that.  You are focusing on the "justness" of who you have been told you are.  You're seeing the fence around the garden, not the garden. 

When you admit and invite beauty into your life, you are adding more life to your life.  To use some New Age language, you are upping the vibration of your life, raising your chi.  You are increasing your voltage.  You are increasing your own spiritual power to bring what you always dreamed of into reality.  There are far too many naysayers in your life and in our world.  They can't all be shot, shut down, put in jail, rather they can be ignored.  I don't mean shunned.  I mean ignored.  Water the flowers, feed them, see them, and they will grow.  

Yes. pluck the weeds (never use any weed killing chemical, please) Feed the flowers.  Praise your child for what he or she is doing that you approve of, and then maybe you won't need to punish him or her for what you don't like. I think if we can redirect our children's vision, also, will help them in the long run.  I see a new world, one without judgment or punishment, built around praise, affirmation, patience and love.  Do the same with your employees. Try to raise you child's voltage also.  If you do this with your employees, you'll have a happier team and better outcomes. Teach them this. Love them, as you would water the flowers.  We can turn our children into flowers, rather than weeds.  

Can you see how we can take this simple little thought and change the world?  


Alleluia!


P.S. This does NOT mean that we should pretend that what is happening, isn't.  This isn't some delusional trick into collective denial.  This is an invitation to see a beautiful world, a beautiful planet, your life more beautiful, and invite that vision to expand and come into existence, as well as cleaning up the environment and simplifying our lives into a more innocent existence, without so much stuff. If we focus on the flowers, they may just take over the garden, crowding out the weeds.  Do you water your weeds?  or your flowers.  You get what I mean.  This may ask you to download the optimist program from your brain's hard drive.